LifeLink Devotions for Monday, April 1, 2024

All over the world people are celebrating two holidays today. The most popular one is called April Fool’s Day, when we are allowed to play practical jokes on people and make them look like fools. But it’s also Easter Monday.  It’s a national holiday in 117 countries of the world. It is traditionally a day set aside to spend relaxed and recreational time with family and friends. In Canada, people eat Easter eggs and enjoy time outdoors. In Germany, they go out into the fields early in the morning and hold Easter egg races. In Guyana, people fly kites, which are made on Holy Saturday. In Leicestershire, England the people of Hallaton hold a bottle-kicking match and Hare Pie Scramble. In the Netherlands, people eat a festive breakfast and go hiking or cycling in the countryside.  

It makes me wonder if both holidays are the same. Are the people supposedly celebrating Easter with kites and eggs and pies any different from the people celebrating foolishness?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has guaranteed eternal life to those who will believe in Him and trust Him for their salvation from sin. All who reject Jesus are fools.

Listen to the words of the Apostle Peter in First Peter chapter 1.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Here’s what the resurrection of Jesus Christ accomplishes for you if you will trust Him. It all spells out the word RISEN.

        R is for regeneration. In Christ we have been given a new birth

         I  is for inheritance. We have been born into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, and is being kept in heaven for us.

        S is for security. By faith in Jesus Christ we are being shielded by God’s power until the coming of Christ.

        E is for endurance. Even though for a time now we have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, our faith is being refined so our lives bring glory to God.

        N is for nearness. Though we do not see Him, our faith in Him fills us with an inexpressible joy – the joy of His presence in our lives.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! And because He lives, I too shall live. But it is not me living. It is the resurrected Christ who lives in me! Hallelujah! May we celebrate His resurrection every day, because we live in its power every day!

Pastor John