"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing." (2 Corinthians 5: 1, 2--NLT)
If you are under 60 perhaps you don't appreciate this.
The older one is, the more one appreciates the Words of our text. Some day for all of us, "....this earthly tent we live in [will be] taken down."
I am not saying that we should not "eat right," exercise our bodies, which does, "profits a little." Yet, while we need to be responsible for, "this earthly tent," which our Lord Jesus has given us for our sojourn here, we need to remember that our life does not end with, "this earthly tent." I call you to take great comfort and encouragement that just as our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is now in His Glorious, Resurrected Body, so we too some day will be so.
The previous verses to our text tell us, "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!" This is not some "morbid" old guy writing. These are the Words of "The Eternal One," the Living Triune God Himself. The Words of the Bible keep repeating the glorious Good News of Jesus Christ. There is some truth in the phrase, "You're not getting older; you're getting better." And, the "best to come" is that day when, "....the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise...."
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to live my life in the power and reality of these Words. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
