This weekend is Easter, which is so exciting! I love Easter for so many reasons, I love the brightly colored eggs and Easter egg hunts. I love Easter baskets full of toys and candies. I love the food and the time spent with family. But most of all, I love the fact that we are celebrating the single most important event in the course of human history. Christmas is my favorite holiday overall, but when it comes to significance, especially in relation to God, Easter is at the top!
Easter is a time to celebrate the fact that God defeated death! He was tortured, and crucified for my sins, which is an unbelievable example of His love, but His death, what happened on Good Friday, would be essentially pointless if it wasn't for His Resurrection on Easter. Easter is the celebration, the remembrance that God is truly ALIVE! It is His life that enables us to have salvation, to be reconciled with Him, to have a relationship, and that part is important, RELATIONSHIP.
See, God didn't die and rise again just so that we could have an impersonal worship system, or an intellectual reverence for Him. He suffered, died, and came back to life so that we could have a personal relationship with Him. Yes we worship and revere Him, but not as some God aloof, but as one our souls are passionately enthralled with. This is something that God has been convicting me of lately. I have fallen into the trap of knowing and revering God intellectually and worshipping Him systematically, but not loving Him passionately, and I need to. Without that passion and love I am missing out on what this whole Christianity thing is all about. I am missing the purpose for Christ's death and resurrection. I am missing the true meaning of Easter, and I am missing the complete fulfillment that God is longing to provide me.
So regardless of where you are at this Easter, whether you have zero relationship or desire for a relationship with God; have that relationship, but are stuck in the "religion" and the systematic worship and intellectual reverance of God; or you are passionately enveloped in the loving relationship that Christ defeated death to gift to you, I encourage you to seek to love Him more, to fall deeper and deeper in love with Him and to truly understand both the sacrifice Christ made for you and incredible power and gift that came as a result of His coming back to life.
We don't worship a dead or made up God. We worship a God who is well and alive and who is offering us life and joy and relationship. The ball is in your court whether you will accept it or not.
"“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been resurrected! He is not here! ..." -- Mark 16:6b
"Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me." -- Revelation 3:20
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