Easter is all about the resurrection.

Jesus died. He came to life after three days.

A long time ago Easter was celebrated once a week. Believers got together and they were excited to sing and praise God and study Scripture. After all, all the prophecies were true! Jesus really was the Messiah.

So, Easter has changed a little bit. Right?

It’s once a year. It’s still considered a religious holiday, kind of, if you count eating marshmellow peeps and rabbit-shaped Reeses candy as religious.

Not that I have anything against candy. (I love Heath bars and Watermelon gum is my go-to breah freshener.) But I wonder if the early believers had it right. It was something they did often, and it was a celebration of the best kind.

As Easter approaches, I want to step back and make it more than a once-a-year holiday. I’d love to celebrate today, letting Christ know that I’m so thankful for being his… and then do it again tomorrow, and the next day.

How do you celebrate Easter?

Just Another Girl
by Melody Carlson
Read an Excerpt

Aster is the name of a flower. Almost a weed, really. And sometimes that exactly how Aster feels. Her older sister, Rose, has her own life to live and somehow Aster gets stuck with Lily, their special needs sister. It’s not that Aster doesn’t love Lily. She does. It’s that Lily demands 100% attention and she’ll do whatever it takes to get that attention. Their dad moved on and spends his time caring for the son he always wanted. Their mother is working, spending hours at her job that aren’t required, but that leave the chores and caretaking jobs to Aster. All of them.  All of the time.

Then the guy from school drops by and wants to hang out with her. Aster dreams up her freedom getaway plan and the pieces start to fall into place, and fall apart at the same time.

Melody Carlson writes about real life and real issues. Just Another Girl is one of her latests books and it’s good reading, especially if you’re trying to find your way to fit in life and even in your own family.

Check out all of Melody’s books at her website.

Where do you begin? You can find it all on Tangle. Funny videos of cats synced to Hawk Nelson’s tunes. Teaching. Preaching. Youth groups from around the nation. Spoofs. Celebrities. Musical artists. Teens trying to change the world.

Here’s one Tangle video that is just for fun.

3rd place finalist on “American Idol,” Season Six
Released “Melinda Doolittle” Album in 2007
Released “Coming Back to Youth” Album in Feb. of 2009. Currently 3rd on US Independent Chart.

“I was tone deaf all the way up until 7th grade. The chorus teacher would invite me to sing because I looked like I knew what I was doing. They’d tell me to stand in the middle and just mouth the words. ‘Don’t you dare sing out loud!’ I loved music so much; I would pray that I got better.” Melinda Doolittle, The Winning Edge Interview

Derek Hanisch, RTF Staff Writer

From the moment that I accepted Christ into my life, I was taught about Christianity. One of those teachings was the Trinity. We have the Father, who is the God of the Old Testament. We have the Son, who, of course, is Jesus. Finally, we have the Spirit. I was reading through Romans, and the scripture on the Spirit really spoke to me for the first time.

Depending on the denomination that you come from, it’s very possible that your church doesn’t talk about the Spirit of God much. I know mine doesn’t.

The Spirit has been with believers since the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Paul, in Romans, has a lot to say about the Holy Spirit.

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”-Romans 8:11

Wow, isn’t that cool? It was the Holy Spirit that was used to raise Jesus from the dead. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is now living within us!

Romans 8:26-27 are really eye opening for me. Did you know that the Holy Spirit prays for us? (more…)

by Jamin Goecker, RTF Staff Writer 

I’m sure my eyes dilated when I saw it – a mustang for sale in a parking lot for about $4,000. The sleek exterior, down into the black interior and all the way to the dashboard looked fantastic. But my enthusiasm took a slap in the face when my dad and I read the odometer. 140K miles. The insurance would cost a lot and the mileage was about the same as a truck without being half as useful.

I didn’t buy that mustang.

At first I felt like an idiot, but I knew I could find something better. Even though it was tempting to snatch that car, I was willing to give it up with the faith that something better lay in the future.

I’m sure God wants my faith to rise to that level when I make all my choices, especially with what to do with my life. (more…)

Do you feel the call to change your generation? Do you sense that God wants to impact your friends and you don’t want to wait around for someone older to make it happen? Do you look in the Bible and see God reaching down and moving history by working through the lives of people like Timothy, Jonathan, David, Mary, Esther, and a lot of others in their teens? Catalyst is focused on a new generation of church leaders. They are helping teens and twentysomethings be the church instead of just going to church.

This October, over 10,000 young leaders will gather again to experience Catalyst up close. Will you be one of them?

Catalyst Space

By Catey Yuen, RTF Staff Writer

Genesis 16

Abram had a promise from God. He knew that the Lord would give him a son, despite his old age. He was familiar with the promises of God. He was only a few generations from the time of Noah and the flood, where God had showed just how fully he kept his promises to his people.

But Abram didn’t wait on the Lord. Though the child of promise was to come through his wife, Sarai, he chose instead to have a child through his concubine, Hagar.

Disaster ensued. Sarai banished Hagar and her son Ishmael to the desert twice, and once the child of promise, Isaac, was born, the clash only intensified. The nation descended from Isaac, the Jews, and the nation descended from Ishmael, the Arabs, are in conflict to this day.

What made Abram waver? Why did he settle for less than perfection, when he had the promise of goodness before him?

Abram had the same problem that people are still struggling with to this day. He was impatient for God’s blessing, and so he diminished the blessing coming to him by disobeying God and not waiting on His perfect timing.

A study was conducted among a group of preschoolers. Adults would put a child in a room with one cookie and tell the child that if they could wait a certain amount of time without eating the cookie, they could have two later. Then they went out of the room and watched the children. Almost every child ate the one cookie then, instead of waiting for the two.

They wanted immediate gratification. They wanted to have the good thing then, even though if they just waited a little longer, they would get more.

Everyone longs to feel God’s blessing in their lives. They cry out for him to relieve their suffering and bless them in a certain area of their life. This may be finance, time, housing, friends, school.

I wanted so badly to be involved in a program that my friends were involved in, I pushed God. I told him the area I wanted to be involved in was a good program, that it was a safe environment, that it was a place where I could further his kingdom. I said that I would enjoy it, be good at it, help people through it. Then I asked God why he wasn’t letting me be a part of it. (more…)