“We Believe That Jesus died and again” – Thessalonians 4:14

The word “resurrection” means “the standing up of a corpse.”  Most religions teach the concept of immortality, but only the Christian faith teaches bodily resurrection.  “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which also sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”  The patriarch Job, whose children all died tragically in a single day, asked, “If a man dies, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14).  We ask this question when death claims someone we love.  So God gave Job, and us, the answer that dries our tears, heals our broken hearts and focuses us on something greater than this temporal life with its troubles:  “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me” (Job 19:25-27).

MONARCH BUTTERFLY in flight.
North America. Danaus plexippus.

The next time you see a butterfly soaring, stop and remind yourself, “That’s my future!” No matter how you dress this body up, at best, it will always be a caterpillar. But when it emerges from the cocoon of death and rises to meet the Lord in the air, it will take on His beauty and His likeness.  “The dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

– 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

This Devotional reading was taken from The Word For You Today Strength and Guidance for Daily Living