Cling to the KEY of our Christian Faith this Holy Week…

Friends! It’s almost Easter! Please tell me why there are more chocolate candies everywhere you go, than anything relating to our most wonderful upcoming holiday??? Perhaps my nose for chocolate is the culprit…

I can’t resist reprising the below post which first came out three years ago. A couple of updates before you dive in: Woody’s now nearly twenty-four, married to LT for nearly two years, and I’m thrilled to report of my five friends who became Grandmothers to five granddaughters, all five of those darling little girls have become big sisters!!! (Two of them are about to have yet another sibling!!!)

As you’ll see in the below post, the Resurrection is the KEY to our Christian faith and you’ll find five reasons why. Note our assurance and the resurrection power which is available to us all. You’ll also find the importance of leaving a legacy of faith to your family. Don’t miss this!

Billy Graham reminds us, “It was the resurrection of Christ that caused the disciples to go out as burning young revolutionaries to change the world of their day. They preached, ‘Christ is alive!’ THIS should be our message, not only at Easter, but every day of the year.”

He is not here, He is risen…. (Matthew 28:6)

Grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy this little reminder this Holy Week. Blessings to you and your family for a Beautiful Easter…

He is NOT here, He is “Rizzzen”…

Don’t tell me children don’t learn a LOT at an early age! And watch out, THEY are watching YOU! And horror of all horrors: THEY will imitate you!!! Our third-born son, named Woodford, a/k/a Woody, is a blast.

One Easter weekend, when Woody was two years old, we’d just returned home from church. Scurrying to get a meal on the table, we asked our oldest son to entertain the younger two boys. Thankfully this wasn’t the year before, which nearly did me in…

That particular year before, John and I chose to take two cars to church since the Easter Bunny’s arrival was postponed ‘til after church. (Don’t ask me how we explained that one.) “The Plan” was that I would hurry home, ahead of John, hide the eggs, and be ready for the boys.

Problem is my husband tends to drive a tad speedier than yours truly, so I was barely ahead of them. Hurrying in heels isn’t a gift of mine either, so I was literally hurling eggs thru’ the air in the back yard. To top it off, my heels were sticking in the grass, and well, it’s a good thing none of our neighbors were within earshot.

Darned if John and the boys didn’t arrive while the eggs were flying thru’ the air. Our oldest son, John Jr., more astute than anyone needs to be, said, “Look Daddy! It’s raining Easter eggs!” Well, let’s just ADD to that big web of lies we’d already woven, throwing in one more far-fetched explanation.

Now while I know there’s not really a “time out chair” in Heaven, I still envision myself spending time there for some of these antics…So sorry, Lord. (Don’t you know He thinks we’re completely crazy sometimes?)

So back to the year Woody was two: The boys were playing upstairs and I ran up to get something. Woody was marching back and forth across the hall, while holding a big plastic telephone, just-a-chatterin’ away. (I’ve been known to walk thru’ the house while talking on the phone….hmmmm.)

Woody was shaking his head, back and forth, emphatically saying, “NO!”… pause, pause….”He is not here!” …LONGER pause….”He is RIZZZEN!”, prolonging the ‘s’ into buzzing ‘z’s!

That spectacular Easter Sunday, the Sunday school teachers were teaching the precious children about Jesus’ resurrection. As Liz Curtis Higgs said in her blog last week about the resurrection, “This truth changes EVERYTHING! His heavenly Father ‘has raised him to life’ (CEV). Hallelujah! God be praised! He who was dead is now alive forever!”… And even two year olds can begin absorbing this.

To read more from Liz, visit her website: http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com

This Easter week, let’s celebrate TWO important points:

First, and foremost, let’s celebrate that the tomb is EMPTY! Christ indeed has risen!

An angel of the Lord announces to Mary Magdelene, Mary the Mother of James, and to Salome in Mark 16:6 “Don’t be alarmed…You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here…” (See also Matthew 28:6, Luke 24:6 and John 20:11-18.)

The Life Application Bible points out the importance of the resurrection by calling it “the KEY to the Christian faith.” Let’s look at 5 reasons WHY the resurrection is “vitally important.”

1 – “Jesus kept his promise to rise from the dead, so we can believe he will keep all his other promises.

2 – The resurrection ensures that the ruler of God’s eternal kingdom will be the living Christ, not just an idea, hope, or dream.

3 – Christ’s resurrection gives us the assurance that we also will be resurrected.

4 – The power of God that brought Christ’s body back from the dead is available to us to bring our morally and spiritually dead selves back to life so that we can change and grow.

5 – The resurrection provides the substance of the church’s witness to the world. We do not merely tell lessons from the life of a good teacher, we proclaim the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Don’t miss these truths held within the verbs in each of the above five points: we CAN BELIEVE…; we are ENSURED ; we are GIVEN THE ASSURANCE ; Resurrection power IS AVAILABLE to us; it PROVIDES THE SUBSTANCE so that we can PROCLAIM THE REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION….

Let’s take time this week, with Good Friday approaching and Easter Sunday on the horizon , to be still, to reflect on this resurrection power available to us, and perhaps pray about a friend or neighbor who needs to hear this GOOD NEWS.

Which brings me to the second point: Let’s all be ever watchful for ways to teach our children, or our grandchildren, or nieces and nephews, or neighbors, about the Lord and His powerful Word.

Remember, Woody was just two years old at Easter time that year, and he clearly “caught” the Scripture being taught. We mustn’t forget what little sponges these children are.

You won’t believe this, but in the past four months, I have five, yes FIVE, close friends (two of which are my sister-in-laws!) who have just been blessed with granddaughters! (Think pink! ) These are all strong-in-the-faith Christian women and I can hardly wait to see what these little angels will learn about God from their grandmothers.

Look at their beautiful names and please say a prayer for them and their families: Caroline, Maria, Lucie, Emmeline and Emerson. I suspect you, too, may know of a newborn to pray for! Pray for them and their parents to raise them up knowing the Lord.

One of my many sins over the years in attempting to raise these boys is I tend to compartmentalize my faith. I need this Scripture forever in the forefront of my mind: Deuteronomy 11:18-21 says,

“FIX these words of mine in your hearts and minds;

TIE them as symbols on your hands and

BIND them on your foreheads.

TEACH them to your children,

TALKING ABOUT them

…when you SIT AT HOME and

… when you WALK along the road,

…when you LIE DOWN

… and when you GET UP.

WRITE them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” (NIV)

Now you can see what I’m emphasizing above….again the verbs: fix, tie, bind, teach, talk about when you sit, walk, lie down, get up, and write. Don’t miss the fact that IF we do these things there’s a promise…”so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land…”

I pray you and your families have a most blessed Easter and Spring (even tho’ it’s snowing as I type). May we all rejoice that “He is not here, He is risen!”

‘Til next time!

(This post is dedicated to our youngest whipper- snapper-son, Woodford Lee Hoagland. And for those of you parents out there who have more than one child and fret over treating each child equally, hang in there, I’ll be writing about our other two awesome sons in the future!!! John and I are also forever grateful to the ministry of Campus Outreach on UK’s campus which discipled Woody to focus on Christ, rather than chaos which we all know can come with college experiences. Checkout www.colexington.org for more information. I love Campus Outreach’s mission statement: “Glorifying God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World.” Amen. Happy Easter everyone!)