You Are Not Alone With Debbie & Greg Gold
As a mother and son team, Debbie and Greg come together to talk about the realities and struggles we all face in today’s world. They cover a wide array of topics from mental health to current events to teaching on topics that will help you do life. As Christians, they know there is one thing that brings peace, hope, and encouragement to anything life throws our way, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You don't know what you don't know, so come along on the ride. Your life and heart will be changed forever!
You Are Not Alone With Debbie & Greg Gold
Easter: Beyond Bunnies and Baskets
What comes to mind when you think of Easter? Colorful eggs, chocolate bunnies, family meals, pastel decorations? While these traditions create cherished memories, Easter's profound spiritual significance often gets overshadowed by its festive trappings.
Debbie and Greg Gold, our mother-son hosting team, take us on a journey from Genesis to Resurrection Sunday, unpacking Easter's true meaning. They begin by sharing their personal "highlights of the week" - Greg giving away his cherished Olive Garden breadsticks to someone in need and Debbie volunteering at a church Easter egg hunt where she witnessed pure joy on children's faces. These stories set the stage for a conversation about generosity, gratitude, and perspective.
The Golds then dive into the biblical foundation of Easter, tracing it back to humanity's separation from God in the Garden of Eden. They explain how Jesus's ministry, death on Good Friday, and resurrection three days later fulfilled God's redemption plan. Through a thoughtful exploration of scripture, particularly John 3:16, they illuminate Easter's core message: God's extraordinary love prompted the ultimate sacrifice, offering forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe.
What makes this episode special is how the Golds balance theological depth with relatable warmth. They share family Easter traditions while emphasizing the holiday's spiritual significance. For those seeking deeper understanding or those curious about Christianity's central celebration, this conversation offers clarity without judgment.
Whether you're a longtime believer or simply curious about Easter's religious significance, this episode provides both insight and invitation. As Debbie beautifully puts it, "God is not mad at you, he is mad about you." The discussion concludes with a simple prayer for those ready to begin or renew their spiritual journey.
Ready to see Easter with fresh eyes? Listen now, and discover why this 2,000-year-old event still transforms lives today. Share this episode with someone who might need its message of hope and connection.
Hello, this is Debbie and Greg Gold mother and son team and you are listening to the you Are Not Alone podcast, where we are going to navigate life together. Navigate life together. Hello listeners, today is episode three of our season two and we do with Easter. It's just around the corner, right, greg?
Speaker 2:It's coming up quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. In the next couple of days we want to talk about what is the true meaning of easter, but before we jump into that, let's talk about our highlights of the week, greg all righty, you want to go first or me go ahead, all righty.
Speaker 2:Uh, so I was driving, I don't know where I was, I was coming back from something, and I see this guy oh that's right, no, we, we had Olive Garden that day and I was like I was driving home and I saved the breadsticks because those were always really good, you know. And I see this this guy on the street and he has a sign. That was like it was a really powerful message and I really liked it. Oh gosh, do you recall what it was? It was like united by God, um, determined by faith, or like some, like really nice message yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice for, yeah, for him, and I gave him the bread sticks and I found some a bag of Cheetos in my car too, and I saw those in your car. Yeah, they're gone now and, uh, his face lit up like a light bulb so I just felt super good about that.
Speaker 1:So there's my highlight of the week, so I remember us sitting there, and the only thing that was left over were the two breadsticks because I didn't have any and I remember you going oh, I bet these would be really good in the air fryer, so you were really looking forward to coming home and trying those in the air fryer and you're. That's really you know. That makes me proud.
Speaker 2:I'm well also like it just for a grown man to accept something from a younger kid in a car, and it just the whole ride home. I realized how blessed I was, because I wasn't feeling that good that day it was kind of like a crappy day, I guess, and the whole time home I was like thinking I have a roof over my head, I have a car, I have clean feet or clean food, clean feet, sure, clean feet.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know if I'd go that far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just saying but yeah, that felt really good, awesome. So what's your highlight of the week?
Speaker 1:Highlight of the week for me was Definitely hands down. City Reach. Our church, does a big Easter egg hunt at the H-E-B Center here in Cedar Park and I signed up to help with registration. So I was registering and getting the kids and the parents registered in and it was so awesome. I got to see all these beautiful children of all ages and some of the girls were dressed in the cutest little Easter outfits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one little girl had her Christmas outfit on. So you know, maybe they couldn't afford a you know cause. You'll think of pastels and pretty things like that for Easter and more red. It was definitely a red dress, but you know the the confidence she had with that. Or you know this one little boy goes I had gotten. When we checked in as volunteers, you got a red T-shirt that says how can I help you, and then bunny ears if you wanted to wear them. Well, I took the bunny ears, but I had my faith hat baseball cap on. Faith over fear.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I just stuck them in my little bag under the table and this one little boy goes. You end up in seven or eight, I can't remember he goes. I wish I had some bunny ears, I go. Well, wishes do come true. And I reached down and grabbed my bunny ears and I gave them to him, and then look on his face was just priceless and just in awe and shock and oh my gosh, I couldn't you know like he couldn't believe it was that one saying it's like?
Speaker 2:it's the little things in life, yeah like, yeah it?
Speaker 1:was so, so awesome and it was really cool too. They had egg hunt um area for the big kids it was like 200 000 eggs, right that they stuffed. Yes, yeah it's pretty big deal and then and they had another area for the theles like about five and under maybe six or seven and under, and it was just really, it was just a gift to be able to walk around and see everyone so happy and the little kids just full of joy.
Speaker 1:And then after a certain while, I mean, people were kind of slowly coming in and so I started walking around and then I'd come back to the table and if someone was wanting to get signed in and there were plenty of us there, so I'd come back to the table and if someone was wanting to get signed in and I'd look there were plenty of us there, so I'd say, okay, are you signed in, you ready to go? And then I'd say, you want, let me take you to the Easter egg area for you, like the little kids. So just, I wouldn't ask, I would just say let me take you to the Easter. Oh sure, that would be great. And you know, I don't know, it was just a beautiful day in so many ways. And, um, steve Weatherford, he was the one that gave the major talk. He's an NFL player, punter, he was a punter.
Speaker 1:And now he's Christian first.
Speaker 2:Oh, steve, that was the guy that talked at our church that one time, right, I believe.
Speaker 1:He has spoken at our church. Yeah, that name sounded familiar, so you brought that up.
Speaker 2:I'm like wait a minute yeah.
Speaker 1:He's a speaker and an entrepreneur and he's got six children.
Speaker 2:He has six kids Wow.
Speaker 1:And he was given autographs and I was standing there thinking I'm going to get an autograph on my little name badge and then I had it around my neck and this boy must have been maybe that age and, um, he's like Steve signed it on his sleeve of his, his t-shirt. I am never washing this shirt, it's just so so adorable.
Speaker 1:And um, and so, anyways, nice to meet Steve. Um, I've seen him preach at the church, but um, anyway, so yeah, it was. That was my highlight. There were so many beautiful things coming out of spending five hours of my day serving.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, priceless.
Speaker 2:I slept in that day and I was like. I saw it in the. I saw on city reaches Instagram. I was like, wait Easter egg tomorrow. And then woke up and I saw you're gone. I'm like, oh, she's probably volunteering with the Easter egg thing and yeah yeah it was.
Speaker 1:It was beautiful. Okay, let's talk about Easter.
Speaker 2:Easter Easter, easter Easter.
Speaker 1:Greg, tell me, what is Easter, what? What is the meaning of Easter? Oh, what are your thoughts? What do you think of?
Speaker 2:Easter bunny? Obviously those big chocolate Easter bunnies too. That sometimes you used to give me those and I don't think I ever finish them because it's just so much chocolate.
Speaker 1:Especially the solid ones, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the solid milk chocolate ones. Yeah, yeah, bright colors we were just talking about. Do you have anything to wear for church this Sunday?
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, I'm like, I think I do. They're like pastels.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Pastels, that's what you call them, the bright pinks, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:The pretty blues.
Speaker 2:And then I just saw you got a ham in the fridge too. I did Mm-hmm, that's going to be good Egg coloring, easter baskets that was my favorite. Family meals, gift giving and just Easter decorations lots of Easter eggs.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I love to decorate Bright colors and stuff so bunnies everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those are things that I think we do, and it creates traditions in families right. And they're just traditions are so wonderful because we later in life we can go like me as a parent. Oh, we did this and I remember me and my sister, or my sister and I sitting on the couch. I said to correct that um, sitting on the couch, um with our little Easter baskets, and my mom would always dress us in the same dresses oh, yeah, like matching matching oh cool so we were like two years apart.
Speaker 1:so then what would happen, though, is so we would grow out of our dresses, but I would get Linda's dresses as a hand hand-me-down, so I really never got new dresses, they were just. I had to wear the same dress basically for like four years or something, so I wore out my size and then I had to get her size.
Speaker 2:Oh right, yeah, yeah, hand me down, hand me down, so yeah you know, not just a family with um, not just a family with Low tradition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just very low middle class, low middle class, and yeah, that's what we did.
Speaker 2:My favorite thing as a kid was just finding the Easter basket, because you would always hide it. So, and you'd hide it good. I mean it'd be either behind a door, in a closet, like in a drawer sometimes, yeah, it'd be all over the house.
Speaker 3:It'd be like hit really hidden.
Speaker 2:Good, so you put in high places, low places, so that was always fun finding it and then seeing what I got every year so different assortments of like toys and chocolate and candy.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and then I remember doing the easter egg hunts. We'd gather some of the neighbor kids and I'd go outside and plant the eggs outside, and then there would always be money in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:You know toys and candy, but some would have like just maybe quarters and dimes. And then there'd be maybe one with a five, and then maybe a 10 and a 20. And it was always who's going to get the big one right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, who's going to get the $20. It was so fun. Yeah, I loved it. That was our tradition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyway, I'm hoping we can either give you ideas for your traditions or I know you have some of your own too. But yeah, traditions are good, but what is the true meaning of Easter is really what we're going to talk about today. Easter is really what we're going to talk about today, and it is not the, as Christmas is the birth of Christ.
Speaker 2:Easter is more about the resurrection yes, or the death and the resurrection yes.
Speaker 1:So Good Friday is the day that he sat on the cross for six hours in agony and pain. He sat on the cross for six hours in agony and pain and then on the third day he rose again, which would be Sunday, resurrection Sunday. That's what we call it. So yeah, two of my most favorite holidays, for sure.
Speaker 2:Christmas and Easter. Yeah, Easter always felt like a really bright. Well, yeah, it is a bright holiday for me.
Speaker 1:I mean all the eggs and the colorful colors, a kid. It was one of my favorites, so yeah, and typically for our time of year. Here, our trees are budding, and this is march. And april are my two of my favorite months because you can be outside and do things without the heat bearing down on you, and yeah, it's not like 90 degrees all the time, yeah, so yeah, which hopefully I'm out of here, that we're out of here this summer. We'll see how that goes, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2:So I don't know what else should we say about easter I don't know why don't we just set the stage by like starting out with what happens in genesis?
Speaker 3:that's a good idea yeah because it's so.
Speaker 2:Obviously. It's the first book of the Bible where the beginning of creation is reported, and here we find the account of God creating Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And what did God tell them not to do?
Speaker 2:Oh, don't eat fruit from the knowledge, from the tree of the knowledge of evil.
Speaker 1:Yeah from the tree of the knowledge of evil? Yeah, because he. There's also a tree of life, which is what if we um embrace that? We are embracing god and what it says in the bible and trying to live our life? Surrender, surrounded around him, yeah or surrendering to, I think, you almost said it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's a perfect, a perfect thing to say um and in genesis 2, 16 through 17, I mean, it says you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and then adam was a perfect yeah, because I don't think god meant you're going to die. But what happened was Well, sin was created. Sin was created.
Speaker 2:Directly disobeyed God Right.
Speaker 1:And so, with sin being created now, the only way to have eternal life is Is to go through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:So, and that's what Christians believe and um eventually, they were tempted into eating uh, eating the fruit from the tree. And at that very moment, humanity was corrupted by sin and separated from God. So that's the beginning, so, oh so, as I said earlier, humanity became separated from God when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Then Jesus was born and died on the cross so that we would have a way to God once again.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm so.
Speaker 2:During Christ's ministry here on earth, he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God and made claims that he was the son of God.
Speaker 1:Right. So you know he was on earth for what? 33 years 33 years. Yes names that he was the son of god, right? So you know he was on earth for what? 33 years, 33 years, yes, so his, his whole thing was, you know, talking about him being the son of god, but you know that he was the son of god and a lot of a lot of things in the new testament that are talked about are, are mentioned and set up to this time when jesus is born and, you know, walks through his life and dies at 33.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, when he was on the earth, you know doing all his things and traveling around, he performed miracles.
Speaker 2:A lot of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as proof that he was the Messiah.
Speaker 2:Son of God, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, some of those were like he used five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 people, so he just multiplied all that. His resurrection from the dead right.
Speaker 2:We're celebrating this weekend here Lots of healing too, like healing the blind man and then healing the man who couldn't walk as well, or leprosy.
Speaker 1:I remember that one too, reading scripture on that for sure. Yeah, so anyways. Uh, some chose to follow jesus, and others challenge his claims, calling them radical. Um, then, eventually, the romans arrested jesus, and for his preaching and his claims that he was the son of God, and then he was sentenced to crucifixion.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So again, like we mentioned, that was on a Friday.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:In Scripture Matthew 27, verse 45, says From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the land. Jesus died at 3 PM that Friday. His body was wrapped in a clean linen cloth and placed in a tomb that had been cut out of rock. A big stone was rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb. And then on the third day, or that Sunday, it's in the morning there were two women that went to visit the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. The women wondered if the body of Jesus had been moved or stolen. And then in Luke 24, verses 4 through 7, it says this while they were there well, I'm sorry while they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that claimed to like wait that, wait sorry.
Speaker 1:Two men in wait reset reset. Two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning Hello, thank you. God stood beside them and in their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground. But the men said to them why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee the son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day. So again it goes back to them being warned. A lot of things in the Bible that happened earlier on were stated and nobody really knew what was going to happen, but these are all the things that are now coming to fruition in the New Testament. So Jesus' resurrection proved his claims and provided final and undeniable proof that he was the Son of God. So that was just another miracle. How does that happen? Right, it had to be a miracle.
Speaker 3:So that's the Easter story.
Speaker 1:That is the Easter story in a little nutshell. I think that, yeah, it's all about the traditions and the things that we do with our families, but we really had to remember the real reason for the season, as we say for Christmas. It was about Jesus dying for us so that we could have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life in heaven and be with God once again. So, going back to that Adam and Eve, where there was that break and you will surely die, there was that break and you will surely die to, if you just accept Christ into your heart, you will have once again. When you your time on this earth has ended, you will have eternal life in heaven.
Speaker 2:I go. And one of the most famous and well-known verses in the Bible is John, chapter three, 16, which reads can I?
Speaker 1:can I interject?
Speaker 2:here yeah what.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if if you're like new to christianity or you know you're, this would be the a perfect um bible verse to memorizing. We talk a lot about memorizing verses so that when in situations, we can pull, pull scripture into our mind and say it out loud to help us get through a situation. So but this because this is one of the most famous ones if you would take some time to memorize it, it would be beneficial.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So for God to love the world. I mean God loves all of us. Yeah, the obvious is love is there for. I mean God loves all of us. Yeah, the obvious is love is there for us, for the taking, and it's unconditional. He loves each of us equally, no matter what we've done in our past or anything like that.
Speaker 1:So that's like he doesn't care about that.
Speaker 2:That's what a lot of people are, like, you know afraid of religion or Christianity or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they think they're not good enough, or they think I've done this and this, so I want to say that this is such a good little phrase I heard recently. You know, god is not mad at you, he is mad about you.
Speaker 2:Isn't that great.
Speaker 1:Love that.
Speaker 2:Then he gave his one and only son. God gave the most precious thing he could give son Jesus.
Speaker 1:Sent.
Speaker 2:Jesus to live on the earth and then, 33 years later, to pass on the cross and then rise again. That whoever believes in him. In order to benefit from God's love the love that is there for our taking we have to believe in Jesus and accept him into our hearts then shall not perish but have eternal life. When we leave our time here on earth, we will then go on to live eternally in heaven. So this scripture- teaches us about.
Speaker 1:I just want to say, greg, that was a great little breakdown and unpacking of the scripture John 3, verse 16. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Okay, so Scripture teaches us that the endless love God demonstrates by sacrificing his one and only begotten son, jesus, for our salvation of mankind, and that anyone who believes in his son will not perish but have eternal life. And that just makes me so excited. I've been walking my walk with Christ for 20 years and my life yeah, life isn't easy, but life is better because I have a relationship with Jesus and, um, I wouldn't have it any other way. So I just want to encourage everyone to consider opening your heart, to, uh, accepting Christ into your heart, so that you can be forgiven, forgiveness of your sins, have a fresh start and look what God's going to do for you.
Speaker 1:It's it's going to be amazing, I promise. But uh, your walk really started when you were about was in 14.
Speaker 2:So you would have been about 11. Well, I was. 2014 was when you got baptized?
Speaker 1:I was 12 actually, I believe. Okay, so, yeah, yeah, so, um, I know you've seen your life change in ways you've grown that you maybe oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can't speak for you, but oh, I knew I wanted to be baptized from a young age.
Speaker 3:So I loved it so.
Speaker 2:I'll never forget that moment. So okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Christ died on the cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life. I think we've beaten that point. You know whatever, but who knows? You really maybe can't say it enough, but this is a gift, and if you want this for yourself and you are ready to receive Christ into your heart right now, we want to say this simple prayer for you and we'll say a few words and then you can repeat it to yourself. Put your hand on your heart. And did you want to say it, greg? You can say it if you want.
Speaker 1:Okay, father God, I love you. I want to get to know you better and live by your ways. Thank you, jesus, for dying on the cross so that I could be forgiven of my sins and have eternal life in heaven. Please forgive me of my sins, come into my heart. I receive you as my Lord and Savior and in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen, all right, well, congrats. If you um said that prayer. I want to wish you all a very blessed and a happy Easter, no matter where you are in your walk with Christ. Um, go check out our website, debbieandgreggoldcom, also the um the website website. You'll have a PDF download of my first Bible study I've written, which is all about getting started with your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, whether if you're a new believer or you are a believer but you really don't know what that means. This would be a good time for you to take a look at that. You can download it for $9.99. Um, anything else, greg, on your end that you would like to share Y'all?
Speaker 2:have a happy Easter.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Visit our website. Visit the website Listen to us on Apple podcasts. We're on. We're on a lot of things right now.
Speaker 1:So we're growing and so, yeah, go ahead and listen in and share with your people too. That's how we're going to touch more people with the love of Christ, and I guess that's it.
Speaker 2:I guess so.
Speaker 1:All right, we love you all. Thank you for listening and we'll, I don't know.
Speaker 2:We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 1:Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2:All right.