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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Dealing with unexpected loss; handling the sting!

1 Corinthians 15:50-56

15:50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
15:51 Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,
15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
15:53 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
15:54 When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:"Death has been swallowed up in victory."
15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.


As I listen to these words from Apostle Paul to the Church at Corinth, I am lamenting, indeed I am morning the recent loss of a beloved Aunt. Death is indeed a mystery and every day we live, ourselves as well as those around us parent, aunts, friends grow older and closer to embracing the mystery. It's amazing how comfortable and at peace these words from Paul have warmed my heart. "That we shall all be changed," and that "this body is indeed perishable" we must loose our physical selves to be with God. Therefore death is not an end but needed as the trans-formative process to be forever with God. Truly I won't see my Aunt in her earthly form again but I rest with the fact that we shall see each other on the other side of this great mystery. Truly death has no victory, surely for those who believe death has no sting!

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