Embracing Easter

This Easter season has been difficult for me to embrace. I think it's because it seems so early in the year. I am realizing though that the celebration of Easter should be more important than the celebration of Christmas. I read a message board the other day and a woman was speaking of how the birth of Christ would not have brought salvation without His death. I never thought of it that way before.

I find there to be an assault on Christianity that is really disturbing. The world view is Christians should be perfect and if not, then you are without faith or you are a hypocrite. Truly that makes me want to stand up from the rooftops and proclaim that if we could be perfect, Christ wouldn't have had to die to begin with. Seriously, without His blood, my righteousness would be as filthy rags. I can't imagine trying to live by the Law. If you read the first 5 books of the Bible and see everything the law entails, could you do it? I dare say, nobody can, that's why they had to take sacrifices and offer a blood offering. The priests that went into the holy of holies to present the sacrifice had a rope tied around their leg in case they weren't in a holy enough state to be in the presence of God. Sin in the presence of God causes death and the priest might die and they would drag him out of the room by the rope on his leg. I find it amusing that so many people that proclaim to not need God or not believe in Him at all, can hold Christians to such an impossible standard while they feel they have no need for grace or forgiveness. I have to sit back and realize that I'm asking a wordly person to operate in a supernatural anointing that is not theirs. The eyes of their hearts have not been opened to receive and I have to understand that.

That said, there is a complete abuse of grace in many instances. Some Christians believe that grace gives them a license to sin, but that's not the case either. The blood of Christ, his death, and his resurrection should mean more than fire insurance. The gospel says we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and that does indeed take some effort on our parts. We can't sit back and rest on our laurels and say, "that's ok, grace applies." The biggest area that I think that we lose ourselves in the area of love. We have so been trained to look out for ourselves that we become selfish and can treat others inappropriately, especially when it comes to our spouses. God called us to be set apart. He didn't call us to live like the world and rely on grace. So many women today want to be the "man" in the relationship and that sets our entire house out of order. It's part of the curse to be honest. God said that men would rule over us and we would fight against that. So, our part is to recognize it and let our husbands be the heads of our homes. We can't do that if we are not willing to give him grace. Believe me, this is something I am learning. We can't ask for grace and not give it to others. What is grace? I heard someone say a long time ago.... Grace is getting what you don't deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. We need to live a life that is rich in mercy and grace because THAT my friends, is what the crusifiction of our Savior did for us.