purple pastel pretty.

bummer that i perceive the colors of Easter more easily than the message.

those pastels are distracting like that, though...

when it comes to reflecting on the power of Easter, i recognized today that i've had a tendency to confuse things. i see so much power in the fact that Jesus died for my sins that i allow 'good Friday' to overshadow the victory that is the resurrection. oops.

as a side, i'm pretty sure this stems

from the

influence "why" has had on my

perception of the main message of Christianity...

Easter is a day to celebrate!
He conquered death!
Jesus is alive!

[c'mon, kelsey,
snap out of your somberness!]

instead of focusing on the fact that He died for my sins, my goal should be to move forward in the resulting freedom that comes from knowing that Jesus is not only alive in some remote paradise, but He is living through me. more than that, He's here with me & revealing Himself to me through His living & active WORD (Hebrews 4:12) & through the body of believers He has surrounded me with. how wonderful is He that He sticks around even after all of the pain we've put Him through? what a merciful Savior, seriously.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." - Galatians 2:20

our pastor today mentioned a that over 2 billion people celebrate today as a monumental holiday & a cornerstone to their faith. [hoping that] that means one-third of the earth today will be sharing in Jesus's victory over death, i must also be reminded that His resurrection was only the beginning... two-thirds of His kids are still carrying their own burdens - burdens that Jesus already died for!

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

nearly twenty years since He set me free from death & i still struggle to comprehend today. blame that on the Easter bunny, or my own human nature... but despite my inability to fathom the depth of meaning of the Easter holiday, at the least i can declare what i know to be true.

"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." - Isaiah 53

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!'" - Luke 24:1-6

"For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 15:53-57