Category: glorified physical bodies

Perishing Versus Renewing #2

Sunday, April 3, 2016

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV).

As we physically “perish,” may we spiritually “renew!”

One Christian brother always aptly states, “All ‘healing’ claims aside, the death-rate is still one a piece!” We can claim Israel’s verses all we want—Exodus 15:26, Matthew 10:8, Mark 16:17, James 5:14-15, et cetera—but we will only deceive ourselves by grabbing verses that have absolutely nothing to do with us and absolutely nothing to do with God’s current operations! No matter the modern-day “miraculous healing,” that “healed” person is still going to experience the worst disease—physical death. Beloved, there is something better than temporary physical healing in a body destined to rot anyway. It is a brand-new body in which the “renewed inward man” will reside in eternity!

Romans 8:18-25: “[18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. [20] For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, [21] Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. [22] For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. [23] And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. [24] For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? [25] But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

These physical bodies will pass, but a most glorious (resurrected) body will be granted us at the Rapture. Until Christ takes care of the “outward man,” may we take care of the “inward man!” Let us spend more time in God’s Word rightly divided, renewing that which will never perish! 🙂

Satan and Dispensationalism #12

Friday, October 16, 2015

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is one of the six key areas that Satan has found to be advantageous regarding confusing God’s people in this Dispensation of Grace, the Church the Body of Christ!

Satan wants ignorant Christians. After all, he can only rule over people who are unaware of what really matters. As one dear brother often says, “Ignorant brethren are the world’s largest denomination!” To add insult to injury, the exact six instances where Paul says not to be ignorant of some doctrine, they are the very doctrines of which Christendom is totally ignorant today! Awful! Shameful! Awful!

The final exhortation not to be ignorant is in today’s Scripture. Christians in Thessalonica were suffering intense persecution (1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-7). Today’s Scripture indicates some believers were murdered! Paul told the living saints in Thessalonica not to worry or sorrow uncontrollably. They would see their brethren in heaven. While grieving, they were to “comfort one another with these words” (verse 18). Before prophecy resumes, our Dispensation of Grace must close. All Christians who have died during the last 2,000 years—beginning with the Apostle Paul—will be resurrected. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (verse 17). We will all be given glorified bodies like Jesus Christ’s, thereby enabling us to function in the heavenly places forever for Jesus Christ’s glory (2 Corinthians 5:1-5; Philippians 3:20,21).

There is still a satanic agenda today to rob Christians of the blessed hope, our gathering together unto Christ in the air—not on Earth! Friends, let us ever be mindful of it. Many people today in so-called Christian circles scoff at the idea of the Rapture. They deny it, claiming we should be waiting for the seven-year Tribulation and Christ’s Second Coming. They are unaware of the very thing Paul said to pay attention to! Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, are largely ignored… thus, Christendom is largely ignorant!

NOTE: Saints, with 12 studies, we are just “warming up” with “Satan and Dispensationalism!” We will temporarily suspend these studies tomorrow, to make way for a special one-day study. Please stay tuned! 🙂

Young and Old(er) Men

Monday, May 11, 2015

“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head” (Proverbs 20:29 KJV).

Young or old(er), today’s Scripture says we both have something of which to be proud.

As a young man, I realize that I cannot speak as an old(er) one. All I can say about advancing in years is what I have witnessed in the lives of others. With the passage of time, there is an increasing disconnect between the inner man and the outer man. As we age, what our inner man wants to do is often not what our outward man is even capable of doing. While our physical bodies grow slower and frailer as the decades pass, our soul and spirit still want to behave as we did in our younger decades. Such an oddity is captured by the phrase, “the young at heart.”

Today’s Scripture says that a young man has one chief reason to boast—his strength. Generally, his bones have more calcium than an old man’s, so a young man’s bones are heavier and stronger. Also, the young man’s muscles have not deteriorated yet. The older man, however, has a chief reason to boast too—his grey head. His hairs are not receiving melanin to the extent that a young man’s hairs are, so his hairs have greyed and eventually they will turn completely white.

With age comes wisdom. “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31). A grey-haired (older) Christian is someone who has not only had experience in life in general, but who has had experience in God’s life (true life). That is the “beauty of old men.”

The young Christian man will not be able to boast forever—if the Lord tarries, reality assures us that his body will become old. Likewise, the old(er) Christian man will not boast forever—when the Lord comes, reality assures us that his body will become brand new! So, in the Lord’s grand design, it will all level off eventually. We just need to literally “give it some time….” 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What is the difference between a minister, a pastor, and an evangelist?”

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder #2

Thursday, April 9, 2015

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 KJV).

The second verse of James Milton Black’s classic 1893 hymn “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” highlights today’s Scripture.

“On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”

One day, when no one else wants to trust Jesus Christ as his or her personal Saviour, “the fulness of the Gentiles [will] be come in” (Romans 11:25). The Church the Body of Christ and the Dispensation of Grace will be complete: Paul’s Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) will no longer be a valid Gospel message. Once our mystery program ends with the Rapture (today’s Scripture), Israel’s prophetic program will resume where God paused it 2,000 years ago with Saul’s conversion in Acts chapter 9.

“Our gathering together unto [Christ]” (2 Thessalonians 2:1) is a most joyous hope, comforting bereaved and weary Christians: sadness and suffering permanently ends, a reunion with loved ones in Christ, and meeting Jesus Christ Himself! This world ending for us that we enter the heavenly places and fulfill God’s will there. The Rapture is much more than an escape from Earth. It is an appointment to keep in the heavens!

These weak, flesh-and-blood bodies cannot function in outer space. So, God will give all deceased Christians resurrected glorified bodies, and He will give us (living Christians) new glorified bodies as well (1 Corinthians 15:35-55). These new bodies will be just like Jesus’ resurrection body (Philippians 3:20,21), unlimited by time and space (meant to function in heaven). One day, I will be there, when all the saints are called up yonder to fill the heavens with Jesus Christ’s glory (Ephesians 1:18-23; Ephesians 2:6,7)! Will you?

Common and Uncommon

Sunday, September 28, 2014

“And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them, derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God” (Luke 23:35 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is proof that God’s ways and God’s thoughts are truly higher than ours!

When God the Holy Spirit formed His human body in the virgin Mary’s womb, He crafted an ordinary frame of dust (minus the sin nature). From all outward appearance, He looked common; lacking external beauty, He was exceptional on the inside, it was the very life of God Himself inside! “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). If Jesus stood in a crowd of Jewish men, you could not distinguish Him!

The secular world has a bias, a paradigm that one must be physically attractive to succeed, be materially wealthy to make a difference, have advanced degrees to be authoritative, and so on. (Little do they know that most Christians who literally changed the world were none of those!) The religious world has its own concept about those whom God would use—a smooth-talking, charming, overly optimistic, unrealistic, seminary graduate dressed in expensive attire. (Little do they know that Jesus was none of those, but He literally changed the world too!)

The God of the Bible always thinks differently from us humans, just as He said in Isaiah 55:8,9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Physically marred beyond the ordinary, on Calvary, Jesus died that our disfigured sinful souls be made stunning (justified) in God’s sight (Colossians 3:1-17), that these ordinary sinful bodies of flesh and blood would one day be fashioned like His extraordinary, glorious resurrected body (Philippians 3:20,21), that we not have a typical life hereafter, but an extraordinary life, “life more abundantly” (John 10:10). What wisdom!

Faith During Life’s Storms #8

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

“And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:25,26 KJV).

Like Israel learned in today’s Scripture, we too must realize to trust the Lord Jesus Christ when “the storms of life” batter us.

We re-read Romans 5:1,2: “[1] Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: [2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” What is that “hope of the glory of God?”

Blackness abounds in our universe—astronomical dark voids between celestial bodies. One day, God Himself will illuminate them with His glory… with us! Romans 8:18,19 explain: “[18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

While we Christians are God’s children today, we do not look it. These sinful bodies cannot reflect Jesus Christ’s radiant glory (manifested in Matthew chapter 17). Our inward bodies (soul and spirit) are redeemed; our outward bodies are not (Romans 8:18-25). They are “earthy” (bearing Adam’s marred image), but one day—the Rapture—we will have “heavenly” outward bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-58). Those bodies will shine very brightly, manifesting outside the glory we have inside now, lighting up the heavens for Jesus Christ’s glory (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:14)! “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6,7).

Saints, always thank Father God in prayer, rejoicing that He will one day physically remove us from this fallen world forever. Until then, life’s troubles that Satan uses to distract us, are to be considered not worthy of our consideration, and not worthy to be compared with our glorification! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Should the King James’ term ‘Christ’ actually be ‘Lord’ in 2 Thessalonians 2:2?”

 

God’s Family #7

Friday, February 7, 2014

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19 KJV).

How enjoyable it is to fellowship with other members of God’s family!

In the future, we, the Church the Body of Christ will accomplish God’s will for the heavenly places: “And [God] hath raised us up [ascended] together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (verses 6,7). God already considers us Christians as though we were in heaven now!

Why are we Christians still on earth? Why did God not take us to heaven the moment we trusted Christ? Until this the Dispensation of Grace closes, a portion of the Body of Christ must remain on earth in order to evangelize, to teach the lost world the Gospel of God’s Grace, and then, after unbelievers are saved, to see them mature in sound Bible doctrine. When no one else wants to trust Jesus Christ alone as personal Saviour, the Body of Christ will be completed, and the Christians remaining on earth will be taken up into the air, to meet the Lord Jesus Christ and to reunite with their brothers and sisters in Christ (now resurrected bodily) (1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

When all members of the Church the Body of Christ are assembled in heaven, Ephesians 1:22,23 explains: “And [God] hath put all things [the governments of heaven] under his [Jesus Christ’s] feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” All the offices of heaven’s government that Satan and his angels have polluted, will be purged (Revelation 12:7-12), and we will be installed in those positions of government (cf. Colossians 1:16-20)!

Via us, God will fill all of heaven with the life of His Son, Jesus Christ, and it will truly be a family enterprise, one that will literally transcend the endless ages to come!

NOTE: A companion (albeit, advanced) devotionals arc is “in the works,” and should be published soon! Stay tuned!

God’s Family #4

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19 KJV).

How enjoyable it is to fellowship with other members of God’s family!

The Bible says: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:20,21). Interestingly, the Greek word here translated “conversation” is politeuma (note the Greek prefix poli–, “city,” as in “politics”). As today’s Scripture says, we are really citizens of heaven, “the kingdom of [God’s] dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Philippians 3:20 means that our behavior should reflect heavenly values, God’s Word and doctrine (cf. Colossians 3:1-3), just as one’s beliefs and actions reflect one’s nationality.

We who trusted alone in Jesus Christ’s blood shed, death, burial, and resurrection as the fully-satisfying payment for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4), we also look to heaven to receive physical redemption (Romans 8:22), when Jesus Christ comes to give us new bodies like His (Philippians 3:21). Then, He will take us up into heaven where our true citizenship is, where He will then live His life in and through us in those heavenly places (the life He wants to live in and through us on earth now!).

Paul discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that the souls and spirits of those who died in Christ, Jesus Christ will bring with Him back to earth, give them and us new bodies (1 Corinthians 15:51-55), and take us Christians living on earth, home. Within a split second, all Christians, living and deceased, will be reunited, caught up (“raptured”) in the clouds, “to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (verse 18). With the years of Christian training on earth complete, the Church the Body of Christ is removed from earth, the Dispensation of Grace closes, Israel’s program resumes, and we are reunited with our Christian siblings, liberated to be vessels of God’s grace in the heavenly places….

The Sting of Death

Friday, August 23, 2013

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55 KJV).

In Jesus Christ, we endure “the sting of death” but for a moment….

Having attended the funerals of two family members—my maternal great-aunt and my paternal uncle—during the past four days, my family and I have certainly felt “the sting of death.” That second passing away was unexpected and extremely quick, making it very painful for the family.

To view the bodies of loved ones lying lifeless in their caskets, always pricks (“stings”) the inner man: like a knife, death slices through the souls of the bereaved. That feeling is greatly intensified in those who literally “have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) because they are outside of Jesus Christ and lack assurance of seeing their loved ones in heaven.

The verse following today’s Scripture reads: “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). We all know that sin is a very painful reality, clearly and fully manifested by the Mosaic Law. The Law shows us that presence and particulars of sin while death is the penalty of sin: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).

Romans 6:23b provides the solution: “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” While we live in this sin-cursed world and are subject to its effects (including physical death), 1 Corinthians 15:57 offers us Christians consolation: “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As people who have trusted alone in the finished crosswork of Jesus Christ as sufficient payment for our sins, we have hope in Jesus Christ. One day, at the “rapture,” when Jesus Christ will return to gather us the Church that is His Body, He will bodily resurrect our deceased Christian brethren and we will be reunited forever (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). Today’s Scripture reminds us that not only will Jesus Christ rescue us from that “sting” of their loss, but He will give them—and us—“victory” over the power of death.

What a hope we have in Jesus Christ! 🙂

Unfathomable Distances, Unsearchable Speeds #5

Saturday, June 8, 2013

“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:20,21 KJV).

The vastness of space is mindboggling; today’s Scripture is equally mind-blowing….

Having received their glorified bodies, and left planet earth, Jesus Christ is now escorting His Christians across the heavens with speed unsearchable. He brings us outside of the universe.

After we each stand before “the Judgment Seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:9,10) where the Lord Jesus Christ evaluates the quality of the doctrine we believed and the quality of our Christian service (1 Corinthians 3:9-15; 1 Corinthians 4:4,5; Colossians 3:23-25), including suffering for His name’s sake (2 Timothy 2:12), He presents us to God the Father in the third heaven. This is where 1 Thessalonians 3:13 picks up: “To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Jesus Christ is with His saints, bringing us before God, His and our Father!

Based on the results of the Judgment Seat of Christ (that is, dependent on the capacity of our inner man to function in the government of the heavenly places), we will receive a reward, an office of heaven’s government (again, these various ranks/offices will be filled up by Christians based on their spiritual maturity levels)—see, whether you believe sound Pauline Bible doctrine or vain religious tradition is of utmost importance!!!!

Once we are individually installed in the offices of government in the heavens, they will be “subdued” under Jesus Christ’s authority (today’s Scripture). Eternity will be busy, especially using those glorified bodies! We will be able to travel those astronomical distances in only a short period of time, carrying out the will of God the Father to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, reigning in the heavenly places, forever, and ever, and ever, and ever! 🙂