Building One Another

RAISED Vol 14 No 13

March 31, 2015

Dear Friend,

When my mother was in her last months in a skilled nursing facility, I asked her how she felt knowing most of the residents of that place would die there. 

She told me the staff there didn’t speak of residents as “dying” but of “going celestial.” Mom and I often laughed about that euphemism and the day she would, “go celestial!” 

The Bible uses a very different term for what happened on Easter Sunday when it uses the word “raised” as in “raised from the dead.”  It's wonderful because we all know physical death is a falling to earth. This is a raising up, a lifting up to new life. 

Furthermore the word raised is in the passive voice which means you can’t raise yourself. Someone else has to raise you! “But God raised him up, having freed him from death.” Acts 2:24* “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” Acts 2:33 

Easter is both a record and a promise. It’s the record of the raising of Jesus who lives among us today. It’s the offer of Jesus to you and to me to be raised.  “This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” John 6:40

Jesus invites you to see him and believe in him and he will raise you up! Hallelujah!

A Joyous Easter to you - E. Stanley Ott
Copyright 2015 E. Stanley Ott
*Scripture from the NRSV