Saturday Song: Bobby Bear, "500 Miles Away from Home

When I was a boy, I was sent five-hundred miles from my home to a residential school in Vancouver, British Columbia. Fifty years ago, people assumed that blind and partially-sighted children needed to be segregated and taught by specialized teachers. I'm glad this is no longer the case.

Though Bobby Bear's song is about being a long way from his mom, I certainly understand the feeling. Check out his song here.

All born-again believers are far from the one we love: Jesus the Christ. We await his coming like a child wishes Christmas or the next birthday would hurry up and arrive. 

Ephesians 1:13 and 14 (BBE) expresses this wish in our hearts. "In whom you, having been given the true word, the good news of your salvation, and through your faith in him, were given the sign of the Holy Spirit of hope, Which is the first-fruit of our heritage, till God gets back that which is his, to the praise of his glory."

Though we now suffer in this sin-cursed world, a day will come when we and it will be liberated from the curse. Romans 8:22 and 23 (BBE) expresses this well. "For we are conscious that all living things are weeping and sorrowing in pain together till now. And not only so, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we have sorrow in our minds, waiting for the time when we will take our place as sons, that is, the salvation of our bodies."

What a wonderful day that will be when our beloved Lord and Master returns to claim us for his own. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 53 BBE), "In a second, in the shutting of an eye, at the sound of the last horn: for at that sound the dead will come again, free for ever from the power of death, and we will be changed. For this body which comes to destruction will be made free from the power of death, and the man who is under the power of death will put on eternal life."

Just as I never went back to that horrid school in the autumn of 1970, so we'll never suffer and die after the resurrection. Rejoice in knowing that we'll be going to our eternal home once this exile of life ends or Christ returns.

Thanks to Roger Brannon in Tallahassee, Florida for tipping me off about this song.

On Monday, unless Christ arrives first, I hope to post about The new heavens and new earth God will give to us who love him.

Saturday Song: Lenny Kravitz, "The Resurrection"

What a joy the resurrection is to us Christians! Without it, we have no hope of our own resurrection when Jesus returns. Better still, we'll have bodies which will live forever and they won't be plagued with sin and death. All this was accomplished by his rising from the dead.

Lenny Kravitz sang about the resurrection on his Circus album. Here's the song for you to hear.

The resurrection is crucial to Christianity. Look at what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:19 (KJV). "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."

Jesus is our hope of resurrection. As he told Martha when her brother Lazarus was dead for four days in John 11:25 KJV), "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:"

Though our physical bodies die, our spirits will be reunited with our glorified bodies. Paul reminded the church in 1 Corinthians 15:42 (KJV), "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:"

This isn't a strictly New Testament doctrine either. Old Testament saints believed they would be resurrected. Job 19:26 (KJV) plainly states, "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:"

How wonderful it is then that we who believe in Christ aren't abandoned by him. He rose from the dead and after teaching his disciples for forty days, he ascended into heaven.

If you'd like to comment on this post and the song, please do so. Also, have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!