BBD 04.08.04 A Living Faith
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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The Burning Bush Devotional
(Over 13,000 subscribers in 75 countries)
04.08.04
A Living Faith
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a
great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came
and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was
like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for
fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to
the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was
crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place
where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen
from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you
will see Him. Behold, I have told you." So they went out quickly from the
tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. - Matthew
28:1-8.
People do sometimes come back to life and many have had what is called “near
death experiences.” Velusamy an 80-year-old man in India was thought to have
died of old age. His sister-in-law tried to wake him for supper and found
him to be lying on the floor “like wood.” She received no response to her
frantic yells or when sprinkling his face with water. However, when Velusamy
was bathed with cold water prior to his body being burned, he woke up! He
said, “It’s very cold” and got up from the ground. His family rejoiced at
having, “got back grandpa back from the other world.”
Performing a search on Google for “back to life” found 897,000 references
for the phrase. A vast multitude of things are said to be brought “back to
life” including books, programs, furniture, machines, radios, stocks, lakes,
frozen lobsters, Inca canals, schools, bands, and nations. There were a few
instances of people like Velusamy who were thought to be dead being brought
“back to life.” However, the reality is that Velusamy will eventually die
and not be brought back again to physical life. We as human beings can
restore usefulness to inanimate objects and through science restore, sustain
usefulness for human beings to a certain extent. There is, however, no way
by scientific methods to bring a person back to life that is actually dead.
When person has been dead and buried for a year or so there is no record of
such a body being raised to physical life.
Easter is not just a holiday or a time to have fun with our family and
friends. Easter is important because what happened 2000 years ago represents
our only true hope for eternal life after death. Easter is important and
mind boggling because it represents God Himself intervening in the course of
human events at great cost to provide us a way of salvation. Easter means
that we have a living faith and not a dead faith. We do not worship a dead
god. We worship a God who is alive and has proven that He has the power over
death. God has proven that He has the ability to give life.
This Easter let us rejoice that He has indeed risen! Let us rejoice that we
have a living faith in a living God who loves us so much that He died for
us!
Copyright © 2004. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
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