Friday, April 20, 2018

Fw: Just beyond...

1 Corinthians 15:42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being";the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
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God has a way of turning defeat into victory.  Certainly the Cross is the greatest example of this, when Christ's enemies thought they'd gotten rid of Him and discouraged His followers by putting Him to death there.  But that death was necessary as the one perfect sacrifice for our sins.  Death, for each of us...as believers in Jesus...is very similar.  Death presents itself as (1) an end, (2) a great loss, (3) permanent separation from loved ones and is often accompanied by pain.  It can come at very unexpected times and in a very untimely way.  Life's ambition, accumulation and achievement suddenly ceases.  And beyond we wonder and have many questions.
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But just as the Cross turned a death into a restoration for all who would believe, so Jesus' resurrection is a promise that those who believe will live beyond death...just as Jesus did.  Rather than the end that it appears to be, death becomes a doorway that human beings must move through and into a wonderful place beyond.  Just as the people of Israel moved across the Red Sea and then across a desert and then across the Jordan to experience deliverance, provision and arrival in the Promised Land, so the believer must experience faith in the Cross, provision through this life and entrance to eternity with the Lord.
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Faith looks past death for our God is all about life!
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blessings,
Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."


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