Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Obsessed

Friends, I have to share something with you. I can't stop reading it and I can't stop thinking about it. It's a new blog obsession, and you can check it out here. It has me itching to do, redo, and undo so many things in our house! Now, don't get me wrong, I love our sweet first home, but after seeing so many brilliant and easy things (that make you go, "Duh! Why didn't I think of that?!"), I'm rethinking our whole house. Is the layout the most accessible? Is this/that/the other thing really organized to its fullest potential? How could I make that cuter? Does that candle holder look good there? It's dangerous, I tell you. It's consumed most of my time during the day while I read their blog and investigate their ideas, and most of my time at night while I either run to Target or Ikea to get their latest and greatest or while I sit and stare at any room in our house. I love it.

One of my favorite parts about this blog is their attention to detail - regarding their finances! We are so well-aligned with their thoughts and beliefs, it makes me squeal with joy. They show that you can do a renovation (or just redecorate!) without going into debt! You just have to be smart about it. Don't even get me started about being smart with money, or I'll talk all day! (But if you want to know, I'd LOVE to get together and chat about it... it's another obsession!).

Anyway, enough for now. I must thank my good friend, Christa, for introducing me to Young House Love. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Sunday, April 11, 2010


To everyone who joined us at our wedding and/or sent cards, gifts, and prayers our way, THANK YOU!
Here's an update on life in the Lindstedt home six months post-wedding:

Six months in, and marriage is still as great as we expected. Sure, it’s come with its share of “why do you do that?” and “will you please put the toilet seat down?”, but overall, we’ve loved growing together in new ways.
           
A lot has happened in the past six months, and we thank you so much for your ongoing support since October 2nd. Jordan is loving his gig as the worship pastor at the Woodbury campus of Crossroads Church, and Kristen is enjoying her new position as a chiropractic assistant. Our kitchen has gotten lots of use, as we’ve been trying many new recipes; we have recently started a small group with people our age; we are excited to go to Castaway (a Young Life camp) this summer as adult guests; and we can’t wait to see how God uses our marriage to show others how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18).

Thank you for your help in furnishing our home and getting us off on a great foot as we’ve begun our marriage. Thank you for your prayers and your friendship. We are blessed.
           
For updates on life at the Lindstedt home, go to: www.jordanandkristen.com.

We’d love to hear from you!

Much love,
Jordan and Kristen

Friday, April 09, 2010

grate.ful

grate.ful - appreciative of benefits received



joy.ful - experiencing, causing, or showing joy
thank.ful - conscious of benefit received

Friday, April 02, 2010

Good Friday

The good parts about this day:
  • it's my brother-in-law, Colin's birthday!
  • it's our 6 month anniversary (I'm sure in a few years I'll look back on this and laugh at myself for feeling like it's been "so long"!)
  • it's the day Jesus died to save us from our sins.
I'm hoping to find time tonight to spend in reflection over today's events (thousands of years ago). I hope you can do the same. Maybe you could start by reading this:
 Matthew 27: 11-61 
Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the king of the Jews?” the governor asked him. 
Jesus replied, “You have said it.”
But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. “Don’t you hear all these charges they are bringing against you?” Pilate demanded. But Jesus made no response to any of the charges, much to the governor’s surprise.
 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas. As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” (He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)
 Just then, as Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.”
 Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”
   The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”
 Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”
   They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
  “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”
   But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”
  Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”
 And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”
 So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene,and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.
 After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. A sign was fastened to the cross above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
 The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery.  “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
 The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.

At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”
 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
 The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!
 And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who had become a follower of Jesus, went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long sheet of clean linen cloth. He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance and left. Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting across from the tomb and watching.