The Tenth Plague

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon.  Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed.  Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt.  There was not a single house where someone had not died.  Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night.  “Get out!” he ordered.  “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you!  Go and worship the Lord as you have requested.  Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me as you leave.”  All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!”  Exodus 12:29-33

Over the course of time from Moses’ first meeting with Pharaoh to deliver God’s message to let my people go, the Egyptian monarch moved from dismissive stubbornness to defeated sadness.  He was Pharaoh over the most powerful dynasty in the world, and he conceded defeat to the slaves he owned.  Considering the events of the 10 plagues, who could remain fixed in his own glory?  Pharaoh was pushed into the most uncomfortable tenuous corner.  There was no command he could issue with his own firstborn on the mortician’s table.

Most of the plagues are not uncommon, even in our day.  Pestilences and plagues are something every human faces in every era; we’ve just come through Covid-19, and what other age hasn’t dealt with similar challenges.  Famine caused by pests and weather are common also.  But the first and last of the plagues are the most pointed; the first should have been enough, and the last, too much.

Of the ten plagues (Blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Pestilence, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Killing of the firstborn), the first plague of blood in the Nile, struck at Egypt’s religious beliefs.  The Nile river was Egypt’s source of food.  Turning it into blood was a horrifying demonstration of how vulnerable they were to having life crumble before them.  Pharaoh thought he was a god, but God was demonstrating how little divinity flowed through Pharaoh’s human veins. 

The next eight plagues were nuisances to Pharaoh, because they only affected Egypt’s people and resources.  But with each step closer to the tenth plague, Pharaoh’s stubbornness brought his people closer to the kind of unspeakable judgment which no Egyptian citizen could even imagine.  And then it happened!

The tenth plague, the death of firstborns in each Egyptian household, was connected to the first plague in the sense that there was blood.  Life is in the blood[1] according to Scripture, and blood in the Nile was a threat to the lives of Egyptian food sources, and the emptiness of their religious superstitions.  But it was a foretaste of the tenth plague, the lifeblood of their heritage.  As attested by the pyramids, the afterlife, and continued heritage of Pharaohic divine rule was as important to those people as their next breath.  In the instant Pharaoh refused God’s 10^th invitation to let His people go, the Egyptian king became the murderer of Egypt’s firstborn population – including his own household!

For You Today 

God’s recorded Word is there to help us understand how to live in His Kingdom, and how to understand His ways:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  2 Timothy 3:16

So, do what Pharaoh refused; when God speaks…listen…and obey!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Wikimedia.org   Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

---

[1] The life of every creature is in its blood.  Leviticus 17:14

I Wonder...Me Too!

 

Friday, May 12, 2023

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.  1 Corinthians 13:12

Everyone wonders about the big questions of life, its purpose, meaning, origin, and where we will go afterwards. Such thoughts lead to one of two conclusions, both typically immersed in more questions than a human brain can entertain in a lifetime.  Those conclusions are either faith or unbelief.  To believe in God is to trust in the unseen.  Unbelief settles for what is in front of you – what you now see, touch, smell, and imagine with sensory gifts (wherever they came from, eh?).

Wayne Dryer, in a book entitled Your Sacred Self, has a delightfully-engaging parable that argues for faith:

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”  The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery, there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her, this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

For You Today 

If Scripture has it right (and I have faith it does), then we ought to let these little children have the lead, and hold it dear until it’s clear!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   No More!  and  Say What?   

Title Image:  by Evgeniya Semenova   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

APOCALYPSE - a not-so-gradual Global Warming

 

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts.  The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down on the earth.  One-third of the earth was set on fire, one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass was burned.  Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and a great mountain of fire was thrown into the sea.  One-third of the water in the sea became blood, one-third of all things living in the sea died, and one-third of all the ships on the sea were destroyed.  Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch.  It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water.  The name of the star was Bitterness. It made one-third of the water bitter, and many people died from drinking the bitter water.  Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and one-third of the sun was struck, and one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars, and they became dark. And one-third of the day was dark, and also one-third of the night.  Then I looked, and I heard a single eagle crying loudly as it flew through the air, “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”  Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.  When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.  Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.  They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting.  In those days people will seek death but will not find it.  They will long to die, but death will flee from them!  The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.  They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.  They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.  They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.  They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.  Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.  The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!  Revelation 8:6-9:12

• You are probably all too familiar with the syndrome of “then”. 
• You were only four, and your big brother was going off to school; you were told that someday soon you would also get to go; you couldn’t wait until then. 
• You were 12 and bigger kids played on the teams…you would grow and then.
• You were 14 and still had to wait to begin driving…wait until then.

We wait, anticipate, long-for-the-day, and then it comes.  We’re excited (for a while), and then we’re on to the next set of waiting, longing, and arriving.  In light of that then stuff, how do you feel about the End of Times…apocalypse?  This prophecy of Apocalypse, the End Time terrible tribulation, is not on many peoples’ front burner; not even “theologians”.  Truth be told, it is an icky kind of truth to tell.  After all, who wants to hear about a third of the earth’s waters, lands and creatures consumed by fire?  Some people believe…and tremble.  But, even then, one-third leaves you a two-out-of-three chance of surviving.  Good odds, even in a Las Vegas casino.

But this isn’t a roulette wheel, and we’re not talking about vacation time or silly games.  This subject is God’s impending righteous judgment of the world for sin.  And it won’t be a third of the world being judged; the last sentence of the text completes the equation…this bloodbath is only 1/3 complete…the other two-thirds are right on its heels.  That hammer WILL fall.  The only question is WHEN?

Many have taken a step onto that ledge of predicting the when of the then.  But that is as foolish as ignoring the coming of judgment.  When Jesus was teaching his followers about the end of times he told them they couldn’t know the “when” – that was in the Heavenly Father’s hands:

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.  Only the Father knows.  Matthew 24:36

For You Today

 I can think of a lot of ways I’d rather suffer than by fire, but the moment and circumstances of our judgment is not something we get to choose.  The good news is that we can choose to take a moment in time to change the outcome of that judgment.  That is the gift of Jesus’ death on the cross.

It may be a hard truth to contemplate, that sin will be judged, and every person is accountable to God, and guilty before God.  But, the Word of God declares this judgment is coming.  There are three “thirds”.  If you add them up, they total 100%.  All will be judged when God sets it in motion.  So, accept Christ now, and be spared the terror of judgment for your sins.  He has already paid the price of your redemption.  It’s your move. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

GO TO VIDEO

Title image:  Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For another post on this text see:  Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Part 1  

Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - part 1

[1]

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Then I looked, and I heard a single eagle crying loudly as it flew through the air, “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”  Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.  When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.  Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.  They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting.  In those days people will seek death but will not find it.  They will long to die, but death will flee from them!  The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.  They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.  They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.  They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.  They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.  Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.  The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!  Revelation 8:13 & 9:1-12^(NLT)

The Book of Revelation records the final judgment of God.  Terror, scorpion-like stinging, torture, preferring death, but unable to find it, and then the bad news; it’s not over yet!

This is just a small portion of the description of what awaits those who reject God by refusing His Son, Jesus.  It’s not at all popular in any sense to speak about such things.  I understand that; it isn’t popular with me, either; yet, there it is…how can we avoid it? 

Short answer:  we can’t!

The world as we know it will be changed by a violent judgment at the time of God’s choosing.  While we do not know the exact time or how much of what we read in Revelation is metaphor or literal, we do know that if it is literal, it’s horrible.  And, if it’s simply metaphorical, that doesn’t make it any less threatening. 

These verses always come to my mind in fall.  The trees are turning bright, vibrant hues, announcing the beginning of the end of growing, and the time to harvest and prepare for winter.  The trees along our street were spectacular this year.  It’s easy to get drawn into the color show, and forget what’s really happening.  The leaves are dying, and are about to hit the ground (then get raked-up, and raked-up, and raked-up)!  The leaves’ swan song is brilliant; they go out in a blaze of glory.  But it’s death, nonetheless. 

Leaves dying, letting go of the branches, falling to the ground and returning to the dust from which it came – does that raise any parallel thoughts for you?  It certainly reminds me of the liturgy I’ve spoken over too many gravesites:  ashes to ashes, dust to dust…!

And so…to the point…everything changes…leaves, seasons, lives, circumstances…all; with one exception:

I am the Lord, and I do not change…Malachi 3:6a^(NLT)

That’s frightening and comforting.  It’s frightening to acknowledge if you recall that God always keeps his word; judgment is certain. 

It’s comforting if you remember that God always keeps his word; forgiveness is also certain for those who trust in Christ’s atoning death.

For You Today

The most important thing in your life, past, present or future is something of which your Google assistant or IPhone calendar program will never remind you…to accept Christ and serve Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Haven’t you put that off long enough?  It’s fall…leaves and lives are hitting the ground.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth

Psalm 16:11 Heaven Series #6. In Heaven Will We Be Bored to Death?

[i]

You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.  Psalm 16:11^(NLT)

Last Tuesday when coming home from a meeting with other pastors I was listening to David Jeremiah’s Turning Point broadcast, and when he gave the title of his teaching that would be aired for Wednesday and Thursday I was absolutely astonished; he said he would be answering the question: 

Won’t Heaven Be Boring?

I have to confess that I have in the past wondered – even worried – about what might be a boring existence sitting on a cloud pew in heaven all day, every day, just strumming a harp in a worship service that lasted for all eternity. 

I’ve been waiting three months to get to this message.  In planning this series I knew this was going to be the most challenging, but also the most rewarding look at what Heaven will be like.  It’s challenging because there’s a lot of holy digging to sift through the huge pile of written stuff about Heaven.  It’s rewarding because you get to put some really wrong thinking on the chopping block and maybe see some lives changed because of a more accurate picture of Heaven.

Many people, like I was, are under the impression that Heaven will be one long slumber party, or some somber, stodgy repetitious liturgy, complete with Latin chants and old boring people being old and boring.  No fun, no way!

But this is simply ignorance; I didn’t know Heaven won’t be like that because nobody ever took the time to point out to me that, far from boring, heaven is going to be the most exciting, fascinating, fun and fulfilling experience that earth, as we know it, can never provide.

David Jeremiah’s message lived up to destroying that false image.  He said a lot over two days, but if I can just give you a sentence or two to brush the high points, this is what he taught:

The main reason Heaven won't be boring is that God Himself is not boring.  And you won’t be boring; neither will your friends be boring.  There will be so much to do, and all of it will be interesting, challenging and over-the-top exciting.  We will worship, but it won’t be because we are forced by anyone; we will worship because we just can’t get enough of hanging out with God, Jesus, the disciples and all the really interesting people of history.[ii]  

Now THAT’S Good News!

I’ve mentioned often enough in this series that I’m depending a good bit on Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven.  Chapter 41 is titled Will Heaven Ever Be Boring?   He begins with a couple of illustrative quotes that give us a clue as to why so many people either publicly or privately have their doubts about even wanting to think about going to Heaven.  Consider:

A common misconception about eternity surfaced in an episode of Star Trek:  Voyager.  A member of the undying [or immortals] “Q continuum” longs for an end to his existence.  Why?  Because, he complains, everything that could be said and done has already been said and done, and now there’s only repetition and utter boredom.  He says, “For us, the disease is immortality.”  Finally he’s allowed to end his existence. 

Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes, “I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more.  For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.”[iii]

It’s easy to understand why some people, even church members, secretly have a problem with what’s coming after this life.  When all your information comes from a simplistic view of going through the pearly gates, getting a harp, crown, and a set of angel’s wings, and sitting on a cloud for a zillion years strumming hymns, why would anyone look forward to that kind of sterile, uninteresting and just plain booring eternity? 

When you have a wrong idea about heaven your whole pile of enthusiasm for going there could fit in a thimble. 

Truthfully, that kind of thinking about Heaven can only produce a profound hope that the whole idea of eternity is a hoax, that there is no such place.  The only other kind of hope is that, if it does exist, maybe it won’t be so bad. 

Either way, a boring Heaven is not a pretty thing!

Now, contrast all that with the happiest moment of your life.  Maybe you had a surprise birthday party; I did once when I was 16.  I was really bummed because it seemed like nobody wanted to be with me on my birthday.  Then a friend brought me to the house of another friend and there were 50 people yelling “surprise”!  It was better than ice cream to know I was loved.

There’s a word for that feeling – its joy!  And Heaven is full to overflowing with it!

Is that just wishful thinking?  No; rather it’s being faithful to what Jesus taught about living with God in Heaven.  In Matthew’s Gospel account Jesus told the story of servants of a rich man, some who were faithful to their master’s wishes, and some who weren’t.  When there was an accounting of all that was done, this is what the Master said to the faithful servants:

‘Well done, you good and faithful servant!’ said his master. ‘You have been faithful in managing small amounts, so I will put you in charge of large amounts. Come on in and share my happiness!’  Matthew 25:21^(GNT)

This tells us a number of things about how living with God will be.  First, he recognizes those who love Him and are willing to serve Him.  Secondly, those who are faithful in this life will be given more responsibility in the life to come.  And thirdly, faithfulness here will mean sharing in His joy then. 

What did you learn there?  Have you ever known a really bored person to be joyful?  Turn to someone and say:  When I am bored, I’m boring, not joyful!

Remember, God is anything but boring.  We are just now beginning to unlock (with the aid of computers and telescopes) some of the simpler mysteries of God’s universe.  It’s only taken us 6,000 years of civilization to figure out the baby steps of God’s ways.  We had to wait for Einstein to come along to help us understand the basics for unlocking the atom. 

By comparison with our struggle to even understand our planet, God simply spoke all we know into existence.  Do you think it will be boring to be around that kind of power, energy, light and overwhelming love?  Considering He’s already died for you…that will be better than the average surprise party for a 16 year old!

When God got done with the creative process He pronounced it to be good…very good!  Frankly, everything God’s hand touches, or is spoken into existence carries the very same nature of the One who created…not boring, joyful!

a few specifics about the joy god has planned for us

1.     Work – we will help god run the universe

In that Matthew passage Jesus tells the story of the talents, where a rich business man goes on a trip and entrusts his fortune and business dealings to his servants.  When he returns there’s an accounting, and some have done what the master instructed, and some have goofed off. 

In telling that story Jesus began with: 

Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by…Matthew 25:14a^(NLT)

And he ended with: 

“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities.  Let’s celebrate together!’  Matthew 25:23^(NLT)

He was repeating for the disciples what it will be like for faithful stewards of time, tithes, talent and testimony…faithfulness in little things will result in God entrusting more and bigger things. 

And don’t forget the joyful celebration!

2.     Assurance of the joy we will experience then, based on god’s original plan for all creation

We are in for a lot of changes…all of them first class!  A first and primary change is the realization of everything we’ve ever felt is missing:

In his book Things Unseen pastor Mark Buchanan asks, Why won’t we be bored in heaven?  Because it’s the one place where both impulses – to go beyond, to go home – are perfectly joined and totally satisfied.  It’s the one place where we’re constantly discovering – where everything is always fresh and the possessing of a thing is as good as the pursuing of it – and yet where we are fully at home – where everything is as it ought to be and where we find, undiminished, that mysterious something we never found down here….And this lifelong melancholy that hangs on us, this wishing we were someone else somewhere else, vanishes too.  Our craving to go beyond is always and fully realized.  Our yearning for home is once and for all fulfilled.  The ahh! of deep satisfaction and the aha! Of delighted surprise meet, and they kiss.[iv]

Because of a sad, tragic childhood, C.S. Lewis was an atheist early in life, and quite militantly hostile towards God, God’s church, and God’s people.  It was not until his middle 30’s he finally began to be honest with himself about all that and he began to recognize the truth.  He became one of Christianity’s premier apologists, helping us to know the fulfillment awaiting us in heaven:

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists.  A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food.  A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water.  Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex.  If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."[v]

3.     Fun – we are hardwired for joy

Once again, from Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven:

I believe our resurrection bodies will have adrenaline and the ability to feel.  On the New Earth we may experience adventures that make our current mountain climbs, surfing, skydiving, and upside-down roller coaster rides seem tame.  Why do I say this?  It’s more than wishful thinking.  It’s an argument from design.  We take pleasure in exhilarating experiences not because of sin, but because God wired us this way.  We weren’t made to sit all day in dark rooms, watching actors pretend to live and athletes do what we can’t.  We were made to live vibrant lives.  Some of us are physically limited, and others are emotionally unable to handle too much excitement.  But those are just temporary conditions.  There’s a new world coming – and a new us.[vi]

A new world, and a new us…and all joy!

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Go to VIDEO

Notes                               

---

[i] Title image: Russell Brownworth, Thunder Struck Ridge, Blue Ridge Parkway, 2006

[ii] Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah, radio broadcast, June 7-8, 2017

[iii] Randy Alcorn, Heaven, (Carol Stream, Il, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 2004), p.409

[iv] Alcorn, p.410, quoting Mark Buchanan in Things Unseen, (Sisters, Ore, Multnomah, 2002), p.76 (emphasis mine)

[v] (Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, "Hope")

[vi] Randy Alcorn, Heaven, (Carol Stream, Il, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 2004), p.429

You Will Rest; You Will Rise

[1]   

Friday, April 10, 2015

 “As for you, go your way until the end.  You will rest, and then at the end of the days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you.” 

Daniel 12:13 (NLT)

If you are part of a loving church family and are involved in its corporate life, you will spend time hanging-out in funeral homes.  There is hardly a Sunday which passes, even in the small membership churches I serve, where prayer is not lifted for a family in grief over the loss of a loved one. 

Death is not the happiest thought to begin any day, but, truth be told, most people over age forty think of death several times every day.  It is part of our nature to anticipate the reality of our finite existence; the number of our days is a dwindling dance with time.

The passage in Daniel is God’s instruction to His prophet about how to treat the message of the “end times” – that apocalyptic forecast of God’s desire to bring time and eternity back into the kind of focus which is His sovereign plan.

But in the midst of instructing Daniel to “seal-up” (encode) the message so that its meaning will stay “hidden” until God’s chosen time arrives, God pauses to give Daniel a personal blessing of peace for his soul.  That blessing is the assurance of Daniel rising again for the inheritance which God has personally set aside for Daniel.

Rising again; it is our Christian hope which flies in the face of death’s threat!

We have just come through the Season of Lent, with all its somber tone and foreshadow of the passion, cross and tomb.  It borders on obsession with the death of Christ. 

Most ministers I know are ready for a vacation the day after Easter; their tanks are empty from the extra services and emotional highs (as well as the lows on the Sunday after Easter when everyone goes to the beach instead of church). 

All that “death” is exhausting!

The craving is “rest”.

And that is true for most everyone.  Life has its way of reminding us that our bodies in this fallen world are not equipped to last for eternity.  We crave rest, and the most elderly among us understand the precipice between extreme old age and the next life.  It’s a very thin line!

God said to Daniel, “You will rest”.  To the extremely old, that is a welcome word.

He also said, “You will rise again.” To all people that is life, health, joy and peace.  It is the raindrop of “Good News” in the ocean of death.

For You Today

If you’ve read (or listened) this far you’re probably thinking, how in the world can this be a good start today…all this talk about death?

The answer is as simple as it is profound: 

We’ve been thinking about death and how horrible it is;

Now I can end with the simple words of Jesus that give this death thing all the perspective a child of God needs to see:

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.  John 5:24 (NLT)

Those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ need not fear the terror of death; you’ve already passed it…into life.

---

[1] Title Image: By Edith Mahier, via Wikimedia Commons