For some reason, I thought all the blogs I read would have touched on Easter. I looked around, hoping to make sure I wasn’t being too redundant, and I found nothing! I can see why that is, now, and it makes sense. (There’s no reason to write about a Christian holiday on the blogs I read.) However, Ocipura.com being the blog that it is, I think it would be strange to skip over the holiday here.

The Super Bowl for the Church

My husband picked up this idea from our church: that Easter is the Super Bowl for Christians. I’m not one for metaphors, so I’ve had to put some thought into why this is so.

1. Easter brings in those who are fans and those who are only slightly interested in the church. Anyone with a bit of football interest will know that the one game they can’t miss is on the Big Day.

2. The traditions around Easter are fun enough to involve even those who don’t have much interest in the holiday, like the snacks, chili cook-off, games, and commercials that drew me to the Super Bowl party this year.

3. At the Super Bowl, two teams that have worked their way to the forefront throughout the season have a final battle against each other to determine a winner. On Easter, we remember the day that good and evil, which had been battling throughout history, finally determined a winner as well.

Meaning

Setting aside the hype around Easter, I do want to point out that it really is the most important day on the Christian calendar. It’s the day when our savior Jesus Christ conquered death. He submitted to crucifixion, a pure life, a perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. He rose from the dead three days later, giving us all access to abundant and everlasting life. Without the resurrection of Christ, our whole belief system would crumble. Without the resurrection, Christ’s death meant nothing, and even his birth would have done little good despite the messages he taught.

Christ defeated Satan and Death, and while we still have conflicts with evil in everyday life, we know that ultimately the war’s outcome is already settled and determined. Death has already been conquered, the price for sins paid, and salvation already given to those who believe.

If you have a hard time wrapping your mind around the idea of a man rising from the dead, as I did, I would highly recommend reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. It was quite a help to me as a fairly new Christian.

Traditions

I grew up in a family that celebrated Easter every year. I can’t remember ever missing a year of dipping real, hard-boiled eggs into cups of colored water. I still remember several of the egg-hunts my mom personally set up just for her youngest girl, the only one still at home, and I remember the year she got me a huge chocolate bunny (heaven).

Now, my tradition for Easter is simply to go to church, but I hope to dye eggs with my kids in the future, and bring back all the fun things that a husband and wife alone might feel silly doing.

What are your Easter traditions? And I’m curious – if you participated in egg-hunts, were they done as a small family thing or as a big church thing? What are your thoughts on the meaning of Easter? Why do you celebrate, or why don’t you celebrate?

The question is, are they they same thing?

The story of creation begins with a God who speaks the universe, world, and all manner of organisms into existence in a week. Kind of. Actually, He creates everything in six days, and, on the seventh, day he rested. (See Genesis 2:1-3)

History

God blessed the seventh day, and the Jews were to keep it holy by resting on that day and doing no work. Sabbath is the name they give it because the Hebrew word literally means rest. We find the word Sabbath for the first time in Exodus 16. The story is about the bread, manna from heaven, which God rained down on the Israelites to feed them in the desert. There was to be no manna on the seventh day, because if there was, then the Israelites would have to gather it. That would be work. God wanted them to keep the Sabbath holy by eating what they had already gathered on the six prior days.

In Exodus 20, we see it mentioned as part of the Ten Commandments. God’s people, the Jews, are told again to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. However, like many of God’s commands or laws, the Sabbath was put in place for man’s good, and man keeps it his own good and for the glory of God. Jesus said in Mark 2 that the Sabbath was made for man. (I always took that passage as a way of explaining how their legalism was blinding them to the true purpose of the law, but that’s a whole other post)

Christians Today

Most Christians seem to believe that we are no longer required to keep the Sabbath because we are now under the new covenant of grace, thanks to Jesus Christ. What’s more, the command was given to the Jews, and most of us aren’t of Jewish descent. If Christians do observe the Sabbath, it is usually done on Sunday, which is a combined day of worship and rest. Christians have always observed Sunday as a sort of holy day because it is the day of the week on which Jesus rose from the dead. But even Sundays are no longer kept as much of a day of rest. Christians are as likely as anyone else to have a job that requires them to work on Sunday. Today’s Christians are just as likely to do housework, shopping, and any other chore on a Sunday as on any other day.

Hand of Rest

Hubby and I are part of a Bible study with our friends which, not long ago, spent a loooooong time going through the book of Ecclesiastes. One of the biggest things I took away from that study, and one of the major themes in the book, is the concept of a hand of rest and a hand of toil. Solomon, the author of the book, says over and over again that is it meaningless to work your whole life without stopping to rest and enjoy the pleasures of life because, at the end of your life, what will you have to show for all your work? How long will your achievements be remembered? He argues that one full hand of rest and quietness is better than two hands of work. So, we should have one hand full of work and one hand full of rest. Is this the same as keeping a Sabbath (Rest) day?

Personal Belief

Work six days and rest one… that sounds to me like six days of toil to one hand of rest.

Is the Sabbath meant to give us a day off or give us six days on? Let me rephrase: Is the Sabbath meant to keep us working as much as possible throughout our week, or is it meant to force us to take a break at least one day per week? What if we took more breaks from our work and really had an even, 1:1 ratio of work and rest?

Am I on the right track here, or not? What do you think?

Part one was about understanding what it means to become a Christian. But that was only part one because there is more to living as a Christian than just making the decision. As I said before Christian is Christ-like; therefore, belief is important as a first step, but belief was not meant to be the end. Christianity is less about what you believe than how – you – live! It’s how you walk, why you walk, where you’re walking to, and who you’re walking with – that’s what Christianity is about.

Why

The reason we walk is our belief. We believe in Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, who was given to die as a ransom for us, to cover our wretchedness with his blood and make a way for us to approach God. We believe in God’s Holy Spirit, who lives in us and reminds us of His words. We believe that our sins are forgiven us, and that we will live eternally with our God even after this life ends. We believe that the world needs Jesus in order to both experience this life and the next life fully because the majority of the world currently exists dead in their trespasses (Colossians 2:13), because of the original sin (Genesis 3), and because the devil seeks to destroy us constantly (1 Peter 5:8).

Where

Where we’re walking is on the narrow path, through the small gate (Matthew 7), towards eternal life in God’s presence. We go towards that place where there will be no more pain or weeping, where perfection is restored to God’s creation. (Revelation 21)

How

The way we walk is in love. Love for our family, our friends, our enemies, our authority, our subordinates. Sound odd? Love them? The greatest two commandments God gave us, according to Jesus, are to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor. (Matthew 22) If we don’t walk in love, all our good deeds are in vain. (1 Corinthians 13) And if we don’t walk in love, we are not Christians because 1) we’re not living like Christ, who IS love (also see John 3:16) , and 2) Christ says that we are known by our fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit. (Luke 6) But the trick is that only through Him is such love possible. Really, it’s God loving through us, and we are willing to let Him.

Who

Our companion is also our savior. We walk with a God who is bigger than all problems we face, Jesus who faced worse than we ever will, and the Holy Spirit who comforts us and counsels us as we walk. This relationship between me and the God-head is my reason for keeping on going, it’s how I get through, it’s what I’m aiming for, and it’s the whole point. It’s everything wrapped up in one, this relationship, this love.

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I’m not saying there is nothing else worth mentioning about life as a Christian, but I wanted to point out these things, at the very least. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts and questions!

Do you agree with the idea that perfectionism is a disease? As I’ve been getting into the “blogosphere” more (to steal a term from @tendogy), I’ve heard that idea from several different places. No one seems to argue with it, and I can’t either. Only – what of the saying, “If you aim for perfection, you might achieve greatness” that was on a poster on my wall as a teenager?

I grew up with a perfectionist mother, by her own admission. A lot of that rubbed off on me, in my childhood. So much so that I almost thought I was OCD for a while. My husband’s favorite example is how my mom and I put sugar in our tea and coffee. He says that we could carry a spoonful of sugar across the room without spilling a grain. I don’t like to make messes, and I don’t  like to make mistakes. When I was younger, things always had to be “just so,” from where my mom wore her watch to how tight my shoes were (I conquered this by just not tying my shoes anymore), and I still struggle with accepting imperfections.

It really is a disease in some ways. Perfectionism made my education very hard. Where others were doing as much as they could in an evening, I was struggling all night to make a project or paper perfect, using time I didn’t have, and was still never satisfied. In fact, in some cases, it was a struggle just to get started because I knew how imperfect the product would be. If I couldn’t do it right, I didn’t want to even try! Perfectionism would stop me from posting any blogs at all, if I let it. And my poor husband has to put up with me trying to remember that messes are okay, and mistakes do happen.

But there’s value in the idea of aiming for perfection even if you can’t achieve it. Sometimes, we can hit our mark when we aim, but at the very least, we’ll be closer than if we aimed elsewhere. If I aim for my glass when pouring a drink, I’m pretty likely to hit the mark. But I don’t aim for the edge of my glass usually, because if I miss my mark, it may go outside the glass. I aim for the center. And if my aim in life is only to be good enough, I may miss the mark and end up not-quite-good-enough. If I aim for perfection, I think I have a much better chance of reaching good or even great. Better to fall short of perfection than to fall short of good.

As in most cases, the secret is in the balance. I want it, but I can’t be disappointed or disillusioned when I’m less than perfect.

If you’re going to be a perfectionist, I think You have to master the art of forgiveness, as well. Forgiving others for imperfections as well as forgiving yourself. We know, and remember, that no man is perfect. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that even Jesus Christ wasn’t perfect. Don’t stone me! I don’t mean he wasn’t sinless – that is certain – but I find it doubtful that he was perfect in the way some of us want to be perfect. Never making a mess or misspeaking?

Only God, the great I Am, is perfect. That’s all I have to say for now, but continue reading and see what the Bible says about perfection, if you want! Feel free to comment with your thoughts on the issue of perfectionism.

Deuteronomy 32:3-5 (New International Version)

I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
       Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
       and all his ways are just.
       A faithful God who does no wrong,
       upright and just is he.
They have acted corruptly toward him;
       to their shame they are no longer his children,
       but a warped and crooked generation.

2 Samuel 22:31-32 (New International Version)

As for God, his way is perfect;
       the word of the LORD is flawless.
       He is a shield
       for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the LORD ?
       And who is the Rock except our God?

Psalm 18:30-31 (New International Version)

As for God, his way is perfect;
       the word of the LORD is flawless.
       He is a shield
       for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the LORD ?
       And who is the Rock except our God?

Psalm 50:1-3 (New International Version)

The Mighty One, God, the LORD,
       speaks and summons the earth
       from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. 
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
       God shines forth.
Our God comes and will not be silent;
       a fire devours before him,
       and around him a tempest rages.

Romans 12:1-2 (New International Version)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy,
      to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing
      to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
      but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
      Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will
      is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Christianity is a hard topic to discuss. I claim it as my religion because there’s nothing else to claim that people would understand! But even so, who really understands what I mean even if I do use a common word like “Christianity?”

Denotation

Let’s get some definitions straight. “Religion” and “Christian” are words used so loosely that some may be unsure of their meanings. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s keep these definitions in mind.

1. Religion: a specific, fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

2. Christian: a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Jesus Christ.

• Real
  Jesus Christ was a real person who lived a real life in a real past. He did real miracles and healed real people and died a real death for real sins. When I’m using the word “Christian,” it’s not a synonym for “someone with good behavior” or for “someone who’s decent.” Being a Christian isn’t like being Latino; you can’t inherit it from your parents. It doesn’t mean that you go to church sometimes or all the time, or that you take communion, or that you pray.
• More Than Real
  A Christian is someone who recognizes Jesus Christ as not only a real person, but the one and only Son of God. Matthew 3, Matthew 14, and II Peter 1 make reference to a voice from the heavens speaking that “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.” John 3 says that God gave “His only begotten Son,” because of how much He loved the world, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. (Also see I John 5)
• Not Only The Son
  Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but he is also one with God. Romans 10 says you must confess that Jesus is Lord. In John 14, Jesus tells Philip that he who has seen Him (Jesus), has seen the Father. Jesus the Son and God the Father are two parts of the Holy Trinity.

3. Holy Trinity: the union of three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) in one Godhead, or the threefold personality of the one Divine Being.

• The Trinity’s third member is the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost in KJV). John 14 says Jesus will ask the Father to send us the Spirit to be a Counselor with us. Romans 5 says that the “love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (NASB) I Corinthians 2 says that the Holy Spirit teaches us about spiritual matters. The end of the book of Matthew says to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Beyond The Dictionary

The word Christian appears only three times in the Bible. Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and I Peter 4:16. The disciples of Christ were called Christians (or Christianos) by Gentiles (non-Jews) in Antioch. By my understanding, the name was first meant as a sort of insult, but that doesn’t really matter – it later grew to a title of honor. To be named as a follower of Christ means that people could see that their works, behaviors, and teachings mirrored those of Christ. They could see Jesus through these people.

Now, we call ourselves Christians; we are not given the name by outsiders. Is it in hopes that people can see Jesus through us? Or is it simply convenient? I am sometimes hesitant to even take the name for myself because I know how little I deserve it. To me, it would definitely be an honor for someone to be able to look at me and say they see Christ in me enough to call me a “Christian.”

Christ-likeness, that’s what it really means.

Who was He? How can you emulate Christ if you don’t even know Him? Many people name themselves Christians though have no idea what Christ was like or what his teachings were. It’s true that Jesus says all that’s required for salvation is to believe in His death and resurrection and confess that He is Lord, but the life of a Christian involves more than that. There is more. There are other things involved in being a Christian; things that don’t make you more or less saved, but that show your obedience and love of God.

Who Is Jesus?

• Fulfiller of Prophecy
  The Old Testament contains about sixty Messianic prophecies (with many more – over 300 – references to the coming Messiah), and Jesus is the only man in history who fulfilled every one of them. (Click for list of references.) Therefore we know that he is the Son of the God of the Bible, who created the world. The foretold Messiah.
• Sacrificial Lamb
  The purpose of Jesus’ life was to die for sins. Sin, brought into the world first through Adam and Eve, and passed down from father to son. In the Old Testament, God set up a system of sacrifices for people to atone for their sins. Sin cannot be forgiven without the shedding of blood. Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death. There is no way around it. A Holy God cannot overlook sin, un-holiness, evil. In the New Testament, Jesus, as a sinless, pure Lamb of God, gave himself for a sacrifice, so that we would not have to. This is why we no longer make sacrifices. This is why we can be sure of eternal life. Jesus took on the sins of the world to save us from death and separation from God. That is the meaning of salvation! That is the meaning of John 3:16!

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11, NIV)

The Message puts it like this:
“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!”

• Redeemer
  Jesus’ death, though, means nothing without his resurrection. He conquered death! He rose again on the third day, as it was prophesized and as He said He would. (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, I Corinthians 15)

Salvation

Some people use different phrases to refer to this same concept. To be saved, to be born again, to become a Christian – they all mean that you are accepting salvation, which is the free gift (see Romans 6) given by Jesus, possible only by His death and resurrection.

In Ephesians 2, it is reiterated that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith. It is not “of ourselves,” or not “of works.” In other words, it’s nothing we have done or can do; it is the gift of God. In Romans 3, we are reminded that there is “none righteous, no not one,” and that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Where, then, is boasting? How can we pat ourselves on the back when we know that it was nothing we did, but a gift? We can’t.

So, the question is, where does that leave us? First of all, it leaves us as still sinners. As the saying goes, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” We’ve been forgiven of our sins, but we will still continue to disobey and misbehave (sin). Even Jesus’ disciples struggled with it. Romans 7 is a good example, where Paul says, “…the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” (NASB)

It’s a struggle! We will always struggle with sin because our very nature is sinful!

“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not!

“If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace–a new life in a new land!

“…What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death be the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.

“From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

“That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time–remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!–into God’s way of doing things.” (Romans 6:1-2, 8-13, The Message. Click for NIV.)

To summarize, we must do our best not to live in sin any longer. Just because we are forgiven does not give us license to live as we please. In John 14, Jesus says twice that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. II Corinthians 5 says that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

Where does that leave us? Read God’s word! Learn what he has to say. Find out what pleases God, and what grieves Him. Spread the Good News (the Great Commission)! We are ambassadors, or representatives, for Christ! (II Corinthians 5)

(Read More in Part Two)