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December 28

The God Who is There
Job 42:1--17
"My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you." (v. 5)

    The Book of Job records the story of a godly man who underwent some of the most bitter experiences it is possible to meet with in this life. At first Job says very little about his difficulties, but later in the book he begins to face the reality of what has happened to him and declares that if he could have an interview with God he would tell Him exactly what he thought of Him (Job 23:1--17). It was when he faced his hardships, recognized how he really felt and admitted it that God came to him and answered him (Job 38:1--41:34). We must never be afraid of admitting that what we see around us doesn't match up with what we know about the character of God. To blind our eyes to the realities of life for fear that what we observe might turn us against God is utterly foolish. We must face difficult issues, for it is only when we do so that we are ready to hear God speak. If we refuse to face reality, then our souls are not alert to hear His voice. We fear that we might hear something to make us even more uncertain of God, and thus prefer to take refuge in illusion. When Job faced the reality of his situation and how he really felt, then he was ready for God to speak. But notice God didn't give any answers to Job's questions. He gave Himself. Job had an encounter with God that more than satisfied him. He could live without answers when he knew that God was there.

Prayer:

    Loving Father, the more I learn about You the more wonderful I see You are. Help me never to take refuge in illusion but to bring all my doubts and fears directly to You. Do for me what You did for Job -- enrich me with Your presence. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

    For Further Study
    Isa. 40:1--31; Ps. 89:6; 1 Chron. 17:20
    1. What question did Isaiah ask?
    2. How did he answer it?

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December 29

Accepting the Inevitable
Job 36:1--15
"But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction." (v. 15)

    Oswald Chambers said: "Life is more tragic than orderly." Chambers knew that unless Christians are willing to grapple with this truth and accept it, they will be plagued by inner thoughts and shoulds that lead them down the road of illusion. They will find themselves saying, "It ought not to be like this" or "Things should be different" -- and the only thing this kind of demandingness produces is frustration and anger. The Fall has turned this fair universe of God's into a shambles, and though much about the world is still beautiful, accidents, calamities, and suffering prevail. And these will continue until the time when God brings all things to a conclusion. There is nothing wrong with wishing that things were not so, but when we demand that they be different, when we say the effects of the Fall must be reversed and reversed now, we will end up feeling terribly frustrated. Life is difficult, as Scott Peck stated, and though prayer does move God to work supernaturally in some situations, life will go on being more "tragic than orderly" until Christ returns and finalizes His plans for this fallen planet. This is reality -- and the sooner we face it the better. True faith is not built upon illusion but upon reality. We may not like things the way they are in this world, but to avoid facing them because they don't match up with what we know about God is foolish. As I have been emphasizing, it is only when we face honestly the harsh realities of life that we become ready for God to speak to us.

Prayer:

    O God, I see that facing the hard things of life honestly drives me to a place where I become desperate for an answer. Then You step in -- and give me not an answer but Yourself. I can live without answers, but I cannot live without You. Stay close to me, my Father. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

    For Further Study
    Heb. 11:1--40; 2 Cor. 11:16--29; 4:7--10
    1. What is faith?
    2. List some of the difficult circumstances of life faced in the light of faith.

[nChrist]

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December 30

Messed Up Theology
Job 13:1--15
"Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him ..." (v. 15)

    A friend of mine who is an instructor in the field of Christian counseling says that one of the things he likes to do with his students is to mess up their theology. He does so by asking them difficult questions about the realities of the universe in order to see how they attempt to square these issues with their view of God. "God always answers the prayer of faith," said one of his students. "Then why," he asked the student, "did I pray for an hour for my father who was desperately sick to have a good night and then hear that he had the worst night since he had been in the hospital?" "You didn't pray in faith," replied the student. That's the kind of glib answer many people would give to that question. Such people can't sit quietly in the presence of mystery and say: "I don't understand why this is so but nevertheless I still believe God is good." They must have some kind of answer that they can hold on to because when they have no answers they have no faith. Faith is Job saying: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." Anyone can believe when there are explanations and answers. The person who goes on to know God in a deep and intimate way is the one who can affirm that God is good even though there may be a thousand appearances to the contrary. Pray for me and I will pray for you that together we might come to the place of trusting God even when we cannot trace Him.

Prayer:

    O God, bring us closer day by day to that place of deep confidence and absolute trust. May we know You so deeply that nothing we see around us will shake or shatter our belief in Your unchanging goodness. In our Lord's Name we pray. Amen.

    For Further Study
    Dan. 3:13--30; Hab. 3:16--18; Ps. 46:2
    1. How did the Hebrew youths demonstrate faith in God?
    2. What does Habakkuk declare?

[nChrist]

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December 31

The Old Rugged Cross
Romans 5:1--11
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (v. 8 )

    Can we believe that God is good even though things may be happening around us that seemingly give the lie to that fact? The only place we Christians can go when we are assailed by doubts about God's goodness is the cross. At Calvary we were given undeniable evidence that God is good. We must cling to the cross when in doubt and remind ourselves that a God who would give His only Son to die for us simply has to be All-Goodness. A songwriter put it like this: God is love, I see it in the earth around me; God is love, I feel it in the sky above me; God is love, all nature doth agree; But the greatest proof of His love to me ... is Calvary. Many things about the cross are mysterious, but there is no mystery about divine goodness. There at Calvary it blazes forth for all to see. I often wonder to myself what was happening that was good when my wife was dying with cancer. I couldn't see anything, but because I know God is good I accept that something good was being worked out. A good God was in charge, and I am prepared to wait for the clarification of that until I get home. Then I know He will tell me Himself. God is good no matter what the appearances to the contrary. The "old rugged cross" makes that crystal clear. Let us cling to it, come what may.

Prayer:

    O Father, I am so thankful for the cross. It is the one place in a dark and mysterious universe where light breaks through. Help me interpret the darkness by the light, not the light by the darkness. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

    For Further Study
    Gal. 6:1--14; 1 Cor. 1:17; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20
    1. How did Paul view the cross?
    2. Spend some time contemplating the cross today.

[nChrist]

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January 1

Understanding the Cross
For reading & meditation: Romans 5:6-21
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (v. 8 )

    An ancient theologian - St. Augustine - suggested that "the answer to the mystery of the universe is God and the answer to the mystery of God is Christ." If this is so then I would like to make a further suggestion: the answer to the mystery of Christ is to be found in His sacrificial spirit, the supreme evidence of which is the cross. We will never in our mortal state be able to grasp the full meaning of the cross. But what we do grasp gives us a clue to what lies in the heart of the Infinite. Theologians often discuss the various theories of the atonement. Personally, I find myself accepting any theory of the atonement that makes the meaning of the cross more vital and clear. No theory seems to me big enough to fit the facts. As Jesus broke the bars of the tomb and stepped out beyond them, so the fact of Jesus dying seems to transcend our most careful statements or form of words. To really understand the cross one must have an attitude of mind and heart that responds to its meaning. I came across this: "To understand art one must have art within one; to understand music one must have music within one." I thought to myself, to understand the cross one must have a sacrificial spirit within one. Those who profess to know Christ but live only for self will know something of the cross but will miss its real meaning. The cross is best understood not by an argument but by an attitude.

Prayer:

    Father, I see that if I am to fully understand the cross I must have a sacrificial spirit within me. May I linger at Your cross until Your nature becomes my nature. Then seeing I shall see. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

    For further study:
    John 15:13; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Peter 2:24; Titus 2:1-14;
    1. How is love demonstrated?
    2. What was the greater dimension of Christ's sacrifice?

[nChrist]

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January 2

One Long Search for God
For reading & meditation: Mark 7:8-23
"For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts ..." (v. 21)

    We need to be reminded that there is in life a dark and terrible problem - the problem of evil. Herbert Spencer in Natural Law in the Spiritual World defines physical life as "inward correspondence with outward environment." When we take in food, air and water, we live. When we don't, we die. There must be a response to our environment. But there is also a spiritual environment to which we must respond, and when we are in correspondence with God we live spiritually. The facts of life fairly faced proclaim with heart-breaking obviousness that human beings are out of touch with their spiritual environment. To be out of touch with God means, inevitably, that we will be out of touch with ourselves and with others. But the history of humanity is, as one historian put it, "one long search for God." We stand beside our altars, we breathe our prayers, we make our vows, we repeat our ceremonies, we crave with inexpressible yearnings of the inmost heart, we long for fellowship with God. Yet something dark, dreadful, and sinister stands between us and God. We realize God is pure, and because we are conscious of our impurity we hardly dare ask for fellowship with Him. We are separated and guilty. The object of all religions is to bring those who long for fellowship with God into correspondence with Him. But how is that achieved? Christianity says it can be done only through the cross. Other religions point to other ways, and claim their way is as valid as the Christian way. But God says the cross is the only way.

Prayer:

    O God my Father, what way could You have dealt with my sins except through the cross? My sins needed something more than disinfecting; they needed incinerating. In the flames of Calvary that is what happened. Now I am free. And how! Amen.

For further study:
Romans 1:18-32; Genesis 6:12; 2 Timothy 3:1-2;
1. What did men change God for?
2. What was the result?

[nChrist]

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January 3

At-One-Ment
For reading & meditation: Romans 3:21-31
"God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." (v. 25)

    Herbert Spencer, whom we quoted earlier, wrote: "The task of religion is at-one-ment: atonement. If it fails to do this it fails at the vital point." Its ritual may be beautiful, its sanctions may be ancient, its precepts may be good, but if it fails to bring men and women into correspondence with God it fails vitally and irretrievably. All else is useless, for if the problem of evil is ignored or passed over, we are like the person who dreams about and plans next year's happiness while an incurable disease is eating at his vitals. The wonderful distinctive of Christianity is this - Jesus Christ has done something about the problem of being out of correspondence with God. He puts the hand of a penitent sinner into the hand of a pardoning God. Because of the nature of the problem - the problem of evil - no other solution is possible. Salvation is a task which only God could engineer. As one theologian puts it: "It is a task worthy of God." The ancient Greek playwrights used to warn their students that when writing a tragedy they should not bring a god onto the stage unless there was an entanglement worthy of a god. The presence of evil in this world, I suggest, presents an entanglement worthy of God. But it is no mere stage affair. It is a tragic fact. To deliver men and women from evil was a problem that challenged God's power and made the deepest claim upon His love. The cross is the answer. If we don't take God's way of salvation, then nothing else will do.

Prayer:

    Father, I rejoice that You have brought me to Your way -t he only way. Help the millions who strive to earn their salvation see that the penalty for sin has been fully paid. And all they have to do is humbly receive. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.

For further study:

    1 John 2:1-2; :; 2 Corinthians 5:11-19;
    1. What is at the heart of atonement?
    2. What did John assure the believers?

[nChrist]

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January 4

An Unintentional Tribute
For reading & meditation: Matthew 27:32-44
"'He saved others,' they said, 'but he can't save himself!' " (v. 42)

    What humiliation and shame our Lord endured for us on the cross of Calvary. Cicero, a Roman philosopher, said of crucifixion: "Far be the very name of a cross not only from the bodies of Roman citizens, but from their imaginations, eyes and ears." But He, our Lord, though sinless, was crucified on a cross. Although His blood was flowing freely from wounds inflicted by the crown of thorns on His head, from His back that had been lacerated by cruel thongs, from His hands and feet through which He was skewered to the tree, yet He refused the deadening drug offered Him. He underwent the ordeal with brain unclouded and with nerves unsoothed. The crowd who watched Him cried: "He saved others, but he can't save himself!" But strange as it seems, that mocking phrase became the central truth of the gospel. He was saving others and therefore He could not save Himself. That is one of the greatest truths of life -if we are to save others we cannot save ourselves. To quote Spencer again: "It is a great mystery," he says, "yet an everlasting fact, that goodness in all moral natures has the doom of bleeding upon it, allowing it to conquer only as it bleeds. All goodness conquers by a cross." This law of saving by self-giving runs through life. Those who save themselves cannot save others, and those who save others cannot save themselves - cannot save themselves trouble, sorrow, hurts, disappointments, pain, and sometimes even death. This is a law of the universe, and it applies to God as much as it does to us.

Prayer:

    O God, I have seen this law at work in human nature but I never thought it was part of the divine nature. But where could it have come from other than You? The highest in mankind is the deepest in You. I am staggered by it, but I know it to be true. Thank You, dear Father. Amen.

For further study:

    Galatians 1:1-5; Galatians 1:1-5; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14;
    1. What does Paul emphasize?
    2. What is the implication for us?

[nChrist]

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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Ultimate Discovery
For reading & meditation: Mark 15:16-39
"... when the centurion ... saw how he died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God!' " (v. 39)

    I cannot believe that God would write a law of "saving by sacrifice" within our hearts and evade it Himself. The psalmist asks: "Does he who formed the eye not see?" (Ps. 94:9). And Browning said: "He that created love, shall He not love?" We might add: "He that created sacrificial love, shall He not sacrifice"? The old Chinese scholar was right who, after listening for the first time to a missionary telling the story of the loving sacrifice of God through His Son on the cross, turned to one of his pupils and said: "Didn't I tell you there ought to be a God like that?" The leaders of the world's religions stumble over this. A leading Muslim said recently during a television debate: "A God who would stoop and suffer is not perfect." And a Hindu commented: "If Brahman would suffer He would be unhappy, and if He were unhappy He would be imperfect, and if He were imperfect He would not be God." The cross spells out the message that God is prepared to take into Himself the suffering caused by sin and, indeed, to take on Himself the very sins of the ones He created. No other religion can conceive of such a thing. The cross raised on Calvary is but a reflection of an inner cross lying in the heart of God. Through it we see that at the center of the universe is redeeming love. No greater discovery could be made or will be made than that - in earth or in heaven. It is the ultimate in discoveries.

Prayer:

    O Father, I see that if self-giving love is the meaning behind the cross, and the meaning of the universe, then it must be the meaning behind my life too. May the cross work itself out in all my relationships from this day forward. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

For further study:

    John 19:1-15; 1 Corinthians 1:1-23;
    1. What was central to Paul's message?
    2. How was the message of Christ's crucifixion viewed?

[nChrist]

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January 6

A Sacrificial Head
For reading & meditation: Luke 9:18-27
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (v. 24)

    Suppose a tiny seed had a will of its own and decided to save itself by refusing to be buried. It would abide alone. It would save itself but would not save others. When it decided to be buried and die, then the result would be a golden harvest. Take a mother: she goes down into the valley of the shadow of death to bring a child into the world. When the child becomes ill, a loving mother forgets herself and spends her strength to give everything she has to the child. The spirit of self-giving is the most beautiful thing in life. Through it life rises to the highest level. "The extent of the elevation of an animal and of course any free moral agent," said Pascal, the great French Christian and philosopher, "can be infallibly measured"by the degree to which sacrificial love for others controls that being." Here is a law by which life may be evaluated and judged. When the sacrificial spirit is absent from life, that life is of the lowest kind; where it is perfectly embodied, that life is highest on the scale of being. Is this law to be found in God also? I believe it is. If this law holds true on earth but is reversed in relation to God, then laws are meaningless and the universe is without a Head. Then the highest in mankind would be better than God. But such is not the case. God is not a disappointment. The cross shouts out to all who will hear that the universe has a sacrificial Head.

Prayer:

    O Father, how could I know that there is an unseen cross lying in Your heart unless You had shown me by the outer cross raised up on Calvary? Such revelation is almost too much for me to comprehend. Yet it is true. My gratitude will just not go into words. Amen.

For further study:

    John 12:17-26; John 12:17-26; Romans 5:6
    1. What did Jesus liken Himself to?
    2. How did He illustrate sacrificial love?

[nChrist]

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January 7

The Man of Galilee
For reading & meditation: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance ... that he was raised on the third day ..." (vv. 3-4)

    What other world religion has at its heart such a glorious fact as our Lord's resurrection? Christianity is the only faith whose Founder died upon a cross, was buried for three days, and then returned from the dead. There are voices in today's church trying to persuade us that the resurrection of Christ never took place - that our Lord did not rise from the dead in bodily form. "It is not necessary to believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ in order to be a Christian," says one modern-day religious teacher. He goes on to claim: We may freely say that the bones of Jesus are still lying somewhere in the land of Israel." "I quite expect," says another religious writer, "that the bones of Jesus will be dug up one day." And a few years ago, David Jenkins, the former Anglican bishop, shocked the Christian world, as you probably know, with the statement: I have not the slightest interest in a conjuring trick with bones. In the British Museum in London there used to be a grim exhibit known as The Galilee Man," so called because the remains were found in the area surrounding Galilee. I remember thinking to myself the first time I visited the British Museum and saw that the exhibit was captioned "The Galilee Man," how wonderful that the disinterred bones of the Galilee man are not the remains of the Man of Galilee.

Prayer:

    Loving heavenly Father, help me understand even more deeply the truth of Your Son's resurrection, for such an important truth cannot be left to lie in the realm of uncertainty. Take my hand and lead me more deeply into this truth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

For further study:

    John 20:1-18; Acts 2:23-24; Acts 2:23-24; :;
    1. What was Peter adamant about?
    2. Share with someone else today the true message of the resurrection.

[nChrist]

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January 8

A Basic Precondition
For reading & meditation: John 20:1-18
"They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)" (v. 9)

    The late Bishop John Robinson stated: "The resurrection of the body of Christ is no essential belief for Christian people, and it would make no difference to their faith if the Lord's body had been flung into the Valley of Hinnom, like those of the malefactors, to disintegrate among the rotting corpses." Such a statement flies in the very face of Scripture. Paul wrote: "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe ... that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9, italics added). Here Paul makes it crystal clear that acceptance of the fact that Christ rose from the dead is a basic precondition for being a Christian. But what exactly do we mean by resurrection? "Spiritual survival" is how the liberals in the church define it. But it was not just the spiritual part of Jesus that continued after the tomb - it was the total Christ. True, His body possessed additional powers and properties, but the physical frame which housed His spirit after He left the tomb was the same one that was nailed to the cross. "See my hands," He said to doubting Thomas, "put [your hand] into my side ... and believe" (John 20:27). Eric Sauer, a writer and Bible teacher, makes the point: "Just as our Lord's body was capable of transfiguration without losing its identity, so it was capable of disfiguration without losing its identity." Make no mistake about it, our Lord's resurrection was a physical one. If it wasn't, then there is no salvation.

Prayer:

    Father, if I am not sure of the resurrection how can I be sure I am saved? However, I am sure, for I live in a resurrected Christ. Since He was resurrected, I know I shall be too. Death has been conquered. Hallelujah!

For further study:

    John 20:19-31
    1. How did Jesus appear to the disciples?
    2. What did Jesus participate in?

[nChrist]

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January 9

The Swoon Theory
For reading & meditation: Acts 2:29-41
"God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." (v. 32)

    Let us pursue the question we asked yesterday: What exactly do we mean by resurrection? Some try to explain the resurrection as resuscitation - the return to life from apparent death. Those holding this view subscribe to what is called "The Swoon Theory." There are two forms of this theory. One maintains that Jesus did not die but fainted on the cross and returned to consciousness when He was laid on the cold rock of the tomb. The other claims that after drinking the wine vinegar that was given to Him when He cried "I am thirsty," He fell into a stupor so deep that it was mistaken for death. But clearly our Lord actually died. The Gospels provide us with medical evidence for the fact. One of the soldiers pierced His side and there came forth "blood and water" (John 19:34). A doctor commenting on this says: "The pericardium (the sac around the heart) was punctured and the colorless fluid flowing from the wound proves that life would have been extinct." Was it really a convalescent Christ the disciples encountered on that first Easter Day? Could such a pathetic and powerless figure have convinced them that He had conquered death and was alive forevermore? No, the Master, as it were, had flung from His face the mask of death, and laid down in the hearts and minds of His disciples an impression that stayed with them throughout the whole of their ministry. He who had been dead was now alive - gloriously and resplendently.

Prayer:

    O Father, You whose very nature is truth, would You foist upon us a lie and have us believe Your Son rose from the dead when He did not? I cannot believe it. The life by which I live is resurrection life. I cannot be alive in someone who is dead. Amen.

For further study:

    Luke 24:1-53; Mark 16:12;
    1. What did the disciples invite Jesus to do?
    2. What did Jesus invite the disciples to do?

[nChrist]

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January 10

The True and the False
For reading & meditation: 2 Timothy 1:1-18
" ... our Savior, Christ Jesus ... has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light ..." (v. 10)

    Several of the world's religions, when faced with the perplexing issue of Christ's return from the dead, explain it in terms of reincarnation. A proponent of one of the Eastern religions says: "Christ's resurrection was really a reincarnation - another soul in another body." I once heard a Christian minister declare that Paul's reference to Christ as the firstborn from among the dead (Col. 1:18 ) was a clear allusion to reincarnation. There is no doubt that our Lord came from a virgin womb and a virgin tomb, but the body that emerged from the sepulchre was not fashioned in the tomb as it had been when He was an infant in Mary's womb. The body was the same one as before. Others try to explain Christ's resurrection as living on in the recollection of others. "To live in the minds and hearts of those we love," goes a well-known saying often heard at funerals, "is not to die." It has to be acknowledged that some live so vibrantly that it is hard to think of them as dead even after one has attended their funeral. But when we talk about Christ's resurrection, we are not saying He survives in our memories. Recollection is not resurrection. The body which died upon the cross and was laid in the cool tomb on the evening of the first Good Friday was miraculously infused with life once again early in the morning of the first Easter Day. It is as literal and as factual as that. This - nothing less and nothing else - is what we mean by the resurrection of our Lord from the dead.

Prayer:

    Father, I am so thankful that in bringing Your Son back to life You brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. I know this to be true for in You there cannot be such a thing as death. Life is so sure - as sure as You are. Amen.

For further study:

    Ephesians 1:120; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:35; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15
    1. What did Paul say was of first importance?
    2. What does this mean for those who have experienced resurrection life?

[nChrist]

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January 11

The Mystery Rolled Back
For reading & meditation: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (v. 55)

    Mark's observation "that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away" (Mark 16:4) seems a simple statement, but behind it lies a truth that is positively staggering in its implications. One is that no longer can death be an intimidator. "Death," said someone, "is the great enigma of life; humanly speaking, it is the one secret of the universe which is kept, the silence of which is never broken." To the weary and despairing, death may come as a friend; the cynical and disillusioned may meet it with indifference; to the healthy and the happy it may appear as a foe; but it comes to all. Death is like a great stone that blocks the path of human aspiration. How certain can we be of the continuity of life beyond death? What modest person would find in himself anything worthy to endure for all eternity? Such questions have been asked down the centuries. Death is a mystery - "the undiscovered country from which no traveler returns." Then came the first Easter Day, and the stone was rolled away. One Traveler did return. Death is an abysmal cavern no longer but a tunnel with light at the farther end. If people have seen it as a blind alley, then they need think no longer in those terms. It is now a thoroughfare, a highway. "'Tis death is dead, not He," said the hymnist. The mystery is a mystery no more. The stone that was rolled away the first Easter morn was not just the rock that sealed the tomb. Our Lord rolled back for us the mystery of death also.

Prayer:

    Lord Jesus Christ, I rejoice and rejoice continually in Your glorious and triumphant victory over death. For Your victory is my victory. Help me to live by it, in it, and for it. I am grateful to my depths - grateful forever. Amen.

For further study:

    John 11:1-44; Matthew 16:21; Mark 9:9; John 2:19;
    1. When did Jesus declare He was the resurrection and the life?
    2. What are the implications of this?