“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” - Mat 28:6 (NIV)
Recent archeological discoveries have come across amazing tombs over 4,000 years buried beneath the Egyptian pyramids. There are well preserved some along with a trophy that survived looters. Ancient Egyptians not only believed in life after death but also that for one to flourish in the afterlife such had to be accompanied with as much earthly possessions to survive through the next world.
It was all a pitiful lie. Of course some saw through that and would go out to loot those tombs in spite of being heavily guarded. The discoveries are of those that were spared.
As believers we need not worry about going with a beehive of goodies at the end of our lives. First of all the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ is empty- He has risen to the heavens where we hope to join Him in everlasting eternity. Like the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy “ For we brought nothing in this world and we can take nothing out of it” ( I Tim 6:7). Let our focus be on heaven, spending eternity with Jesus, and not the things to take along.
Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven, today, I pray ever to focus my eyes on heaven remembering I came with nothing and will take nothing out of this world.
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
