It's di Easster bUnny!

I was watching this documentary the other day (before I would have thought of myself as lame for watching a documentary but my roomies here have gotten me into it and I really like it!!) any who it was called God Grew Tired of Us. It was about the lost boys of Sudan, of how they came together and how they have been living together for over 10 years now waiting for the Sudan to stop fighting.  If you get the chance, WATCH IT!!  Some of the boys - now men- were brought to the states to give them opportunites and it follows there journey to the states over a 3 year period.  It was odd to watch as they were brought into an apartment and had to learn how to turn lights on and off, learn that food is ready made and they don't have to cook it, learn that trash goes into a trash can.  Just stuff we don't even think about.
  
   Then it came to their first Christmas time.  Now these boys know who Jesus is and they know the Bible, but they were so confused at who Santa Claus is and why we have Christmas trees and such.  One of them was even asking, "Is this in the Bible?"  How pathetic that this is what our holidays have come to be about.  How sneaky and deceptive has Satan become in our lives.  In the lost boys camp, to GET READY for Christmas, something we wouldn't even think necessary, they have celebrations and sing songs and fellowship.  We spend our time in stores and exhausted wasting our money on things that will not be used after 2 months and forgetting who the holiday is about.  Not only that but we allow Satan to decide what standards we live to, we watch the ads on TV that show kids opening all these presents and being happy and we think, if we can't do that for our children, we aren't good parents. FALSE!!  If it were up to Christ, there would be no presents for us, this is HIS birthday anyways.  We don't buy presents for other people on our birthdays, this is a time that should be spent repenting, falling at His feet and worshiping Him, not just the night before at a 2 hour candlelight service.  Satan is so deceptive and turns our minds to materalistic things in the western culture.  We need to be aware of this as Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:11 - "we may not be taken advantage of by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his intentions." [a little out of context, but still applies to this]

What does this have to do with Easter?  What is Easter to the follower of Christ but the most fantastic day of all???  HE IS RISEN!! Our Lord and Savior is NOT dead, He IS alive!  He was buried for THREE days and then He rose from the dead, not by anyone's power but His own!!  Our God is STILL alive, He died for OUR sins and then DEFEATED death!! Who else can boast of that?  They yelled at Him, "He saved others, He cannot save Himself." -Mark 15:31, but He was not on the cross for Himself, He was on the cross for us!  So to fill this day and make it about egg hunts and chocolate bunnies and all fun and games, but it's gotten ridiculous.  Our God did not die and rise again so that we could sit around painting eggs in honor of Him.  This is Satan!!  The devil has brought in materialism and consummerism to deter us from what is truly important on this day.  Easter should be spent in complete and total worship to the Lord!!  I say this not from a point of having used my Easter wisely to praise the Lord to the fullest, but a point of realization that I could have spent so much more time honoring Him that day.  It just disgusts me that people would wonder if Santa is in the Bible because we make it such a big deal that it overshadows Christ!!!!