What Kind of Body Will I Have?

  Blog »    What Kind of Body Will I Have? 
Reflections on 1 Corinthians 15

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 

“Some skeptic is sure to ask, 'Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this 'resurrection body' look like?'  If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is.  There are no diagrams for this kind of thing.  We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a "dead" seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant.  You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don't look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.  

You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning.  Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies—humans, animals, birds, fish—each unprecedented in its form.  You get a hint at the diversity of resurrection glory by looking at the diversity of bodies not only on earth but in the skies— sun,
moon, stars—all these varieties of beauty and brightness. And we're only looking at pre-resurrection "seeds"—who can imagine what the resurrection "plants" will be like!  

This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we're raised, we're raised for good, alive forever!  The corpse that's planted is no beauty, but when it's raised, it's glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful.  The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!  

We follow this sequence in Scripture: The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit.  Physical life comes first, then spiritual—  a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven.  The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly.  In the same way that we've worked from our earthy origins, let's embrace our heavenly ends”                    1 Corinthians 15:35-49 (MSG)  

 This passage tells me that as a believer. . . . . .  

 . . .  . . . . . . I will experience life after life after death.  First comes heaven.  Later I am clothed with a new amazing resurrected body.  Same me, but with a new/renewed body.   To me this is really big.  I will live a real, physical, material, embodied life on a real physical, material, earth.  I will not be floating around somewhere in some disembodied state.
. . . .  . . . . . .if I’m the seed, then there’s continuity between the current me and the future me.  This means that I need to get the current me as right as I can get it so that what’s planted has the stuff needed to birth a really good renewed me.   A poor seed produces a poor plant.  
 . . . .  . . . . . .If my destiny is a resurrected life on a new earth, then I need to live today with the goal in mind.    This life receives its “Juice” when we know what we’re living for.  

What did this passage teach you? (Read the entire Chapter  https://www.bible.com/bible/37/1co.15.ceb)

“Lord, the picture I get is that I will live some form of the life I live now only exponentially enhanced.   But it’s a life freed from the bondage of self-absorption, defensiveness, hurt, anger, selfishness, greed, and every other life depleting bondage.   Freedom to be all yours!   Incredible!  Amen”

 

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

What Does the Bible Say About Resurrection?

  Blog »    What Does the Bible Say About Resurrection? 

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 

“If Christ hasn’t been raised, then your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins, and what’s more, those who have died in Christ are gone forever.  If we have a hope in Christ only in this life, then we deserve to be pitied more than anyone else.  But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.  He’s the first crop of the harvest of those who have died.  Since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came through one too. In the same way that everyone dies in Adam, so also everyone will be given life in Christ. Each event will happen in the right order: Christ, the first crop of the harvest, then those who belong to Christ at his coming, and then the end, when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he brings every form of rule, every authority and power to an end.   It is necessary for him to rule until he puts all enemies under his feet."      (Ps 110:1)  

"Death is the last enemy to be brought to an end, since he has brought everything under control under his feet. When it says that everything has been brought under his control, this clearly means everything except for the one who placed everything under his control. But when all things have been brought under his control, then the Son himself will also be under the control of the one who gave him control over everything so that God may be all in all."           1 Corinthians 15: 17-28  Common English Bible  

This passage tells me that . . . . 
 . . .  . . . . . . if there’s no resurrection, then Christianity  is a waste of time.   Why?  Because Christianity is not about living a better life or becoming a better person, it is about God bringing about a new and eternal world where, sin is forgiven, evil is removed, and death is defeated.
. . . .  . . . . . . as a believer I will be raised from dead just as Jesus was.  
 . . . .  . . . . . . Jesus is reigning over the world right now.  He’s in charge and He’s good.   The implications for how I live now based on that fact, on that reality, are profound.   One very simple but crucial implication is this:  If Jesus is reigning and I choose not to be subject to Him, then I am in a very precarious position to say the least  
 . . . . . . . . . . Jesus’ reign will end when even He will come under the reign of the Father at which point God will be all in  all.

What does this passage teach you?  (Read the entire Chapter   https://www.bible.com/bible/37/1co.15.ceb )    

“Lord, help me over the next 5 weeks of this series on Resurrection Living to actually live resurrection.  I want to experience tastes of going to heaven BEFORE I die.   I want to know the power of Your resurrection and to know it even as I experience the fellowship of your sufferings (Philippians 3:10)  Amen”

 

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

I Like Giving

Blog »    I Like Giving  

Monday, April 28, 2014

As I’ve thought about the cross and the resurrection, it seems to me that the fundamental message is the one that is both so simple and so profound . . . .and so easily glossed over, which is the verse above.   I was directed to a great book and website www.ilikegiving.com   full of simple stories of people who have discovered the joy, the fun, of living generously.     I hope you will be inspired each Monday by these stories as I have been.  God is great!   Jeff              

“This morning was a frigid -38 degrees with wind chill. I had an appointment at the University of Iowa. While leaving the parking garage, the parking garage attendant was all bundled up to bear the cold weather. She struggled to make the change, as her fingers were so cold despite her attempts to keep them warm with her mittens. I accepted the change and began to drive off, feeling sorry for the parking garage attendant, as I believe it was just the beginning of her shift and she already appeared to be freezing. The thought wasn’t going to just leave my head.  I thought, what can I do? This is when I remembered that I had the disposable, one-time use hand warmers in my center console of my car. I pulled back around, jumped out of my car, knocked on the glass of the window and handed her the hand warmers. I said, I think these may be of use to you today. She looked at me, grabbed the hand warmers, smiled, and said thank you. I am sure this girl was thinking, why does this lady randomly have hand warmers in her car? Who knows? However, I think this was God’s sign to me today that those opportunities to give generously really are everywhere. We just need to be willing and aware”  

Do you have an “I Like Giving” story to share?   We’ll be collecting them and posting them on our website www.clcfamily.net .  Stay tuned each Monday for more!  

“Lord, Your Word teaches us that You Yourself are a Giver and receiver.  As Father Son and Holy Spirit you are a continual flow of joyful giving and receiving, receiving and giving.  Lord help me to enter they joy of that flow also and, as the apostle Paul wrote, to experience the “Life that is truly Life”. (1 Timothy 6:19)  Amen”

 

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Cross

  Blog »    Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Cross
Friday, April 25, 2014

                                         As it is written:

                               "There is no one righteous, not even one;
                               there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
                               All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no
                               one who does good, not even one."
                              "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit."
                              "The poison of vipers is on their lips."
                              "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
                              "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
                               ruin and misery mark their ways,
                               and the way of peace they do not know."
                              "There is no fear of God before their eyes."       Romans 3:10-18 (NIV)  

                              “and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’   Isaiah 53:6 (NIV)

 

My guess is that very, very few of people believe that Romans 3:10-18 is actually true about themselves.  As a result very few people understand how amazing the Grace of Isaiah 53:6 is.   I also suspect that anyone who reads the story of Noah thinks not of the horror of their own sin, but instead look to indict God.    

Today is Holocaust remembrance day.   I think every Christian should visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.  As you take the tour think about yourself.  If you conclude that, given different circumstances, you, too, could have been among the German perpetrators carrying out the same atrocities, then you will have come to crucial truth about yourself.   My guess is that almost no one gets there.   We humans have a capacity for horrific brutalities that far exceed the animal kingdom, but we in the comfort and peace of our suburbs think we are above that.   We aren’t.  How do we suppress this truth about ourselves?  We blame.  It’s them!  How could they?  I would never do such a thing!  How awful!   In such thoughts we have deceived ourselves, diminished the Grace of the cross, and instead view ourselves as entitled to God’s love.    

The following article from USA Today is by  a 16 year old Jewish girl in a German high school writing about how her class observes Holocaust remembrance day 2014. Perhaps you’ll be horrified at what you read.  If so, if you are reflective, perhaps you will be able to see something of yourself in her classmates and in the school officials whose curriculum reduces the Holocaust to little more than a mention.    Jeff  

STUTTGART, GERMANY

"Because the Nazis were cooler than the Jews." I hadn't caught the question, but the answer was the latest in a succession of jokes about the Holocaust a month ago in my ninth-grade history class in Germany. The boys laughed uncontrollably, ignoring our teacher's attempts to stop them, while looking at pictures of starving concentration camp victims.

A few days later, things got worse. Our class visited Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. I was with some girls who congregated next to the barracks, where the prisoners once lay piled on top of each other. Nearby was a large black sculpture of men ensnared in barbed wire. One girl cracked a joke, and everyone laughed. I didn't see the humor, only the ghosts.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is Sunday. Many U.S. schools will observe the day on Monday, but not my German school. What I heard from my German classmates that day makes me think that maybe we should.
Am I overreacting? Is it because I am American — and a Jew? As the daughter of a Marine officer, I've had the opportunity to live in different parts of the U.S. and the world. In each setting, I've learned to live among different peoples and cultures, forcing me to view life from different perspectives.

So why does it matter to me that my class take the Holocaust seriously? There are two lessons we can learn from the Holocaust. First, we can learn the past: The dates, the names. All the things my class learned in school. The second lesson is about the present. About human nature. About ourselves. The lesson my classmates missed. As a Jew, I couldn't miss the lesson. My relatives are living history.

But my classmates' families really don't talk about the Holocaust. Perhaps it is too uncomfortable a topic. Nor is it usually a topic in school. In my school, the Holocaust is not even mentioned until the ninth grade. And when we do study World War II, the systematic genocide of Jews is barely mentioned.

I do think that German students should take the Holocaust as seriously as other students. These horrors are a big part of their history, and something that continues to affect how some Germans see their country today.

When my classmates laughed at Dachau, they weren't being monsters. My class acted no differently than my class in South Carolina, where slavery was justified because "times were different." In both these situations, my classes covered up these tragedies of the past and chose to ignore the lesson taught by history: that if allowed to go too far, humans can do terrible things.

The best way to make sure something like the Holocaust is never repeated is not to shield children from what happened, but teach them the moral lessons about people's capacity for evil.
For the future.
Sophie Roth-Douquet is 16 years old, and after three years in Germany, she will return to the U.S. with her family this year.  

“Lord, I am thinking about the song, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”.   My answer is yes, a resounding “yes!”   And I shudder.   I am among the crucifiers.   But incredibly, amazingly, beyond all human capacity to comprehend,  you count me also among the forgiven, included, loved, and blessed in your Kingdom.   How can this be?  Yet it is so.  My gratitude goes deeper than language can express, Lord.  Amen”

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

The Flow of the Life of God

Blog »    The Flow of the Life of God

  Wednesday, April 23, 2014 

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit 
be with you all. 
Amen."
2 Corinthians 13:14 (NKJV)

The following reflection by CS Lewis will help you understand why it is so important to remember that God is three persons in one.  I am hoping that you will get a glimpse o f how the “three personal Life of God” is exactly what draws you into relationship with Him.   Jeff  

And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prizes which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?

But how is he to be united to God? How is it possible for us to be taken into the three-Personal life?

You remember what I said in Chapter 1 about begetting and making. We are not begotten by God, we are only made by Him: in our natural state we are not sons of God, only (so to speak) statues. We have not got Zoe or spiritual life: only Bios or biological life which is presently going to run down and die. Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has-by what I call 'good infection'. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.  

“Wow, “enter into the dance of God?”   Thank you, Lord, that you are so much more than a mechanism to get my sins forgiven and a means to get into heaven instead of the other place.   You don’t just offer Life, you are Life.   Help me Lord to be hungry for that Life and never to stop seeking my place in that Life.  Amen”

 

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

What's Good about the Good News?

    Blog »    What's Good about the Good News?

Tuesday, March 22, 2014

“unless it was for nothing that you believed”
1 Corinthians 15:2

The Graphic above contains a “tweet-able” (less than 144 characters) summary of the Gospel.   The First Corinthians and Romans passages are the earliest (see yesterday’s blog) Gospel presentations in the New Testament.   I added the Revelation passage because it cuts to the core of what Jesus is doing as current ruler of the world (His rule will then end having completed its purpose when He returns bringing Heaven to Earth:  1 Corinthians 15:24-28).    

This graphic is my screen saver.    I encourage you to use the snipping tool function on your computer, cut, paste and save it and then make it your screen saver too.    Each time you turn on your computer it will be in front of you and you can think about how this Gospel actually means for your life each day.   After all, that’s what the Bible tells us that Jesus is doing.   He is making all things new.  You are included in the “all”.  

Jesus did not come to earth simply to get you and me into heaven.   Heavens no!  (little joke).  In Jesus God came to earth to rescue the whole thing, to renew, restore, resurrect, regenerate, (and whatever other “re” you can think of) the entire cosmos.    

God did not come here to get us to heaven and throw away what’s left!    He’s healing the whole world now and will complete the job.  The destiny of a believer is not a disembodied life somewhere “out there”, rather it is a physical life with a new body on the new earth which will have become new because Heaven will have descended to it and merged with it.   The future of a believer is life-after-life-after-death.   At death the believer enters a rest (with God in heaven/paradise) then awaits the consummation of all things (Acts 3:21) and at that consummation (the return of Jesus) is re-embodied  and given a new vibrant and purposeful life reigning on the new earth.  (2 Timothy 2:12)  

“Lord, the future you offer believers is beyond good.  It’s more than I can imagine, more than my ears can hear, more than my mind can conceive.   What’s more , you want us to anticipate that future in how we live today.   Help me to live in such a way that others see in my words and actions an affirmation and not a denial of that hope.  Amen”

Comment   

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

The Resurrection

  Blog »    The Resurrection  

Monday, April 21, 2014

                           If you would like to watch the story of this painting go to:                      
            http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnplayer/cbnPlayer.swf?s=/vod/MW131v2_WS 

“And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you,
which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. That is the gospel, the
message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—
unless it was for nothing that you believed.
I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died
for our sins, as written in the Scriptures;  that he was buried and that he was raised to
life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; that he appeared to Peter and then to
all twelve apostles.  Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at
once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died.  Then he appeared to
James, and afterward to all the apostles”    1 Corinthians 15:1-7 (TEV) 

The passage above is considered by virtually all scholars to be the earliest proclamation of the Gospel circulated after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.  It most likely dates back all the way into the 30’s AD (determined by checking out the chronology of Paul’s life as found in Galatians and elsewhere).  

Paul writes that this Gospel, as articulated in the second paragraph, will “save you”.   The question becomes, what will this Gospel save you from and what will it save you for?     

Just as God saved Israel from bondage in slavery to the Egyptians oppressors, the Gospel will save each of us from bondage to all the sinful propensities which enslave us and prevent us from living a joyful and free life.    This Gospel also frees me from the fear of death because its promise is that we will be given a free-from-sin life in all its vibrancy when we are resurrected from the grave.  The Gospel also saves us for a new kind of life today.   We get only glimpses of it now, but those glimpses and the life that leads us to those glimpses is profound.    But Paul adds an important caveat, “if you hold firmly to it”.     

I have always struggled trying to understand who’s right about the “security of my salvation”.   Is it “once saved, always saved”?   Is it Grace without works?  It is Grace and works?   Is John Calvin right or is James Arminius right or is John Wesley right?   Is it predestination or free will or both or is one saved by the cross but then works must show up or . . . or . . . or . . .   

I hope that you just read the Bible and let it guide you rather than force fitting the Bible into one of the many (sometimes/always? artificial ) systematic theological frameworks which inevitably get shattered by the Bible itself.  

Back to the point.   “if you hold firmly to it”.    I like this a lot.  I know, I know,  Grace has no “if’s” otherwise it’s not Grace.   But there it is, “if you hold firmly to it”.  

That’s our challenge on the day after Easter, isn’t it?   To hold firmly to it, to live a resurrection life where pessimism and negatively have no place in our hearts or speech.     

This week ask yourself each day this question, “Do my attitudes and behaviors reflect the reality that the new world of God has burst onto the scene and can never be extinguished and that God’s new world is available to me right now?   Or are my attitudes and behaviors at any given moment a denial of that reality?  

“Lord, You are making all things new.  I choose to believe that and with your help I will also choose to think and act in such a way, at any given moment, that my life proclaims that truth.   That kind of life, lord has no place for pessimism or negativity, only faith, trust, eyes to see, ears to hear, and belief that resurrection, restoration, and renewal are happening at every moment, and everywhere.  Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.  Amen”

 

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

Pope Francis' Favorite Painting

Blog »    Pope Francis' Favorite Painting  

GOOD FRIDAY
Friday, April 18, 2014


     White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall  

I recently read that his painting by Jewish artist Marc Chagall is Pope Francis’ favorite.   Chagall was inspired to paint this after Kristallnacht (night of broken glass) in 1938 Nazi Germany, that infamous night when evil and hatred, institutionalized in Nazi Germany’s leaders, played itself out in destroying Jewish businesses.   On the left you see the communists burning a village.  On the right you see Nazi’s burning a synagogue.   In the foreground is a man fleeing with a placard on which is written “ich bin Jude” (I am a Jew).  Covering Jesus is a prayer shawl.    There is much more that cannot be seen in this picture, but I think it’s worth taking a moment to contemplate what today, GOOD FRIDAY, commemorates.  It is the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, the final day of God personally experiencing the worst of what it means to be human.  

Yet before he dies and while still on the cross, Jesus speaks these words,  

        
           “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing”    Luke 23:34  

Even though Chagall’s faith was Judaism, he wrote that the purpose of White Crucifixion was for it to serve as an invitation for viewers to reflect on the meaning of the cross.   I encourage you to take a few moments to do exactly that.   Perhaps each of us can find ourselves somewhere in Chagall’s painting.  

“Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for your victory over all evil and over the evil one on the cross.   You exhausted his power and trumped the worst that he can do to us.  You have done so by taking onto yourself the worst that evil can deliver and trump it by rising from the dead. The worst that can happen is never, never, never the last thing that will happen.  Thank you Lord, that in Jesus, the worst that can happen is always, always, always followed by resurrection, renewal and restoration.  Amen"

PS   Today would be the perfect day to re-read Isaiah 53.    Perhaps Chagall made the connection.

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

The Last Supper

  Blog »    The Last Supper 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

“ When the time came for Jesus and the apostles to eat,  he said to them, "I have very
much wanted to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer.  I tell you that I will not
eat another Passover meal until it is finally eaten in God's kingdom."
Jesus took a cup of wine in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he told the
apostles, "Take this wine and share it with each other.  I tell you that I will not drink any
more wine until God's kingdom comes."
Jesus took some bread in his hands and gave thanks for it. He broke the bread and
handed it to his apostles. Then he said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Eat this
 as a way of remembering me!"
After the meal he took another cup of wine in his hands. Then he said, "This is my
blood. It is poured out for you, and with it God makes his new agreement.  The one
who will betray me is here at the table with me! The Son of Man will die in the way
that has been decided for him, but it will be terrible for the one who betrays him!"
Then the apostles started arguing about who would ever do such a thing.
The apostles got into an argument about which one of them was the greatest."
          Luke 22:14-25 (CEV) 

 

It’s all here isn’t it?  The, Holy, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnicompetent, Creator God, having reduced himself not only to being a creature, but to one who dies an horrific death at the hands of other creatures . . . . . this God now suffers the indignity at his last supper, at his telling them he’s going to die for them, of hearing them go off to argue about who will be the greatest.  

Tonight we will have dinner together, worship and remember this event by reenacting this Last Supper together, fellowship afterward, and then go home.  Will that be it?   At least I won’t go home trying to figure out how I can be greatest in His Kingdom, right?   Maybe it’s worse than that, maybe I just go back to my same old, same old, being the same old person I was before I took communion, the same person who still falls into the trap of looking out for myself first.  

But perhaps that’s part of the point.  Jesus’ death and resurrection are not things that I can do something with.  They are all God.  All God. . . . the God who knows that hopeless self-centeredness can never save itself, it must be rescued from without, redeemed from without, and recreated into something new from without.  

Undeterred by callous, self-serving disciples like me (and maybe you, too) Jesus headed straight for Gethsemane and then the cross.   

“Lord, the horror and beauty of this night are overwhelming. Can it actually be that You, God, would die for ME?  This, Lord, is incomprehensible.   Yet, by faith, by against-all-odds, against-anything-I-could-ever-deserve belief, I  trust it to be true. Thank you, Father.   Amen”

 

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl