Tag: Easter

A Holy Week Correlation to the COVID-19 Pandemic and an Easter Challenge!

Jesus suffered and died because sin spread like a Pandemic across His world, leaving it in need of a cure – a Savior!

The Corona COVID-19 Virus has become a Pandemic spreading across our world leaving it once again scrambling for a cure, a vaccine, a definitive end as people are sick and some are dying. Jesus is still that cure. He will provide healing. Has His world turned to Him fervently in prayer? I haven’t seen it yet, not really, not like they ought to be doing.

When Jesus was arrested, the disciples hid, isolating themselves from the crowds in fear. Though they loved Jesus they lived in fear that they too would suffer his fate, just for being identified as having been close to Him. They prayed and worried.

We are isolating ourselves from each other, family, and friends in fear of catching the virus or spreading it to others unknowingly. We are worrying, but are we praying? Really praying?

Currently our faces are covered to help prevent the spread of the virus from us to others, even if we don’t seem to have it. Unfortunately these coverings do not prevent us from receiving the virus from the uncovered mouths or places where it lingers or floats.

The spreading of God’s word by us should be the same. Our faces may be covered, but it should not prevent the spreading of the Word or sharing of prayer. We have phones, computers, tablets, I pads and countless apps and abilities for texting, videoing, talking and sharing the Good News! It is Easter! We should be spreading the story faster than the virus is spreading. Cover the virus not the Word of God. The world needs it now and always.

What have you done to spread the word and share hope during these trying times?

The disciples and many of Jesus’ followers stayed in isolation after Jesus’ crucifixion, still fearing for their safety as well as feeling lost and confused about what to do without Jesus. But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to Jesus’ tomb to do what was necessary and customary because these things were essential for a proper burial. They risked everything to do what was right and needed to be done.

Because they buried their fear and continued to do what was necessary and essential, they were the first to receive the Good News that Christ had risen. Along their way, they were the first to see Jesus the risen Lord!

Today as many follow instructions, staying home in isolation and practicing social distancing in order to quell the spread, many, called “Essential Services Workers” are required to work on the front lines to help the sick and to keep all necessary and essential things operating the best they can for the good of all. They are the first to see all the bad as well as the good that happens.

When the storm quells, they will be the first to know that it is real and feel the joy and relief as they spread the news! They will be the first to show true hope for others. They are called upon to put themselves out there for all of us. They need our support and prayer.

Jesus observed the Passover meal and dined with His disciples before His time of trial began, knowing full well what was happening. He took the time and sat around the table with those that had become his students and family.

Our lives had become a crazy, fast paced ordeal before this virus struck. Most families did not even see each other enough to spend an evening once a week at the dinner table together. Granted it may go back to that again when this ends. For now, though, you are isolated at home with your families. You are teaching them, playing with them, watching TV and movies with them, and sharing activities that you may not have done together for a long time. Hopefully, you are sitting with them to eat around the dinner table.


How many times did Jesus tell his disciples and followers, that he would suffer, die, be laid in a tomb, rise again in three days and then go to be seated to rule his kingdom? They never really got it until it was over.

Time with family no matter the circumstances is precious. They will remember this time spent. The question is how will they remember it? That is for you to decide.

Be a witness of God’s love to your families in this time, whether parent or child After all, it is the faith of children and its doubtless strength and belief that Jesus tells us all to aspire to have.

Now is the time! This Easter may not be the big event with your larger groups of family and friends that you had originally planned. Do something to make your family’s Easter special. Next make a video of your Easter fun. Share that video online and tag all your missing family and friends in it so they can see how your family celebrated Easter and the Risen Lord. Then encourage your friends and family to do something and post their fun. Then as this goes on you could turn this exercise into a family fun time weekly.

This is not the worst of times, but only a difficult and different time. Christ is still with us and He will lead us through this. The events that created these circumstances are not good but that does not mean we cannot make good out of the bad.

We will remember this Pandemic and that there was illness and death and fear. We will also remember that there was family, community, new opportunities, and new ways of worship that may have reached even more people. We will remember that for every bad aspect of this, there was also good. Remember those things and work to make more good come out of it.

After all, Christ has Died, Christ has Risen, and Christ will come again! That is what Easter is really all about! And we are Easter people!

Day 323-Mystery of Easter

Easter is a time of joy;
It is a time of true love.
When God showed the world He cared,
And came down to us from above.

He sent His Son to us all,
That we might be forgiven.
That we all might learn to forgive,
And in faith go on living.

He spared not even His life;
So that we might come to believe,
And understand His love for us.
So that loving one another, we might achieve.

For God so loved the world,
He gave His only Son to die,
So that those who believe in Him,
Should have everlasting life.

This is God’s love for us all.
This is God’s gift of grace to us each.
This is why we have faith in Him.
This is the Mystery of Easter which we teach!

Have a happy and Blessed Easter!

Day 321-When I Look Upon the Sacred Cross

Each year as Easter rolls around, I find myself once again in awe of our Lord and Savior and the sacrifices He made for each of us. He created us beautiful and perfect in His sight, but we chose to turn our backs on him and follow in the path of sin. He spent centuries trying to bring us back by showing His power and wrath with floods, famine, plagues and destruction of the worst of us, but never all of us. He spared any that showed Him reverence and faithfulness at all. He continued to love us and when He realized that we were a foolish lot and these things only scared us back to Him for a little while, He chose another route.

He didn’t want to destroy us, but saw that through sin we were destroying ourselves. He took pity on us. He was and is GOD! He could have destroyed us and started over. He could have reached into our hearts and minds and changed them Himself, making us follow Him. He didn’t do that! He wanted a relationship with us. He wanted us to come to Him. He wanted to save as many of us as possible. He wanted us to want Him and love Him. He didn’t want puppets, he wanted children that came to Him in love and served Him in love.

There for He gave us grace.

Long ago He had established that the wages of sin was death. This was a death that would forever separate us from Him, and condemn us to an eternity of pain and suffering. He didn’t want to lose us all to this fate.

So once again He extended a hand to us in saving grace, the hand of Christ His only son. He sent him in the flesh, human like us, and able to feel and know our every pain and temptation. But yet fully divine and perfect and totally undeserving of the suffering He endures for us.

God could have done it any other way, but instead He chose to come to earth and become all that we were, except that He was sinless, in order to save us from all that we are even to this day, which is a sinful and totally undeserving people. He bled and died, was whipped, scourged, beaten and crucified that we might have everlasting life and have it abundantly. He died and rose again, conquering the grave so that our deaths might be a doorway to eternal life with him instead of eternal damnation.

He did all this out of love and a wanting and willingness to have a relationship with us. We did nothing to deserve this outpouring of love yet he freely gave it. We still do not deserve his love, grace and forgiveness, yet we have it and he continues to give it.

How sad it is that it took such drastic measures for us to realize that He wants us to turn our back on sin and follow him.

He didn’t have to die; He chose to do it for us. He chose to take our sins upon him. He could have just as easily destroyed us. Instead, He was able to “destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days,” (Matthew 26:61) hoping that we might finally realize who He is and all we mean to Him.

When I look upon the sacred cross,
My heart is broken in my chest,
My lungs are still, my breath a loss,
My soul to Him my one bequest.

He gave Himself for me his all,
That I might live instead of die.
My tears a flood begin to fall,
His pain, my grief and so I cry.

He owes me nothing, He is my God
My sins and burdens, He freely takes.
My life He spares with just a nod,
But with shame my soul still rakes.

Upon that cross He hung for all,
A sinful undeserving lot.
It took His life for us on our knees to fall,
And find the love that sin forgot.

As I look upon that sacred cross,
And see the pain He bore for me,
So that from Him I’d not be lost,
My eyes are open, I finally see.

His hand in grace He now extends,
With faith in Him I do believe
In God whose love has shown no ends
So His service I will never leave.

Day 320-Inspirations of Easter

Easter is a time of great joy in the Christian community. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ died in our place, a fallen and unworthy people, so that we might have forgiveness of sins, love, hope, strength, and salvation in order that we might inherit the Kingdom of God, and in so doing, be commissioned to bring others to Him while living in the promise of His continued faithfulness to us and ours to Him. The following Bible verses are wonderful reminders at Easter time of all that He has done and continues to do for us, as well as what He hopes to inspire in us.

God made an enormous sacrifice in order that we might know His true love for us. Think about that for a moment, God made the sacrifice because he loved us. We did nothing to deserve His love, but He loved us, and He made the sacrifice for our salvation. John 3:16 expresses this all in one beautiful verse.
16For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

The image of Christ on His way to the cross should also be a source of strength for us. He showed us how if we call upon the Holy Spirit and put our lives in God’s hands, he will never forsake us, and will indeed give us all the strength we need to accomplish whatever we face.
42”If you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” 43Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and gave Him Strength.
Luke 22:42-43

The Easter Holiday is also a symbol of hope. Jesus is our hope for forgiveness and new life. Because of Him, anyone that turns to Him in true acceptance and repentance, can and will be forgiven and saved. He showed this even as He hung dying on the cross, when he extended salvation to another condemned man.
43Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise. Luke 23:43

In Romans 1:16, Paul reminds us that the very salvation of those who would come to believe in Jesus is why He endured the cross. Anyone that calls upon His name and believes in him and is not ashamed shall share in this salvation.
16For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.

The verses known as the Great Commission are the most inspiring, uplifting, and comforting for the Easter season, because they show that not only are we saved, we are claimed and commissioned to act on Jesus’ behalf. Not only did Jesus die for us, but He rose again, and continues to live in each of us. He believes in us so much that he charges us with the work of His kingdom. We are to gather others to Christ, teaching and instructing them so that they too might be saved and go out to help bring His message to even more. And the best part of all, He promises to be with us always, no matter how long it takes and no matter what we come up against. We will never be alone. He will always be there and His Holy Spirit will fill us and enable us to do all we need to do in His name.
19”Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20
Wow, what a wonderful God we have. He believes in us, He loves us, and He died for us and rose again that we might have life and have it abundantly. The story in itself is its own inspiration. We have life, and the ability to bring that life to others through Jesus Christ. God Bless us all this and every Easter.

Day 319-The Adult Easter Egg Hunt

Our family has its own traditions, one such, is the annual Adult Easter Egg Hunt. My mother and aunt, decided many years ago that the kids weren’t the only ones that should have this fun. Therefore, they devised a hunt for the adults.

To participate, you have to be high school age or older. There is only one egg per person. Once you have found an egg, you may watch but you may not find, or direct others to hidden eggs. At the beginning a collection is taken from the players; pretty much whatever cash you have on hand. This is divided between the eggs starting with a large amount and the getting smaller in each egg. One egg is a Booby prize and could have anything that amuses the hiders in it. All the eggs are different colors and sizes. The two top prize winners each year have to hide the eggs the following year. This hunt takes place each year in an area between 3 old barns and a field behind them. There is a mass of old implements, old natural gas tanks, old tractors, old vehicles, hay, rocks, trees, and even a small well house in this area, so hiding places are aplenty.

Several years ago, there were about 11 adults hunting. Among these, were myself and my brother, Glenn, whose mission in life is to harass me, and pretty much always has been. That being said, you have the catalyst for this particular hunt. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to the rest of us, at least at the beginning, he was the first person to find his egg. Remember the rules, well he doesn’t follow rules well.

As the rest of us diligently hunted for an egg, taking clues from the two hiders, Glenn went around moving the eggs that he found after finding his, and distracting the other hunters so that they wouldn’t realize what he was doing.

This created a situation where certain ones of us were hunting very hard in areas that should have eggs, but no longer did. Others were finding eggs in places that shouldn’t have them, had been previously checked, and now mysteriously did. Eventually, as the hunt went on, the hiders and other hunters became aware of what was going on, especially after they were practically directed to an egg.

My poor dad became collateral damage, as dad and I searched an area with no egg for quite a long time. Glenn allowed him to hunt along because he didn’t want to make me suspicious. Once I gave up and moved on to another site, Dad miraculously found an egg in a place we had both looked dozens of times. Of course we found out later that it was because Glenn was carrying it around in his pocket the whole time so I wouldn’t find it.

By this time everyone else had found an egg, and become aware of what Glenn was doing. I was the last one. For this reason they were all watching with bated breath, to see what he had planned for me and my egg. He kept me hunting for a while longer, and others even chimed in as to where there might still be an egg, even if they knew there was not one there. Then they even all collaborated to make me believe that they really didn’t know where the last one was hidden. This was easily believable since they had all been moved around so much, and the hiders only knew what Glenn told them.

Finally I was directed to a spot around the little well house. I had scoured this area earlier and knew at that time there was no egg. Glenn was all too interested in me finding this egg, so I knew something wasn’t right. Sure enough on top of the roof under some wood and trash was a small blue egg.

Now I am told that this egg originally held pennies as the booby prize, but by the time I found it, those had become part of another party’s egg. Mine held a small square piece of paper with a hand written note, which left no doubt as to whom was responsible. It was covered in my brother’s clever little wit, and read:……………………………..?

Well I know it had something to do with winning and/or being the Booby prize myself, but I no longer remember how he worded it. Regardless, he was extremely proud of himself, and I vowed revenge, which I am still waiting to collect. And so there you have it, the hunt goes on!

P.S. I am still waiting for my revenge. That being said, we actually haven’t had this hunt in a few years because due to weather, time, and other factors it just got missed. But my oldest daughter and I have had some new prize ideas. Most of the players are over 21 now, so we were thinking of mixing it up with travel liquor bottles in some of the eggs. Of course Glenn’s booby prize is still a work in progress……:)