Three Day Weekend, oh my!!!

   I had a great Labor Day weekend!!! Although everyday is a pleasure to get up and go to work(seriously, I LOVE my job), I was definitely looking forward to a four-day workweek. Especially since it was game day weekend as well.
   Friday night, Josh and I went to a dinner at the home of Greg and Carol Cadenhead. Greg and Carol live about two miles down the road from me. I love their home. They have the most beautiful view! They are the type to really "live off the land" in that they have a year-round garden. And not just any garden. It's BIG. It puts my little summer garden to shame! They also have a pet turkey (who I have lovingly named Jimmy). How awesome is that?!?! There is a big, beautiful pond. We sat outside and enjoyed a fresh salad, vegetables, lasagna, and cake while enjoying the conversation and watching the sunset over the trees and pond. It was....picturesque.
   Saturday, Jenna and I drove up to Auburn and tailgated with some friends. We had a blast!!! War Eagle(52-26)!
   We had a wonderful service at church on Sunday. While I have been considered a "regular" at several churches, Calvary Baptist Church in Tallassee is my home. It is small in population, but big on God. We are fortunate enough to have a pastor and his family who truly love God and live what the Bible says. The sermon on Sunday was excellent. It was based on John 3 when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about salvation. Jesus tells him that unless a man is born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus did not understand what "born again" meant. He thought Jesus was talking in a literal sense and couldn't understand how a man can be physically born twice. Brother Jim brought up a few interesting parallels between a man's physical birth and his spiritual birth. While I am probably going to miss a few points since I didn't take notes, here's a couple that I thought were great:

• Just as a person needs to be physically born only once, a person only needs to be spiritually born once. Once you have been born, that's it. You're here. Similarly, Christ's blood is strong enough to save you once (and for all). I am a firm believer in once saved, always saved. I am grateful that even though I sin on a regular basis, I do not lose my salvation on a regular basis. The result of my sin is a loss of fellowship, not a loss of relationship. If I "commit a sin" against my earthly father, Rex Floyd, to the point that I have shamed him--I never stop being his daughter. Our fellowship may not be what it used to be while I continue to shame him, but it doesn't change the fact that he is still my father. Similarly, when we sin against our heavenly Father, our fellowship with him might falter (that's when repentence comes in), but he is still our heavenly Father.
• Being born causes someone else to suffer. Now mothers reading this might not like the choice of words: "to suffer". But the fact of the matter is that childbirth is painful. Thankfully, we have medicine to alleviate the pain, but without it, that junk is painful. (Or so I have heard.) Just as mothers have to go through the physical pains of birthing their child, someone had to suffer for us to be able to be born again. That person was Jesus. I am so grateful that He took the weight of our sins and bore them Himself. It makes me think of that hymn lyric "I should have been crucified; I should have suffered and died. I should have hung on the cross in disgrace, But Jesus, God's Son, took my place."
• When you are born, you do not have a past. When we are physically born on this earth, we do not have a past. How can we have a past when we haven't been born yet? Similarly, when you are are spiritually born, God wipes away all of your past transgressions. In Ephesians 2:1, the Bible says that we were once dead in our trespasses and sins. When we get saved, the blood of Christ washes over us and makes us new.

I'm sure there were other points, but those are the ones that I can readily recall. Pretty good, huh? After church, I got to visit with family and people considered family.
     Monday was Labor Day. Now I know you're not supposed to do any labor on Labor Day, but housework really, really needed to be done. I did laundry, dishes, swept inside and outside, mopped, organized my closet, etc. I also managed to sleep in until 9:15, watch a couple hours of television, and read a book (not the whole thing--it was that productive of a day.)

All in all, pretty great weekend!