Remembering a Forgotten Blessing
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:44
This week we are talking about two main things - what our physical bodies will be like, and what heaven will be like, post-resurrection. These are amazing realities which bring much encouragement and joy to our souls! Before we wrap up the week, however, we want to zero in on one additional area also significantly impacted by the resurrection, and that is our spiritual lives.
As we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), we are constantly plagued by our sin nature. It constantly tries to influence us to do things contrary to what the Spirit desires. We know this to be true from Scripture (Galatians 5:17), and we know this from experience. We do not always do the things we want to do (Romans 7:13-25).
And this is where the forgotten blessing comes in! According to 1 Corinthians 15:44, there will come a day when we will only do the things we want to do because we will have a spiritual body, which is to say, we will have a material body completely animated and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The sin nature, with all of its ugly side-effects, will be gone and will no longer hold sway. This means a day is coming when we won’t struggle with jealousy, envy, fear, anger, selfishness, complacency, bitterness, covetousness, comparison, lust, broken relationships, and the like. Indeed, all of the things we battle against in our quest for godliness will be gone as we will finally have the presence of sin removed from our lives. In God’s post-resurrection world, our desire for holiness will be realized, our relationship with Him will be unbroken and uninterrupted, and our relationships with each other will be peaceful and harmonious.
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
Scott Smith
Care Pastor
Heaven, the Infinite Frontier
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
1 Corinthians 15:42-43
Well, today I get to talk to you about one of my all-time favorite subjects; what heaven will be like. My entire life I’ve been saddled with this disability, so I’ve been thinking and dreaming about my heavenly body for quite some time now. My goal with this devotion is to stoke your imagination so that this potentially sterile concept of heaven will become a vibrant hope and a source of inspiration. A place you long to go to like a cozy home, but also a frontier meant to be explored.
We will be reunited with the people we used to do life with, except both parties will be new inside and out. Imagine the fellowship between old friends newly perfected, Families redeemed, without the possibility of strife. Imagine the person you’ve loved your whole life free from every sin and clothed in perfection. Eventually, the ones after us will be there, and we shall see the original personalities of our progeny, the spectacular depths of God’s ingenuity on display.
Like the caterpillar's maiden fight as a butterfly, we will perceive such wonders that will forever change us. Imagine actually experiencing the raw glory of God in the throne room portrayed in Revelation! What does glory even feel like? I imagine it feels like a combination of hyper-intense light and rushing wind with a liquid texture. We know it would’ve killed Moses, but a super tiny glimpse of it made his body emit light for a week. In perfect bodies, we may be able to stand with our Lord in God’s glory. I wonder what emitting light feels like. Jesus did that when he transfigured, so I guess we’ll find out!
We knew our bodies would be like Jesus’s body post-resurrection, so we’re looking at teleportation and flight. We’d never have to say goodbye to anyone ever again before embarking on a journey. We’d be able to recreate those flying dreams we’ve all had where we’re soaring over some gorgeous vista with the wind blasting through our hair. There will be the entire symphony of other senses exposing the glory of creation as it has always been meant to be experienced.
The best part by far will be interacting with Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit. This is their home, where the Trinity is from; think of the stuff we will behold. Like a son being taken to his father’s workshop for the first time, we’ll see the cradle of creation and how he made the first light in the beginning. But you better believe the Creator of creativity will go on creating at some point during eternity, and that’s the stuff that will really keep us on our toes!
Jonathan Duncan
That Sounds Nice!
Years ago I got to witness an interaction between my son Eric and his great-uncle, that neither of us will ever forget. Eric, along with his twin brother, had spent their early childhood years praying that Uncle Carl would accept Jesus as his Savior. With boldness, they took advantage of every opportunity to tell him how much he needed Jesus. And with sadness, they listened to him time and time again say, “that’s nice” and go on with his day. As Uncle Carl reached his mid-90’s, the twins started to lose hope and became resigned to the idea that their beloved uncle may not spend eternity with Jesus.
As Uncle Carl entered his last days on earth, something suddenly changed. It was as if decades worth of truth had all of a sudden permeated his soul. He smiled, he looked youthful, and he talked about going to live with God in heaven.
During our last visit with him, the twins stood on either side of his bed and started asking him if he was excited to see Jesus. Uncle Carl grinned and said, “yes, I suppose it will be wonderful”.
Then Eric asked the ultimate question, “Can you imagine living without any pain at all?” Uncle Carl seemed a bit baffled and responded by saying that less pain sure would be nice. That was the open door that Eric was looking for. With all sorts of excitement he launched into a discourse on how when Uncle Carl left this earth and went to heaven, his heavenly body would never die, it would never grow old, it would never break down or get sick, and it would live forever free of pain. The perishable would become imperishable.
With that, Uncle Carl smiled a huge partially toothless grin and this time with fervor and faith exuberantly said, “well that sounds really nice!”
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul outlines what will happen to our earthly bodies when they meet glory - they will become glorious! We will have perfect, flawless, pain-free, glorious, imperishable bodies! In verses 51-52 he says, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, For the perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
This is our hope! The dead will be resurrected. The broken will be made whole. The captives will be set free. As the perishable becomes imperishable, we will become like our Savior for we will see him as he is! Oh, what a glorious day!
Lynette Fuson
Care & Counseling Director
But a Bare Kernel
“And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.” - 1 Corinthians 15:37
Paul uses this farming analogy as a part of his answer to the question about the type of body that will be raised from the dead. His point is that the difference between our earthly body and our heavenly body is like the difference between a seed and a tree. In fact, he is saying that one day, when our earthly bodies are “sown” like a seed (that is put in the ground after we die), we will be raised as something so much more than the bodies that we know. Our new bodies will be to our old bodies something like what a tree is to a seed. I love that analogy because here on this earth, we think that what we can see and touch is the most real thing, but in heaven, this will be like a small taste of the reality to come.
I think that C.S. Lewis may have had this passage on his mind when he was writing a really fun book of his called, The Great Divorce. This book is about a fictional bus ride from hell to heaven and although it is only fiction, and although there is a lot of speculation, it is one of the best representations of heaven that I have ever read.
In it, Lewis plays with an old philosophic idea that evil is only a privation (or distortion) of what is good. In other words, sickness is not a thing, but a distortion of health. Death is just the absence or lack of life. If we think about the world this way, it would imply that the more good something is, the more real it actually is. This would also imply that the more evil something is, the less real it is. Because of this, Lewis suggests that hell (being the most evil place in existence) is extraordinarily small compared to heaven and that even our present world seems large compared to it. Lewis has to stop short of explaining heaven too much because it would be beyond what we can comprehend. Instead, he says it this way: “Heaven is reality itself."
Speaking of heaven, he says, “All hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world [heaven], the Real World.”
This is what Paul is getting at when he says that our earthly bodies that will one day die are “but a bare kernel.” We are only partially real today, but one day, we will take on our true form which will be the most real we have ever been. Oh, what a day that will be!!
Josh Rose
Discipleship Pastor
Unless it Dies
“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” 1 Cor 15:35-36. There are several things about these two verses that go contrary to current practices. Paul repeats questions that were important sticking points for the people in Corinth and then he slams them for asking them. “How foolish!” Today’s teachers say, “There are no stupid questions…” Every time my cynical mind hears an instructor repeat that line, my thoughts continue an unsaid part of the phrase that I’ve added, “...only stupid people.” Then I smile quietly to myself. Paul lived under a different set of cultural sensibilities.
The reason he is upset at those questions is because they carry more doubt about the resurrection, the topic he is emphasizing with them throughout this chapter. Jesus’ resurrection is real and the resurrection of believers will be too.
Resurrection is a picture of one of the principles God wove into the fabric of the universe - that life is brought on through death. Jesus said the same thing in John 12:24. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The death of a believer is transformation, not expiration. For a believer, death to self happens at conversion to Christ and continues through growth and maturity as believers regularly take up their cross and follow Jesus. Paul wants believers to be confident and not in doubt. A mature believer’s whole life is about dying to self. Death is familiar and not feared.
This idea is real even though it was the afterthought of creation or the result of sin. Death is a burden and privilege of this lifetime, but will not be that way in heaven. Which is stronger in your heart, fear of death or confidence in the resurrection? Take some time to process that question. Thank the Lord for overcoming death and giving us the opportunity to die every day so the day of death might be nothing new.
John Riley
Jr. High Pastor
Here I am. Send me.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Who should I send? Who will go for Us?” I said: “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah 6:8
It was November 1900. A group of five missionaries were looking over the rail of their banana boat that had just arrived in Cuba. As they leaned over the rail watching the ship cargo being unloaded, one of them heard and understood his first Spanish words in Cuba, “Poco a poco.” The group had been on an intensive Spanish course in the last few months as they got ready to leave for Cuba. Mr. Jones understood that it meant “little by little” in other words, “take it easy.” He took these words as a sign from the Lord. Ministry was going to take a while, and he was not to try to rush it. Their first convert was the carpenter that built a few benches for their meetings. Ministry in Cuba did take a while, but by 1927, there was an independent, thriving church in Cuba.
Why am I telling this story? Those five missionaries answered God’s call and joined Him on mission. When God asked “Who should I send,” they answered, “Send us.” They could never have imagined the impact that their answer would have on thousands of Cubans. They impacted the lives of thousands of people they never met. I am one of them. I came to know Jesus in one of those churches founded by that group of missionaries, and those who followed them. It is interesting that I am writing this in November because every November we celebrated the lives of those five missionaries. I remember how we had to learn their names in Sunday School. By the time I was old enough to understand salvation, there were no missionaries left in Cuba. The Communist regime revoked all of their visas and they had to leave, but their work and the Holy Spirit remain in Cuba. Generations continue to worship the Lord and study the Bible in spite of all the hardships.
Those five missionaries were not super-Christians, but ordinary people like you and me. They just heard a call from God and answered it. If you hear His call and answer it, the Lord will send you on an amazing journey, and you will never know until you get to Heaven the impact that you had on many lives.
Isabel Hines
Global Outreach Council
What will you say?
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Early on in my involvement with EFCC’s Journey of Hope Refugee Ministry, I found myself driving two Syrian refugee women home from an event in El Cajon. I wasn’t familiar with the area and these two ladies were doing their best to give me directions by pointing, speaking to each other in Arabic and then to me with a few words of English! I remember thinking how did I get here? In fact, I’ve asked myself that question many times.
The answer goes back to the opportunity I had to find out more about serving refugees at an informational session. I didn’t know what might be involved but I wanted to find out more and to say “yes” and take a step forward. Not long after, there was an invitation to join the refugee ministry leadership team. Who me? Surely there were others more qualified and knowledgeable than me. I had never met a Muslim. I knew nothing of Arabic culture or the honor-shame worldview. Yet, I knew in my heart that the nudge I was feeling was the Holy Spirit encouraging me to say “yes” again and take another step forward.
Six years later, I can joyfully say that while in service to Him, God has expanded my life with purpose and blessings beyond what I could have ever imagined. He has given me a love for refugees, enlarged my community of other believers with whom I am blessed to serve and continued to open doors for other service. I am so grateful that He has. given me the opportunity to participate with Him in what He is doing locally and around the world.
What are the interests in your life that animate your spirit and excite you? Will you be intentional about pursuing opportunities for service by being open to taking a step toward those opportunities and by making yourself available? What will you say?
Nancy Wood, Global Outreach Council
My Global Family in Christ
It was a beautiful clear evening. We were in a small church in the mountains high above the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. We had a beautiful view of the city lights. My husband and I had been ministering there with a team from Costa Rica. One of the local workers invited us to visit her home church. Most of the members were Quechuan and did not speak Spanish fluently. The moment we stepped into the building everybody was eager to make our acquaintance. We were greeted with the usual Bolivian way of hand shake, kiss, hand shake again. At my 5'-3`` height, I was a head taller than most women. They wore their traditional colorful skirts, typical hats and long braids past their waists. I definitely did not look like them and did not even speak their language. And yet…I felt at home! I was with my family! My family in Christ!
I have never felt more like I was participating in a true New Testament church than that evening. The service was conducted in a mixture of Spanish and Quechuan. There was singing and praying. My husband shared a brief message in Spanish and it was translated to Quechuan, followed by a message from one of the elders. What a treat!
When it was time for communion, the leaders announced that a member of the congregation who was put under Elder discipline had gone through all the requirements and was ready to be reinstated. The congregation was asked if they agreed that he could again participate in the communion service. They did. Then we were asked to get on our knees (on the tile floor) and get our hearts right with the Lord by confessing any sins committed. People all around me were whispering prayers in Quechuan. I was praying in Spanish. John was praying in English. After a while, still with our heads bowed, we were asked if we had anything against a brother or a sister to get up and reconcile. I could hear some shuffling of chairs and feet. Then there was a final prayer, we sat up, and communion started pretty much how we conduct it in our congregation.
This was the closest I have ever felt to real communion with my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I still get tears in my eyes thinking about that experience. The service lasted over two hours. The best two hours I have ever spent. I will probably never see those dear people again until we get to heaven. But I am looking forward to that event described in Revelation 7:9-10, "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ''Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”'
If you have the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart, you can also look forward to that event, but you can have glimpses here on Earth as my husband and I did that evening. You can participate in short or long term missions and experience the joy of being with our global family in Christ.
Isabel Hines
Global Outreach Council
God’s Infinite and Beautiful Story
One of my favorite experiences as an elder is listening to testimonies from people in the New Members Class. I love hearing stories of the beautiful ways God has worked in people’s lives. The testimonies are beautiful in and of themselves as they stand alone, a singular point in time and history, but when I think about how they fit into God’s bigger picture, they are even more beautiful and a stronger witness to what God is building. God is building something that transcends time and space, a feat that only God can accomplish.
My mother loves to put together big colorful puzzles. As she looks at each of the pieces, they are truly beautiful in hue and in unique shape. However, they make sense and are only truly beautiful when seen as part of a whole as they are purposefully placed together. In this world, I cannot see the whole until it is completely assembled, but as God puts together his story, he knows and sees the bigger picture and how it all fits beautifully together.
This bigger picture not only transcends my limited earthly view, but it also transcends time. Only God can orchestrate a narrative that transcends time. In 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul talks about being a part of the building process. He acknowledges his part and our part, building throughout time on the foundation laid by Christ.
Toward the end of his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson points out that when I share my story or when I listen to the testimonies of others, it is not how God fits into my story. It is how I fit into God’s story. I am not beyond the scope of time and space, but God is. I will wither and fade but God’s plan and purposes are eternal. God has a plan for me individually and a plan for us corporately. God is writing his story, history. Because of God’s work on the cross, I get to be a part of a bigger story that is even more beautiful than my singular story. I get to be a part of that story because of his work on the cross. That is not only beautiful but it is purposeful and eternal.
Lord, thank you for giving deeper and broader meaning to my story because it is part of your story. As I live out the story you have planned for me, and as I encounter the stories of others, help me to see each one in light and in view of your plan and purposes. Your kingdom story is a vantage point that is infinitely more beautiful.
Rich Bell
Global Outreach Council
Missio Dei
I was on a mission and could not be stopped. Undergoing a house remodel, the work was paused while a broken plumbing part had to be replaced. The plumber could not continue. That meant the drywaller could not finish. Next the painter had to reschedule. The housing inspector's appointment changed. I had to find that part. Life was certainly tougher in these pre-internet days. Driving from Valley Center to all the different plumbing supply stores in Escondido and surrounding areas to locate this part was quite an effort. Eventually though, mission accomplished!
Thankfully, the mission of God continues in a more joyful manner and on a much grander and eternal scale. Throughout history, God has called men and women to be His workers. Beginning in Genesis 12 with the call of Abraham, summoning Moses and revealing Him as the greatest I AM to deliver Israel, appointing David a king that would produce seed in Jesus that would rule forever.
Jesus was on mission too. The Father was sending Jesus to reconcile all people to Himself. Jesus was sent by the Father to do not His will, but the will of the Father. “Then Jesus explained: My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work." (John 4:34) We are not bystanders. I remember Gary Haugen from IJM teaching one morning at EFCC. “God doesn’t have a Plan B. The church is His plan.”
This paragraph from an essay in the Perspectives on the Christian Movement by Henry Blackaby and Avery Willis is convicting and challenging to me. “Christians are Kingdom people and Christ Himself is the eternal King over His kingdom. He “has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” (Rev 1:6) You are called into a partnership with Christ the King. In this partnership, you will become involved in His mission to reconcile a lost world to God. To be related to Christ is to be on mission with Him. You cannot be in relationship with Jesus and not be on mission with Him. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you too.” (John 20:21).
Those are clear marching orders. May we all be faithful and obedient to the call that the Father has put on each one of our lives. Soli deo gloria.
Todd Hoyt,
Global Outreach Council
