Daily Devotional for Monday March 26, 2018

Attention Why Christians Should Not Celebrate Easter

(Matthew 28:1-8)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, please help me to live this day honoring you in my thoughts, words, and deeds. Help me this day to live my life pleasing and acceptable to Jesus. Allow me to use my life to help someone else during this day, and be kind to everyone I come across no matter how they may treat me. Let Christ shine through me throughout this day oh Lord, be glorified through my life! In Jesus name I pray...AMEN!

Every year at this time, I get inundated with emails that read like doctrinal dissertations on why a Christian should NOT celebrate Easter. They mostly come from cults, but also from some Christian groups, primarily Messianic congregations that in recent years have been hijacked by Gentiles and preach and teach a very legalistic doctrine focused solely on the Old Testament. For the record, Passover is a Jewish Feast and NOT a Christian celebration. Jesus became the "perfect one-time sacrifice" for the sins of mankind.

These groups make arguments about the pagan roots of Easter, the evils of Easter eggs, the satanic nature of the Easter bunny, and many other reasons why a Christian should not celebrate Easter. To those people I have only one thing to say, "You have sadly missed the point of this special time of year!!!" Listen, everyone knows that the word Easter is not in the Bible (actually Easter is in the KJV, but is an incorrect translation of the Greek word that should say Passover) and originates from the pagan goddess Eostre. Do we stop using the names for the days of the week and months of the year because they also have pagan roots?

I have yet to meet anyone who worshiped an Easter egg, only ate them. If you are old enough to be able to read this, you are old enough to know that there is no Easter Bunny. These are simply symbols that the world uses in regard to this holiday. There is only ONE REASON a Christian celebrates Easter, and that is to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

One easy solution to those offended by the word "Easter" is to simply call Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day!

Christians SHOULD celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus! It is right and good that we take time each year to remember this blessed event. It is a well-documented, historical event chronicled in all four Gospels and supported by the historians of that day. It is easily the GREATEST EVENT IN HUMAN HISTORY! Think about it. God Himself, the Creator of the heavens and earth, came to this earth as a mere man to live with His creation.

He came as a baby, born of a virgin in a humble manger in an obscure little town. He would grow up to die on a cross as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Three days after His death, God would raise Him from the dead as a sign to this lost and unbelieving world that He was exactly who He claimed to be-the SON OF GOD!!! His life would literally transform the lives of every man, woman, and child for the rest of human history. THAT is why we celebrate Easter. THAT is why, as Christians, we MUST celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.

I love you and care about you so much. I realize that most people who say not to celebrate Easter mean well and are trying to live their lives in a way pleasing and acceptable to God. But they have missed the point of Easter. Easter is about only one thing, celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus.

It is one of those times of the year that we gather with family and friends and share our faith in Christ. Easter is also VERY BIBLICAL. All four Gospels gives us the account of the very first Easter. Now, some 2,000 years later, we will set aside time this Sunday to celebrate the day that God raised our Lord from the dead.

I pray today that you will never forget what Easter is really about and why we celebrate this day. Of course, anything that the world gets involved with becomes perverted. The world has taken this sacred time of the year and turned it into a time of commerce. We must never allow ourselves to get so caught up in the commercialism of the Easter season, to forget what it is about . . . a time to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.

THAT is what Easter is really about, and THAT is why, as Christians, we MUST celebrate the greatest event in human history!

Prepare to have a most blessed and special Resurrection Day this coming Sunday!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller