1 Corinthian 15:35-41
But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.
Even though we are familiar with the truth, we may not completely understand and accept it in our hearts. The church at the time could not understand how the dead will be raised, but the Bible clearly tells us that one day you and I will be resurrected from death and be with Jesus forever. This is the greatest promise and hope that God has given us, but we often cannot completely comprehend it. Consequently, this truth does not give us any strength in life, so we continue to live in weakness. Before Jesus was nailed to the cross, the disciples have heard the truth that Jesus will be crucified, die and raised from death after three days. The words of Jesus, however, did not make any practical difference in their lives, and they weren't really expecting the Lord to be resurrected. Therefore, at the time the Lord revealed Himself to them, they were actually fishing.
In our daily lives, can we understand and live out the truth that the Lord taught us? One time a sister presented a special hymn on Easter, which had lyrics "He walked with me and talked to me." Afterwards, an old lady asked her: "So, what did the Lord just tell you?" The sister was baffled, and then the old lady continued to ask: "You sang that Jesus walked with you and talked to you, so what did the Lord tell you?" The sister finally understood the question and replied: "That was just performance!" Many believers cannot truly experience the Lord because they don't believe the truth, which they only accepted as knowledge. It's like watching the Superman, who always comes to rescue at the minute when someone is in peril and turn a dangerous situation around. The audience cheers loudly in relief and the movie ends, but afterwards nothing has changed and life goes on as usual, and we are still dealing with our daily stress and difficulties alone. That's the picture of faith for many of us - We enjoy church services, but afterwards we live exactly the same way as before. Brothers and sisters, if that's how you feel, you need to ask God for help and turn back to Him. Cry out to Him and let the Spirit of God fill you again; don't let faith stay at the level of knowledge, but live it out in your daily life.
Lord, we thank you because your word is lively and it carries power. Please forgive us for treating faith as a knowledge in the past, and we ask that your Spirit will come and fill us again, and let your truth come alive in all our hearts. We pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!
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