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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Saturday, April 01, 2017
Today's Passage : Subject:The Resurrection of the Dead [3] Bible Verse:1 Corinthians 15:29-34 (ESV) "Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame." Message:
If asked, most people would not be able to guess the origin the phrase "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Shakespeare? The gladiators? It actually comes from the Old Testament; it appears repeatedly in both Isaiah (e.g. Isaiah 22:13 and Ecclesiastes (e.g. Ecclesiastes 8:15.
The phrase is always fatalistic. Taken at face value, it sounds like the espirit of soldiers about to go into battle, who intend to enjoy themselves before they die. But the phrase is never used as such in the Bible. In Isaiah, it is used to describe those who will die in battle for their sins. In the more poetic Ecclesiastes, it is part of the rich and beautiful poem about the vanity of earthly existence. And here, Paul uses it as an attitude that the Christian has outgrown, which has been rendered foolish by the resurrection of Christ.
For, tomorrow we do not die. Or more accurately, we may appear to die, but we die in the expectation of resurrection. To sum up this passage: If we do not believe in the resurrection of Christ and, thus, our own resurrection through His power, why bother with Christianity? And if you do believe in Christ, the phrase "eat, drink, and be merry" — which implies sinful gluttony because there will be no consequence, since one is about to perish — no longer makes sense.
Once our eyes are opened to the truth, we naturally want to stop our sinful conduct. And as he has said before, one of the components to our own salvation is to avoid those who will pull us into sin with their ignorant, self-indulgent conduct.
Meditation : Prayer : Now unto him that is able to keep me from falling, and to present me faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. |
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