Good Friday!!!!

I have been researching Easter online. Wow, there is a lot of information and quite a bit of controversy regarding Easter. There was quite a bit of info about whether Christians should celebrate it at all. Even my pastor preached about it last night and against the way it is celebrated today—the bunnies and eggs.

A couple of years ago, we did away with the Easter Bunny at our house. Honestly, even the kids thought it was dumb. I never wanted them to be confused as to what Easter really is; it is all about Jesus and nothing about bunnies or eggs.

Many of you think I have gotten kind of extreme about things, like not celebrating Halloween, which I have written about before. So you will probably be surprised to hear that I disagree with people who think Easter is wrong. I do not feel bad for disagreeing with my pastor, because I do agree about the Easter bunny and people not focusing on the true aspect of it. But we do not plan to give up our baskets or our egg hunt. I like the spring aspect of the eggs and the hunt is just fun and we love the chocolate.

I agree with this article that I found –this is taken from apostolic.net--

**“There is no doubt that Easter and Christmas have their roots in paganism. I would argue that nearly everything in our culture is rooted in paganism. Even the names of the months of the year and planets are named after pagan gods. The basic idea behind our government is Roman, which is a pagan culture. The fact of the matter is that our entire culture is rooted in paganism. Just because something has its roots in paganism, does not mean that it is evil today. The question we must ask ourselves is whether something that is pagan in origin still carries the same pagan connotations it once did.

If we were to try to divorce ourselves from everything pagan, we would have to go out of society. The fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as a Christian culture. Christians can only separate themselves from evil aspects of the culture as much as they can, and attempt to live the best godly lives they know how. The question remains, then, as to what is evil in the culture. Applying common-sense to the Easter and Christmas issue, when people see Christians celebrating Easter and Christmas, do they view this as a pagan celebration, or a Christian celebration? Of course they view it as Christian. The pagan roots of these holidays have been divorced from these holidays, and they have been invested with new Christian meaning, and even new American cultural meaning. Easter egg hunting, Easter bunnies, and Christmas trees may have had pagan meaning, but they have been replaced with an American cultural meaning which has nothing to do with their original meaning.

Some object to celebrating Christmas or Easter because we are not commanded in the Scripture to do so. While it is a truthful observation that we are not commanded to do such, I would question as to whether or not the lack of such a prescriptive command means that we cannot celebrate the birth of Christ or His day of resurrection (Easter)? A lack of mention is not tantamount to a prohibition. The Scripture does not mention many good things the church does: choirs, Sunday-school, prayer-altars, and pews. These may not be necessary, but it is quite presumptuous to argue that we should not do these things simply because they are not mentioned in Scripture. We must be sure that our practices are consistent with the Bible's explicit commands, and principles, but we are being illogical to say that we cannot do something if it is not mentioned in the Scripture.

For the above reasons I do believe that it is good to celebrate Easter and Christmas because we are celebrating the resurrection and birth of Christ by doing so. In fact, when non-Christians see Christians who refuse to celebrate these Christian holidays, it sends a very confusing message to them.”**

It is true that we are not doing the bunny. And we are going to do our egg hunt on Saturday instead of Sunday. I want Sunday to be about the Resurrection nothing else. There will be a basket, but it is from Mommy and Daddy. The baskets have chocolate crosses in them. They also have things from the Christian bookstore—scripture pencils, bead bracelets saying I love Jesus and God loves you, religious t-shirts, and books that I picked out special for each of them. B is getting a book about being the best Christian girl you can be, E is getting the power of a praying child and K is getting a bible that is almost on her reading level—she will be able to read it alone soon. We will also be making resurrection cookies again. I think we are even going to watch the Passion of the Christ tonight for Good Friday.

I see "Easter" or "Resurrection Sunday" as a time to celebrate the sacrifice and love of Jesus. It is a chance to talk more about what Jesus did for us on the cross and the great love of God. Our family talks about these things every day. But Easter is a time to celebrate that with other Christians all around the world. It is a time that we hope the message gets out to more people than usual. It does bug me that some people show up to church on Easter but stay home the other Sundays, BUT it is such a wonderful chance to remind them of Jesus’ love and the hope that they can have in Him, and that only through His blood can we be saved. Maybe that one time a year that they come in to church they will “get it” and be changed.

So those are MY thoughts for you :). So Happy GOOD FRIDAY today! It is good. Praise God and praise Jesus. I am so thankful for what they both did for me!

I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin

There's a peace I've come to know

Though my heart and flesh may fail

There's an anchor for my soul

I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the cry of every longing heart,
"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise