Easter or Resurection Sunday

I have come to a point in my life that I no longer like "Easter".

It is not the season or the reason we celebrate but what Easter has become. In the US many people have walked away from the reason for the season. Just as Christmas has lost much of the meaning over the last hundred years so has Easter. As time has passed people forget the symbolism behind things. The beauty of the symbol of the dyed egg can be traced back to an early church who would dying eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ, the egg itself was looked at as a symbol of the tomb of Christ with them being hard and stone like but life comes from within. So many people in the US say, Easter we need bunnies and chicks and pastels and all these fun things instead looking at what are we really needing to look at.

This is why I don't like "Easter," I want to move away from using "Easter" and refer to this celebration as Resurrection Sunday. As Christ's bride we are to point to our bridegroom, we need to take back our celebrations and not let the world corrupt and take meaning from God. As I was finishing up a course on the Gospels as we finish the Lent season and move into the Easter season I am reminded of the sacrifice that Christ made. I have been at many churches that don't spend much time on the last week of Christ's life, many churches look at Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday and and maybe Good Friday and  that is the end of it. I propose that we take back this entire week, I feel that we need to find a way to each day of this Holy week to continually draw more attention to Christ throughout the week and by exploring the different things happening on each day of the week leading up to Christ's crucifixion and spend time looking at how he gave up his life and it was not taken from him. There are so many aspects of his last week of life that we over look and don't give the proper emphasis. This is why I want to move away from the use of Easter and move to a Passion week with a focus on Resurrection Sunday.

It will happen

Three years ago I went through a messy divorce that left me in a financial situation that I had to live without being able to use credit. I lost my home and car to my ex-wife whale she took those things she also promised to pay for them and get my name off them as soon as possible. Thinking that is would be a short process I was ok with it and I said that I would get her name off of the bills I said I would take. For these last three years I was not able to do anything but just make payments on my bills because of my name being on the house and car. Over a year ago when God told me that I needed to go to Mexico and not file bankruptcy we had a peace about the situation and we knew that one-day it would all work out.

Being faithful and going to Mexico the last two years over spring break. God has been faithful to his promise to take care of us. Six to eight months ago I noticed that the car that still had my name on it got sold or refinanced and I no longer had that debt to my name. As I continued to keep paying off my debt and faithfully trying to follow what God wants for me I went to Mexico again after building two homes over three and a half days we also volunteered at Children's Hunger Fund in Sylmar California building 575 food packs that will feed about 2300 people. Just as we were finishing up I got a text from my ex-wife saying she was refinancing the house and that I needed to sign off my interest in the house. Today I am no longer a homeowner or have a car loan. Once I get my debt I brought with me paid off my wife and me will be debt free other then my student loans.

God is faithful to take care of us and bless us. This experience has taught me that happiness blessing are not about the things you have or the money that is in the bank. My largest blessing in my life is my family, both those who are related my bloodline and those that God has adopted and brought together in our churches. I am blessed that I don't have this burden hanging over me and my wife any longer but the blessing is not that I can go put myself in debt but that through this I have seen what I can live without and that what I have is God's and as long as I have it I need to use it to praise, honor, and point to the living God who fulfills my needs.