Death and taxes....

Death and taxes.....

The saying goes, " two things are certain, death and taxes"

For our family, this has a double meaning...as our husband, father and grandfather passed away the day after tax day...

This last week leading up to this anniversary seems to have been a bit of a struggle this year again...caught between doctor visits, emails and calls about tax questions,  and pain....
 And then going To church, having the first song be our wedding processional...so it was no surprise that the sermon had weighty definitions as well...in preparation for the Easter week..

The definition of Gethsemane from a Hebrew term, meaning "oil press",,,pressing those olives, extracting as much oil as possible, from the very finest to the less desirable oils..

It is amazing how repetitive thoughts seem to intrude or  make themselves known again and again so that we are aware of a lesson or are learning a lesson for life....when they boil down to central theme...or maybe more...something to take forward .....

All the events of the week seemed to be in that olive crusher,,,weighted down, making that oil...this is no light weight, a huge heavy stone...bearing down, first getting the best oil, then the second and third grades of oil..until nothing left except the crushed seeds and skin, to be  thrown away as a waste...

I realized I want my life to be that finer first grade oil not the other grades,....useful in the kingdom, productive, that "first fruit"....which comes back to taxes....paying them correctly,, without complaint, in order and no confusion ....

My husband's desire was to give more than pay in taxes...those first fruits, the finer oil...so we are trying fulfill that goal...which has great blessing...and oh, so much fun...

Thank YOU for the oil press...that weight, to remind me of the pressure exerted to produce that fine oil.  help me to see Your lessons...your precise word pictures of life...through the difficulties of earthly life, paying those taxes and gifting... Right Attitudes....

Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

http://www.biblewalks.com/Info/OilPresses.html

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Geth·sem·a·ne noun \geth-ˈse-mə-nē\
Definition of GETHSEMANE
1
:  the garden outside Jerusalem mentioned in Mark 14 as the scene of the agony and arrest of Jesus
2
:  a place or occasion of great mental or spiritual suffering
Origin of GETHSEMANE
Greek Gethsēmanē
First Known Use: circa 1534
Gethsemane noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)
Garden outside Jerusalem associated with the last hours of Jesus. According to Christian tradition, it is where Jesus prayed after the Last Supper and before his arrest and Crucifixion. The name Gethsemane originates from a Hebrew term meaning “oil press,” suggesting that the garden was a grove of olive trees. Though its exact location cannot be determined, Armenian, Greek, Latin, and Russian churches have accepted an olive grove on the western slope of the Mount of Olives as the site."