#10 - Reclaiming Easter (Part 2) - Regaining the High Ground

Barbara Rainey's Top 10 Interviews

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Reclaiming Easter (Part 1) - The Miracle of Easter
Reclaiming Easter (Part 2) - Regaining the High Ground
Reclaiming Easter (Part 3) - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Easter

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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Regaining the High Ground

Guest: Barbara Rainey

From the series: Reclaiming Easter (Day 2 of 4)

Air date: March 17, 2015

Bob: The cross is the universal symbol of the Christian faith; but through the years and in different countries, all around the world, there have been different styles of crosses that have represented Christianity. Barbara Rainey says, “That’s a good thing.”

Barbara: Jesus is universal—He’s not American / He’s not Western. He’s for everyone—from every tongue, and every tribe and every nation, from every era. I wanted to have crosses that were international—that sort of brought us back to the idea that Jesus is for all people, for all time. Christ has been pushing into country after country, around the world, since He left us. The message is continuing to go on into every nation and every language.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, March 17th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. This is the season of the year when all of us should be surveying the wondrous cross. We’ll talk on today’s program about how we can make the cross more central to our celebration of Easter. Stay tuned.

1:00

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. The guy, who leads worship at our church, knows that, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, he is going to be leading two hymns: “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” and—

Dennis: I want to guess! It’s one of the Gettys’ songs.

Bob: No.

Dennis: Really!?

Bob: “We Gather Together.”

Dennis: But you’re kind of a Getty groupie.

Bob: I would not call me a groupie. [Laughter]

Dennis: A Getty groupie—that kind of has a sound to it; doesn’t it?

Bob: I am—I have a great appreciation for their work, and we sing a lot of their hymns in our worship service. But on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, it’s always “We Gather Together” and “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.”

2:00

The next Sunday, which is always the first Sunday of Advent, we always sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and we sing “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” You have to sing those on the first Sunday in Advent.

On Palm Sunday, which is coming up, here in a couple of weeks—on Palm Sunday, we always sing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor, to Thee Redeemer King.” Do you remember that song? It’s about the kids and the palm branches. [Singing] “All glory, laud, and honor to Thee, Redeemer King!” Have you heard this?

Dennis: Vaguely.

Barbara: Yes!

Bob: [Singing] “…to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.” There is something about those traditions. Michael, the worship leader, is very gracious to indulge us older folks who say, “We have to sing these things.” [Laughter] There’s something about those traditions that are rich with meaning.

Barbara: That’s right.

Dennis: No doubt about it. And the voice you’re hearing say, “Amen,” over here is my wife, Barbara.

3:00

Welcome back to the broadcast.

Barbara: Thank you.

Dennis: The most requested guest we have on FamilyLife Today. In fact—

Bob: Dennis requests you every time he can. He says, “Can we have Barbara on some more?” [Laughter]

Dennis: Yes! No doubt about it. [Laughter]

We’re all about Easter and wanting to regain the high ground—

Bob: Yes.

Dennis: —the holy ground for the Easter season. You’ve got a big idea, Barbara. It’s all about contrasting what Christmas is all about with Easter—just kind of calling families to focus on something really fresh and new this Easter season.

Barbara: Well, my big idea is that God would grant us the favor in helping us, as believers, raise our awareness of the importance of the holiday of Easter. We put so much energy, money, time, and effort into Christmas—and there’s nothing wrong with that—but, by comparison, we spend very little time, very little money, very little energy, and very little preparation to celebrate the greatest moment of history, which is Resurrection Sunday.

4:00

I’m hopeful that, over the course of time, as God grants favor, that we can help believers understand the importance of this holiday—the magnificence of what Christ has done for us—and then help them understand some new and fun ways that they can celebrate that day and make it meaningful because, as you just said, Bob, it’s their traditions that help tie those things to hearts. The more our kids understand the truth of why we celebrate / why we do what we do, the more it becomes embedded in their hearts and in their souls. They go: “This is important! This has to mean something; otherwise, Mom and Dad and the other adults wouldn’t have made such a big deal about it.”

Dennis: You know, we spend the entire month of December preparing for Christmas Day—it’s all about giving. You think we need to be spending the weeks, leading up to Easter, focusing on what theme around Easter?

Barbara: Focusing on the theme of forgiveness.

5:00

Forgiveness is something we all need. We all need it, individually, because we all have offended God, at our core, because of our selfishness. We all, individually, need forgiveness.

Every one of us needs forgiveness, and we need to understand how it works—we need to understand how to give it / how to grant it—we need to understand the whole process because, in relationships with people, we nee...