Easter Sunday :: He is risen

So that is why we celebrate, starting the night before with pavlova.

A special way to start the day with an easter egg hunt........a first for Felix.

He was so excited with all the choices.

The celebration continues at church this morning, although the donkey looks unaffected by all the fuss.

A jumping castle and bbq after the service......wow.

A bittersweet reminder of the reason we celebrate....The work Jesus finished on the cross.  All his life had been building up to this moment in time in which the power of death and evil over us is destroyed.  Through Jesus dying as a sacrifice to exchange punishment for our sins, we have eternal life.....salvation from the horror of the end we previously faced.

  This moment of sacrifice and finality of the power of death and sin is a gift I have embraced.  I have moved through my life in a growing understanding of what this actually means.  

At first, an academic understanding of the bible stories from my religious education lessons.

An indifference and disassociation from God in pursuit of myself and indentity and pleasure.

 A religious legalistic relationship with church and God seen through a warped perspective, where I tried so hard to be good.

Most significantly, a defining moment of choosing to release all control of my life into the hands of a God I had yet to discover.  I must admit, my options for my future had narrowed down to that being the best one at the time.  I was out of hope and meaning and sort of desperate more than anything.

However, I now know some of the real nature of God.  The religious chains have gone and are going!

 There is a glimpse of who he is from the spirit of truth that he gives.  

This new walk with him is not from a desperate brokenness but rather a desperate pursuit of the peace that comes from being with him and the absolute certainty that he is real and true and he is the way to life.  

I have chosen to believe the word of God, not because of research and evidence of it's validity.  I have chosen because of a deep deposit of faith that the Lord has given me.  

And now my life is a day by day process of growth and deepening of personal faith in the knowledge that God is in the driving seat of my life.  I hope to see more of Jesus in my character as I keep walking through this life and into the next.

Happy Easter, enjoy the chocolate, but reflect on what we are celebrating.