Tough Questions Answered

The resurrection & death of our Lord is probably the single greatest time of year for beleivers…. yes, we know his birth is important too, but without Calvary, without Jesus taking upon Himself our sins, where would be? He truly did overcome sin & death. Thus the greatness of this time of year as we remember what our Lord did – He truly went as a spotless lamb.

As a fairly new believer, I can not even begin to express how JOYOUS easter is now. It has taken on a much greater significance now that I have surrendered my life to the Lord.

He is everything to me, and as a result this time of year has really taken on a preciousness that was lacking when I was LDS.

My Church had an amazing service – it was truly a celebration! Hands clapping, raised to heaven, singing hosanna! Never have I experierenced such JOY in the LDS services. It was amazing! Even my LDS friends that I invited couldn’t beleive how joyous an occassion it was — truly it something to celebrate — our Lord, our master our Jesus has claimed VICTORY for us!

Praise His holy name!

gloria

Gloria,

I had the exact same experience myself yesterday!! The celebration in church yesterday was completley unlike anything I ever experienced while LDS and I loved it. I paused amid the singing to look around and was almost brought to tears seeing the smiles of joy on people’s faces.

Thanks for sharing!

God Bless!!

This answered several questions for me. Thanks.
Switching to another topic — what does the Bible say about the mess our country is in? Are we to do nothing, in anticipation of end times? Or, should we express our concerns (about government spending, etc)?

Thanks.

Amen! I have shouted for joy, sung praises with all my heart and soul at the glorious news of the resurrection the songs of everlasting hope. I love to be amongst the believers, whatever denomination they may be. I have felt great expression given to my heart’s joy of joys as I have attended many other denominations and love seeing others come together to celebrate the resurrection and worship the Savior of ALL the world!
My belated husband has a picture of him shortly before his passing standing in front of a picture of the resurrected Savior. The picture looks as though His resurrected hand, showing His wounds, is rested upon my husband’s shoulder. We used this picture on my husband’s funeral program. So many people shed tears of joy with me, what a glorious symbol of hope for us all! The Savior has stilled my strife with His peace. He has spread His healing balm upon my heart rent wide at my husband’s passing, helped turned my tears from grief and loneliness to tears of rejoicing! I am overcome with the boundless love the Savior has for all of us to give up His life as the only one capable of taking it up again, overcoming the sting of death! I praise His name forever and ever!!!! I love Him! He has truly made music of my tears, music of joy and thanksgiving, and not a dreary dirge that would hover without the divine hope in Christ. I love to be amongst those who believe on Him, as we unite in letting our praises ring for life’s most wondrous blessing! Glory to God on high forever and ever! Amen! Amen! Amen! Love to ALL good Christians and love to those misguided souls, even they shall receive of the fruits of this glorious gift! God bless you. Spread peace and love, and speak kind words to all as He would have us do. If we profess to love the Savior, we must love even those who hate us. I’m learning to apply the beattitudes to all aspects of my life and that is sometimes the hardest thing to do, but I’m filled with an exquisite joy as He helps me do this. I feel as though I am an extension of Him, and have fully taken His name upon me!

amen everyone
its easter today and i am having lots of yummy chocolate mmmmmmmmm!

Easter came about as a Feast in the Church. It was one of several: Annuciation, Pentecost, Ascension, Nativity, etc. Yet we in the Protestant world have only retained two: Easter and Nativity. I have often wondered why. Does anybody one here have any ideas?

Darrell, as an Anglican, I consider myself thoroughly Protestant (ask the Irish!), dating from the early days of the Reformation. And yet we observe the liturgical calendar, with Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Christmas with their principal feasts, as well as remembrances that get a feast day, but not a whole season of the year. Individual local Churches vary in how much attention is given to these days.

My guess is that the observance of the calendar is a good thing that was thrown out with medieval Roman bathwater. In Roman practice, it has often been so tied to “Days of Obligation” that it seems part of the Popish” gospel of works, which was the central enemy against which “grace alone” was rightly proclaimed. Unfortunately, in so doing, the Church cut the people off from a source of teaching that I think still afflicts what we thing of the Evangelical wing of the Church. The episodes of our Lord’s life (say, the temptation in the wilderness, or the Transfiguration) tend to get very short shrift. Doctrines such as our fallen nature, and the burden of sin, get notice sometimes only in the first half of a sermon, and must be resolved by the end. An observance of lent invites us to wrestle with, ponder, and meditate on these issues for 40 days, resolved by the triumph of Easter. These teaching opportunities are augment by arts and colors, choice of music, aesthetics in general. Worshipping and teaching through the life of Jesus on a one year cycle treats these issues as great themes. To be somewhat crass about it, it treats the problem of sin and our Lord’s intervention as a multi-part movie (think Star Wars franchise) where much Evangelical practice treats them as the 30 minute TV show, where whatever was brought up in the first 10 minutes had to be neatly wrapped up by the end.

I think it a sad loss.

Eric,

Thank you for your comment. Yes, I did state my question wrong in that I left out the Liturgical Protestant Churches. I should have said “much of Prostestantism” has retained observance of only two of the Feasts.

I have been researching the Eastern Orthodox Church, and I have attended some of their services. A lot of what you said resonates with me. The Lenten and Holy Week services they had were so deep and moving that it is difficult to describe. The focus on Repentence for an entire 40 days touched me in a very deep way.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

He is risen!

Darrel

The fact that we “know” people don’t come back from the dead is not new. They knew it as well, which is why they called it a miracle.

Todd said, referring to a person coming back from the dead, “However, we know beyond any doubt that this is a physical impossibility.”

We do?

Do you know how to resurrect people from the dead using only physical scientific methods? No? Well then there you go.

If you have a problem with that logic, you may want to re-think the fact that you use it every time you claim a miracle has happened — “do you have an explanation for the absence of Jesus’ body from the tomb? Well, then that means God did it.”

you did that’s mean to a lot of people