Devotional Guide
For the week of November 12, 2006
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ME?
Does life here and now correspond to eternity?
To read the Bible in one year, today read: 1 Chronicles 22-24
To Know:
³When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying
on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, ŒBring some of the fish that you have
just caught.¹² (Jn.21: 9,10)
Stan Flewelling and Garth Rosell edited the stories of William E. Barton.
One story concerns a train ride Barton took to Chicago. A fellow passenger
was a first grader on her way to Terre Haute, Indiana. Her family was moving
from New York and she was afraid. The maiden¹s fear was that at Terre Haute
she would need to learn a new alphabet and a new spelling for words like cat
and dog. Barton assured the youngster that in Terre Haute they used the
same alphabet she learned in New York.
Barton pondered the conversation with his little friend. How many, he
wondered, would change their mind about eternity if they really believed
that it corresponded to life here and now? The alphabet we learn here is the
one we will use there. Jesus rose from the dead in a body that bore the
marks of the one he took to the grave, but it was not the same body. The
apostle Paul wrote, ³I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable.² (1Cor.15: 50) On the one hand the resurrection body of Jesus
was not the one that was crucified, but on the other hand it was the same
Jesus who was raised. The one body corresponded to the other.
To Do:
When Jesus rose from the dead he did something familiar. He cooked
breakfast. We must take great care with what we do in this life because the
life to come is that for which we are preparing.
To Ask:
Father, help me to keep eternity in mind in all that happens while I live
this life.
11166$-11166
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