Growing up my family celebrated Easter. As a children my sisters and I would be up early and find our Easter baskets filled with chocolate and other goodies. My parents would then get up, and then it was on to our Easter egg hunt. By then it was always time for church. I would smuggle the small chocolate candies in my suit and find them melted in my pocket as I would reach for them during church. My mother finally got wise to me and every year after I got frisked before leaving the house.
Now that I am older....Easter has become much more than chocolate, Easter egg hunts, and smuggling contra-band into church. As I have grown older I have a much better understanding of Easter/Resurrection Day. I guess as a child I knew that it was special, hey, I got a week off from school! And Jesus raising from the dead, hmmm, I guess I just did not quite get the significance of it. I was a child, but I believed it. Now I have a much better understanding of it.
Not only did the prophets write about it, Jesus spoke of it. He told His disciples this is what is going to happen. If we back up just one week before His Crucifixion, we read about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people were laying down palm branches and crying out Hosanna in the highest! But what a difference a week makes, those same people who were crying out Hosanna were now screaming crucify Him.
Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again. He was crucified for us, whoever would believe in Him. His blood was shed on that cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.He then conquered death and rose from the grave and is alive for evermore. We read in the Bible that without the resurrection our faith is in vain, it would mean nothing. Many today don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead. The problem then becomes, why did people in biblical times believe it? Why did they die for their beliefs? If they did not see the risen Lord, I don't think they would be so willing to suffer persecution for it.
Easter is about Christ, His suffering, Him dying on the cross for me, Him conquering death and coming back to life. Because of it I have life in His name for evermore. I have excepted Him as my Savior.
Like some who want to call Easter Resurrection Day, or Back to Life Day, it does not matter, what matters is what you attach to it as the meaning for it.
After Christs death on the cross, His followers ran and hid. They were afraid that they would be taken too. Peter, before the cross was already denying Him. BUT, upon seeing the risen Lord, Peter was a different person.
So this day, reflect on what Jesus means to you. Are you still running and hiding from the risen Lord? Are you making excuses and trying to rationalize in your heart that Jesus really never rose from the dead?
Peter, the one who denied Jesus, he actually did it three times, was himself later crucified for his faith and belief in Jesus. But, but, Peter, during his crucifixion said "I am not worthy to be crucified the same way as Jesus was, crucify me upside down!"
He died and came back to life so that we may have eternal life. You must believe and except Him as Lord of you life. You then will receive forgiveness of your sins, you will no longer be dead, but will have life, life abundantly. In Him Preacher
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