But God Has a Resurrection Planned – Lent 29, 2021

Resurrection makes all the difference.
It’s what can keep us hoping when everything seems dismal.
It’s what keeps us persevering when persecution seems unbearable.
It’s what keeps the flame of faith alive in the storms of life.
It’s what makes this life worth living.

No wonder the world’s faithless are among the least happy of the population. Chronically angry at life. Haters of those who seem to have it better. Perpetual complainers, hopeless pessimists, and miserable scoffers who look for earthly rescue anywhere, from anyone, in the City of Man but it does not come. Whatever weak rescue seems to come doesn’t last as old habits return, old ways press in, old thoughts consume and battle for our minds, and old sins tighten their grip.

Without the resurrection hope, even death seems a greater tragedy
because this life is all too short and all too broken.

Ironically, death is the great equalizer. It doesn’t play favorites. It knows no moral boundaries or cultural laws. It doesn’t look at skin color or gender. It’s mean to everyone and doesn’t even try to appear nice. It’s there…always in the background… as an enduring testament to Adam’s sin, for mortality cannot be explained any other way.

The Bible talks about this. 1 Corinthians 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Without resurrection, death comes knocking and every door is wide open for this enemy to have its way. We’re all lost and hopeless. As we’ve been learning during Lent 2021, But God… didn’t leave us there.

So with resurrection, there must first be death. The Bible states this truth by analogy. 1 Corinthians 15:36 What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body… 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;

Thank You, Lord Jesus, the even though the natural world reproduces living beings, Christ is “the last Adam, a life-giving spirit,” and our only hope for rescue. He is the Giver of true life, eternal life! Thanks be to God who gave us the victory through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to always stand firm, letting nothing move us from a position of hope. We believe, Lord. We believe and are grateful. Amen.

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Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.