Devotional Guide
For the week of October 29, 2006

WHAT CAN WE NOT SEE?

About the other side of the grave

To Know:

³To them (his disciples) he presented himself (Jesus) alive after his
passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking
of
the kingdom of God.² (Acts 1:3)

³Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father forty whacks,² but they
failed to prove it in court. William Moody, who was born in Byfield Parish
and rose to become a Supreme Court Justice, defended Lizzie. Moody raised
sufficient doubt to set the New Bedford woman free.

If the resurrection of Jesus is not in doubt, then the question of the
ages
is answered. If a man dies, does he live again? Is there a life to come?
Is
there a future age where the injustices of today are made right? The
answer
is a resounding yes. For the disciples, all doubts concerning his
resurrection were answered when they met him in his risen body. For forty
days following his crucifixion Jesus appeared to his disciples. One
morning
he cooked breakfast and served his friends. Thomas touched the resurrected
Christ to reassure himself that Jesus was no spirit. One day more than
five
hundred people saw the risen Jesus all at one time.

Is there proof of the resurrection available to us? Yes. Can anyone
explain
the existence of the Christian church if Jesus did not rise? Why would the
apostles willingly suffer for testifying that Jesus had risen if, in fact,
they had fabricated the story? Would these men have suffered, bled and
even
died to perpetuate what they knew to be a fraud? Of course not.
Uncertainty
is ruinous. Doubts are destructive. Boldness is the child of certitude.

We have every reason to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus is
alive after he was dead then life does, indeed, await us on the other side
of the grave and we ought to live life now with this fact always in mind.



10316$-10213



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