Good Friday

This is my most favorite time of the year, always has been. What could possibly be better than Easter? Have to admit I get more aggravated when Easter is commercialized than Christmas. That aggravates me a little too but Easter just seems different, so sacred. Do our kids get Easter baskets, yes. Still do even at their age and they hid eggs when they were young, but I can't carry it much further than that.
I remember growing up in First Baptist Spartanburg we always had a Good Friday service. My absolute favorite worship service all year even as a young person. It's the service that still sticks in my mind years and years later. My pastor Dr. Alastair Walker always did the same message, the walk to the cross. There was a huge wooden cross at one end of the platform and as he preached he walked towards that rugged cross. A man named Frank Dillard always sang the same song. I still get chills thinking about that day. He painted such a picture of Christ and what He went through on our behalf that it's hard to believe anyone could commercialize Easter. And as my Dad says about Christmas and Easter, "it's not a holiday. It's Christmas or Easter". Amen Daddy.
My prayer for all is that the real meaning of Easter would stay with us throughout the year. If it does it will affect every area of our life, attitudes, fears, anxieties, priorities. EVERY AREA!! It will cause us to lay down our "rights" for others. To do for others even when it hurts or when it's for someone who has hurt us. To see inconveniences and interruptions as opportunities. We will lay it all down for the cause of Christ. He held nothing back for us. He gave it all. My prayer for myself this next year is that I will hold nothing back for Him. That I will follow hard after Him, love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. As my parents used to tell me, "if you have nothing else to be grateful for (and we all do) you should be grateful for your salvation, a free gift from the Lord Jesus". Have a blessed Easter.