Happy Easter!

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Happy Easter!

Today while I celebrate the Resurrection of my Saviour, I wish you and yours a very Happy Easter!

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Giving Up Socnets For Lent

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Giving Up Socnets For Lent

It's a bit late, maybe, but I decided yesterday (after posting one update to Twitter, Facebook, et. al.) to give up online social networking for Lent. I'm not Catholic, and I don't usually do this Lent thing. But I do want to grow ever closer to my Creator and Savior, and that's what Lent is all about; eliminating a source of distraction in your life and shifting that focus to God.

Twitter, Facebook, and the myriad other social networking sites (including newcomer Google Buzz) can certainly be a source of great distraction. So, other than some already set up automated processes like blog posts being added to my feeds, etc., I will not be updating any of the social media outlets until after Lent (Easter Sunday). I will not be reading the feeds, catching the Tweets, or following the Buzz. I will, instead, be pushing myself to shift the time I would have spent on social networking toward enriching my relationship with the Creator of all things.

Starting now, as I dig back into the book of Job; yet another great man who walked with God. Watch for a new SOAP entry about him here soon.

Send me your thoughts.

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What Is Easter Sunday?

Easter Edition Question: "What is Easter Sunday?" Answer: There is a lot of confusion regarding what Easter Sunday is all about. For some, Easter Sunday is about the Easter Bunny, colorfully decorated Easter eggs, and Easter egg hunts. Most people understand that Easter Sunday has something to do with the resurrection of Jesus, but are confused as to how the resurrection is related to the Easter eggs and the Easter bunny. Biblically speaking, there is absolutely no connection between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the common modern traditions related to Easter Sunday. As a background, please read our article on the origins of Easter. Essentially, what occurred is that in order to make Christianity more attractive to non-Christians, the ancient Roman Catholic Church mixed the celebration of Jesus' resurrection with celebrations that involved spring fertility rituals. These spring fertility rituals are the source of the egg and bunny traditions. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week, Sunday (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1,19). Jesus' resurrection is most worthy of being celebrated (see 1 Corinthians 15). While it is appropriate for Jesus' resurrection to be celebrated on a Sunday, the day on which Jesus' resurrection is celebrated should not be referred to as Easter. Easter has nothing to do with Jesus' resurrection on a Sunday. As a result, many Christians feel strongly that the day on which we celebrate Jesus' resurrection should not be referred to as "Easter Sunday." Rather, something like "Resurrection Sunday" would be far more appropriate and biblical. For the Christian, it is unthinkable that we would allow the silliness of Easter eggs and the Easter bunny to be the focus of the day instead of Jesus' resurrection. By all means, celebrate Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday. Christ's resurrection is something that should be celebrated every day, not just once a year. At the same time, if we choose to celebrate Easter Sunday, we should not allow the fun and games to distract our attention from what the day should truly be all about—the fact that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and that His resurrection demonstrates that we can indeed be promised an eternal home in Heaven by receiving Jesus as our Savior. To learn more about how Jesus' death and resurrection provided for our salvation, please read the following article: What does it mean to accept Jesus as your personal Savior? Recommended Resource: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas. You may find the following Easter-related articles helpful: Why should I believe in Christ's resurrection? Where was Jesus for the three days between His death and resurrection? Did Jesus go to hell between His death and resurrection? On what day was Jesus crucified? How is the date for Easter determined? What are the origins of Easter? Is the resurrection of Jesus Christ true? What's new on GotQuestions.org? GotQuestions.org seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by providing Biblical answers to spiritually-related questions. To continue in this mission, we need your support! For more information, please visit https://www.gotquestions.org/support.html Got Questions? The Bible has Answers! We'll find them for you! www.GotQuestions.org This message was sent from GotQuestions.org. It was sent from: Got Questions Ministries, 6050 Stetson Hills Blvd., #254, Colorado Springs, CO 80923.

What Is Good Friday?

Question: "What is Good Friday?" Answer: Good Friday is the Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday. It is celebrated traditionally as the day on which Jesus was crucified. If you are interested in a study of the issue, please see this article that discusses the various views on which day Jesus was crucified. Assuming that Jesus was crucified and died on a Friday, should Christians remember Jesus' death by celebrating Good Friday? The Bible does not instruct Christians to remember Christ's death by honoring a certain day. The Bible does give us freedom in these matters, however. Romans 14:5 tells us, "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind." Rather than remembering Christ's death on a certain day, once a year, the Bible instructs us to remember Christ's death by observing the Lord's Supper. First Corinthians 11:24-26 declares, "...do this in remembrance of me...for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Why is Good Friday referred to as "good"? What the Jewish authorities and Romans did to Jesus was definitely not good (see Matthew chapters 26-27 ). However, the results of Christ's death are very good! Romans 5:8 , "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." First Peter 3:18 tells us, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit." Many Christian churches celebrate Good Friday with a subdued service, usually in the evening, in which Christ's death is remembered with solemn hymns, prayers of thanksgiving, a message centered on Christ suffering for our sakes, and observance of the Lord's Supper. Whether or not Christians choose to "celebrate" Good Friday, the events of that day should be ever on our minds because the death of Christ on the cross is the paramount event of the Christian faith. If you would like to learn more about why Jesus' death on the cross was so "good," please read the following article: What does it mean to accept Jesus as your personal Savior? Recommended Resource: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas. What's new on GotQuestions.org? GotQuestions.org seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by providing Biblical answers to spiritually-related questions. To continue in this mission, we need your support! For more information, please visit https://www.gotquestions.org/support.html Got Questions? The Bible has Answers! We'll find them for you! www.GotQuestions.org This message was sent from GotQuestions.org . It was sent from: Got Questions Ministries, 6050 Stetson Hills Blvd., #254, Colorado Springs, CO 80923.

Contemplating Easter

As Easter rapidly approaches, I find myself giving the holiday some serious contemplation. As a Christian and devoted follower of God, Easter for me has always been more about the Resurrection of Christ than chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, and Spring.

Thoughts of Easter bring on thoughts of Christmas, the "biggest" holiday of the year. Christmas is no doubt the most widely celebrated event on the calendar, whether for Christian principles or otherwise. If you're reading these words, you have likely exchanged Christmas gifts on more than one occasion in your life, and quite possibly have found your share of hidden eggs, as well.

What disturbs me about this Christmas / Easter comparison is really quite simple. Two millenia ago the Creator of the Universe came to earth as flesh in the form of the baby Jesus. Today, we celebrate that day by putting up trees and stockings and waiting for a "jolly old elf" to come falling down the chimney. When companies like Target avoid using the word "Christmas" in their advertising campaign in an attempt to be politically correct, faith groups cry out in protest.

Just thirty-three years after that historic miracle, the God-man Jesus Christ died the most painful form of death on a cross on a hill, mocked by soldiers and bystanders, then rose from His grave. Next week we celebrate this miracle sacrifice by giving baskets of candy to our children and hunting for eggs hidden by a bunny. Churches will hold special services on Thursday and Friday as well as Sunday to observe, remember and worship the Savior. Other groups will hunt for eggs and devour chocolate bunnies with never a thought of that torturous death so long ago. Even others will use this special day as a rite of passage from Winter to Spring, a time when old things are made new, even a celebration of fertilty (hence the rabbit). Where is the outcry from the faith groups this season?

I'll grant you that Christmas is arguably the most important date on the calendar. The first Christmas was certainly a date of paramount importance in the grand scheme of things. It's not every day that God steps out of Heaven to physically walk among us. But I invite you to consider the following.

God took on flesh and came to Earth for only one reason: to save us all from our sinful ways. He did that by giving His life on a cross and arising from His grave three days later. Today, we call that Easter -- Resurrection Day. Had Christ not died, He could not have arose. Had He not risen from the dead, we would still be doomed to the eternal death that so many still choose by their very failure to choose.

Without Christ's Resurrection, His birth would be insignificant. It was the very gift of Salvation delivered through His death on that cross and subsequent Resurrection that made His birth such a miracle.

Without Easter, there is no Christmas. Without Christ, there is no hope.

Happy Easter! Rejoice in His Resurrection. Receive the Gift of Salvation.

Your comments?

Joe

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The Joe Show 65 - Easter Egg

New this week on

The Joe Show
featuring Average Joe American

Episode Sixty-Five: Easter Egg

trench town oddities | working again | trenchtownoddities.com
courtesy of the trench town oddities


mike errico | grace | errico.com
courtesy of the podsafe music network

heavy mellow | st. george island | magnatune.com
courtesy of magnatune

acoustic junction | never until now | myspace.com
courtesy of ioda promonet

genuine son | daddy's girl | airplaydirect.com
courtesy of airplay direct

matthew ebel | rain | matthewebel.com
courtesy of the podsafe music network

shane beales | so in love | myspace.com
courtesy of shane beales

sidewalk prophets | walls | myspace.com
courtesy of sidewalk prophets

the comedy minute
courtesy of christian comedy podcast

john taglieri | starring role | myspace.com
courtesy of ariel publicity

worth dying for | revolution | myspace.com
courtesy of ariel publicity

temple of soul | purple haze | myspace.com
courtesy of ariel publicity

Stay tuned for the Easter Egg at the end of the show.

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Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter

Today is Maundy Thursday.

The feast or holy day on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles.

Tomorrow is Good Friday.

Commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus at Calvary.

Sunday is Easter.

It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which occurred on the third day after his death by crucifixion.

A little reading for you regarding the season that is upon us. ...

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them, in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen’.” —Luke 24:1-5

“It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience...” —The Massachusetts Bill of Rights

“It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost him crucifixion... You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse... You can shut him up for fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.” —C.S. Lewis

Thanks to The Patriot Post for the material in this post.

At this season, Christians memorialize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday, and His rising from death on Easter morning. The Resurrection is the central fact that distinguishes Christianity from all other faiths, and we meditate these days on the way to and from the empty tomb.

In Christian theology, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was the fusion of perfect love and perfect justice, vanquishing evil, in this sense: Because we owe God complete obedience, we have no means to make restitution for our sins. Doing what we should in any instance merely zeroes our balance for that act; we have no way to repay the negative sum of our accumulated sins. Only God Himself could rectify that moral debt on our behalf, in a sacrificial act that is simultaneously purely loving and purely just. One death thus gave each human life forever after an incalculable value, because of that exchange.

Jesus further commanded His believers to follow Him in self-sacrifice: “And when He had called the people to Him, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me”’ (Mark 8:34). “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Clearly, Jesus calls His followers to lay down the life of this world and follow Him on the road to the cross.

What lay behind, in the shadow of the cross, was a barbaric world. Life during Christ’s time on earth was cheap, treated as suitable for sport and spectacle. The execution of Jesus by crucifixion typified the cruelty and capriciousness of Roman rule. The Jewish chief priests, arguing for the death of Jesus, clamored, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, knew that Jesus was guilty of no capital crime, for he said, “I wash my hands of the blood of this innocent man” —yet, fearing political repercussions should Caesar hear rumors of Jesus as a rival claimant to authority, Pilate permitted the death sentence to be carried out. ...

Many, possibly most, of our Founders were Christians, or else steeped in a political philosophy rooted in the Christian view of human nature. They believed, as we still do, that each individual human is a morally responsible being created in the image of God, and that the only government capable of enduring well is the one that honors this nature by ensuring liberty; the one that is dedicated to principles rooted in the Easter view of human worth. “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time,” wrote Thomas Jefferson; “the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”

At the far end of the road to the cross lies the empty tomb—the promise of resurrection and eternal life. Even today, the empty tomb beckons. Will we travel the way of the cross, or take another road?

Joe

The Resurrection and the Easter Bunny

In the midst of the Christian Holy Week, we tend to caught up in the Easter Bunny, and Easter Egg Hunts, and we forget what the week is really all about: the Passion. Just what is the Christian Holy Week about, anyway? And how did it come to be dominated by a Bunny delivering brightly colored eggs?

Maundy Thursday

The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane and arrested by Roman soldiers. It commemorates Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples and the institution of the Lord's Supper (Eucharist, Communion). It is called Maundy Thursday from the old Latin name for the day, Dies Mandatum, "the day of the new commandment." The new commandment being Christ's commandment that we should love one another. In many other countries, this day is known as Holy Thursday.

Good Friday

There is great debate as to how Good Friday came to be known as "Good," as it is the observance of the day upon which Christ was crucified. Some believe the term "Good" evolved from "God" or God's Friday. Others believe "good" represents the fact that the greatest tragedy in history brought about the greatest good of all time: the gift of salvation.

Easter Sunday

Easter is generally considered one of the most important holidays of the year, as a time to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus after his death by crucifixion. In the second century A.D., Christian missionaries tried to convert northern European tribes to Christianity. It is believed by some that the missionaries incorporated some pagan festivals of new life into the Easter holiday in order to make Christianity more attractive to the tribes.

In pagan times, the "Easter hare" was no ordinary animal, but a sacred companion of the old goddess of spring, Eostre. The Easter Bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the spring season. Since long before Jesus Christ was born, parents told their children that the magic hare would bring them presents at the spring festival. The presents were often painted eggs, as these represented the new life starting at this time of year.

The bunny was first used as a symbol of Easter in 16th century Germany. Also in Germany, children made nests of grass and placed them in their yards. They believed the Easter Bunny would fill these baskets with brightly decorated eggs during the night.

The Easter Bunny was introduced to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s.

In whatever way you recognize Easter, it is a time to remember the sacrifice made for all of us. There's no harm in participating in Easter Egg Hunts and telling children about the Easter Bunny, as long as we remember to share with them the Passion of a Man who died so that we might receive the gift of eternal life.

How do you celebrate Easter?

Drop me a note.

Joe