Annie's How to Celebrate Easter Page

"They will celebrate your abundant
goodness and joyfully sing of your
righteousness."
~Psalm 145:7~

With the coming of Spring, we can take this time of year to celebrate and enjoy the things that the Lord has created. The flowers, and the beauty of all of His Creation.

Our homes should reflect our love of the Lord
and our relationship with Him.

Celebrations are special times for children and family.
A time to praise and worship the Lord.

Our hearts should be so full of the JOY of the Lord that it overflows into our daily lives.

We are to have no other God's before the Lord. Please remember that nothing in itself is BAD. "God created all things for His good pleasure." Bunnies and Easter Eggs are not bad in themselves. Just as the Television and the Computer are not bad.

also Romans tells us "all things work together for GOOD to them that are the called according to his purpose"

Lately the Lord has really been speaking to my heart about how we shouldn't throw the "Baby out with the Bathwater" BUT also that we are not to put "new wine in old wineskins", along with the verse that exhorts that a little leaven spoils the whole.

Galatians 4:8-11 "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? YOU ARE OBSERVING SPECIAL DAYS AND MONTHS AND SEASONS AND YEARS! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you."

I will be including some short descriptions of how some of my Christian friends, celebrate Easter along with links to other special pages. You can also visit my Annie's Easter Links Page for more information.

So many of you have now read about the history and symbolic information about Easter, and are now trying to sort out how you can celebrate this time of year and Honor the Lord.

Here are two GREAT Easter Links that I would like everyone to visit. Just right click on the link and choose open in another window then minimize the page. You can read them when you are finished with this page. Don't forget to share them with others.

Holidays and Holy days ~ What every Christian should know about the Easter bunny, eggs and the true meaning of EASTER.
AND In Touch by Charles Stanley offers answers in: Issues and Answers: Parenting How can a Christian parent keep a proper perspective in the celebration of certain holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween?

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
~Romans 12:2~

" --- So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon
or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."
~Colossians 2:16-17~

Here is how a few of my Internet Christian Friends celebrate Resurrection Sunday:

Georgia
Easter at the Sawhook's .......that's an adventure in itself ....now that the children (all 7 of them) range in age from almost 13 to almost 30.....there are alot of years of memories to remember.. Becoming a Christian didn't come for my husband and I until we were around 23 years of age...so we had two little ones at the time...Easter then was.....hiding the Easter baskets..and talking about the Easter bunny coming and going to church with frilly dresses and brand new patent leather shoes and maybe even a new bonnet and gloves.....Memories of my Mom teaching me "In your Easter bonnet ..with all the frills upon it....you'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade"..........memories of my Ukrainian Orthodox upbringing and the very strict lent before Easter and the crawling on your knees from the back of the church to the front to kiss the wounds of Jesus (a tapestry) on Good Friday......Alot of stuff........but there were good memories too..........the wonderful Ukrainian cuisine and the reverence paid to a dying Savior........But at the point of salvation.....a new wonderful awakening began......For God so loved......Georgia...praise
His holy name.....Not a nameless God who lives way out there......but Someone so personal....that He loved me soooooooooooo much....He cared enough to send His precious Son, Jesus, to die as a replacement for MY sin.....Easter became a brand-new, wonderful, exciting holiday for me........Easter morning was always brighter...the birds sang louder and more beautifully than I had ever realized. This is something that through the years as a Mom...and as I said, it's been 30 years......we always have brought forth the truth of this season.......Jesus Christ loves you so much.......He suffered and bled and died for your sins...then He came alive again (just as He had promised)......and rose again........and lives today for you and me. Yes......there was and still is Easter candy..........Yes......there still is new clothes for Easter morning........ Yes......there's still a great feast of wonderful food...............BUT ..........JESUS CHRIST REIGNS SUPREME......and He is what Easter is all about...Paul said in I Cor. 15:3,4.."For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." and I Cor. 15:20 "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept..."......Hallelujah....what a Savior.....Man of Sorrows......But HE LIVES.....Christ Jesus lives today......This Sunday.....we'll go to the morning service.....I will sing a praise song glorifying the Savior on this, His Resurrection morning.......The family and friends (18) will gather for a huge dinner..(Mom's been baking for two days prior)....And then..we'll return for the evening Easter Praise and Worship service, at which Mom and the girls will be singing and maybe a brother will be playing an instrument ....... BUT........praise God..........this is what the most important thing is.........THEY ALL ARE THERE IN CHURCH WITH US........NOT ONLY ON EASTER........BUT EVERY SUNDAY......AND THEY ALL SERVE THE LORD IN SOME CAPACITY........So.....I praise the Lord with my whole heart.......We are truly blessed and thankful for that which the Lord has entrusted to us..........Here's something that they always heard from little on up......."Thank You Jesus For Dying For My Sins".......And praise God......I think it's paid off....
Visit Georgia's Home Page

Leah
How do we celebrate Easter?
Hmmmm!!! Well, simply put we go to church and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We major on the resurrection. We teach our son the truth of Easter and dwell on Christ's loving sacrifice for us.

We emphasize the Lamb instead of the Bunny ---although Rabbits are God's wonderful creation too. MP - our son, has a lamb we bought him when he was born and there is a picture that hangs above His bed of Jesus holding a lamb in His arms and you can see the nailprints in His hands.

Around Easter time we read the story of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection to our son and explain what it means from the Bible.

We buy him a gift each year in celebration of the special day and what Jesus has done for us.
Visit Leahs Home Page

Denice
"Easter At The Whitaker Household"
EASTER has always been a favorite holiday in our Home.
We celebrate Our Risen Saviour and the PEACE and GRACE that He offers. We DO give our daughters baskets of chocolates and small gifts each year. And we DO color eggs... usually on Good Friday. We do this... because like all parents, we LOVE our children and we take pleasure in giving them gifts.
"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?"
Matthew 7:11
(John 3:16 tells us that God gave the Ultimate gift)

We do not acknowledge the "Easter Bunny".
My children know that this is a celebration of God's "Unspeakable Gift" ( II Corinthians 9:15)

We will attend our Sunday Morning Worship Service, just like every other Sunday. I do not approve of those who feel that Easter Sunday is the ONLY day worthy of honoring the Lord. The Lord is worthy to be praised and honored everyday... every place!

We will share a dinner with family after morning church.
And then on Easter Sunday Evening we will attend and participate in our celebration of EASTER....
Our Church's annual "Easter Praise Service"
Here, members of our Congregation will share in SONG and in Testimony... their PRAISES of our Lord and Saviour.

"They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your rightousness" Psalms 145:7

I do not condemn those who celebrate this Holiday differently. As parents, we take pleasure in taking our children to DisneyLand and "introducing" them to "Mickey Mouse". But we do not convince our children that he is REAL... our children are intelligent enough to know the difference between

"TRUTH" and "FANTASY"

We can take pleasure in giving them gifts and coloring eggs. As long as the "reason" and "motivation" behind it is A "SPECIAL CELEBRATION" of Jesus Christ.

My daughters and I will sing a song Easter Sunday night. The song is called "He Still Came"
and it is written by Pam Thum.
The Chorus of this song summarizes what really SHOULD be celebrated for Easter....

He still came just for me, He still came
Knowing all He would endure, He still came
Disregarding every cost
From the manger to the cross
He still came just for me.... He still came.
Visit Denice's Home Page

Jennifer
Hello, and ALOHA! We are a Christian, Biblical-literalist family in Hawaii! I just wanted to share a little bit about what this holiday weekend means to us.

As a little girl, I thought that celebrating "Easter", with all the egg-coloring and chocolate and bunnies, really took away from Christ's Resurrection. After studying Easter's origins a little bit more, I stopped using the word all together to describe the holiday. I don't want some
ancient false god of fertility and springtime to get the credit for God's creation or His greatest gift! So, I refer to Sunday the 4th of April this year as "Resurrection Sunday"!

I do love the American traditions associated with E____, too, and I don't want my son to miss out on the fun I had. So this year, on Saturday, we will be celebrating Happy Spring! Complete with the appreciation of springtime baby critters and God's creation! But there is another part of the Christian celebration of Christ's Resurrection that often gets left out. What was Christ observing when He told His disciples "THIS do in remembrance of Me"? They were observing Passover!! Complete with unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, but with several other key ingredients that also point to Christ's being the Passover Lamb! It has been a great blessing to my heart to hear of how many of my Christian friends and family have observed the Passover, mostly the seder (the meal consisting of lamb, bitter herbs, unleavened bread, grape juice, etc. *_*). Mainly, remember Christ's payment for our sin! Remember that He wants us to purge the "leaven" of sin from our hearts. Remember Him!
Visit Jennifer's Home Page

Sister Carolyn
I will celebrate Easter with my family and with those who do not have families in this area. Our house has a door that is open to all. Friday we will attend the Good Friday Service...rejoicing in his sacrifice for us, prior to church we will have a dinner buffet for all those who need to be fed...both food and the Word of God.. Saturday..cleaning and preparations. The I will make cookies with my youngest. We do Easter Baskets, but refer to them as God's love baskets...as He loved us so much He gave us His only Son.

The baskets are filled with Christians items, books, etc. We have eggs thoughout the house filled with scriptures and testamints....These are wonderful mints with scriptures on the labels. From there it is Easter Sunday Service...then off to mother-in-laws for dinner with our extrended family. We will witness of God's love and pray that it does not fall on deaf ears.... At four it's back to church to dedicate the new Children's wing at Bethany.......it is wonderful. Then the dedication service at 6PM.

Any spare time will be spent online getting the mailings ready and deep in prayer for all the needs. This is the year of intercessory prayer...and my thoughts will be for all those not saved to know the true meaning of this day...and to open their hearts to Jesus.....Taking Him as their first love and casting aside the filth of the world.

Am praying for all to have a Blessed Holiday...This is the greatest of all the holidays we celebrate....For He died and rose for US...Hallelujah....
Visit Sister Carolyn's Home Page - Her page seems to be offline for now.

Suzanne
"I don't celebrate Easter because of the pagan origins and how the eggs and rabbits are symbols of worship that springtime brings. . .which is new life. Rabbits are known for their reproductive qualities and eggs represent new life. Obviously, this has nothing to do with Jesus and his resurrection. I have learned of these rituals and beliefs because I was raised by mother who was a witch. She was first a Catholic and then after my parents were divorced she converted to the Wiccan ways and taught me their beliefs."

My personal Easter (or rather the celebration of the Resurrection) began at sundown tonight. I am fasting (and trying, it can be hard to get focused with 4 kids!) to focus on the Lord and reflecting on the Passover. Our entire church is fasting together (it is a small church) and we will come together tomorrow after sundown and break our fast together and worship the Lord. Then on Sunday we will go to church and worship and celebrate His resurrection. We kind of have an open church type of format and our pastor will open the Scriptures, but will have an open sharing time amongst everyone. I'm not sure exactly how it will be because we try not to limit God and the worship service to the typical religious type of services I have grown up with or some of the others I have been to, but I trust God will meet us and I am looking forward to it. Afterwards I will go to my grandma's house (yes she is very much alive and robust for her age!)

Every year seems to be a little different. I have family (my dad, grandma and a brother—all of which do not know the Lord) and end up going to their place every so often. I usually have it because I don't like to worship Easter their way, but because we are moving this month and packing, I just couldn't do it this year.
Visit Suzanne's Home Page

Ezekiel 44:23--"And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

1 Coronthians 10:20-21 "I say the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons."

Titus 2:12 "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,and godly, th this present world;"

Related Link: Observe Easter Sunday from "ehow.com"

I would like to give you a special Easter Present:

It is the most important gift I can give you, and the most important gift that you will ever receive. You don't have to shake it or tear the wrapping paper. It's better than chocolate bunnys and candy. And it has no calories. You won't get sticky hands either.

What I want to give you is "Salvation". It is a FREE gift from God. "For by GRACE are you saved through faith, it is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast" Ephesians 2:8-9. Here is a link to "The Four Spiritual Laws" part of Campus Crusade for Christ. This page and site will follow up on your decision if you become a Christian and they have wonderful resources. You can click here and read my personal testimony at "Annie's Testimony Page".

All the presents in the world won't matter if you spend eternity in hell. Don't put it off......you don't know what tomorrow may bring. Do you know what you would say if you tomorrow you died, you got to heaven and they asked you "Why should we let you in?" Believe me a long laundry list of all the good things you did isn't enough. Because nothing of your own merit will get you to heaven.....the only way is by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior.