Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 12 verse 24:
24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
There is a saying that you can count the number of seeds in an apple but never the number of apples in a single seed.
Jesus died and his body was planted like a seed into the earth. Yet his spirit was then born thousands of times over in his people. It died a single grain; but when it was raised it bore fruit now billions of times over.
So many strong, and courageous, and loving people have passed since last Easter. It is a deep sadness for the earth.
But we must not be afraid or dismayed, beloved. For the world may take the body, but it cannot take the spirit. The body is buried as one; but the spirit is made alive a million times over.
The body is taken from us; but the spirit remains. The spirit lives on in hope and in resurrection.
Let me put a finer edge to it. Congressman John Lewis was taken from us. But the spirit of the power of the right to vote remains. It cannot be denied. The body is buried; but the spirit of the right for all people to vote endures.
Live in hope, beloved. Keep striving. Do not be dismayed. Do not be overcome. They buried the body; but they could not bury the spirit. They killed Jesus; but they could not kill all that he was about.
So do live in hope, beloved. For "the body they may kill; but his truth abideth still".
And the one single seed is still at work, making new this old, old earth.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment