Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Daily Devotions - 1Corinthians 15:52 - 12.13.06

“It’ll never happen to me!”

It was midnight and the children of Israel experienced Passover like we will never experience it! Just a short distance away the Egyptians also experienced this very day like no one had, and no one has again, to this day!

Moses warned Pharaoh that if the children of Israel were not allowed to leave Egypt and travel to the land God had promised them that all of Egypt’s first born would be killed. Pharaoh didn’t heed the warning because of his hardened heart, and God followed through with what He said He would do.

God also told the Israelites to smear the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts of their homes so that “the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into [their] houses to strike [them]”. The blood identified them as children of Israel. The children of Israel had a “covering of the blood of an unblemished lamb” but the Egyptians did not.

Midnight for us may come with the twinkling of an eye or by an unexpected death. No one knows the day or time when the Lord has appointed to be our last. Not everyone gets time to say good bye to loved ones. Nonetheless, we have the Bible to give us, not only warnings, but also what it would take for us to have the Lord spare us the day our life ends and the clock strikes 12-midnight; or, if the Messiah comes to meet us in the clouds in the rapture… a twinkling… the clock strikes twelve!

John 14:6, Jesus tells us “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus Christ was THE unblemished Lamb and it is His sacrificed blood that is on the doorposts and lintel of our hearts and identifies us as clothed with the righteous robe of Christ. God the Father passes us over because all He sees is Christ Jesus when He sees us. But you must Confess you’re a sinner in need of a Savior; Repent of your sins—turn from them and do the opposite; Believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and now sits at God the Father’s right hand; Receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord of your life; and, Follow Jesus from this day forward…

Pharaoh never believed that God could or would take his firstborn, but God’s Word is not dependent on human belief or disregard; God’s Word will remain exactly the same as it always has… the Truth. When God says something, you can know that it’s as good as done. This is why we should never think that we have time to continue living without God; disregarding Him or not believing Him because we may find ourselves like Pharaoh the morning after the Passover… wondering why we didn’t believe God at His Word!

You may say, “It’ll never happen to me!” If I’m wrong then you didn’t lose anything because you lived a morally decent life, BUT if you’re wrong then you’ll spend eternity in hell. Don’t be like Pharaoh and not believe God!

This Christmas… Receive the best gift the world has ever been given and receive Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior… and if you already are a Christian, then don’t forget to tell the good news of Jesus to those around you because “midnight” could come sooner than you think!

“… we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” – 1Corinthians 15:51, 52

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