If you wanna celebrate Easter watch Pornography

Once again, I've allured you in with my catchy title. Unfortunately there is no bait and switch on this one. I have much to say about the Holiday and it may surprise many of you just how far the rabbit trail goes.

Let's start from the beginning.

It is once again...a time...before time. All that exists is God. This God is both 1 and 3. There is both non other than him...and 3 people who make up his being. Here..there is unending, unfathonable expressions of love from Father to Son and Son to Father by the Holy Spirit. But it was not good for His Son to be alone....so they conceived of a plan to extend the fellowship they enjoyed to a thing called creation...
and this creation would accomplish a merging of two realities. The heavenly and the earthly. In accomplishing these 2 becoming 1...heaven would come to earth and God would find the desires deep within his heart met by the people he created. These desires are not unlike our own. The Father desires a bride for his Son. He desires a home and a place to call his own. He desires more children after his own kind. And he desires expression throughout the earth through His Body.

It is this four-fold eternal purpose of God that constituted Him creating all things and unfolding the process of redemption in the Earth. That redemption culminated in the death and resurrection of the Christ. He was put to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Upon rising from the dead he showed himself to those who met his burning desire. This community of people who received Christ met God's desire for expression, family, a bride, and a house. During this time after His resurrection these people would help extend the merging of the 2 realities. In doing so God would finally be invited to dwell with man. He did so by entering in them by the Holy Spirit. This community did not merely witness the resurrection of Christ but experienced the indwelling of Christ in their hearts. They would be forever changed because God would never leave them.

This task was not without opposition. This opposition is known as the evil one. He is hardly an equal to the Almighty, but God has determined that even the devil's work will only help to magnify the building of this house. In the first century thousands of followers of "the Way" were murdered and killed. Not because they rose their voices in the streets but because the religious and political leaders of the day could not keep the people in their control. Why? Because what was confessed was a new kingdom. One that was not of this world. A kingdom in the realms of our hearts. In these places...there is freedom. Though these "believers" were imprisoned and killed...internally they were free and alive. And it was the life of these people which further testified to the evil one that God's government would soon take over the world in the heart's of the people. Sin and death would be a thing of the past and would be replaced by freedom and love.

Our enemy was not without a counter attack. Since he was unable to wage war against the people by physical imprisonment and death...for it only spread God's dominion further, He resolved to merge that which he could control with this new faith.

What many consider to be a great day for those who put their trust in the indwelling Christ, who is very much alive and whom we have opportunity to hear deep within our hearts, was a great tragedy in my perspective. In the 300's A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine reportedly put his faith in Christ. It was at this time in A.D. 325 that the council of Nicea took place and what was once an underground...grassroots faith became legal and popular. If that were not enough...it made paganism illegal. As a result...all the pagan places of worship were emptied. To fill them, the underground leaders of this "Christian faith" were put into these buildings and adopted the pagan model of worship. They became pastors. Instead of unending fellowship with God and with each other, it was compartmentalized to a service once a week. Instead of family-like communities and a deep practice of love for each other...these people were put in pews to listen to one man orate a speech for half an hour. Instead of every part functioning...the ministry to God became the occupation of the few "clergy".

Satan succeeded in creating a new religion. Christianity. What was once a literal outflowing of God's life in a person. An outflowing that consumed every part of a believers life...whether at work, or at home with the family became a religious system with various traditions that God never had in his mind would be in place. He didn't want to be worshipped with singing and didn't want people to read the bible and do all this shinanigans...He wanted to LIVE with the people. He wanted a Home.

Enter Easter. It was said that when Christianity dominated Rome that various pagan holidays would be kept as a sign that they have been dominated by Christ. So they kept the names the same..and ultimately the practices.
EASTER...or Ishtar...is the name of a female fertility goddess. This goddess was worshipped with live pornography in her temples. And if you were really celebrating Easter you would do the same thing. But for most of us...Easter is not about this...it's about Jesus.

I can care less about the bunnies or the eggs or the kids having a good time. What I care about is the resurrection of Christ. Every "Easter" these churches flood with people to celebrate the day when Christ rose from the dead. And they seem to completely miss the reality that He is in fact alive. What I mean is...I can feel him inside of me. I can hear his voice. I can live by His life. I can be taught by Him.

My dear friends...Christ was not someone who lived 2000 years ago. Christ is in us! Fix your eye's on him! Lean in to hear his voice! This is what the apostles of old testified about. There testimony was this...
God made him who never sinned...
to become sin...for us
So that in Him we may truly live.

They implored men on Christ's behalf...be reconciled to God. And so I do the same today...
Brothers...
Sisters...
allow yourself to come to God.
Don't hold your sins against yourself.
You don't have to go to church today to be reconciled...just enter into His life.
And do so more and more...until it is now who you are...
So that whatever you do...where ever you go...YOU will be Free! On the inside. Things in this life will come. Hardships will come...Death will come...but while everything in the physical can be touched and is fair game...Nobody can ever take away our inner freedom. This was and is the testimony of Christ. When the religious and political leaders heaped their insults on him, when they scourged him and crucified him...they were unable to break him. He overcame evil with Good. He loved his enemy and prayed for their forgiveness. He was free...He was alive...and now...having risen...
His dominion continues to expand in the territory of our hearts. He is indeed alive inside of us...
Though their is little hope for the kingdoms of this world...with their wars and hunger for power...
There is a kingdom in our hearts that will soon overtake every person by the depth of God's love...

This life will teach us to love each other deeply. And it will teach us to love our enemies...and our enemies will be won over to this love...

SO watch my friends....
Things will grow worse. The economy will get worse...wars will increase...terrorism will increase...Sin will increase..
But where sin abounds...there is opportunity for God's kindness to us to be shown.
For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he might have mercy on us all...

"Oh the depth, of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God,
How unsearchable its judgments and his paths beyond finding out...
Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor,
for from Him and to Him and through Him are all things.
May He be forever praised...Amen"