It's Friday...but Sunday's coming...

Like many who've been

barely surviving a spiritual winter season,

I felt a deep need for

hope.

With a compelling desire to create a Resurrection garden in my front yard

I  watched anxiously for a sunbreak.

Two times the sun broke through the clouds

and I was able to work in the garden without interruption.

That actually was two separate and distinct miracles.

Sun in spring.

No interruptions.

Hallelujah!

As I dug around in the dirt, planting, planning and praying

I began thinking about the disciples.

 It must have been hard for them to view the

 Crucifixion and see their Savior buried in a tomb.

Of course, we know the end of the story,

so it's easy to be frustrated with their lack of belief.

The LORD told them He was going to be crucified.

He told them He would He would be in the grave for three days.

He even told them  He would be resurrected.

He told them everything they needed to know

to endure the coming tribulation.

As they watched the story unfold,

they should have remembered.

But, they didn't.

They scuffled their feet on the dusty roads,

their faces downcast, their hope shattered.

They went back to their lives, broken and forlorn,

doubting everything they'd seen for three years.

We shouldn't mock their disbelief,

as if we have superior faith,

because we have

far more

physical evidence of the Lord's promises than they ever had.

We have 27 books in the New Testament.

We have the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We have hundreds of years of Christian examples.

We have thousands and thousands of Christian books.

We have Christian movies.

We have sermons available with modern media devices.

We have ways of communicating with believers all across the world.

We have no reason to doubt the Lord.

We, of all people, should believe the promises of God

and walk in the power of the Resurrection.

But, we're just like the disciples,

walking through  our trials downcast and forlorn.

We focus on the darkness inside the tomb,

and not the glorious light outside.

~~~from tree to tomb~~~

The inside of the tomb represents the place my sins

and my trials went with Jesus.

He took them upon Him, and took them to the grave.

For awhile, I forgot about the resurrection power.

I was hovering near the tomb, weeping.

I could only focus on the

pain,

and not the coming

power.

 

~~~from nails to newness~~~

 

He overcame it all when He rose from the grave

through the power of the Holy Spirit,

and he wants us to walk in that same power.

He doesn't ask something of us without enabling us,

so He filled us with the same Holy Spirit at salvation.

As I filled my fingernails with dirt

and cleansed my heart from dirt,

I thought of a sermon I heard as a young believer

by Tony Campolo called,

 "It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming."

If we  have placed our

heartaches,

 pains,

sufferings

and trials

at the Cross,

then we should look up

with expectation

not look down

in rejection.

 

Because, dear believers,

It's Friday,

and Sunday's Coming!

Romans 6:4

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:

that like as Christ was raised up from the dead

by the glory of the Father,

even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Resurrection of Body Parts?

I have been trying to study the two judgments and the two resurrections to try to piece together the different sequence of events that lies ahead for believers and non-believers.

John 5:28-29,"...all who are in the graves will hear His voice  and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."


We know from the first chapters of John that good deeds are only committed through saving faith in Jesus Christ. Those who have done evil have rejected the Way of salvation.

It was amazing to realize how the resurrection was such a part of the Gospel talk of the early church.


Martha understood the resurrection long before she saw her brother rise from the dead.

John 11:24, "Martha said to Him (Jesus), “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”


I really got thinking about the bodily resurrection. So, if I am already dead, my body will rise from the grave at the time of the Rapture.

1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first."


Of course, if I'm alive, I get to go alive.

I Thessalonians 4:17, "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

At one point, we change these bodies in for new ones.

Philippians 3:20-21, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body..."

So, the big question is, does that mean our entire body?  Or just what's left of our body at the time of the Rapture?

from Bill Casselman.com

What about my thyroid that was removed because of cancer? It that little thingy going to fly through the air and meet up with the rest of the body for the big Trade-in?

Does my thyroid know which body to join?

Is there like a homing device?

It looks like a butterfly, maybe it can fly.

Or, do all those removed and incinerated body parts just stay in the trash heaps of the world while our fragmented bodies join in the heavenly festivities?

I got the giggles imaging all these different removed organs and limbs flying through the air, in a twinkling of an eye, matching up with the bodies they were removed due to severe illnesses, cancers and accidents.

Wow, to be whole again, even if only for a  bajillionth of a second, then get to trade-in on a new, sinless, heavenly body. Amazing!

But, regardless of whether we meet up with missing body parts on the way to the heavenly glories, this much is true and doesn't need to be laughed about-

-we born-again believers will see Jesus,
and when we see Him,
we shall all be changed.

1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now we are children of God...but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."



It won't matter if I am missing a major organ.


In that second, because of His grace, I will be completely whole, completely His and completely fit to be in the presence of the One whose hands bear the marks of His dying love for me.


Praise the Lord!

MM Meditation - The Resurrection

I Corinthians 15

The Gospel in a nutshell:

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4 and that He was buried,

 and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

There are some that don't believe the Gospel:

12 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?

Our resurrection is dependent on Christ's resurrection:

13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead,

then Christ is not risen.

Our faith is dependent on Christ's resurrection:

14 And if Christ is not risen,

then our preaching is empty

and your faith is also empty.

Our forgiveness is dependent on Christ's resurrection:

16 For if the dead do not rise,

then Christ is not risen.

17 And if Christ is not risen,

your faith is futile;

you are still in your sins!

The glorious truth is back to verses 3 and 4

that Christ died for your sins
according to the Scriptures,

4 and that He was buried,

and that He rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures,

If you confess your sins,

accept His death as payment for your sins,

and believe He rose from the grave,

victorious over those sins,

you will be resurrected unto Eternal Life.

We're celebrating His resurrection,

but by faith we can also experience that  resurrection power

over sin

and death

and hell.

Praise the Resurrected Savior!