Simple Guide to Easter


This weekend the world celebrates the Easter Holiday.  Millions of people all around the world will reflect on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  Millions of people will also not really care.  Millions of people will take advantage of egg hunts and brunches with mimosas (alcohol at 10:00am - what kind of holiday is this!)  Possibly, millions of people will watch golf on television.

Why is church so important this weekend?

Well, our God died.

Then, He came back to life.

That opens up a large series of questions.

1) Is there really a god?
2) Is there just one of them?
3) Is it really all powerful?
4) Is it a good god?
5) Why did he or she or it have to die?
6) Does this god not control death?  How powerful is it?

Here is what I believe from my understanding of the Bible teaching.  (Which I believe.)

Jesus is God.  He created the heavens and the earth and he is creating a new heaven and a new earth.  Jesus made it very clear why he died.  He gave his life as a ransom that those who are slaves could be made free.

Slaves of what or whom?  Sin.

Jesus died so that you and I can live free.  We can live free of the sin that so easily creeps into our lives and begins to control our thoughts, emotions, and actions.  The bible is clear that all sin leads to death.  It is a physical death and it is also a constant dying.  Sin colors and shades our lives into an ugly hurtful painful existence and we live, not as free people, but as slaves to our own sin.  It’s no life at all.  
All of us will die.  There is no way around it.  It is the ultimate end and it is the place that we are all headed.  None of us know when or how we will die, but we do know that it is coming.  This is where many people believe the end of the story happens.  I don't believe that.

The reason we love Easter so much is that the story of Jesus brings us hope for a new life after we die.
Make no mistake about it.  There is a new life and it is only found through Jesus.
As you prepare for Easter, or as you just live your week, ask yourself if you feel like you are living or dying.  Are your days filled with thoughts of life, joy, and peace?  Or are your days filled with thoughts of escape, stress, and worry?  God made you to thrive in this life.  You are not a mistake and you are not damaged goods.  You were made to live not to die.
Easter reminds us that death is very real, but so is life.  Life cannot be stopped because God cannot be stopped or defeated.  On that first Easter morning Jesus of Nazareth overcame death.  He died.  He laid in the tomb.  He got up and walked out of the tomb.  He was raised from the dead by his Father God.  Because He was able to do that you and I are able to look forward to doing the same.  We are promised that if we give our lives to Jesus we will be rewarded with an eternity in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

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