Happy Easter all!

I love my church because:
We are a huge family.
Our pastor is fulfilling his amazing calling to lead us.
Our music minister is so incredibly gifted by God.
God never fails to show His shining, glorious face each service.

For some reason, this Easter seemed fresh and new to me. Like I’d never been to an Easter service at our church before. Maybe it’s because I’m forgetful, or maybe because I experience the same things each year only I’m in a different season of life. I stayed up with mom until about 2.00 am last night while she finished up a cake she had to do and I cleaned up some and washed dishes. The chat time and aloneness was so great to have after having spent ALL day yesterday shopping and being busy. And when I woke up this morning, I was fully rested. (even though I took Nyquil last night and only got 7 hours of sleep!)

Waking up this morning I was full of energy. I’m usually NEVER full of energy on any given morning but something was happening. Excitement was buzzing in the air. Christ rose on this day so many thousands of years ago. This very day is the reason we Christians even believe what we believe: that Christ is our living Savior. He conquered death and won the victory. For ALL of us. If Jesus didn’t truly physically die and come fully back to life (and never die again) then we have NO reason to believe in Him and to follow His word. We have no hope. We should just continue living however we want. But if we believe God’s holy Word to be true, then Jesus did conquer that tomb and He did come back to life only to ascend into the heavens to be seated at the right hand of God’s throne. We have hope. We have a reason to follow God’s holy Word. We have a Savior who LIVES inside of us from the moment we accept Him into our hearts to rule and reign over our lives.

WE HAVE VICTORY.

But there is also a sadness. For those who choose not to accept God’s gift of love and of forgiveness and grace, there isn’t a happy ending.

I’m an avid Tweeter. I follow many celebrities. I follow lots of local people, pastors, worship leaders etc. There is a SIGNIFICANT difference between their tweets. It’s odd. Though some of these celebrities went to church, they claim no attachment to any of it. They probably don’t know why Christians celebrate this day. (I didn’t for a long time!) Yes, they gather their families with love and spend precious time together and that’s great! But there isn’t true meaning in that. Families are truly a gift from God, but shouldn’t we raise them to know the true Creator and the One that created these families? Shouldn’t we say goodbye to the silly tradition of hunting eggs and passing out candy and truly celebrate the glorious splendor this day is?

Maybe it’s the pessimist in me, but I am saddened reading those tweets. How can a person only gather with other believers once or twice a year on the most significant days of Christian beliefs and not believe themselves?

What do you think? Am I being too harsh? Am I right? Wrong? Let me know your thoughts.

ps. my favorite song quote of the morning.. “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future and life is worth the living just because He lives.” 🙂

Melody