Howdy Friends

We are on Tuesday of Holy Week. This is quite possibly my favorite week of the year as a Christian. Easter is the one holiday where I believe the primary focus is on the Savior. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and the Christmas season. I love the giving and the time spent with family and friends. I love my kids opening presents on Christmas morning. However, I do believe over the last 60-70 years that Christmas has become overly secularized and materialized. I feel like large corporations have exposed Christmas as a way to take advantage of American, and global, consumers.

Easter does not feel that way to me. It feels to me like the primary focus is on the Savior and His sacrifice for us. Yes we do have the Easter Bunny. However, I almost feel as if that is a side not when it comes to celebrating the Easter holiday.

Even our scripture study in our church has shifted its focus this week to primarily on Holy Week. Our church follows a curriculum, called Come Follow Me where we take the year to focus on the writings and teachings in one of the four standard works of our church (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants). This year we are studying the Old Testament.

But we took a brief detour this week to focus on what the scriptures say about the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and the events leading up and following those events. It even contained a chart of comparing the prophecies in the Old Testament and how they lined up with the events of the Holy Week chronicled in the Gospels.

If you are of the Christian faith… or even if you are not… I encourage you to check out these scriptures and how hey coincide with one another.

Old Testament	New Testament
Zechariah 9:9	Matthew 21:1–11
Zechariah 11:12–13	Matthew 26:14–16
Isaiah 53:4	Matthew 8:16–17; 26:36–39
Isaiah 53:7	Mark 14:60–61
Psalm 22:16	John 19:17–18; 20:25–27
Psalm 22:18	Matthew 27:35
Psalm 69:21	Matthew 27:34, 48
Psalm 118:22	Matthew 21:42
Isaiah 53:9, 12	Matthew 27:57–60; Mark 15:27–28
Isaiah 25:8	Mark 16:1–6; Luke 24:6
Daniel 12:2	Matthew 27:52–53

This really aided me this morning as I read scriptures and focused on the week at hand.

I hope you are all enjoying this shift in the blog. I feel like it is something that I have been called to do to abide to the Law of Consecration.

Please let me know in the comments below your thoughts on this change in the blog… or even an email or DM on social media.

Jason