“For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd.”
On Easter Sunday, Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Christians, this is the single most important event in history, because the resurrection proves that Jesus is who He claimed to be. It proves He is God Almighty and has the power to forgive sin. Because of the resurrection, Jesus proves His power over death, and His ability to give us new life. Such an amazing truth!
Although I enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs as a child, it now bothers me that this is a tradition in Christian homes, and even more that many churches advertise Easter egg hunts to attract people to their churches on Easter Sunday. The whole story of the Easter Bunny greatly detracts from the most significant event in history! Surely God coming to earth in the flesh, being crucified, and rising from the dead should draw a crowd in its own merit. Do we really have to resort to stories about a fictitious bunny? Growing up as a Christian, I was often left feeling a bit disappointed with Easter day. My brother and I got our candy-filled Easter eggs (no complaints there!), went to church (like every Sunday), but then what? Aside from dressing up a little more than usual for church that morning, we didn’t really have any special traditions to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. Easter Bunny Alternative - It's All About a Lamb
I can’t hardly criticize, if I don’t offer a solution, though, right? So here is my attempt to propose a fun activity for kids that is actually relevant to the person of Jesus Christ, the reason Christians celebrate!
Easter is not about a bunny, but rather a Lamb. And a Shepherd and His sheep. Instead of hunting for eggs laid by the “Easter Bunny,” why not hunt for the “Lost Sheep,” as our Risen Lamb searches for us when we are lost? With some simple craft supplies, you can make little sheep that you can fill with candy (or treats of your choosing) and hide them around the house and yard for your kids to find. This would also be great for a Sunday School activity. In the Bible, Jesus is known both as the Shepherd and the Lamb. He is a Shepherd over us, and He was the sacrificial Lamb for us. Old Testament law required the regular blood sacrifice of animals, including lambs, for the atonement of sin. But God, in His love, sent His Son Jesus as the perfect Lamb to die once and for all as payment for the sins of mankind. This fulfilled the old sacrificial system, starting a new covenant between God and man. Jesus as the Lamb
Consider the following Scripture verses:
“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) “The next day [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29) “...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life...but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18-19 “for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17 Jesus as the Shepherd
“Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” Isaiah 40:11
“ For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.” Ezekiel 34:11 “As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God,” declares the Lord God.” Ezekiel 34:31 “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” Mark 6:34 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” John 10:11 “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:25 How to Make Easter Egg Sheep
Materials You’ll Need:
The Steps
1. Cut a square of black felt, and shape it into a lamb face and ears. If it helps, you can draw yourself a template on a paper and trace it onto the felt. Doesn’t need to be exact, but something like this:
2. Put two tiny dabs of hot glue onto the face and secure the googly eyes.
3. Put four dabs of hot glue on the bottom of the egg and secure 4 pom poms to act as the feet. 4. Add a dab of glue to the front of the wide end of the egg, and secure the lamb’s face. 5. Add one more dab of glue on the back end and secure a 5th pom pom for the tail.
Make as many as you like, and fill each of the lambs with candy. Hide them around the house for kids to find, just as you would have done with regular Easter eggs!
In addition to candy you can also insert a Scripture verse related to the Resurrection into each “lamb” for another opportunity to review the Easter story as you find each one. (See below for a list of some good verses to use.) This activity is a great chance to share with your kids (and be reminded as adults) of how God cares for us and seeks us out when we’re lost and brings us back to Him. You can share how He laid down His life for us on the cross as the sacrificial Lamb, and rose again to seek out and Shepherd His flock. Sample Resurrection Verses
"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,” (John 11:25)
"who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord," (Romans 1:4) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3) "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying." (Matthew 28:6) "Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:7) "And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." (Mark 8:31) "They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.” (Mark 10:34) "And he *said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him." (Mark 16:6) "Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. " (Mark 16:14) “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” (Luke 24:34) "and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day" (Luke 24:36)
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A couple weeks ago I posted a fun Christmas trivia quiz to test your knowledge of the Christmas Nativity Story, the Biblical account of Jesus’ birth. If you haven’t taken it yet, give it a shot and see how you do! Knowing the details of the Bible is important and useful for a number of reasons, but head knowledge of Bible stories mean nothing if what you know in your noggin doesn’t creep its way into your heart. If you aced the Christmas trivia quiz, but don’t know Jesus Himself, you are no better off when you arrive at the Judgement Seat one day than the person who didn’t answer any questions correctly. Facts and stories don’t save: Jesus does. Consider this quote from the Christmas story, of when the angel announces to Joseph that Mary would bear a child: “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Jesus will save His people from their sins. A person, will save us, not knowledge about the person. That’s an important distinction to understand. That’s amazing news! Salvation is so much simpler than many people try to make it. There is no checklist of rules to keep, no tests to pass, no hoops to climb through. All we need is to personally know the Savior, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day.
How do you do that? You just need to come to Him with a heart of humility. You need to acknowledge to Him that you can’t keep all the rules, pass all the tests, or climb through all the hoops. None of us are that perfect. Only Jesus is. In our humility we then put our trust and faith in Him for the forgiveness of our sins, and we will be welcomed into heaven one day with open arms because we come in the name of Jesus, and not by our own accomplishments. In some respects the simplicity of trusting the Savior is harder than trying to keep a checklist because it requires us to let go - it means we’re no longer in control (not that we ever were!) But it’s also quite liberating. When we know Jesus and have Him by our side, God looks at our sins as already paid for by the blood of the Savior and pardons our many flaws. We are invited into His kingdom based on what Jesus has done, not on what we have done, and not on the many things we know. Jesus modeled the heart of humility for us, that we need when we come to Him. He was God Almighty, and He came to us on earth as a little baby. He wasn’t laid in a silk-lined golden crib, but a manger, probably filled with straw, where the animals fed. As He grew, He allowed Himself to be misspoken of, mistreated, tortured, and ultimately killed, for our sakes. He had the power of God to stop it, but He chose to lay down His perfect life (and three days later raise it back up) so that us sinners could live. That’s humility. That’s love. That little baby in the Christmas story is pretty special. He's Someone worth getting to know! My mom always hosts Thanksgiving for our family, and she does an awesome job. Everything is beautiful, festive, and most importantly delicious! My husband and I typically arrive earlier than requested and get in her way, attempting to “help” as we fill up on all the tempting appetizers on display before us. My dad runs around trying to take pictures of us when we’re feeling the least photogenic and also captures the details of all the finely crafted foods. Later my husband’s parents arrive and more chaos ensues until we’re finally ready to sit down to eat way more food than any human should. That’s Thanksgiving #1. My mom prefers to buy her own turkey, but I also receive a turkey from my employer every year. Since I have no room to store such a large bird until the next holiday, I have no choice but to cook it the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Twenty pounds of turkey (yes, my employer gives us a huge turkey!) is a bit much for two people to eat alone, so we started a tradition several years back that we call “Second Thanksgiving.” On 2nd Thanksgiving, my hubby and I cook our turkey, heat up all the leftover side dishes from 1st Thanksgiving and invite our family to feast all over again on Saturday! Even then we still have tons of leftovers. God has richly blessed us! Our turkey turned out so good this year on 2nd Thanksgiving that I wanted to share our method for anyone who struggles to cook a turkey. It takes a long time, but it’s super easy. Cooking a Perfect TurkeyI’ve found that the “low and slow” method produces awesome results every time, not just with turkey, but with any meat. I didn’t follow any particular recipe this year, as I was tired and just wanted to throw it in the oven, but it sure turned out great! Here are the steps I took that yielded such perfect results:
So why is this recipe on a Jesus blog? Oftentimes following Jesus is less about learning and knowing theology and more about living it. It's about people and daily life, serving others, being hospitable, and sharing what you have. It’s about doing your daily tasks with excellence. During the holidays, it’s easy to get behind on Bible reading because you’re busy doing things for other people and living out what Jesus has been teaching you, and I think that’s OK. While reading the Bible is important (and I highly recommend doing so regularly), Jesus certainly didn’t spend his life with His nose in a book, but everything He did stemmed from being connected to His Father.
Through your busy days, be full of Jesus. Let your actions and your service be an overflow of what He has done in your life. Reflect His goodness through your cooking, your giving, your housecleaning, and all that you do. You don’t have to be the best cook or have the tidiest home, but let your actions be seasoned with the love of God and a love for others. When you work to honor God, you will have a greater joy in what you do, and others will be blessed by the love that goes into it. May you have a blessed holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! P.S. I didn’t anticipate writing this when we were preparing our turkey, or I would have taken more pictures of the process! All I have is a photo of the final product. Next time I cook a turkey, probably next year, I’ll try and take more pictures and edit them in to this post.
Now that we've all had our turkey, let the Christmas season begin! I've put together a fun little quiz about the biblical nativity story to get you thinking about the birth of Christ and the reason for the season. Enjoy!
It's fall! That means it's almost Thanksgiving, which means it's practically Christmas. I'm not trying to jump the gun, but I do want to get this out there so you all have plenty of time to think and plan for this Jesus-celebrating Christmas activity if it's up your alley! Seven years ago when my husband and I got married, one of the things we had to talk through was how we were going to handle holidays. Family, food, gifts, and all that fun stuff. As a couple, we decided not to do Christmas gifts for each other or for our family and friends. Gasp! What? No presents on Christmas? Nope, no presents. Here was our thinking: 1. Our family consists of grown adults who really don't need (or want) anything. 2. We don't like giving out of a sense of obligation. 3. Christmas gifts tend to end up in give-away piles. 4. It's expensive. 5. It's stressful. 6. Christmas is supposed to be about Jesus, not presents. While I was completely on board with the decision, I really kind of missed the gift aspect of Christmas. Not the giving and getting of stuff - I didn't really care so much about that, but I missed wrapping things up in pretty paper and ribbons (it's an art project to me!) and I missed the hustle and bustle of the mall with all the decorations and the hunt for the perfect gifts. But I also really wanted to come up with a Christmas activity that we could work into our family tradition that actually celebrates the birth of Jesus . That's what it's all about, right? I present to you, "Christmas Story by Gifts"! We've been doing this in our family for a few years now, and everyone seems to enjoy it. We even had a non-Christian friend join us for Christmas one year, and he participated with us and really liked it as well. It was a fun and non-threatening way for him to learn about the true Christmas Story! Christmas Story by Gifts gets everyone focused on the real meaning of Christmas (the birth of Jesus Christ) and promotes selflessness and sharing rather than greed and "me, me, me" that so frequently overtakes people at Christmas time. Here's how it works: (Examples and Photos to follow) 1. The Christmas story from the Bible is divided up into 8 sections of Scripture (could be more or less, depending on your family/group size). We have 7 people in our family, but I leave it at 8 sections in case we have anyone join us unexpectedly. 2. Come up with a gift that symbolically represents each section of Scripture. The gifts shouldn't be for any particular person, but rather all the gifts are to be shared and enjoyed by the entire group. Also, they don't need to be anything big or expensive. Things like candy, games, or small toys work well. It's just supposed to be symbolic of the Bible story and get people thinking about it. For example, in the verses that talk about the wise men bringing Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, a good (and easy!) gift option would be chocolate gold coins. Look for things that can easily be shared by a group and would likely be enjoyed by most members. (It's OK if not every person likes every gift.) If your family or group does not all live together, find things that can be split up by households or individuals to take home. 3. Wrap each gift and add a gift tag with the Scripture reference and the number of the order it in which it should be opened (going in order of the Bible story). 4. On Christmas morning (or on Christmas Eve, depending on your family's preference), each member of the group draws a number out of a hat that corresponds with one of the gifts. 5. The person who drew #1 finds the gift with the tag marked #1. Before opening it, they read aloud the Bible passage that is written on the gift tag. They can either find this in the Bible and read from there, or you can pre-print the passages on paper to hand out to each member. 6. After reading his or her assigned Bible passage, Person #1 opens the gift. This gift is not "for" them, but is meant to be shared and enjoyed by all. 7. Person #2 then finds gift #2, reads the Scripture, and opens the gift. 8. Each remaining person will go in order of their number until all gifts have been opened. 9. After all gifts have been opened, you can divide the various gifts into goodie bags for each person if it makes sense to do so. So that's the overview. Every year I start fresh and head to the store with Bible verses in hand and hunt out gifts that seem to fit the various parts of the Christmas story, so it's always a little different from year to year. Now here are some photos and examples from what I put together last year. Some of the gifts require more explanation than others, but hopefully you'll get the idea! (I've included links for the Bible verses instead of typing them all out.) #1 Luke 1: 26-35 (Angel announces to Mary that she will bear a child.) This passage talks about how Jesus is the descendant of King David, so therefore He is of the seed of David. The gift? David brand sunflower seeds! #2 Matthew 1:18-25 (Angel tells Joseph that Mary will bear a child.) In this passage, the angel tells Joseph how Jesus will save the people from their sins. I clustered a few small things I found together in one package to show how our sin is dark like coal, but Jesus is our "Life Saver" and makes us clean and shiny like diamonds. The box with the diamond on it in the photo below is a little $5 toy I found where you can chisel away at a real rock and see if there is a real diamond inside. Supposedly some of the boxes contained real diamonds, but sadly I didn't pick out a winner on that one! It was fun watching four grown men try and chisel the rock away with a mini chisel to find out though! #3 Luke 2:1-7 (Joseph and Mary have baby Jesus in Bethlehem.) Ok, I'll admit it. This one was a bit of a fail last year. My family didn't really get it, but here was my thinking behind it. Mary and Joseph had baby Jesus in a stable where the animals hang out, and they laid him in a manger. This reminded me of the song, "Away in a Manger" and the lyrics, "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes..." I saw beef jerky on the store shelf, and thought, "cattle." Maybe Mary and Joseph needed a snack for their trip back home from Bethlehem, since they were just there for the census, so they made beef jerky? Ya, I know, it's a stretch! I'll do better this year. #4 Luke 2:8-14 (Angel appears to the shepherds and tells them about the birth of Jesus.) This one is fairly self explanatory. Chocolate angel candies! #5 Luke 2:15-20 (Shepherds visit Jesus in the manger.) #6 Matthew 2:1-6 (Wise men search for Jesus.) The wise men knew to search for Jesus because they were knowledgeable about the prophecies about His birth made in the Old Testament. For this gift, I found this little pamphlet that charts out fulfilled prophecies throughout the Bible. Since our family lives in three different households, I bought three of them, so we could each take one home. #7 Matthew 2:7-10 (Wise men follow the star to Jesus.) This little star-shaped Jesus tin contained individually wrapped peppermint candies. #8 Matthew 2:11-12 (Wise men bring Jesus gifts.) One of the gifts they brought Him was gold, so chocolate gold coins are an easy choice for this one! Here are all the gifts wrapped and tagged with their corresponding Scripture printouts: A close-up of the tag: Those were the gifts I chose for our family last year! I stuck mostly to food items to keep the cost down and to make things easily shareable, but in the past I did a couple larger things like puzzles and games that everyone could play together. It's really up to you, and you can be totally creative. One year I even "wrapped up" a song that reminded me of one of the Bible passages and we popped the CD into the player and listened to the song as a family. That one didn't cost a dime, since I already had the CD.
I hope this gives you some inspiration to celebrate Jesus this Christmas! Christmas Story by Gifts is something that you could do in addition to regular gift giving if that suits your family, or it could take its place entirely. Consider doing this in place of stocking stuffers and celebrate the story of Jesus, rather than the story of Santa Claus! To organize this, you could have one person put together the entire project, or you could assign each person in your group one of the Scripture sections to shop for and wrap. It could be a fun activity for a Bible study group to do at Christmastime that really brings everyone's focus back to the reason we celebrate. Have fun with this, and may your Christmas season be full of Jesus this year! |
AuthorFull time office worker, full time wife, and full time lover of Jesus. I'm kind of a Bible nerd, and I have a passion for finding ways to introduce Jesus in a practical way to everyday people doing everyday things. Archives
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