When Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink,” he does not mean, “Let’s all become lechers.” He means, there is a normal, simple, comfortable, ordinary life of human delights that we may enjoy with no troubling thoughts of heaven or hell or sin or holiness or God – if there is no resurrection from the dead. And what stunned me about this train of thought is that many professing Christians seem to aim at just this, and call it Christianity. Paul did not see his relation to Christ as the key to maximizing his physical comforts and pleasures in this life. No, Paul’s relation to Christ was a call to choose suffering – a suffering that was beyond what would make atheism “meaningful” or “beautiful” or “heroic.” It was a suffering that would have been utterly foolish and pitiable to choose if there is no resurrection into the joyful presence of Christ… Judge for yourself. How many Christians do you know who could say, “The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection?”
John Piper

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BBD 07.12.02 One Life To Live

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#1 · July 12, 2002, 10:19 am

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

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The Burning Bush Devotional
07.12.02

One Life To Live

"Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 'Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a
prophet to the nations." - Jeremiah 1:4-5.

"And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the
udgment." - Hebrews 9:27.

In the 1965 Webster's dictionary that I have cryogenics is defined as, "a
branch of physics that relates to the production and effects of very low
temperatures." Cryogen is defined as a "refrigerant". In 1965 cryonics is
only known possibly to the comic book and science fiction reader but in the
year 2002 no longer is cryonics a little known and obscure science.
Cryonics in only a few weeks has become known to the world with the body of
baseball great Ted Williams to be cryonically deep-frozen upside down in one
of Alcor Life Extension Foundation's tanks cooled to a minus 196 degrees.
For a few select people there will be room for a few of their heads in the
top of Ted Williams' tank.

The hope of many is that someday science will have advanced to the point
that their bodies can be revived and that whatever the cause of their death
that it will be reversed. Also many believe that their cryonically frozen
heads will be able to have an artificially created body or a body
transplant. Others hope their bodies will be cloned and they will wake up
in that new body. Others have a more realistic hope that their DNA will be
used to clone them knowing that they will be different people than they are.

One question, which is often asked, is at what point does a person undergo
cryonic suspension? At the present time it can only be performed after a
person has been declared legally dead although there apparently has already
been some attempts to do so before actual death occurs. The spiritual
question is at what point does death occur. Obviously if a person has been
declared legally dead they are dead. However, if a person were alive and
experienced cryonic suspension before death would the suspension result in
death? We do know that life can come from frozen embryos. At this point no
one really knows for sure because no one has successfully been revived from
cryonic suspension. My personal belief is that because of the complexities
of the human body as compared to an embryo that revival will never be
possible.

Even in the face of scientific breakthroughs and marvels God is still God
and we accept that by faith. When a person dies they no longer inhabit the
physical body or "tent" as the apostle Paul called it. If you are a
Christian having been born again the part of you that knows, reasons, and
thinks when you die will be "absent from the body" and "present with the
Lord" (II Corinthians 5). If that body that you once inhabited is cloned or
revived it will not and could not be you that lives within it because you
will be with the Lord. It is appointed unto man to truly die "once."

God knew you before you were even born and had a plan for your life just as
He did for Jeremiah's life. We have only one life to live. Let us live it
well!

Copyright © 2002. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the
devotionals on a non-profit basis with source credited.

If I can help you in any way please contact me at wrather@logixonline.net

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