“The disciples went and woke him, saying, 'Master, Master, we're going to drown!' He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 'Where is your faith?' he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, 'Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.'"– Luke 8:24-25
In November 1950, following the Battle of Unsan in Korea, U.S. Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun became a prisoner of war. In the camp that winter, deep in a valley, men could freeze to death in their sleep. Father Kapaun offered them his own clothes. They starved on tiny rations of millet and corn and birdseed. He somehow snuck past the guards, foraged in nearby fields, and returned with rice and potatoes. In desperation, some men hoarded food. He convinced them to share. Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery. He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal into pots, and boiled clean water. They lived in filth. He washed their clothes and he cleansed their wounds.
The guards ridiculed his devotion to Jesus. They took his clothes and made him stand in the freezing cold for hours. Yet, he never lost his faith. If anything, it only grew stronger. At night, he slipped into huts to lead prisoners in prayer offering three simple words: “God bless you.” One of them later said that with his very presence he could just for a moment turn a mud hut into a cathedral.
That spring, he went further -- he held an Easter service. As the sun rose that Easter Sunday, he led dozens of prisoners to the ruins of an old church in the camp. He held up a small crucifix that he had made from sticks. And as the guards watched, Father Kapaun and all those prisoners -- men of different faiths, perhaps some men of no faith -- sang the Lord’s Prayer and “America the Beautiful.” They sang so loud that other prisoners across the camp not only heard them; they joined in, too -- filling that valley with song and with prayer.
Looking back, one prisoner said that Emil’s faith is what “kept a lot of us alive.”
When Emil began to suffer from the physical toll of his captivity, the Chinese transferred him to a filthy, unheated hospital where he died alone. As he was being carried to the hospital, he asked God’s forgiveness for his captors and made his fellow prisoners promise to keep their faith. Emil died in captivity on May 23, 1951, keeping his faith in Christ.
No matter what the circumstance, keep your faith in Christ. Today in prayer, praise Jesus that in Him you can place your faith.
“Faith is to believe what we cannot see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” - Augustine
God’s Word: "'If you can?' said Jesus. 'Everything is possible for him who believes.'" – Mark 9:23
By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2021, Devotional E-Mail
DEVOTIONS IN LUKE †