The Everyday Prayer

What does it feel like to be on death row?  What fills the mind and heart of a prisoner waiting for execution?  Paul says he knows.  In 2 Corinthians 1:9 he says, “we felt that we had received the sentence of death”.  What a picture of hopelessness!  We can only speculate on what caused a man like Paul to come to such a state.  Some say it was the constant opposition he faced.  Others think it was physical illness.  Perhaps it was a combination of things that finally became so overwhelming that Paul just lost hope.  The good news is that God raised him from the dead!  His hope and strength returned.  Resurrection is not just something that happens someday in heaven.  It is the work of God now.   “The God who raises the dead!” (vs 9)is His name.  One of the ways we learn to rely on Him is to go through times when we feel as hopeless and powerless as a prisoner on death row.

I really don’t like the new word.  It is a fairly recent innovation to translate 2 Corinthians 1:4 as “consolation”.  It sounds like consolation prize–something we give to losers to make them feel better.  Earlier translations were closer to the original thought.  They used the word “comfort”.  “He comforts us in all our afflictions, that we may comfort others.”  It means to strengthen or undergird.  It is a cognate (form) of the word Jesus used for the Holy Spirit.  Comforter is paraclete–0ne called alongside for the purpose of assistance.  When we are in trouble, God “calls out” whatever forces are necessary to insure our ability to meet the demands and duties of life in Him.  It is encouraging to consider the “alarms bells” of heaven sounding out when one of His children is in need of assistance.  He doesn’t criticize us, He sends help!  God accepts the responsiblity to provide all that we need for life and godliness, even in times of trouble. What a comforting thought!

Re Verse reading this week–2 Corinthians 1:1-11. “For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:5)  When Paul talked his abundant sufferings, he was not exaggerating.  The book of Acts is clear about the multiple occasions that Paul was beaten, “rumored” out of town, opposed, stoned, arrested or criticized.  Calling them the “sufferings of Christ” means that these particular troubles were CAUSED by his loyalty to Christ, or that they were COMPARABLE to the sufferings that Jesus experienced. (rejection, loneliness, persecution etc)  Paul is not unique.  None of us are promised a life that is easy, fair or pain-free.  Instead, the scripture teaches us that we should want to know “the fellowship of his sufferings”. (Philippians 3:10)  Rather than seeking safety, we are to desire the intimate friendship with Christ that comes only by walking with Him through the hard things of life.  Dear Lord, help me not complain when  life is unfair or I am misunderstood.  Teach me to find your comfort as I experience your sufferings.

“Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb. (John 20:1)  “When it was evening, the first day of the week.” (John 20″19)  “And on the first day of the week when we were gathered to break bread.” (Acts 20:7)  It is a FACT of history.  Early Christians gathered on the first day of the week (Sunday) to worship.  It is a SYMBOL of our doctrine–a celebration of the empty tomb and all that it means!  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is THE turning point of time and eternity!  His resurrection is the birth of the church.  His resurrection is what we believe and how we hope and why we worship.  Tomorrow is Sunday.  It is the first day of a new week.  We will study the resurrection of Christ. (1 Corinthians 15)  What possible reason could we give Jesus for not gathering and rejoicing and giving and worshiping?  I will see you in a few hours ,dear friends.  Because He lives!

“Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)  No one denys that death has a significant sting at the present time.  The loss of a loved one can be devastating.  More than once I have heard a grieving person express, “I knew it would be hard to lose him.  What I didn’t expect was to lose ME.”  The resurrection will remove this sting.  When God restores all people to life, we will look back over our years and wonder at the dread we felt for the experience of death.  Like a scorpion without a tail, and therefore without a stinger, death will be a grotesque but harmless reminder of what the creation was like when we once lived under the curse of God for sin.  This is no small vision!  This is no small hope!  We serve a cosmically good God who will restore all things and remove the sting of death.  Let’s gather tomorrow and celebrate this hope.  Don

“Grow old with me!  The best is yet to be, the end of life for which the first was made.”~Robert Browning.  One of the characteristics of true spiritual life is hope.  It is an optimism born of promise, held by confident faith.  Paul knows how necessary it is for us to be CERTAIN of the resurrection.  For 58 verses in 1 Corinthians 15, he insists that we view it as a reality (not a myth).  He declares that, like Christ, our new bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful and spiritual!  (1 Corinthians 15:43-44)  Much of what God will say and show is still in the future.  This powerful and motivating vision of life and eternity and the enduring love of God motivates us to serve without surrender or complaint. ( read vs 58)  Better than Browning ever imagined, we are all moving toward something amazing and good.  Friends, do you have this certainty?  Easter is our story too!  The best is yet to be.

“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44) Paul is pressing the Corinthians (and us) past our scientific cynicism.  He is challenging them to affirm the reality (not mythology) of the resurrection (Christ’s and their own).  It is absolutely essential that we embrace this idea!  Life is more than material.  It is natural AND supernatural.  (Paul calls it spiritual)  Strangely, the evidence for supernature is found in nature.  Seeds, when they are planted, don’t have the “body” they someday will.  God gives them a body.  With infinite creativity, the Creator God shapes the material world in diverse and appropriate ways.  Seeing this, we should have no fear of the future.  When he gives us a spiritual body that it will be gloriously appropriate for a new chapter of eternal history.  Nature is all the evidence we need to trust His faithfulness and competence.  Our new bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual! (vs 42-44) I can hardly wait!

“This is what we preach”  (1 Corinthians 15:11)  Sometimes we need to be reminded.  Christianity does not allow for personal freedom on all issues.  Some subjects may be honestly debated among those who love Christ and trust the Scripture.  (Fewer, I think, than we often believe.)  The Resurrection is not one!  To deny or doubt that Jesus was raised from the dead and/or that all men will be raised to face the judgement or reward of life after death is not a freedom that Christians have.  It is illogical!  The resurrection is our message!   Those who move from this confidence must have the courage to admit that they are no longer following Christ.  There is no wiggle room on this point.  “If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection?” (1 Corinthians 15:12)  We cannot substitute personal experience for the message preached by the Apostles.  It is not a freedom we have.

It is about hope.  The quality of your life, the joy you experience nearly always comes down to your confidence that the future will be good. ( Where have we learned fear?  Not from God!)  In 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul says that Christ is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  Without any uncertainty, he claims that what happened to Christ (the resurrection) will also happen to us.  He went first.  We all follow.  Unexpectedly, the benefit of this exciting future event is experienced in the present.  Looking forward to the resurrection  brings calm, clear courage to the heart of the believer.  What we have now is not all we ever will.  Who we are now is not all we will ever be.  God pours His strength into our hearts by teaching us to reflect on this hope.  “The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised, and we will all be changed.”  (1 Corinthians 15:52)  I feel better already! You?

“If only for this life we have hoped in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”  (1 Corinthians 15:19)  Occasionally I hear someone say, “I’m not concerned with life after death.  If I find out later that there is no Heaven, I will still be glad I was a Christian because it was the best way to live.”  Paul would NOT have agreed.  Christians who believe that “God has given us eternal life”  (1 John 5:11), who make sacrifices to “lay up treasures in heaven” (Matt 6:20  ) should be pitied if it turns out to be untrue.  We should be pitied because we die. (all men)  We should be pitied (believers only) because we have been deceived, have trusted something that is false.  Friend, do you believe in the resurrection?  Do you believe that there will be life after death, for you and for all those around you?  Is the resurrection real or just a nice thought?  More as we study 1 Corinthians 15 this week.  My love to you , dear friends.  Don