Kindness

For the next several days, I’m looking at the word “kindness” in the bible.  After all, Jesus said kindness is what leads us to repentance.  And yet, we try to get people to come to Jesus so often with judgment .

One of the first mentions of an act of kindness is when Joseph was put in jail.  It says in Genesis 39: But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.

Here Joseph finds himself in a place where most of us today would be devastated to find ourselves in – in jail!  So in one of the worst circumstances, God extends kindness to Joseph by causing the one who ran the jail to extend favor to Joseph.  In other words, God took what was meant for evil to crush Joseph, and instead turned it into something that blessed him.

That’s the kindness of God.  That’s the kind of God we serve.  That’s the kind God we love.

Maybe today, we can look around and see friends or neighbors who are in bad circumstances and we can go out of our way to show them favor by bringing them a meal, praying for them, or just sending a text or email their way – one of encouragement.

After all, if God did it for Joseph, he will do it for us.  And if he does it for us, we should do it for others. 

Do what?

Be kindhearted to one another.

Be

Last verse of I  Corinthians 15:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Here’s our last encouragement, instruction, admonishment:

Be steadfast (firm and unwavering)

Be immovable (fixed and incapable of being swayed)

Be abounding in His work (rich and well supplied)

Why?

Because our work and faith and steadfastness is not in vain.

We have a goal.  We have an eternity waiting for us.  We have life ahead of us.  We have purpose.

And the cool thing is that when we are weak, HE is strong and enables us to carry on towards the prize – eternal life with Him – unencumbered by flesh and all its evil desires – completely free to live without pain and without the fear of death.

Thanks be to Him

I Corinthians 15 cont’d:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;  but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday we talked about the sting of death.

The whole reason we have to suffer and endure the sting of death is because of sin.  Sin entered this world, and separated man from God.  Sin is turning away from God in disobedience, choosing our own whims and desires, apart from what he has instructed us to do.  And because of one man’s sin, death became his fate.

But…

Thanks be to God!

In his mercy and love and grace, he had a plan from the beginning to redeem us to himself, even though he knew we would turn away and reject him.

He sent his Son to take on the sins of the world, to become sin for us, to endure all of the punishment of sin instead of us, and to conquer the effects of sin to free us.

In other words, when we were lost, doomed to lose our lives forever, he stepped in and saved the day.

Thank you God, for the victory that is ours over death – over the power of sin – over the law – and over ourselves and our destructive ways.

Thank you, Jesus!

But when...

 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

Right now, in this present life, death occurs way too often.  We just attended a funeral of a dear aunt who suffered with Alzheimers and eventually succumbed to its tight grip on her mind and body.  She’s gone.  We recently lost a close friend and pastor who died suddenly in his home.  He was here, and then gone. 

Death stings.

Death “seems” like it has the upper hand and gets to us all.

However, there will be a day when we won’t have to deal with death knocking at our door any more. 

Why?

Because death will be swallowed up in victory and no longer have its stinger.  It will be rendered ineffective on those who believe and receive Christ and all that he is.

I am tired of death coming and stealing those I love.  But I’m so thankful that I know I will see them again, because just their flesh died.  Their spirits are soaring.  Because the stinger of death was removed the minute they breathed their last breath.

Thank you Jesus, for the incredible victory you achieved over death, when you died and rose again! 

Do you see now why it’s SO important to believe?

A Mystery

I Corinthians 15 cont’d:

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Do you like mysteries?  I love reading them and watching them on the big screen, and trying to figure out who did it, or what’s going to happen next. 

But here we are told of a mystery no man can fathom, explain, or figure out. 

In a split second (I’m not sure what that is, exactly, but it’s fast) we will transform from this perishable body in which we now live to an imperishable spirit.  And it’s all going to start with the sound of a trumpet.  Those who are dead will be raised and put on immortality.

We love superheroes who defy gravity, who have extreme powers, and who can transform in a flash when a city is in distress.  We have no problem imagining how fun it would be to live among such amazing men and women.

But all of those movies are fantasy.

The change and transformation that is coming to those who believe in Jesus is not fantasy – it’s real – and it’s excitingly mysterious. 

We will be changed.  Through no effort of our own, but simply because we believe and trust in God and all of his goodness in our lives, and his forgiveness on the cross.

I’m curious when the trumpet will sound, what it will sound like, and if I’ll hear it.  I hope I’m tuning my spiritual ears so that I will hear it loud and clear and be among those who take flight to the imperishable kingdom that lives and never dies.

I Say This...

I Corinthians 15:50

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 

Remember yesterday’s devo about the flesh part of us, and the spirit part of us?

The flesh part of us is only for a few decades here on this earth and then it’s buried, it falls off, and all that’s left is a pile of bones covered in dirt.  Our flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God, because it’s perishable – it dies.  And our inheritance is one that is imperishable – it lives on forever.

Living forever is a hard concept to grasp. Some think we had lives before the one we now live, and that if we’re good enough, we might get another chance to come back to earth again, maybe as a cow or a bird. 

The Bible says we have once chance here on earth to choose…or not to choose…life.  And there is no other way to eternal life except through Jesus, because he’s the one who conquered death.

Nothing about our flesh is infallible.  We see this when we cut our finger, lose a limb due to diabetes, suffer dementia when we are old, or break a bone when we are young.  Our flesh is just the shell that embodies our spirit.

And when that flesh falls away, that spirit will soar…and inherit a kingdom without end.

That excites me.

Does it you?

If Then...

I Corinthians 15 cont’d:

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adambecame a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.  As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

I LOVE if…then statements.  I learned about them in a logic class in college.  And here’s one of them right in the bible!  If there is a natural body (well, yes there is – we are living in it!), (then) there is also a spiritual body.  That statement is not hard to believe.  We know that we have this fleshly body that we see when we look in the mirror, but we also know there’s more to us than our flesh – we have a spirit – a soul – an inner man.

I love this passage.  Adam was a living soul (flesh and blood) and the “last Adam” (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit (one that never dies.)

And we are then reminded that just as we were made into an image of a unique kind in our earthly, fleshly bodies, as we become a new creature in Christ we then are made into the image of our heavenly being.

Thank goodness that this flesh is not all there is!  As we age from one decade to the next, we visibly see changes in every part of our body as it gradually deteriorates and dies.  But because of Christ, our spirit man thrives and grows and produces fruit eternally – it never dies!

Which part of you is the most healthy?  Your flesh or your spirit!?  We spend so much time tending to the flesh part of our nature, and yet we should be spending our efforts developing our spirit man – the one that lives forever.

That’s good logic!