March 30th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Perhaps you read Angie’s post yesterday and now are wondering what to do to focus your family on Christ’s resurrection rather than on pagan tradition. Here are a few ideas I thought I’d toss out for you.

Now let me just say… [this is purely my opinion and I do not expect everyone to agree with me!] I’m not a big fan of taking a pagan symbol (Easter eggs) and trying to “Christianize” it to make it more meaningful.  Ie: resurrection eggs and the like.  These can be useful, there’s nothing wrong with using them.  BUT, what I am trying to do is create Biblically-consistent traditions for my family rather than trying to “sanctify” traditions already present in our culture.   Like I said, you might disagree with me – and that is fine.   I will not look down on your resurrection eggs if you don’t mind that I don’t use them. ;)

1.  Consider observing Passover in your family and even holding your own version of a seder!  [Give yourself some grace here... sometimes it doesn't turn out to be the Passover of our dreams!]

This post will give you a background on the importance of Passover.  If you’re interested in attempting a seder, check out this helpful video from Jews for Jesus:

You can find a Messianic Passover Haggadah and instructions here.  You can also read more about pictures of Christ in the Passover here.

2.  Teach your kids how yeast often symbolizes sin in Scripture.

Bake bread together, discussing how a “little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  Then make homemade matzah together, discussing how removing the leven from the bread reminded the Israelites that their lives were to be pure and clean.  In the same way, because our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed on our behalf, the “yeast” of sin needs to be searched out and removed from our lives.  Use 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 as the basis of your discussion.

3.  Discuss the meaning of “First Fruits”

Angie mentioned First Fruits and Jesus’ fulfillment of this feast in yesterday’s post.  Plant grass seeds in small pots together, discussing Jesus’ words in John 12:23-24-

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

His death opened the door for life!

4.  Make “resurrection cookies.”

There are several versions of resurrection cookies and rolls that I have seen.  Courtney posted the Easter story cookie recipe/ instructions last week, and you can find “resurrection rolls” here.

5. Make an Easter Garden basket - I loved this post from Ann Voskamp.  We made our own garden this morning!  We’ll be adding things to our garden all week.  Perhaps it will show up as a after-Easter post. :)

6.  Create your own box of repentences this week – surely we all have some things we can fill it with even in a few days. :|  Take them outside or kindle a fire in your fireplace and burn them together on Good Friday – watch the flames destroy your slips of paper containing your deepest sin… and discuss what Jesus did for us that day at Calvary.

7. Make your own “wordless book” bracelets using beads of your choice.  If you want to make traditional “wordless book” bracelets, you can find instructions here and cards explaining the meaning of the colors here.  Never heard of the wordless book?  Read this.

Have other ideas you’d like to share?  I would love to hear them!

March 29th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Image from wikipedia.org

This is a post I requested that my friend Angie write for us.  A few weeks ago I had received an email inquiring about the historical roots of “Easter” including the bunnies, eggs, and the other trappings we are familiar with.  I have written related posts regarding Easter – you can find them listed here.

Just like dealing with Halloween, my purpose is not to cause division or encourage legalism.  While I don’t plan egg hunts for my children and we don’t talk about the Easter bunny, I think what your family does is something you alone need to decide.  However, I do think that we need to be very careful as believers not to confuse the Truth of Christ’s resurrection with the traditions rooted in lies that our larger culture gladly embraces.

Quoting from “Navigating through Halloween,”

Christians are split on this and our goal is not to be hateful and condemning to one another, but to spur one another on to think and act in a way that honors our Lord. Quoting Paul as he dealt with believer’s disagreement over a “gray area,”

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

So without further adieu, here are some thoughts and research from my friend Angie King.

What do a pagan fertility goddess, bunnies and the resurrection of Christ have in common? Waiting for a punch line? I have none, for this is no joke. Those things have nothing in common although history and skewed tradition have intertwined pagan practices with the hope followers of Christ have in Resurrection Sunday.  It’s time believers separate the truth from the lies.

Why “Easter”?

To search out the origins of the term “Easter” we must step back into Genesis, the beginning. In Genesis, we are introduced to Noah, the one righteous person who God saved from destruction. If Noah embodies righteousness, his great-grandson Nimrod is his antithesis—a wicked man who propagated evil ways.

Nimrod founded the notoriously wicked cities of Babel and Nineveh and was married to Semiramis—also called Ishtar or “Easter.” Together, this wicked pair created a mystery religion—an occult rooted in lies and backed by Satan. Upon Nimrod’s death, Semiramis (Ishtar/Easter) spread the word that Nimrod was now a sun-god named Baal.

She became pregnant and claimed the child she carried was created by supernatural means. Ishtar also claimed that the child she bore—Tammuz—was the fulfillment of the seed promise God gave after the fall of Adam and Eve. (We, as believers in Christ, realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the seed promise!) After these lies took root among the idolatrous nations that continually spurned God, Ishtar was worshipped, especially by those who sought fertility.

Ishtar was a true woman of folly. She skewed sensuality and sexuality to lead fools down wicked paths and to their ultimate demise. In her temples, harlots prostituted themselves and were praised for this behavior. Where purity did not exist, blatant idolatry and adultery were glorified.  Are these the ideas we want to associate with Resurrection Sunday, the day we set aside to remember that Jesus conquered death so that we could conquer death, too?

Zola Levitt, who was a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ, called the Easter celebrations “First Fruits” and explained the biblical reasons behind this in his booklet titled “The Seven Feasts of Israel.” As Zola explained:

“We have come to call this feast Easter, after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility. We even continue to worship the objects of fertility—the rabbit, the egg, new costumes, etc., but the celebration was to be over God’s replanting of the earth in the spring. We miss a very important biblical truth by not using the term “First Fruits” as the name of this feast, because “first” implies a second, a third, and so on, and that is the real meaning of the feast. We do not merely celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, on which it indeed occurred, but even more so, the resurrection of the entire Church!”

Jesus was first, but we believers of Christ will follow! Amen!

Satan has found great success at distorting the truths of Resurrection Sunday with the occult practices of the pagan goddess Ishtar. He has disguised the lies within innocent symbols such as bunnies and eggs. Commercially, the symbols of Easter overshadow the truths of First Fruits and society has embraced this wholeheartedly. We, as followers of Christ, don’t have to be chained to these traditions embedded in the occult. Now that you know the background of Easter, how will you choose to celebrate First Fruits in your home?  How will you give God the glory due to Him alone? [Let's discuss our celebrations in light of Truth!  Come join the discussion on the fan page!]

Angie is a Christian wife, mother and freelance writer who has a background in history and research. She has a renewed love for the Old Testament–the Bible Jesus used–and strives to become a lady of wisdom to those around her.

Sources consulted:

• Levitt, Zola. The Seven Feasts of Israel. Great Impressions Printing & Graphics, 1979.
• Christiananswers.net
• Lasttrumpetministries.org
• The Book of Genesis, New International Version.

February 16th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Ash Wednesday is tomorrow.

Last year in Lent, Fasting, and Other Outlandish Ideas, I shared my very sparse (if not nonexistent) background with Lent, and why I am starting to incorporate this into my own personal walk with the Lord.

Quoting from that post:

Fasting is a form of personal worship. It is not a dictated, regulated aspect within the New Covenant under Christ – it is a personal act of celebration within our walk with Him, an outgrowth of a desire to grow closer, commune deeper, to walk humbly with our God… [Richard] Foster also points out that it reveals the things which control us, as well. It is an act which God can use to purify us and reveal hidden sin in our lives.

Indeed, as I began to fast regularly for the first time in my life last year during the Lenten season, I did find that fasting made hidden sin glaringly obvious to me.  I shared more about my journey in Soul Hunger.

So, perhaps you are like me and fasting is a new and foreign concept.  I’d suggest you start by reading the first two posts which I already mentioned.  Now, let’s talk about particulars.

There are many different kinds of fasts.  You may have heard of people fasting from everything from media to carbohydrates to fasting from solid foods.  If you are wondering how you might incorporate fasting as a worshipful part of your preparations for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, I’d suggest that you think about where you turn when you’re uncomfortable.

If you’re having a rough day – your kids are making you crazy, your work is causing immense amounts of frustration, a major appliance broke down unexpectedly, you’re dealing with conflict with your spouse, extended family, coworkers… what do you do?

I find myself doing these things, too – so let me suggest, ever so gently, that perhaps those things we turn to have become idols?

Rather than turning to the Lord at our weakest, most vulnerable moments, do we stuff down our emotions or conviction with food, entertainment, socialization, noise?  How often do we fail to hear Him, fail to receive all that He offers us, because we have settled for a cheap substitute – an idol?

As we approach Lent, perhaps we need to ask what idols have taken root in our lives.  Perhaps we should ask the Lord to help us use these 40 days of soul-preparation before Good Friday and Resurrection Day as a time to learn how to “find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”

Perhaps you need to fast from:

Food (total fasts for a day or two a week, or a fast from particular “comfort” foods you tend to turn to, etc.)
TV (all, or certain shows)
Your computer or social media (again, this might be a complete fast or limiting yourself to certain time blocks)
The phone, the radio…

Warning: DO NOT MAKE THIS LEGALISTIC.

You might feel led to give up TV or social media entirely – and your husband or friend may not.  That doesn’t mean they are less spiritual.

You seek the Lord.  You prayerfully search your heart.  And you ask the Lord: “how can I grow closer to You, commune deeper with You, walk humbly with You?”

Giving up chocolate for 40 days will do nothing for your spiritual walk unless this is a deliberate sacrifice – a choice to turn from something cheap and empty and seek to find fulfillment from God alone. To find your emotions and frustrations raw, with nothing to stuff them down with, and discover that God is present in our daily life and offers to us the strength to do what we cannot do on our own.

To learn more about fasting, and perhaps give you something to read as you prayerfully go through the Lenten season, you might want to download John Piper’s free ebook A Hunger for God here.

Do you have personal experience with fasting?  Have you found that it drives you to depend on God as it reveals what lesser things you use to comfort and satisfy your soul?

Image from freefoto.com

December 24th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

This is the third part of our look at “Yahweh has come to dwell among us” – be sure to check out parts one and two if you missed them!!

Yesterday we looked at the way God continued to introduce Himself to His people in the book of Exodus, the most profound nugget being that God desired to dwell among His people.   Quoting from yesterday’s post:

Christmas is more than a baby in a manger.

Christmas is God choosing to dwell among us – to love us when we are unlovable.  To call us out of darkness and into His glorious light. 

What wondrous love is this?

Image from wikipedia.