4-21-14: Power Over Death
#HeartForTheWord
One of my best girlfriends had to say her final goodbye to her sweet mother, Mrs. Helen Pittman, at the memorial service. This beautiful lady had lived for almost 83 years and had touched many lives in a positive way. It just so happened that her service was scheduled to take place on Good Friday. Preparing to attend that service, I wondered, “This year, what’s so good about Good Friday?”
Good Friday is the name that Christians have given to the day on which we remember the crucifixion of our Savior. Jesus was mercilessly assassinated by the Roman power structure at the urging of the religious leaders who felt threatened by His influence. What those leaders and the Romans didn’t realize was that they were playing right into God’s hands. Jesus was born to die for the sin of the world. So the good part about that awful Friday was the fact that Jesus fulfilled His purpose by satisfying God’s wrath and thus opening the way for mankind to get to Heaven.
That still left us with the question of why it was a good Friday for us to be spending the day memorializing my friend’s mother. The answer was simple: the story of Good Friday didn’t end when Jesus hung His head and died. Without Good Friday, there would have been no Easter Sunday morning. Jesus Christ rose from the dead early on the first day of the week, becoming “the first born among many brethren” (see Romans 8:29).
And it’s because of Jesus’ resurrection that we could celebrate the passing of Mrs. Pittman. She had trusted Christ as her Savior. Even the Psalmist, the author of Psalm 49, knew of the coming redemption when he wrote, “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me” (Psalm 49:15).
From our perspective, Mrs. Pittman died, but God had received her. In reality, she only went through a series of exchanges. She exchanged the body that was wearing out for a new body like Jesus’ glorious, resurrected one. She exchanged her brain that was frustratingly forgetting the people and things she loved for an acute mind that is well aware of her new surroundings. Most of all, she exchanged life on this decaying, sinful earth for eternal life forever in God’s presence. Worship God today as the Redeemer who has in His hands the power over death.
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©2014 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.
Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,
Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children
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Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk
Also still available:
Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame
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