Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go to this video link to hear a contemporary group singing the old Easter hymn Jesus Christ Is Risen Today, declaring the reality and hope that our Lord will return to take us to Glory.
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Highlight Passage – NKJV: John 5: 28-29 [NKJV] …
28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
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Highlight Passage [Context] – NKJV: John 5: 24-30 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
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Reference Passages #1: 1st Corinthians 15: 42-44 [NKJV] …
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Reference Passages #2: 1st Corinthians 15: 54-58 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
Reference Passages #2: 1st Thessalonians 4: 13-18 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
My Journal for Today: Okay, it’s the day after Easter as I come to my Monday morning quiet time and write this journal entry. And yesterday morning, many folks were in church, who normally are not regular weekly attendees. I guess some feel like going to church at Easter and/or Christmas fulfills their “christian” duty for church involvement. But, my cynical jibe aside, our worship service yesterday was a wonderful celebration of the reality we have in Christ, Who defeated death, coming out of the grave, and the hope we have that He will come again one day as the Bridegroom to take His Bride, the Church, to our promised home in Heaven.
I hope any who read here revel in the joy of that promise as much as I do.
But in my Our Daily Bread this morning, I was reminded by it’s author, Dennis Fisher, of this glorious hope by referring to a wonderful fresco painting, the Anastasis, which can be found on the ceiling of a former 14th century funeral chapel in Constantinople (i.e., now Istanbul). You can see a photo of this painting attached which depicts Christ taking Adam and Eve, the original sinners, from their graves to be with our Lord in Heaven. And what could be a more fitting and glorious painting to be on the ceiling of a funeral chapel than a painting of Jesus’ victory over the grave.
Several years ago, before my dad died, he was in a nursing care facility with many painful maladies; and when I went to visit him, he always wanted me to read that passage in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, where Paul wrote – at God’s inspiration – about the Christian receiving a new, incorruptible, pain-free, body in Heaven (see 1st Cor. 15: 42-44 above). My dad needed to revel in the hope of Christ’s victory over the sting of our mortality and His defeat of death … which is inevitable. He needed the hope of Christ in glory [see link to 1st Cor. 15: 54-58 above] to overcome the pain he was experiencing in this life.
And I don’t know about you; but I’m getting old enough, with ever increasing bodily pain and emotional concerns, that the thought and hope of Christ coming again to take His Bride to glory is becoming more and more and more appealing. Oh, there is much to look forward to and to do in this life; but to remember that our Lord is coming again to take us to our real home in glory is a wondrous promise for sure!
My Prayer for Today … Come soon, Lord Jesus!! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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