Easter? Passover? Resurrection!

This is a big weekend for many people.  There are those who celebrate Easter, and there are those who celebrate Passover...and there are those who celebrate neither. 
~~~~~The original Passover from the Old Testament was the last plague of God on Egypt (Exodus 12 KJV).  Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel leave until this final blow hit.  The children of Israel had to take a male lamb, dispatch it in the evening, then take its b loo d and strike the top and two side posts of their homes.  That night at midnight the Lord slew the first born male of every household that did not have the b loo d applied to the door posts.  The Jews were to celebrate this amazing event every year.  The b loo d strikes on the top and two side posts of the door made a cross (if they actually carried the dipped hyssop down and across on the door).  As today, if the spiritual application of the b loo d of Christ on our hearts is not seen by God, we will die spiritually.  Jesus is the perfect, sinless Lamb of God.  The Passover was a picture of what was to come--and it has been fulfilled by what Jesus did on the cross.  The Passover is a tradition and does not need to be celebrated today!  Jesus is THE Passover Lamb. 
~~~~~Easter actually stems from the pagan celebration of the goddess Ishtar--a fertility goddess.   This is where springtime, bunnies, eggs, etc. come from.  In order to encourage pagan peoples to come to church, the Catholic church adopted this celebration and unfortunately combined it with some (i.e. Good Friday and Maundy Thursday are not Biblical, Jesus actually died on a Wednesday, etc.) Biblical truths about Jesus' resurrection.  Yes, the word Easter is in the Bible once in the book of Acts (12:4) and is in relation to what a pagan leader, Herod, was going to do to Peter after the Easter celebration was over.  To celebrate Easter would be to celebrate a mixture of pagan worship and partial Biblical truths. 
This post is certainly not to argue theology or history.  All of this information can be found looking in a King James Bible and a simple Internet search.  The purpose of this post is to encourage you to consider what is important.  Getting caught up in tradition and "how we've always done it" is not important.  What IS important is what the Bible says...and obeying what it says.  Unfortunately people will think on what God did in Exodus or what Jesus did on the cross this weekend....then not do anything about it nor think about it again for another whole year!  Jesus came, died on the cross (the perfect, sinless, Passover Lamb), was buried, and rose again--believing this, repenting of our sin, and accepting Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for our sin is what is important.  Not just this Saturday or Sunday but every day praise the Lord for the resurrection of Jesus Christ!