Easter makes Christmas - Resurrection Sunday edition

Finally, my follow up to Easter makes Christmas - Good Friday edition. (I also wrote a post back in 2009 titled The Truth About Easter)

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the substitute for my sin, the sacrifice on behalf of the sins of the world - was incredibly important. In fact, just before breathing His last, Jesus cried out victoriously "It is finished!" because He had accomplished His purpose in coming to earth.

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

So, if He already accomplished that by dying, then how important is the resurrection?

It is everything!

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 1 Corinthians 15:14, 15, 17-19 (emphasis mine)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves His deity and is the only reason we can have faith in our own resurrection upon His return.

If He did not rise from the dead than He is a liar (for He claimed that He would rise on the 3rd day!), the scriptures are false (for they proclaim the resurrection again and again), our faith is futile and we are still in our sins - and death is the end. If He did not rise then neither will we and we have no hope of eternal life.

Just look at the disciples! Before the resurrection they were timid and fearful. John was the only one who even showed up at the cross - they were all in hiding!

Nancy Leigh DeMoss says...
But then came the news of the resurrection and then the gift and empowering of the Holy Spirit. The combination of those things transformed those first disciples into a bold band of believers who were willing to lay down their lives for Christ’s sake. The church was birthed and it spread through the proclamation that Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead.

A timid, weak, disbanded group of men suddenly became a bold team of believers willing to die proclaiming Christ's resurrection. People do not die for what they know to be a lie.

DeMoss continues to list seven implications of the resurrection - there is hope in the most desperate of circumstances, God always keeps His promises, death is no longer to be feared, our own bodily resurrection is assured, God has accepted and approved the work Christ did on the cross and therefore accepts and approves those of us who are in Christ (no longer any condemnation for our sins!), the power and dominion of sin in our lives has been overcome, and the very same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us!

Wow - the importance of the resurrection simply cannot be overstated. It is significant beyond measure.

Why We Celebrate Easter
The birth was an event
The life only an example
Until the death gave them meaning
and the resurrection gave them power

Why we celebrate Easter

Of all the events that defined the life of Christ
A miraculous birth, test in the desert, supernatural baptism,
sermon on the mount, the working of miracles
The Bible commands us to remember only one

His sacrificial death

Why?

Why are we not commanded to celebrate His birth
or commemorate His miracles, but to remember His death?

In His birth, He became Emmanuel, God is with us
But in death, He became Saviour, God saved us
And in resurrection, He became Redeemer, God has renewed us

In birth and life, He revealed the possible
in death and resurrection, He made it possible

He became our example, in how He lived and loved
We couldn't become it until He died and rose

It was not enough that He was our Teacher
He had to become our Saviour, Redeemer

"It is for your good that I am going away...
unless I go away, the Counselor will not come" John 16:7

Without Easter weekend we only see His example
With Easter weekend we become His example
Without Easter weekend we're merely good people
With Easter weekend we're a holy people

His birth was the incarnation
His life was a revelation
But His death was our salvation
and His resurrection is our restoration

Easter
That's why we celebrate...

If you are a skeptic and need to see some evidence of the resurrection, I highly encourage you to purchase The Case for Easter by Lee Strobel (less than $4!) - which contains all the chapters relevant to the crucifixion and resurrection that are in his larger volume, The Case for Christ.

Union 28 (My Husband Rocks) Winner!

I'm so glad that I was able to introduce a bunch of new people to Union28 - isn't it such a fabulous company?!

And the winner of my Union28 giveaway, as selected by Random Number Generator is....

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 24 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Commenter # 24 - Jaime Giesbrecht!! Congratulations Jaime! Your prize? Your choice of the chocolate or hot pink tee in fitted or non-fitted style. Email me your selection (colour, style, size) and your mailing address, then sit back and wait for your fabulous tee to arrive!

And for everybody else, don't forget that until May 31st you can take 15% off your entire order at Union28 by using my giveaway code U28TIB15!! (Again, Canadians, don't forget to email them for a better shipping rate if you're ok with not having tracking capabilities on your order)

He is risen!

Today is Resurrection Sunday - He is risen!! He is risen indeed!!

Tomorrow I will post Part 2 of "Easter Makes Christmas" - Resurrection Sunday edition, but for today, this video sums it up well!

Easter Makes Christmas - Good Friday edition

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Christmas. I love celebrating Christmas. But Easter makes Christmas. Technically, you can't really have one without the other. But Easter completes Christmas. The truth is that both Christmas and Easter have become so secularized that it takes deliberate thought to celebrate their true meanings.

I already wrote a post this past December in a similar vein - I said (yes, I'm about to quote myself - hey, it's my blog!)...
Christmas is about the reason Jesus was born. It's about the reason He left the glory of heaven and exchanged it for 33 years on a planet full of people who had and still do reject Him. It's the reason He endured an agonizing death on the cross to pay the price that was mine to pay. What was the reason? You. Me. Love for you and me. He was the Rescuer sent by God to pay the penalty for my sin. He took on the full wrath of God in my place. In your place. Because He loves you that much! Someone needed to make a way back to God, and He was the only One who could do it. I can't do it, you can't do it. Only He can.

And so He came - born to die. But the story, thankfully, did not end there. Death did not defeat Him. God raised Him from the dead. And in the end, death will not defeat us either.

I want to expand on this a bit.

Christmas is fantastic. The very idea of the incarnation is incredible to me.

Jesus Christ has always existed and always will exist. To our finite minds, this is tough stuff to understand. But, quite frankly, if we could understand everything about God, He wouldn't be worthy of our worship, would He? Jesus Christ didn't start to exist on the date of His birth here on earth like we did.

He has always existed. And prior to that Christmas over 2000 years ago, He lived in the splendor of heaven with angels worshiping Him as He enjoyed perfect fellowship with God the Father and The Holy Spirit. The majesty that He enjoyed is unimaginable to us. And He left that all, to come to this dingy ball orbiting the sun, as a human being.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss says...

• The infinite became finite.
• The immortal became mortal.
• The Creator became as one of His creatures.
• The One who never sleeps, became tired—as a man.
• The Creator of the oceans of water—all the bodies of water on the earth—became thirsty.
• The one who fed His people with manna in the wilderness became hungry.
• The one who flung the stars into space slept under the stars.
• The one who inhabited heaven’s ivory palaces was born in a borrowed cattle shed.
• The omniscient God had to learn how to talk and walk as a child, as a baby, as an infant, as a human.
• The eternal Word of God had to learn how to read.
• The Helper of His people became helpless and dependent.
• The beloved Son of God became the rejected Son of Man.
• The one who created angels had angels come to His aid during His temptation in the wilderness, and again in Gethsemane.

Isn't that incredible?

But it's not just the fact that He did it that was so important. It was why He did it.

He did it to save us. He did it because He loved us.

Our sin has separated us from our Holy God. He cannot abide any sin in His presence - not even the smallest of sins. There is no way we can be good enough to get to heaven because it requires absolute perfection. And I don't know about you, but I don't even come close. Some people are "better" than others. But it doesn't matter because they're not perfect.

Let's say (for arguments sake), that the requirement for getting to heaven was being able to jump from the earth to the moon. It's impossible. No one could do it. Now, Michael Jordan would certainly be able to jump a lot higher than I could. But it wouldn't matter. His amazing vertical still doesn't get him anywhere near the moon.

The real requirement for getting into heaven is even more impossible than that. Absolute perfection. It's impossible.

So we've got a pretty huge problem.

God is just, so He can't just forgive us. Somebody has to be able to pay the price for our sin. The price is death. And I deserve it.

But God is also love.

So, how did God balance His absolute justness with His absolute love?

He did it with it with Christmas and Easter.

Jesus Christ voluntarily gave up His godness and entered into humanity in order to bring us to God. He took on flesh, He veiled His glory, He crossed the infinite gap between heaven and earth - in order to restore our relationship with Him. And that's why Christmas is so incredible.

But the thing is, if He just came here and then went back to heaven - well, that wouldn't help us anything.

He had to die. For me. For you. He willingly became the substitute for my sin. He took my punishment upon Himself because He loves me that much. He took your punishment upon Himself because he loves you that much.

And why was this sacrifice acceptable? Because He lived an absolutely perfect life. Only an absolutely perfect life would be an acceptable sacrifice to our Holy God.

And so, on that dark Friday, so many years ago, Jesus Christ volunteered to take the whole wrath of God upon Himself, so that we might be saved. Yes, He endured unspeakable physical pain during the crucifixion, but the spiritually suffering was worse by far.

From Nancy Leigh de Moss...

It was the separation from His Father from whom he had never since all eternity past ever experienced a single second of separation.

Until this moment, when others had misunderstood or forsaken Him, He had always depended on the closeness and fellowship with His Father. That’s where He would run. That’s where He found a refuge. But now that refuge was no longer available to Him. Others could claim in their times of suffering the promise of Psalm 27, verse 10, “My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in,” but Jesus was denied that provision that was available to everyone else. At this moment He is utterly alone and forsaken.

God is a Holy God. And on the cross, Jesus was bearing our sin - He had become sin for us, and that is what caused Him to be separated from a Holy God as He drank the full cup of God's wrath on our behalf.

Jesus did not just feel forsaken—He was forsaken by His Father. He had to be forsaken in order to redeem us from our sins. He had to have fellowship and intimacy with God broken because God was judging Him and rejecting Him as we deserved to be judged and rejected for our sin....

The picture we have in the Scripture is that of the Father actively, intentionally, directly, attentively involved in imputing our sin to His Son and executing our judgment upon His Son....
It wasn’t ultimately the Romans or the Jews who put Jesus to death. Ultimately, it was God who put His own Son to death. And that forsakenness He cried out about ... was not just a turning from the Son—just the opposite. It was a turning to the Son and against the Son in a hostile outpouring of condemnation upon our sin in His Son.

And yet, at the same time, ironically, the Father would never have been so pleased with His Son as He was in this moment of His forsakenness... The Son had fulfilled exactly what the Father sent Him to do. So the forsakenness Jesus felt must also have been accompanied with a deep sense of satisfaction that He knew He was doing the Father's will, and that the Father would be pleased with the sacrifice . . . “who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.”

Jesus chose to be the substitute for my sin. He endured the punishment that I deserved. And He did it because it was the only way to reconcile His holiness and justice with His mercy and love. He alone was worthy to be the perfect sacrifice for my sins.

And when God's wrath was emptied out onto His Son, Jesus cried out victoriously "It is finished!"

This is my all time favourite Easter song. I don't think I've ever been able to sing it without crying.

How Deep the Father's Love For Us

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And make a wretch His treausre

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
And wounds which mar the chosen one
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished!

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Thank you, precious Jesus.

It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!!

Giveaway - Union28 - My Husband Rocks!!

This giveaway closed at 12 noon on Monday, April 25th. The winner was announced here.

I am so excited, you have no idea!!

I have blogged about my "My Husband Rocks" shirts before - I am practically in love with this company. Their mission (to encourage marriage relationships, communicate a positive image of marriage and to honour the sanctity of the marriage covenant) is fantastic and their clothes are wonderfully stylish, not to mention a huge conversation starter. Seriously - complete strangers come up and talk to me about my shirts when I'm wearing them. I have never received so many compliments on a piece of clothing before. It's amazing!

And, since my husband totally DOES rock, I enjoy showing off that fact by wearing these fabulous products. Today, I couldn't help myself, and ordered two more items - the purple fitted tee and the chocolate fitted zip hoodie - too cute right?!

Ready for the best part? Union28 has generously donated an original "My husband rocks" tee for me to giveaway right here on my blog!! That's right! The winner will be able to choose between the chocolate or hot pink "My husband rocks" tee in either fitted or non-fitted style. This giveaway is open to all US and Canadian residents! Thank you Union28!!

Not only that. For those of you who don't win, you can take 15% off your entire order from Union28 until May 31st, 2011 using the code U28TIB15 at checkout. One tip for Canadian residents - if you don't mind getting your order shipped without tracking, you can email them for a shipping quote to reduce your shipping charges from a whopping $25 down to the more manageable $8ish range.

You can also enter another giveaway by entering their encouragement challenge and win a his and hers tee of Union28's newest design! Click here for more details on that giveaway.

Side note: Go check out that coupon code again. Guess what TIB stands for?! Yup, TammyIsBlessed - so fun!! :)

So, to enter my blog giveaway, all you have to do is go check out the Union28 website and tell me what two of your favourite products are - one from the women's selection, and one from the men's or children's section.

To get up to 4 extra entries, you can also...
1) compliment your husband (or wife for my male readers) for something specific on your Facebook status and tell us why your husband rocks!
2) mention the giveaway (including my blog and Union28's website) on Facebook
3) "Like" Union28 on Facebook
4) blog about this giveaway

Make sure to comment here on my blog separately telling me each thing you've done. Winner will be drawn using the Random Number Generator on Monday, April 25th (deadline to enter is noon Central Time). Good luck!! I'm so excited!! Thanks again Union28!

Book Review: Daddy Dates by Greg Wright

About the Book: Daddy Dates gives the average Joe easy steps to actively and successfully engage with his daughter and raise a confident woman-to-be.

When faced with the reality of raising four (4!) teen daughters, Greg Wright went on a soul quest.

He came back with a mission: Don’t Screw Up.

This funny, insightful, and relatable book poses the wildly original concept that should be a “duh” for most dads—but isn’t: In order to raise a confident woman-to-be, show your daughter what it feels like to be treated with love, respect, and true interest by a man who loves her.

Daddy Dates shows the average father how to actually do that. It is written in an original voice and will appeal to both men and women. It is the kind of action-oriented “how to” material that guys enjoy, and so many others will recommend to other dads.

My thoughts: Our culture does not respect the role of the father very much these days. In pretty much any sitcom you watch, the dad is often the butt of the jokes and simply a lazy and uninvolved parent while Supermom pulls it off without any help from Loserdad. Society has made it seem like the role of the father is not that important.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Daughters learn how men are supposed to treat them by the way their father treats them. A girl's relationship with her dad will have a huge impact on her self-esteem and how she sees herself as a person in general and a woman in particular. (A father's role in his son's life is just as vital, but the book is geared to father/daughter relationships so I'm not getting into that here).

Unfortunately, many dads (and moms for that matter) simply don't know exactly what to do. If that's where you're at, this book is for you!

A quick and easy read, this book is filled with great ideas about pursuing a relationship with your daughter.

From the book....

I believe it's the job of every husband and father to understand that his job - perhaps his most important job - is to be the pursuer. Not just at the beginning, but all the way through... Doesn't matter their age. Girls want us to discover their specialness, praise it, and treasure it.

Wright's solution was to pursue daughter knowing (getting to know her as a person, what she thinks about things - which means how she feels!) by dating them - showing them how a sincere guy treats a girl he's genuinely interested in getting to know.

The book includes date ideas, as well as a personality quiz to help father's get to know their daughters and what types of dates would be special for them, as well as their personality type's strengths, weaknesses, communication style and needs. This includes doing a lot more listening than talking. And recognizing that girls do not want their problems solved, they want to share their problems with someone they trust.

Talk + Action + Time = Trust

Once you've built a solid relationship with your kids and they know they can trust you, it will make it easier in those times when you need to exert your parental authority, especially when they are in disagreement with you.

The Wright family has determined that they don't allow dating in high school - "In high school we don't have boyfriends. We don't do ownership. We do friendship, and that's it". When his daughters turn 13 he takes them on a very special date where he presents them with "a pretty ring to wear on her left hand so she will remember that I am giving her my heart (in a parental way), promising to be her guide in life, and will take care of her financially and emotionally until she's an independent woman or married". When her future husband asks permission to marry her, that's when the ring will come off - symbolizing a "transition of care".

This book is an easy read, geared to men, and not very long. Though written from a Christian perspective, it is not preachy and would be valuable for parents of any/no faith. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Booksneeze for providing me with my complimentary review copy of Greg Wright's Daddy Dates.

Book Review: Beside Still Waters by Tricia Goyer

About the Book: Marianna Sommer believes she knows where her life is headed. Nineteen years old and Amish, her plan is to get baptized into the church, marry Aaron Zook, and live in the only community she's ever known.

When Marianna's family moves from Indiana to Montana she discovers life and faith will never be the same. As she builds an easy friendship with local guy, Ben Stone, Ben not only draws her heart, he also gets her thinking about what loving God and living in community is all about.

As Marianna struggles to find "home", she also encounters God in intimate ways. Click here to watch the book trailers.

My thoughts: I've read a few of Tricia's books before and I've always enjoyed them - this book was no exception.

I really like the fact that her books go deeper than just a light Amish romance novel.

This book really begins to dig into the differences between the Amish belief system and the "English" Protestant evangelical faith, without being preachy or condemning in tone. It celebrates the good side of Amish beliefs while exploring its deficiencies as well.

The book also touches on issues universal to the human race including loss (both death and separation) and our response to it, as well as how our choices never affect only ourselves.

Tricia does a great job of developing the characters and making them seem real, as well as simply telling a great story.


To celebrate the release of this book, Tricia Goyer is giving away 10 copies of this book as well as a pair of really cute Amish salt and pepper shakers. Click here for details.

Thank you to Stephanie and Amy from Litfuse Publicity for organizing this tour and providing me with my complimentary review copy.

Book Review: Money & Marriage by Matt Bell

About the Book: In this thorough and practical guide, financial expert Matt Bell helps engaged and newly married couples navigate the merger of habits, flaws, and attitudes about money so two can truly become one.

His writing is full of helpful advice, Scripture, and practical steps to gaining financial freedom together as a couple. Learn to use money in a way that minimizes disputes and maximizes marital happiness.

My thoughts: Well, we're not newly married, but we learned many of these things the book teaches on our own as we made mistakes - but thankfully not any major ones!

This book would be a fanTAStic book for couples to read as part of their pre-marital counselling and I highly, highly recommend it.

Money is often one of the biggest sources of friction in marriage - often due to incorrect assumptions, lack of awareness of our own spending habits (and/or our partner's) and lack of knowledge in the area of finances.

This book addresses all of that and more! The first section is called Decoding Each Other's Financial DNA and addresses literally every possible question about our spending habits and our money assumptions, based in large part on how we were raised and by our personalities.

The second section, A Ten-Step Action Plan for Financial Success, is chock full of financial advice to get your marriage started on the right foot and stay there.

The third section, Fostering Financial Oneness, he addresses how being one financially is a huge indicator of the health of your marriage. We also need to understand who we are and what our lives are about (our purpose!) in regards to money.

God is the owner of our money. We are not the owners, and certainly not the consumers - we are the managers or stewards. What a huge responsibility - what a priviledge!

From the book...
My prayer for you is that you will use money in a way that brings great glory to God; shows love to the people in your lives, starting with each other; and enables you to use the talents and passions God had uniquely given you to make the contribution for which you were uniquely designed. If you arrance your finances around these three God-given purposes, your marriage will be richly blessed, and I believe that one day you will hear these words: "Well done, good and faithful servants!"

Thank you to Stephanie and Amy from Litfuse Publicity for organizing this tour and providing me with my complimentary review copy.

Book Review: Lazarus Awakening by Joanna Weaver

About the Book: Getting God’s Love from Our Heads to Our Hearts

You believe that God loves the world…but sometimes you wonder if He truly loves you.

For many of us, moving the truth of God’s love from our heads to our hearts is a lifelong process. As we consider our inadequacies or grieve our shattered dreams, we find it difficult to believe that God cares for us personally.

In this life-giving book, Joanna Weaver shows you how to embrace the truth that Jesus loves you apart from anything you accomplish, apart from anything you bring. Just as He called Lazarus forth to new life, Jesus wants to free you to live fully in the light of His love, unbound from the graveclothes of fear, regret, and self-condemnation.

Love is calling your name.

Combining unforgettable real-life illustrations with unexpected biblical insights, Joanna Weaver invites you to experience a spiritual resurrection that will forever change your understanding of what it means to be the one Jesus loves. Bible study and Leader’s Guide available here. http://www.joannaweaverbooks.com/books/lazarus-awakening/

My thoughts: You'd think that after looking at the story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus twice already in her first two books (Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and Having a Mary Spirit), that there would be no further lessons to be learned. Though I've only read portions of the first book, there are definitely fresh insights to be learned by focusing on the Lazarus. Who knew you could learn so much from one Biblical account? Just goes to show that there's always more to learn.

Joanna's conversational style of writing is very easy to read. She mixes in personal stories and applications to practically illustrate the truths she digs up from the text.

One insight that I really appreciated was this...
God wants a relationship with us more than He wants our acts of service. Obviously service is vital to our walk with God and is evidence of our faith - but it is supposed to be the result of a relationship with God, not a replacement for it.

God also wants a relationship with us more than He wants our worship. That one blew me away a bit. Here's a quote from the book....
I realize it's almost sacrilegious in some areas of today's Christian culture to suggest that God might be looking for more than our praise. We've elevated worship to a place that nearly teeters on idolatry. We've said worship is our highest calling - and important it is.

But listen! The angels already provide God with praise. They surround the throne of God 24/7. You and I were not created to add voices to the angelic choir. We were created to enjoy an intimate relationship with the King of the Universe. (emphasis mine)

Another point that really grabbed me - God is our Friend. And He fulfills His role as our Friend perfectly. But are we a friend to God? Do we treat Him like a close friend, a true friend (the Greek word philos - the term used by Jesus when He called Lazarus "friend")? Or do we treat Him like a genie, only our friend for what we can get from Him? Are we selfish comrades, groupies, unfaithful and deceptive friends (the Greek word hetairos - the term used by Jesus when He called Judas "friend" when he betrayed Him)?

What kind of friend are we to Jesus? Lazarus or Judas?

For these, and many more insights, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this book!

Thank you to Stephanie and Amy from Litfuse Publicity for organizing this tour and providing me with my complimentary review copy.

Book Review: A Suitor for Jenny by Margaret Brownley

About the Book: When looking for a husband, it’s best to go where the odds are in your favor.

And that would be Rocky Creek, Texas, 1880. But Jenny Higgins's plan to find husbands for her two sisters hits a snag when enthusiastic applicants fail to meet her stringent requirements.

Rejecting her sisters' choices for mates and riding herd on her growing feelings for Marshal Rhett Armstrong, she refuses to give up.

Jenny thinks choosing a husband is not a job for the heart. It'll take one strong and handsome marshal to convince her otherwise.

My Thoughts: A light hearted historical romance with no surprises, this was an easy, yet enjoyable read.

Though fun, and downright funny at times, the author also manages to tackle some serious issues such as poverty, child abuse, alcoholism, and the difference between guilt and godly sorrow, to name just a few. This is also a story about rebuilding faith and learning to trust God with the future.

I did not like how Mary Lou's eventual husband treats her during their "courtship" - assuming she knew what she wanted and needed, and basically telling her that he was the one - and that it was supposed to be seen as romantic. He was a stand up guy in all the other areas of his life (integrity, hard worker, overcame learning disability, risks his life for another, etc), but this one thing irked me. Other than that though, it was an enjoyable read.

Though this is the 2nd book of the series, it works well as a stand alone.

Thank you to Booksneeze for providing me with my complimentary review copy of Margaret Brownley's A Suitor for Jenny.