2010 – December 3 – The Eternal Make-Over

Study from God’s Word… From Ephesus to the Corinthian, Paul writes of the resurrection and the gospel message in 1st Corinthians, chapters 15 and 16, with his salutation to them being referred to in Acts 19: 23 – 20: 1 … Passage for Reflection: 1st Cor. 15: 35, 49 … NIV 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” … 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

My Journal for Today: As a born-again, believing Christian, have you ever pondered or speculated about what your being will be like (and yes, I’m referring to your body) in heaven? There have been all kinds of thoughts and writings on the matter; some of which are bazaar and confusing; … but this I know. What Paul wrote about in 1st Corinthians 15: 35 – 58 is incredibly hope-filled for this old guy … where the aches and pains of aging are making me meditate all the more on these Scriptural promises about that new body I will have in glory.

I can recall visiting my dad in his last couple of years, residing in a nursing care facility because of all the physical ailments he had incurred in later life. He had emphysema, making it difficult to breath. He had severe arthritis and degenerating osteoporosis, making movement very difficult and painful. And in his last two years, he had had cancer in his jaw which required surgical jaw reconstruction, making chewing and swallowing very difficult, thus making eating very unpleasant, … the one pleasure he had had down the stretch of his life.

My dad had come to know Christ as Savior and Lord very late in his life (that’s a long and rather incredible story – not to be related here); and his last 3-4 years in that assisted living facility really taught me about the need for our hope resting solidly in the One Who had given us the way to be resurrected – as He was – and somehow restored into an image, predestined, to be like His.

I can remember sitting in my Dad’s room in that care facility; and he would ask me to “read the Bible about my new body.” And I would read to him from 1st Cor. 15: 35-58; and we’d talk about what it would be like one day to be without pain, having an eternal party with Jesus in heaven. Oh, the change that would come over his face when my dad imagined what Paul was relating as absolute truth. It really comforted my dad, who was languishing in such pain in his earthy body, to think about a pain free eternity in his new body. And now, my father, awaits that new body as He joyfully is with Christ in spirit in that intermediate heaven which all Christians “who sleep in Christ” await the Lord’s triumphant return and His reign in the New Jerusalem.

I hope that you get as much comfort and joy out of the promises from God, through Paul, in 1st Cor. 15 as do I.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I await, with great anticipation, how You will give me Your eternal make-over in Heaven. Amen