Saturday, April 21, 2012

Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

  

...If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

  

In the early 20th century, there was a lawyer in England named Frank Morrison who had many Christian friends that often talked about the resurrection of Jesus from death. Frank thought that since it was already the scientific age, who could believe in those things? Therefore, as a lawyer, he decided to write a book to uncover and refute the scam. After thirty years of research, he finally came up with a book name "Who Moved The Stone?" The first chapter was named "The Book That Refused To Be Written." He was trying to uncover the scam, but the more he studied the topic, the more he had to accept the reality of the resurrection.

  

If we carefully study the account in the Bible, we'd see that after Jesus died, the officers, scribes and priests were more nervous about His resurrection than the disciples. They said that "this man said he will be resurrected three days after he dies, so we better dispatch some soldiers to guard the tomb, in case he actually resurrected!" The disciples and the women who were following Jesus have heard Jesus telling them again and again that "I am the resurrection and the life," and that He will be resurrected after three days. The Lord even told them to go to Galilee and wait for Him to reveal Himself. They, however, did seem to believe what Jesus said. On Sunday morning, the women came to anoint the body of Jesus, and when they saw that the tomb was empty, they didn't think that Jesus was resurrected, but instead they wondered who stole the corpse of Jesus. That's why the young angel told them not to panic, because Jesus Christ has resurrected from death.

  

If Jesus did not resurrect from death, then, just like Paul said, all that we preach and believe in are in vain. Christianity would be no more than just another great ideology, like many other religions. The Christian faith, however, remains unshakable even under the most severe criticism. May God reaffirm our faith in the resurrection of Jesus, because He has given us hope for eternity.

   
Pray with Pastor Tong Liu     

   

Lord, we thank you because you have risen from death to bring hope and joy to our lives. We have the strength to face the test of our circumstances in our lifetime, because when the Lord returns we will be resurrected from death as well and be with Him forever. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

 

 

 

 

This email was sent to devotion1.withpastortongliu@blogger.com by edevotion@rolcc.net |  
River of Life Christian Church | 1177 Laurelwood Rd. | Santa Clara | CA | 95054

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