Easter

Colossians 3 “Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, rid yourselves of all of them: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you stripped off the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who …”

(Change) It is a pity that so many Christians talk as if the resurrection was some future event of which they have no experience. If we look at ourselves as human beings we discover that our bodies are dying and being renewed all the time. The resurrection of the body is not a one-off future event; it is something that happens to us every day, in fact at every single moment of our existence. Our bodies are made up of living cells that are changing every second of our life. Every one of us has something like sixty billion cells. Every single second of every minute of every hour, five millions cells die, and another five million are born. Every minute three hundred million cells go through death and resurrection, every minute we are being reborn. Our bodies are in a continual state of death and resurrection. I find it so easy to say, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." It is a little harder to decide which body, as I have already had so many different bodies in growing from infant to full manhood. Yet, of each of the bodies recorded on photographs I can say, "That's me and nobody else, and nobody else's body." So much of God's creation goes through similar patterns of death and resurrection that is is beyond doubt that God can give us another body as it pleases him. Not only is the resurrection of the body an ongoing and more-than-once event but we experience many other resurrections in our lives. We change and change again; old patterns, old relationships die and new ones are formed. We will only die fully if we cease to change. There is a suggestion in the Scripture that in fact we move from glory to glory! This is not to belittle the resurrection that we shall experience after death; it should rather enhance it for greater glories lie ahead. p.100-101