READING: 1 Corinthians 15-16
TEXTS AND APPLICATION: Today would have been my father’s 77th birthday. He was born in 1938, just as the world was moving toward a war that would affect the globe. For the first 71 of his years, he did not follow Jesus. He loved us, but he was often angry. He believed in a higher being, yet assumed there were multiple ways to get to that being. He stood for individualism and personal rights, preferring libertarianism over any other political position. He read voraciously, but his book of choice was much more a Western novel than the Bible.
Then God got ahold of him.
Through the testimony and witness of my younger brother and his family, our dad turned to Jesus — and God radically transformed him. Everything changed. He loved us differently. He devoured the Word as much as his diabetic-wounded eyes could endure. People still talk about the change. In fact, I’ve even written of Dad’s conversion and directed readers to his story via other posts on this site.
Today, the Word my dad grew to love during his last few years reminds me of the truth of resurrection that gives all of us hope: “For this corruptible must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:53-54).
Read it again: death has been swallowed up in victory. If these words were not true, our faith really is worthless. But because they are so true, we have a hope the world can never understand. Today, I can genuinely celebrate the promise that I will see my dad again.
God is good.
ACTION STEPS: Remember today some of those Christian loved ones whom you will see again. Take time to thank God for the promise of resurrection.
PRAYER: “God, we praise You for life . . . for new life . . . for resurrected life . . . for eternal life.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Corinthians 1-4