Week 16 Day 7
Finding God in the mysteries of every day
I Corinthians 15: 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
I am drawn to this passage by the beauty of the hope that is afforded to me that is only to be found in my Lord Jesus, the Christ of the whole world. To live in hope is perhaps the greatest gift of knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior. Although my failings are many, my woundings painful, and my heart is often battered and bruised still, none of that is enough to dim the bright hope I have of serving Jesus all my days and being united in Him eternally at the end of all things of this earth.
Sufficient to say that living with this hope I feel no compunction to condemn or debase others. My task before God is to love, admonish with the gentle iron of God’s Word, and to trust that even before I utter a word of admonishment, the Holy Spirit jas already been at work. Perhaps the greatest freedom on all of this is the fact that the results are God’s responsibility, not mine. If you have ever felt the oppression of quotas and production expectations you will know what I mean. I owe this sense of freedom to the ministry of former NBA star Mark Cahill who through his excellent exposition of scripture turned my mind to obedience rather than a
clearance record. Simply put, God rewards obedience. Whatever follows is to His glory, not ours.
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 