By David ReayTuesday 14 Apr 2015LifeWords DevotionalsCultureReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
54 Then,when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death,where is your victory?
O death,where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death,and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NLT)
Not many of us get to choose our ‘last words’. These can range from the mundane to the heroic. It was said that Conrad Hilton,founder of the hotel chain,remarked on his death bed that we always must put the shower curtain inside and not outside the bath. A hotel manager to the end!
Then again,Catherine Booth was reported to have said,”The waters are rising but I am not sinking.” Which,with no disrespect to Conrad Hilton,has much more of a ring to it. And it expresses beautifully the Christian belief in bodily resurrection.
For each of us the waters will rise. Death will come. No use denying it or pretend it doesn’t matter. What matters more,though,is the fact that death is not the end for those who die trusting in the mercy of Jesus. Because of him we do not sink when the waters rise. Death hurls itself at us but it will not have the last word over us.
Jesus has taken away our guilt which separates us from God who is the source of eternal life. So while we die,yet we live. Death sees the end of a chapter in our life story,not the end of the story itself. Because of Jesus,death is no longer fatal for his followers.
Blessings
David Reay