Easter

Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, claims 500 people made professions of faith in Jesus Christ following its controversial Easter play, titled “Ransom.”

The two-hour production included dozens of dances, flashing lights, pyrotechnics, demonic characters, dry ice and covers of Ke$ha, Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé songs with several lyrical changes.

"Don't wait to do something..."

Christians are told that taking a moral stand, especially on questions so culturally controversial, is to distract from the Gospel. Instead, the Church must become more welcoming and avoid anything that makes people feel excluded from the Church. After all, we are told, isn’t the Gospel really about inclusivity?

Today, of all the days of Holy Week, directly confronts this mentality. Maundy Thursday is set aside on the Church calendar to remember the Last Supper. The word maundy comes from the Latin word for “mandate” or “command.” At this first celebration of Communion, Jesus gave His disciples “a new command,” that they should love and serve each other. To demonstrate what He meant, He picked up a basin of water and a towel and washed their feet.

As I noted, what doesn’t affect us personally seldom impacts us personally. You and I will be eternally grateful that Jesus doesn’t feel the same way. On this day in Holy Week, our Savior chose not only to die for us but to die in the most horrific manner imaginable.

On Holy Saturday 2007, cartoonist Johnny Hart died of a stroke while working at his drawing table. Hart was the award-winning creator of the popular comic strips “The Wizard of Id” and “B.C.” which, at one time, reached 100 million readers worldwide every day. In a 1999 BreakPoint commentary, Chuck Colson identified Hart as “the most widely read Christian of our time,” with “more readers than C.S. Lewis, Frank Peretti, and Billy Graham combined.”

Churches across the nation are hoping to draw in worshipers to Easter Sunday services with the growing popularity of helicopter egg drops.

The world’s largest privately-owned arts-and-crafts retailer spread the true message of Easter this holiday season with full-page newspaper advertisements that included the text of Scripture.

On Sunday, Evangelist Franklin Graham delivered a Gospel message during a special Easter service in Lviv, Ukraine.

Most Christians consider Easter to be a sacred and joyous celebration of Christ’s resurrection. But what about the claim that Easter and its accompanying traditions originated from a pagan spring celebration?