Saturday, March 14, 2015

EASTER BONNET


                                                EASTER BONNET

    I love the song about Your Easter Bonnet, and the wonderful Christian message it sends. Oh, I know there is no Christian message for many listeners. I hope you haven't missed the significance of the song. It's another situation like Christmas, where you can choose to go along with the carnal message OR the spiritual message. Don't forget, you always have a choice. Don't always just go with the flow, which is usually directed by carnal people.

     You don't know the Christian message? Just in case, here it is. The Easter Parade features beautiful clothing outfits, with bright colors, clean, shining people, a proud walk (parade), reflection of the reason for Easter, and a feeling of joy and happiness. That's a winning combination for a Christian, and even cleans up the appearance of non Christians. Now, if you think about the lessons in scripture about the church (believers), Christ's return, the wedding feast and resurrection, you are on the right track.

    Before going further, mind-mark that word--resurrection. It's not just Easter observance, and we need to examine it further. If you study scripture you know Christ tells us in John 14:2, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." A mansion is not a shack. It is a stately building. That's our future home. That's where we'll live in eternal life. Next, we move to the wedding feast. This is the occasion where Christ gathers in His believers (the church). I hope you do not refer to your gathering place as YOUR church. The building is not a church. It is a meeting place. You do know that where two or more believers gather together is a church?    (Matt. 18:20) It's nice to have a beautiful building, but the early church was founded and built by small gatherings in homes. There is such a lack of real scripture teaching in the organized church today that much of the learning is taking place in small bible study groups. There are way too many professing Christians mixed in with real Christians in our buildings
today. They would be bored and withdraw their money if pastors didn't make services less painful. Who sets the pace in your gathering?

    We've just started in our Easter parade, and now realize our destination is the wedding feast. As a true believer, we must be certain we have oil in our lamps. The wedding feast begins at night, and only the Father knows when (Matt. 24:36). Those attending the marriage must have oil in their lamps to attend. The oil represents the water of life (belief in Christ). If we don't have the Word of God in our heart, we won't be attending.

    If we're going to a wedding, we expect the bride and groom to be appropriately attired. The bride should be glowing with joy and dressed in the finest gown. Members of the wedding party and guests will be wearing their finest clothes, just like those in the Easter parade. Everybody will be squeaky clean and polished like silver and gold. This is because all sins were blotted out by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. They have been cleansed of any and all wrongful deeds by that sacrifice. The saints should look beautiful, colorful and spotless. This wedding feast is for all
eternity. 

    Why wouldn't you want to celebrate Easter by dressing in your finest and parading the great joy of eternal life? Easter is the observance of a specific happening, the resurrection of Christ. You must believe this to qualify as a Christian. There are two trains of thought about the Easter parade. One I have described in this message. There is always the attempt to mimic true Christian belief, and Easter is an example. The self righteous professing Christian will turn a serious face to the parade and frown at the spectacle of color and cleanliness. They do not see the 
significance of the event and the scriptural explanation of the Big Day. That exposes their lack of scriptural knowledge. It gives us an opportunity to perhaps open their eyes to God's Word. Matt. 13:13 and Isaiah 6:9 both explain that people will hear and see, but not understand. 

    The belief in the Cross, Christ and the resurrection is what Easter
is all about. Your salvation depends entirely on your heartfelt  acceptance of Christ's offer. It takes more than words to make the commitment. Sometimes Christian workers are over eager to hear someone come to Christ. The eager person should be the one accepting the offer. There are too many times the new believer really didn't make a heart bonding commitment, and said the words to please the counselor. Many of these "word" believers become the self righteous church goers who usually fail to understand the details of sin.

    I have experienced the mixed up attempts at Christian beliefs many times, and unfortunately too often the individual is a pastor. All sins are of equal value, and sometimes a bad habit is labeled a sin. I have heard pastors say a departed person went to Hell because they were a smoker, a drinker, adnauseam. Apparently the pastor and these people never studied scripture to actually learn the difference between sin and habit. They also don't know there's only one unforgivable sin (Matt. 12:31), not believing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

    So, I say to you, get your finest outfit, observe the resurrection of our Savior on Easter, remember you are a shining example of your eternal community, and celebrate the greatest sacrifice ever made. Shalom.

Rev. Walbear

    

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