SALT Challenge - Easter

This week is was Esther's turn to set the challenge for the SALT team and she chose Easter, or more specifically the real meaning of Easter. You can read her write up on the SALT blog. Well...I have a confession to make. We don't do much to celebrate Easter in our house or even in our church. I'm sure the Pastor might make mention of it being Easter Sunday but I suspect that it would be something along the lines of, "we celebrate Christ's Resurrection every day!" Ah, us New England folks, always so to the point. :-) We joke about it but in reality the birth of Christ and His resurrection should be a daily celebration, not something that is only thought about twice a year. For if that's the only time it's pondered then one has to give serious consideration to the spiritual state of one's heart. The Bible never recommends or commands us to set aside a day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We are, however, commanded to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul each and every day. My study Bible (the Reformation Study Bible) states the following on the resurrection of Jesus (supporting Bible texts are also noted):

"Christianity rests on the certainty of Jesus' Resurrection as an occurrence in history. The Gospels have it as their goal, with the empty tomb and Resurrection appearances, and Acts insists on it (Acts 1:3, 2:24-35, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30-32). Paul regarded the Resurrection as indisputable proof that the message about Jesus as Judge and Savior is true. (Acts 17:31) Jesus' Resurrection demonstrated His victory over death (Acts 2:24), vindicated Him as righteous (John 16:10) and indicated His divine identity (Rom 1:4). It led on to His ascension, and His present heavenly reign. It guarantees the believer's present forgiveness and justification (Rom. 4:25, 1 Cor. 15:17) and it is the hope of eternal life in Christ for the believer." (John 11:25, 26, Rom. 6)

The Resurrection is good news to the believer and unbeliever alike! The believer can joyfully look forward to eternal life with Christ and the unbeliever can have assurance that Jesus is who He claimed to be. There is hope, there is life, there is relief from burdens, judgement, and eternal death...but it is only found at the foot of the cross. May God be pleased to grant each of you a renewed (or new) love for Christ this Easter! Just a few closing remarks on my card...(After writing so much of Christ's work, it seems trivial to talk about a card, doesn't it!) The lovely paper is from Crate and the flowers are from Stampin' Up!, as is the ribbon and ribbon slide. The sentiment? Hey, it's from my Just Rite stamper! I've had it for ages and just inked it up. I'm sure you'll notice that awful smudge on the right hand side. I squeezed the "risen" onto the image area, which caused a bit of a problem for inking the stamp. But I was determined (translation stubborn) about using two different font sizes on the sentiment so...I tried and tried but keep getting the smudge. I decided it kind of looked like an exclamation point! I considered Photoshopping it out but figured you guys would forgive a girl a smudge...won't you? Even though it's totally making me twitch right now... :-) Head over to the SALT blog to check out all the beautiful creations!! Are you loving our new design team or what?? Fantastic stuff! And make sure you check back every week as we're starting to post more frequently!! Enjoy!