THE GREAT AND GRAND AWAKENING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—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.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:50-53

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I don’t know when Jesus will return but I am ready when He does. That’s what matters.

I do know through the Book of Revelation that there are going to be a series of cataclysmic events that precede Jesus’ second coming, events that will rock the foundations of the earth and the heavens. While no one knows when Jesus will come back, there will be indicators. This is for another message on another day and indeed, I have written already from the Book of Revelation. You are welcome to go back to those messages to see what is still yet to come.

What I want to focus on today is the moment when Jesus does come. The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is rife with details on what will happen at our resurrection, especially in regard to the transformation we will undergo. Our verses for today, tell us what will signal the time for the great and grand awakening of all Christ believers. Look again at his words here:

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—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.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  1 Corinthians 15:50-53

In the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, Paul details what happens when a person dies. While their perishable bodies decompose, their spirits enter into a state of rest and remain that way until the day of Jesus’ return when He comes back to “wake up” and resurrect those who placed their hope in Him for salvation, just as He brought his good friend Lazarus back to life when He walked the earth (see John 11). When Jesus comes, the spirits of the dead in Christ will awaken and rise first to meet Him in the air. They will be joined by those who are alive in Him to form a vast congregation of saints, elevated above the earth and ready to move onto eternal life.

Now, we need to keep in mind that there will be millions upon millions, if not billions or trillions, of people who chose to reject Jesus will remain on the earth. Their perishable and unsaved spirits will have a destiny as well but it won’t be to eternal life. Rather, they will descend into Hell where everlasting damnation and suffering await.

One way or another, there will definitely be a change of status for all people and it will come suddenly with an unmistakable signal.

We know this because our scripture passage today tells us. There will be a trumpet blast, a great heralding from the heavens that will never be heard again after. Jesus will arrive with his company of angels and all people will be changed in the “twinkling of an eye” as the once perishable and mortal are clothed by Christ to become imperishable and immortal.

This is all a mystery to us now but on the day of Jesus’ second coming, all of this will come to be and we will see the word of God once again completely validated on the day of our great and grand reawakening.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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TWO PARTS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

1 Corinthians 15:44b-49

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When we receive Jesus as Savior, we are assured that a new, vastly improved life awaits us when this life is over, a life eternal in a spiritual resurrected body that will be raised in power to be imperishable and glorious.

Unfortunately, not everyone is going to experience this amazing, holy transformation. They will reject God’s offer of salvation through His Son and opt to remain in their perishable, dishonorable, weak natural bodies.

These truths were made evident in yesterday’s message drawn from verses 42 through the first half of verse 44 in 1 Corinthians 15. As we move onto the next verses today, we see the Apostle Paul make yet another distinction between the natural and spiritual bodies, this time associating each with a mainstream biblical figure. Look again at these verses here:

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

And just as we have bore the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  1 Corinthians 15:44b-49

Adam was the first man, formed from the dust of the earth after God breathed life into the soil. He had everything going for him. God gave him dominion over all living things, even offering Adam the privilege of providing them names. And not wishing for Adam to be alone, God used one of his ribs to create a woman companion named Eve. Together, they inhabited the lush garden of Eden with full reign over everything, except the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which was forbidden by God (Genesis 2:15-17).

Well, we know how things went, don’t we?

Adam and Eve disobeyed God with a little nudge from a wily serpent and sin infected the world, a problem that still exists today and will exist until that day that Jesus returns.

Now, since Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, every single person who has ever lived knows the origin of their family tree. Everyone ultimately is a descendant of both and all are spiritually and genetically connected which includes the predisposition to sin against God. We all bear the image of the earthly man and we can thank the first Adam for that.  

This puts us in a bad place with God because He hates sin and in fact judges anyone who is living in it. Barring a change of status, all people, those who are born in the image of the first Adam, are destined for eternal damnation, torment, and suffering.

Thankfully, we serve a loving and merciful God who didn’t wish for us to perish in our sin. And so He provided the opportunity for atonement and pardon, doing so through His one and only Son Jesus, the Lamb of God He sent to take away the sin of the world.

Jesus ushered in the chance for the spiritual body to live forever after the natural body dies. He, the second Adam, became a life giving Spirit of heaven and anyone who places their belief in Him will bear His image, become children of God and be given the privilege to be co-heirs of Heaven, the very Kingdom of God (Romans 8:17).

Friends, the scriptures assure us that Christians become people with two parts when it comes to their bodies. They live in a natural, perishable body, born of the first Adam, but their eternal destiny is to live on in their spiritual body through Jesus, the second Adam, the Savior of the world who rescued us from Hell and delivered us to a sure place in Heaven when He returns.

Thanks be to God for His gift of salvation through His Son.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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BETTER THAN BEFORE

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44a

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

This life is not as good as it’s going to get. Not even close.

God made it possible through His Son Jesus and everyone is given the chance to exchange this temporary, flowed existence for a glorious, eternal one.

But unfortunately, not everyone is going to take God up on His offer. They will decide to stay within a natural body that that was sown perishable, dishonorable, and weak.

This natural body is perishable because it will not last forever and when life giving blood stops coursing through its veins and oxygen breathed into lungs, it will not stand anymore but lie still, lifeless and decomposing until all that remains are bones and dust.

The natural body is also dishonorable. It is fully infected by sin and therefore a body inclined to think and behave in ways that disrespect and anger God.

Finally, it is a natural body that is weak, even though people seem to live as if they have unlimited strength. The truth of the matter is that we are completely physically and emotionally vulnerable within these natural bodies. We may hold a false view that we are strong but just let one sickness or disease come along and we can be reminded just how fragile we are. Ditto for life events that leave us emotionally and psychologically worried, anxious, afraid, or depressed. These mental crises can quickly drain us of our vigor and vitality.

This is who we are now living within these worldly bodies, bodies that are feeble and temporary. It’s not exactly the best place to be, is it?

Well, the good news is that it doesn’t need to be that way. For as mentioned, God has created a way for anyone to be made new and better than before. All it takes is to place your belief in Jesus.

When that happens, here’s what will happen to the natural body at the resurrection.

1.  The once perishable body will now be imperishable. There will be no decaying or dying. The eternal body will never change or lose its splendor.

2. The once dishonorable body will now be raise in glory. It will be a body honored by God with a place in His mansion of many rooms where it will abide with Him forever.

3. The once weak body will be raised in power, the resurrection power of the Lord God Almighty. It will never see limitation again.

4. Finally, the once natural physical body will be raised a spiritual body, a spiritual body that is imperishable, glorious, and strong.

Friends, indeed this world is not all there is and thanks be to God for that. For every single day, this existence makes me happy to know that there are much better days to come, an eternity of days alive with my Lord who didn’t wish for me to perish but to have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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BY DESIGN

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”

How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.

Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

1 Corinthians 15:35-41

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In order to gain the greatest appreciation for God’s amazing, masterful creative work, we have to open our eyes up to the world we live in.

Now that we are in the midst of the spring season, we get to once again join all the plants, bushes, and trees that green up and often bloom in a dazzling display of bright, colorful flowers. There are many, many varieties, all with their unique qualities that separate one from the other. In fact, there are approximately 400,000 different plant species in the world today, each with a body that God has determines, many of which grew from a single seed, also designed by God to produce the plant body He desires.

Now, humans have bodies too but they are nowhere like a plant body. There is no comparison, right? People have flesh and bones, a brain and a heart, arms and legs. They can think and move and perform actions, just as God intended.

Animals, birds, and fish have flesh and bodies too. They each have different functions and abilities. Many of these animals, birds, and fish end up being a food source for mankind who has been placed in a position of dominion over them. Like plants, there are many different species of animals (~two million), birds (~10,000), and fish (~32,000) and God made them all as He wanted.

Look to the skies and you’ll see more bodies, heavenly bodies like planets and stars. Each has their own distinctive splendor. As our scripture passage reminds us, “the sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another”. Speaking of the stars, even each star is distinguished from one another in characteristic and the aforementioned splendor.

The main point Paul is making here is that only God knows what kind of body His created things will have. Each is made the way He wants by way of His perfect artistry and divine power.

How will Christian bodies look after God resurrects from the dead? 

The truth of the matter is that no one knows but God but I can tell you this, these bodies will be special and glorious by design, no matter how they might appear and I look forward to seeing His salvation work completed as I join all those in Christ to live with Him forever after the great resurrection.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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