Happy Resurrection Day!

What a glorious day this is--the day we Christians celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead! Think about it; Jesus had more influence on this world than any other person in history. The whole calendar is based on His life. Many people from different religions think highly of Jesus. Some say He was a great teacher. Some say He was a prophet. Others think He was a great philosopher. And of course, we Christians believe He is God. Don't you think that with so much admiration for Jesus that there would be a shrine at His grave with flowers and incense burning 24/7? Well, the reason you don't hear of that is because He's not in a grave! He has risen! He has risen indeed! That's what sets Jesus apart from any other religious leader.

Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, is himself a proof of the Resurrection of Christ. Why else would someone who was so against Christ and His followers, to the point of persecuting Christians and even killing them, change his whole life to preach Christ and even be persecuted for the Gospel himself, if the proof of Christianity (the resurrection) was not proven to him? He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 (NIV), "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also..." He went on to write in verses 12-14, "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."

I'm with Peter when he wrote in 1 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV), "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."