The Gift

Because Easter has everything to do with the death, resurrection and Ascension of Christ, we do everything we can in our home to try to teach our children about the gift... the incredible, amazing, priceless gift of salvation.

Though we don't "do" the Easter bunny, we still make time to make the day meaningful and fun.I do give my kids some candy and we do participate in hunting for eggs and a basket. Our eggs are a little bit different. We open them and find representations of the meaning of the holiday. We've found it to be a fun- yet very meaningful way- to read about, talk about and reflect upon the gift.

Because though we are wholly unworthy, we've been given a gift that is utterly priceless.

While I sat in church on Easter Sunday, I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. To consider all the HE has done for us. To realize that though the wages of sin is death, we are redeemed and free because of the price He paid by laying down His life for us... for me... for you!

Those are not just words- they are not just scripture verses that should be taken for granted, rote pieces of rhetoric we recite on Sundays and holidays.

No one on earth disputes that the life of Jesus is true, but many question the "story" of Christs death, resurrection and Ascension. If you have any doubt, please read this.

It's all about choice. Your choice. My choice.

If it's not true, and yet I still believe in Jesus death and resurrection- at the end of my life, what will I have lost? I will have gained a fuller, richer life- a life lived with purpose and hope. Even if - at the end of it all- I've lived my life believing in the hope of Christ and eternal life and it turns out to be the biggest hoax and conspiracy ever conceived... I've still lost nothing.

But if I choose to live my life in disbelief, or (even worse) believing but choosing to live my live without him Him at the absolute center of my life - I will gained nothing and lost

everything.

I know that he lived. I know that he died. And I know, with every ounce of my being that miraculously, he rose from the grave, the tomb is empty...

 
HE IS ALIVE!

He made the biggest sacrifice. Because he chose me (and you, and you and EVERYONE) to give the priceless gift of salvation and eternal life, my greatest challenge is that each morning I will choose him.

I will choose each day to live in service to Him. In big ways, in small ways, in any way that I can.

I don't want to waste the gift He gave me on a life lived for myself. I don't want to come to the end of my short life on earth and only wish I could go back and change my path, wish I would have put Him first, wish I would have chosen Him over choosing myself.

More than anything, I want my life to matter.
I want it to count for something at the end of the day.
I want it to count for something at the end of my life.

The Word makes it clear that "Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matt 7:14) yet "without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
But "My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

My greatest hope and desire is that my children, my family, my friends and all the people I know and love will receive the gift of eternal life. It is ours to take. He gave it freely.

Receive!

And give back to Him.