Devotion for today: For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised!

Today should be a holy day for all Christians to spend in wonder and awe at the gift of Easter. Jesus Christ conquered sin, death, and gave us entrance into heaven. It is too much to grasp on just one day, at just one service. Let us all spend Meditative Monday pondering the words of St. Paul, and giving thanks and praise to God the Eternal Father, Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, the source of wisdom and truth. We are so blessed to have this beautiful promise, this eternal truth to see us through the difficulties of life.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all Christians today greeted each other this week the way the early Christians did, with the words: Christ is risen….He is risen indeed!!!!

 1 Corinthians: 20-28, 50-58:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.  Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For he “has put everything under his feet.”  Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.  When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 

 “Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?” 

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.