Been raining off and on, ‘tis okay.  It is cold enough on the mountains that the moisture is snow – and the snow pack continues to grow.

Have a round steak – from Rose’s beef – in the oven along with fresh carrots from Carla’s garden.  Potatoes, from her garden, are on the stove and everything should be ready when Carla gets off work.

Can’t wait to see her open her box of (hopefully) yarn – new colors and fresh new start.

We will remember for a long time that box of yarn that turned out to be Barbecue tools!  :-)

Mathew 26:73-75 And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.

⁷⁴ Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.

⁷⁵ And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

My daily reading plan for the year finds me in Leviticus.  As I read through the many things our early ancestors – through Christ – had to do in order to be cleansed of sin, I find myself very thankful that Christ died for my sins.

I have been in Peter’s place, not necessarily lying about my relationship with Christ as much as not taking a firmer stand.

But that is not the only thing that I have done throughout my life in Christ.  I have sinned and had to kneel down, as Peter did and And he went out, and wept bitterly.

Failing God, who watches over us, who loves us who sent His Son to die for us, is a serious thing.

But all too frequently we treat it in a trivial manner – ‘oh, well’ we seem to say ‘Jesus will forgive me’ and then go on like nothing ever happened.  It seems so simple to just invoke Jesus’ name that we don’t actually think about it.

When most of us came to Christ we did weep bitter tears.  I can remember kneeling at the altar trying to accept that Christ in deed had forgiven me as I pour out my heart before Him.  Tears of grief welled up and out of me and then, it was tears of joy and relief as I realized He HAD forgiven my sins – different tears.

Sinning and asking for redemption should never be an easy thing.  We should seriously strive not to sin – but when we do we must understand that it is a wedge between us and God and the only way it can be removed is by God Himself, through our sincere and heartfelt apology and request for the Savior’s forgiveness.

It is far different that telling someone you are sorry you stepped on their foot (even when you are truthful about it) and then go on as if nothing had happened – yet far too often we take that same lackadaisical attitude with God, yes, we are sorry – we didn’t really mean to sin, so thank you Lord for forgiving me.

Peter wept bitter tears, tears of embarrassment, of anger towards himself, of letting Jesus down, of heart wrenching reality that he had sinned against God.

Every time we ask forgiveness, it should be with the understanding of the absolute danger we have placed our soul in; with the terrible example we have shown others; and that we have hurt the heart of the God who loves us so much He gave us Jesus.

Let us never forget that first time we knelt before Him, confessed our sins in heart felt agony and the great joy we felt when those sins were forgiven – we should have that same determination to pour our hearts out to Him whenever we have sinned and not treat it as just another thing to say.

There was something about having to take the physical and time demanding steps the Jews took to have their sins forgiven.  They brought animals in to be slain, that their blood would be an active request for forgiveness – an animal lost its life that they should be forgiven, that is not a little thing.

How much more that a man, the Son of God, gave up everything to live among us and then die for our forgiveness. 

That is not a little thing, that is the most important thing we can ever realize in this world, and not to be taken lightly.

Later, Art :-)