Tuesday, March 26, 2013

brimstone and fire

Almost 2,000 years ago, there was born a babe in a manger. He grew up among us; lived among us; He walked, laughed, wept, hurt, and died among us. He never did any evil to anyone. He never sought to hurt or harm anyone. He loved every person. He came to serve and not to be served. He was a King. He was God in the flesh. And His life was not without purpose. Isaiah prophesied of Him: Isaiah 53:2-12
          2     For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
                 And as a root out of dry ground.
                 He has no form or comeliness;
                 And when we see Him,
                 There is a beauty that we should desire Him.
          3     He is despised and rejected by men,
                 A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
                 And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
                 He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
          4    Surely He has borne our griefs
                And carried our sorrows;
                Yet we esteemed His stricken,
                Smitten by God, and afflicted.
          5     But he was wounded for our transgressions,
                He was bruised for our iniquities;
                The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
                And by his stripes we are healed.
          6     All we like sheep have gone astray;
                 We have turned, every one, to his own way;
                  And the LORD has laid him the iniquity of us all.

          7     He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
                 Yet He opened not His mouth;
                  He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
                 And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
                 So He opened not His mouth.
          8     He was taken from prison and from judgement,
                 And who will declare His generation?
                 For He was cut off from the land of the living;
                 For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
          9     And they made His grave with the wicked-
                 But with the rich at His death,
                 Because He had done no violence,
                 Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

And they called Him Jesus because he came to save His people from their sins. He even came to save the very ones who beat him. 

Today we are going to look in John 19:25. Next Sunday we are going to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So today we are going to focus on his death. There would have been no resurrection without His death. Let's just take a movement to set the context for you from John's perspective.

John begins back in Chapter 13 setting the state for Christ's death on the cross. It starts with the Passover meal. During that meal, which we now celebrate as the Lord's Supper, he took a towel and a rag and washed his disciples feet. He sets an example for his disciples to follow showing that they were to serve one another. He takes time to comfort his disciples and answer their questions for concern. He said, "Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me." He also said, " I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever." He said, "I will not leave you orphan, I will come to you." He goes on to encourage his disciples to remain faithful, love the Lord, love one another, and keep His commandments. And just before he is betrayed, he bows his head and prays. He prays for strength. He prays for his disciples. And he prays for all future believers; even you and I.

Then, Judas betrays him. He is arrested and put on trial. They accuse him of blasphemy and deceit. Yet, He did not lie, nor was any deceit found in Him. He was beaten. Beaten beyond what any human could handle. They placed a crown of thorns on His head. They mocked and cursed him. They threw a wooden cross on his back and forced him to carry it up a hill called Calvary. It was more than he could bear, so they had an onlooker help him. After climbing the hill, they laid him on the cross and drove nails in his hand and feet, nailing him to the cross. They stood the cross up in a hole so that he could hang there until he died, and all the while they continued to mock and laugh at him. 

Now look at John 19:28 and listen:

          28     Later, knowing that everything had now been finished,  and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
        29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in         it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 
         30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

The Lord has sent me here this morning to declare to you,
"IT IS FINISHED!"


excerpt from a sermon of Chris Bagley preached on March 24, 2013

Let me just say, Sunday's Sermon was one worthy of the old southerner saying of that, "Brimstone and Fire Preachin'." I was squirming in my seat and having to muffle my Amen's as to not frighten the people sitting around me. I wish I could have recorded it, but unfortunately we don't have the means to. Praying that the Lord will reach down and grab everyone's hearts this week and open our eyes to see the true meaning of Easter.

Monday, March 18, 2013

The Big Day

Welp, it is finally here. Tomorrow is the big day for my precious 4th graders. We take the first Phase of LEAP testing tomorrow! It means that tomorrow my students take both the writing and math constructed response portions of the test.

For my Georgia folks, the LEAP test is the equivalent of the CRCT.

4th grade has so much pressure, because it is considered a pass/fail grade. If students pass this test, then they pass 4th grade; If students fail the test, they fail 4th grade. YIKES! My personal beliefs is that it is way too much stress to put on one test. I remember when I was a student I would get major test anxiety and would do terrible on them. Just imagine being 9 and having to take a test that is going to determine your whole little educational career! 

Last week, and today especially, I taught until I was blue in face. Review, Review, Review! I wanted my little rockstars to be the BEST prepared as I could make them.

As they walked out the door, I breathed a large sigh, and one of my students gave me a big hug and said, "Mrs. Bagley, you certainly taught a lot today." Also before I left, I walked around my classroom and paused over each student's desk and said a quite prayer for them. I prayed that they come to school confident in their abilities, well rested, and ready to do their best!


I know that the kiddoes are stressed, but for me I am major stressed. As an educator, your job rides on these scores. And for some, your salary rides on these scores too! 

I'm ready to get tomorrow over with, ready for my little rockstars to have one more thing checked off their list! 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Papa and Nane

This past weekend the in-laws came to visit! I was super excited to have them come see NOLA:)

Our cast and crew was Papa & Nane Bagley and Gary & Christi.
(chris's grandparents and parents)

They drove down Thursday and then left after church on Sunday. We did some exploring, a whole bunch of eatin, and had a truckfull of laughing.



My favorite time we spent together all weekend was just us all sitting around talkin. I got to ask Papa and Nane questions about when they were young, how Papa was a rascal when he was younger (psh.. he still is one!), how life was like when they first got married, and how Gary was when he was a kid. 


I love hearing the stories about the past. I even learned about some genealogy of the Bagley clan with Great Papa Bagley and even learned about Great Great Papa Bagley. Definitely stories that I hope I can pass down to my children one day!



In this picture Chris was trying to explain what it meant to have a first cousin twice removed. Yes we know, love, and live with our second, third, fourth, and even fifth cousins back where I come from and we ain't afraid to admit it! In fact, since I married into the Bagley's, I have learned that it is not uncommon to find a relative at every Georgia grocery store, farm, or country cookin' restaurant:) 



I know they enjoyed spending time with us, but I'm not exactly sure how much Papa and Nane actually enjoyed the city. NOLA is a quite a drastic shock coming from the foothills of those mountains, so it can be a bit much to take in. The crowds, traffic in the french quarter, and crazy drivers seamed to be a little much, but one thing they did like was the food! 



Papa and Nane say the craziest things and while they were here I started a list on my phone of all the one liners they dropped. Here's just a few, and yes in order to understand them you 'just had to be there!'

  • in the middle of an entertaining discussion between Gary and Nane, Papa shouts "you better watch out for that s and h. That's where they're gonna get ya!" (it took Chris and I, a solid 10 minutes to figure out he was talking about shipping and handling off an info commercial)
  • Papa randomly made this statement: "Everyone says that campbells soup is good for ya... it's got 46 of 'dem sodiums.... it's kill ya"
  • "Hey little girl, between me and you, but there's a lot of bums around here."
  • "Watch out Jerry... Somebody's gonna get me!"

And the list could just go on and on. They kept Chris and I rollin the whole time:) I loved how they decided to come and make the visit to see us! Chris's family is 'just good people' and I love how they took a break out of all their busy shenanigans to come all the way to NOLA to spend time just with us! We are very blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, and supportive system of family that care for us no matter how far away from home we are! 

Monday, March 4, 2013

Baseball

Chris loves this commercial. Every time it comes on he laughs, no matter that we've seen it about 10 times already. He just loves the part showing how the dad throws!


Sunday, March 3, 2013

History Channel

We are super excited for the history channel's television series that starts tonight titled "The Bible."


It is airing TONIGHT at 8:00pm GEORGIA time and 7:00pm NOLA time:)

(yes, that's right, we are an hour behind you peach state peeps)


I can't wait to see how closely it follows the events that the Bible describes. I know I personally enjoy watching films about the Bible because it allows me to put myself in the story as if I were there when it happened!



In case you haven't heard about this series I attached a youtube trailer of the show! 




Now Chris and I have evenin' service at church on Sunday Nights and don't get home until a bit before 9:00 so we are gonna miss the first hour, but still super excited and can't wait to tune in! 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Date Night

Yesterday on my way home from school I starting looking back and remembering how every friday night would be date night for Chris and I. We would either hang out with friends, go see a movie, pick up dinner somewhere, or take drives down back country roads just talkin' about life (even sometimes finding ourselves three counties away!).

We don't really do that anymore. We still hang out with friends and stuff but it seams like once you get married a 'date' night consists of sitting in front of the tube watching something off of netflix and laying on the sofa.

Before I made it home I decided I was going to take HIM out on a date:) I wrote him a little note and then, very obviously, slid it to him on his desk. He immediatly came running back to me with the box checked next to Yes. 

I told him I'd 'pick 'em up' around 5:30 and he agreed that he'd be on time. 

Even though I was in charge of this date, I allowed him to dive and open the doors for me. We went and ate at bonefish grill because I had a gift card. I got the bang bang shrimp appetizer as my meal and Chris got a steak and crabcake combo meal. It was sooo delicious and we got out of there without paying a cent because our gift card covered it all. 

After we ate, we drove around and went in various stores. It was fun being goofy and acting a' fool with each other.

We had fun on our date night!