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Tradition and History of Easter

My first memory of Easter was when I lived with my mom. I heard a knock at the door, and she told me to see who it was, which was weird, I thought because I’m a little kid and we aren’t supposed to open the door, but I went. I found an easter basket with eggs to paint and candy. I spent the afternoon painting the eggs.

Growing up, we didn’t have Easter traditions, although I remember going to church on Easter Sunday after my dad married my stepmom. We attended Catholic mass, and it was always packed, but on Easter Sunday, it was out the door packed. We would dress up more formally than our usual Sunday Church wear, and then afterward, we would get together with the family. Well, I guess in a sense, that was our Easter tradition.

One year, my grandma hosted an Easter egg hunt, but it was with real eggs. LOL, that got messy. However, it was only for that one year. I low-key wished we would have done it again because I had fun.

I never believed in the Easter bunny, nor did I ever care for Easter baskets because that’s not what Easter was about for us. Easter is about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.


To write this blog post, I wanted to learn about the history of “Easter,” like where the name came from, etc., so I googled and found an article on History.com. They wrote, “Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” I already knew, but I also wanted to find out why the Passover was no longer celebrated, but Easter is, and here is what they said. It states that Easter is associated with the Jewish holiday of Passover, and the links are seen in the Last Supper. The last supper happened the night before Jesus was arrested, and it was essentially a Passover feast. But during the last supper, Jesus broke bread with his 12 apostles and said the bread represented His body, and the wine they drank was His blood.

“While they were eating Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” “I tell you; I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Matthew 26:26-29 (NIV)

With this being done, this became a basis for the Christian ritual of Holy Communion and gave a new significance by Jesus. All of this occurred during the Passover celebration, even Jesus’s execution.


Now, where does the name Easter come from? The article states, “St. Bede the Venerable, the 6-century author of Ecclesiastical History of the English People,” informed that the word Easter comes from Eostre or the Anglo-Saxon goodness of spring and fertility. And many of the non-Christian traditions of Easter, like the bunny and Easter eggs, can be traced from pagan celebrations. Eggs supposedly represent fertility and birth. The bunny may also associate birth and renewal (like Jesus’ resurrection or re-birth).

We usually take my daughter to the Easter celebration our church hosts every year for Easter. We attend church on Easter Sunday and then go out for lunch or get together with the family to celebrate.  

My daughter at our church Easter celebration 2019

It was fun learning about Easter and its association with the Passover. It’s crazy how you can read the Bible many times, and many things can go over one’s head before someone else points it out, and you have a revelation. Sometimes it’s God himself.

Do you celebrate Easter? Do you have any Easter traditions? Do you celebrate Passover? Let me know!

With Love, Heidy

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We Cannot Serve God & Money

Our wonderful creator gave us free will – meaning we make our own choices. However, with making our own choices, we also have to be responsible for the consequences that come with those choices.

We use the Bible as a guide to lead us in our life and which choices to make. The Bible is very clear that we cannot serve God and be a servant of money.

1 Corinthians 10:23 NIV – â€śI have the right to do anything,” you say – but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” – but not everything is constructive.

1 Timothy 6:10 NIV – For the Love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

If we were to serve money, the more we get, the more we will want because we will indulge in greed and because there is no amount of money that our flesh will be satisfied with.

Leading our life with greed and the love of money will destroy us. It will put us in dangerous places, risky situations, and further away from God.

Plus, God tells us that he will provide everything we NEED! Believe it or not, He will provide us with the money we need. There is a substantial difference between the money we need and the money we want, even though we live in a world that bombards us with the message that we need more and more money; if we give in to that message, we will no longer be living for God but the world.

The world is filled with people eager for power and money but have you looked at what they’ve done in order to get in those positions? A lot of times, it’s not very biblical, or Jesus like.

Jesus came to this world to serve others, not money, and we are called to be like Jesus. We are called to live our lives for God, and in return, He provides for us. Although He gave us free will to choose our lives. We should choose to live our lives for Him because He died for us. And if you find yourself astray from Him, please know that you can come to Him at ANY time and repent. He will forgive you and accept you as His child.

Colossians 1:13-14 NIV – For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. 

Are you serving God or money?

With Love,

Heidy

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Patience & Faith

The Bible tells us to ask, and it shall be given, and it also says that God wants to provide us with the desires in our hearts, but we have to be patient. Our prayers aren’t answered right away, we don’t pray for something one night, and then God says yes in the morning, that isn’t how to works. We have to be patient and have faith that God will provide what we ask. And He does provide, at his time.

The concept of time isn’t the same for God as it is for us, with that in mind, are you willing to wait five years for a prayer to be answered? It sometimes could be more, but that is the thing with having faith in God, is knowing that He will answer, eventually. Once you wait, faithfully, and God answers your prayer, you can look back and see why it took so long or why He waited until that particular time to respond. Everything works out, falls into place, and you can tell that it was only God’s doing.

As Christians, God asks us to be patient, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,” Colossians 3:12 (NIV). This is one of the factors that sets us apart! And I know it can be hard because we are waiting for something we truly desire, and we want it when we ask for it. I know I’ve struggled with being patient before, and because of it, I’ve taken some matters into my own hand and realized that if I had waited for God, the situation would have come out better.

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride,” Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NIV). Those times I took matters into my own hands, I was letting my pride get in the way, thinking, “I can figure this out on my own, I don’t need to wait,” or thinking that I knew what I was doing because I knew what was best for me, all to have it come back and slap me in the face. I’ve definitely made a mess of things before for no reason, just because I wasn’t patient enough to wait for God to answer me.

And sometimes, God won’t answer your prayers. Wait, what are you saying? Yeah, that’s right; sometimes God won’t answer your prayers precisely how you’re asking Him, sometimes He will give you something better!

When God is making you wait, it’s because He is working things out better than you could even imagine. God is always working things out for your good because He loves you, He takes care of you, and He wants you to thrive! God is faithful, always! And He will NEVER fail you.

With Love, Heidy

Prayer,

Lord, I will live in patience for my faith. For I know that your promises will fulfill, not when I want, but when your time is right. Patience is a virtue in my trust in you because I won’t always see, but I always know, and you, Lord, are faithful. Amen.

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Identity

We all struggle to find our identity or trying to identify ourselves. We have different titles and different hats we wear, whether it’s in our career or personal lives, but none of this actually defines us. We live in a culture that wants to push agendas about how they think we should be and try to identify us. They want us to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, and do certain things. As a result, we add pressure on ourselves to fit in the box or mold ourselves to meet those expectations, thinking that this will give us an identity in this world.

Our identity comes from The Lord. Only seeking a relationship with God will we find our true identity and our purpose in this world. He knows each of us from the inside out because he created us.  Like it says in Psalm 139: 13 – 14, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well,” (NIV).

How beautiful is it to know that the one who created us is the one who we find our identity in? Since he created us he also gives us our purpose, just like it says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (NIV). Think about this, what talents do you have and how do you use these talents?

The purpose of life is to find our purpose in Christ and do the work He wants us to do. Along the way, we meet people and try to bring them close to God, by sharing our testimonies, our talents, and love towards them.

Do not let this world try to define you. You are a child of God, you are beautifully and wonderfully made, and you have a purpose. As long as you have a heartbeat, you have a purpose, and its never too late to find what it is. Find your identity in Jesus Christ, the one and only who can define you.

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Trusting God With Our Plans

We have many plans for our lives. We have goals, timeline on how we want things to go, but almost always, our plans do not go as we pictured them. Sometimes things go worse, but when you have God in the center of your plans or life, things go much better than what you imagined. I had planned to start looking for a new job, a management position to be exact, at a new company by May 2020. I thought May because by then the wedding would be long over, the honeymoon would be long over, and I graduate from my Master’s degree in May, so that would be under my belt. But like almost always, God had other plans for me. I told myself that this year I will fully follow God’s lead in my life. Well, at the beginning of January, I received an email from Advent Health, one of the leading hospitals in Central Florida, to apply for a position in their billing/collections department. I was confused because I didn’t remember the last time I updated my profile with them since I had applied to the hospital years ago, but I thought about it and discussed it with Jonathan, my then fiancĂ© now husband, and he said it wouldn’t hurt to apply.

So, I applied thinking nothing of it and actually forgot that I had applied. That following Tuesday, I received a phone call from an HR recruiter to do a phone screening for the position. She then invited me for a face-to-face interview for the following Friday. I went and interviewed with the director of the department, and at the end of the interview, she told me she really liked me and wanted me to join the team. That following Monday, they called me back to offer me the position and send over the offer letter to accept. When I informed my then-current employer that I was leaving, my director had a meeting with me to see why I was leaving and if there was something she could do for me to stay. I told her that I wanted to work at the hospital and thought it was a great opportunity.

A few days later she called me into the office again, this time with my manager, to tell me again that she didn’t want me to leave and two new positions were opening up and she wanted me for one of them. She told me to think about it and that she will be able to offer me more money than what the hospital offered me. I’m not money motivated, I just kept thinking about the opportunities available at the hospital. I kept going back and forth on whether to stay at my current job or leave. I interviewed for both positions at my job. But when I went to the HR and health screening appointment for Advent Health, I got excited all over again about working at the hospital, so after that appointment, I made my final decision, I was going to the hospital. The following day I got a call offering me the Team Lead position at my current job with more money than what the hospital was offering, but I went to talk to my director and I declined the offer.

She told me she appreciated me telling her and that it would be a loss for her because she thinks I’m a great employee, but at the end of the day, she wants me to be happy. She mentioned that if the hospital is the route I want to go, then she cannot compete with that, there is no money in the world she could offer me. And she was correct. Something kept pulling me towards the hospital, even when I was trying to make excuses as to why I should stay, I kept getting this pull towards the hospital, and now I know it was God.

He provided this opportunity when I least expected it, but it’s such a blessing. Today I completed my second day of orientation, and tomorrow I start training at my department, and I feel like I am right where I belong. Yesterday before any of the programs began, we prayed, and today every segment started with a bible verse. I absolutely loved that. I genuinely feel like I am in the right place at the most perfect time. I cannot thank God enough for how he moves in my life and how he has moved. I am forever grateful to him, will continue to be grateful to him, and live out my life for Him.

Always remember to trust him in all of your plans and to place him in the center of them. Things may not always come out as you’d like, when you place your trust in Him, they will come out better.

PROVERBS 3_5-6 Trust in and rely confidently on the LORD with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding_ In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will

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Planning With God & Planning Without

There is a big difference in doing things on your own and doing things with God being first and being the center. When you’re doing things on your own, you’re constantly worrying. It seems like things don’t work out how you pictured it, and there’s a lot of hurdles to jump over, and challenges keep coming, one after another, seem like you cannot ever catch a break. But when you pray first about what you want to do and it is God’s will for your life, everything will go smooth. Everything will aline with minimal effort. He will guide you, tell you what to do, and where to go. Everything just falls into place. It may not be when you want or how you thought, but everything works out in God’s perfect timing. You have to learn to trust him. Things will come out better than you expected when you let God take the lead. Trust him with your plans, release your worries to him, and let him guide your steps, it will be the best thing you’ve done. You won’t have to worry about anything because he takes care of everything.

Just. Have. Faith.

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Only Jesus Saves

It’s not about religion – it’s about a relationship with God. It’s not about rules – it’s about following the life of Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1) It’s not about what you can do for yourself but what you can do for others.

Serve in the name of the Lord, love in the name of the Lord, lead in the name of the Lord, pray in the name of the Lord, and praise in the name of the Lord.

The most important relationship you can have on this Earth is a relationship with God because nothing on this Earth will satisfy you like him.

Surrender to him. Your life, every aspect of it, financial, relationships, career, parenting, everything. You cannot bargain with him – it’s all or nothing.

Let him be the God of everything. He provides all you need, and he wants to provide the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

God is great, faithful, merciful, and loving. There is nothing you have done that the Lord won’t forgive. (Ephesians 1:7) (Isaiah 1:18)

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