Easter is for Spirtual and Family Values

Unfortunately, our great Easter traditions are fading and holiday fellowship is becoming a thing of the past

When I was growing up, Easter was an incredible time of year. The holiday season was filled with spiritual fulfillment, great fellowship and celebrations, and a joyous time of kindness and compassion toward your fellow man. Easter day itself was a busy day of fun and celebration that started on Easter Saturday and lasted until we went to bed on Easter day.

Family Values

Easter is a time for family values. I spent a good portion of Easter Week with my family. My aunt and uncle owned a flower shop in downtown Wilkes-Barre for over a half century. The Easter Season was extremely busy as many churches were decorated with special flowers, and just about every guy sent flowers to their girlfriend or wife. Our whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins, just about everyone that was related spent time at the store during Easter. The family effort was not always enough. Often, my aunt and uncle had to rely on friends to help out in the store, deliver the flowers, and sometimes lend a truck so they could deliver all the flowers. I spent most of my time in the truck, helping to deliver the flowers. I was too young to drive, so I would hand carry the flowers to the customers. I would have to read the order, cross the customer off the delivery list, find the actual flower and hand carry it to the customer. If we were delivering to a church, I would find the actual flowers in the truck, and help carry them into the church. Delivering flowers is actually a lot more difficult than it looks. I remember one trip, we loaded the truck to the gills, ate lunch on the road, and we were gone for seven hours. Of course, it gave me a warm felling inside to see all these people working together to keep the flower shop running during the Easter Season.

My family got together, with my aunts, uncles, and cousins for special meals on Good Friday night and Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday we spent the whole day visiting; my father's family in the morning and my mother's family in the evening.

Church

Of course, I went to church during the Easter Season. I was an alter boy, so I spent long hours in church during the season. It gave a good feeling to spend so much time with my family and in church, and I actually felt close to God. While I felt close to God, I knew something was wrong. I was close to God, but not quite right, not quite acceptable to God. I knew I was a sinner and separated from God, but I could not figure out how to solve the sin problem and be right with God. It was not until much later in life, that I found the answer, the true solution.

The Answer

The key to being right with God, to being part of God's Salvation Plan is found in John 3:16. That verse is probably the clearest explanation of God's Salvation Plan, and this is how He explained it: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

So, what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It simply means that He is your Savior and the Lord of your life. He is your Savior because He died on the cross to pay for the penalty for your sins, so you can be forgiven for your sins and be right with God. Since we know we are imperfect sinners, we want to turn away from our sins and do things God's way. So we accept Jesus as the Lord of our life and we begin to live for Him by doing everything in life the way He would like us to live. We believe in Him, we have faith in Him, and we believe He will carry us through every problem in life.

In the very next text, John 3:17, God explains that Jesus came into the world to rescue us from our sins, and not to condemn us. The Bible explains it this way: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."