Take a moment to enjoy today's Resurrection Sunday Devotional .......
"Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty." I Corinthians 15:12-14
It was Saturday evening. We were seated at the Captain's Table, aboard a Swedish Freighter. The ship cut a foamy path through the Pacific Ocean, from San Pedro, California, headed towards Sydney Harbor, New South Wales. My husband and I, with our two children, were on a missionary voyage to Australia. There were only twelve passengers, since the freighter was primarily a cargo ship.
From the first day of the ten day cruise, we noticed the captain was a heavy drinker. That evening, as he talked, it was obvious he was drunk. However, we were intrigued during the dinner conversation to hear the ship would cross The International Date Line that night, the invisible 180 degree line of longitude in the middle the Pacific,. We would go to sleep Saturday night and wake up on Monday morning. We would lose Sunday.
"Sunday?" I said, "It's Easter! We will lose Easter Sunday!"
At that point, the captain clumsily pushed back his chair and struggled to stand up. Unsteady on his feet and with a wild wave of his wine glass, he raised his voice, "I will drink to that!" We gasped as he slurred out, "A toast to a world without Easter! It would be a better world with no religion...No Easter! Join me, lift your glass!"
He tried to focus his glare on my husband and me. His face flushed with anger when he saw we did not lift our glasses He noticed the other passengers refused to join his irreverent mockery. Not a glass was raised. He struggled to speak out his rage. With a fitful jerk he lost his balance. His first officer leaped to catch him before he hit the floor. As he pulled him away from the table, the young man muttered apologies for his captain's improper behavior before the dinner guests. That was the last time we saw the captain until the day he stood at the gangplank when we disembarked in Sydney.
His words, "A toast to a world without Easter!" never left my memory. To this day I can't help but ask what it would be like..a world without Easter? It is difficult to imagine . A world without Easter would be tragic. If we were destined to live in such a world, we would wander and die in it lost, without hope. None of us would ever leave the cemetery!
Receive this blessing, my friend, in Jesus Name. This Resurrection Sunday, God, who raised Jesus from the dead, keep you full of the Holy Spirit. After a long period of little obvious growth, be blessed with a new season of growth. The new fruit will be sweet and will last.
Your Easter Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I could never live a victorious life in this world without your new life in me. I accept deliverance from all that would make by life barren and bitter. I want to live for you in this world and to live with you forever. I offer myself to you for a new fruitful season. Amen