Scripture
They laughed at Him, knowing that she was dead.
~Luke 8:53, NIV
Quote
Faith is not about everything turning out OK; faith is being OK no matter how things turn out.
~Source Unknown
The folks who laughed at Jesus were professional mourners; they were not strangers to death. They knew when a person’s breath had expired or heart had stopped beating. They had examined the girl and they declared without doubt, she is dead. Jesus said, “She is not dead but asleep.” This is when they laughed: “We see it everyday and we are telling you, she is dead.” Jesus told them to step out of the room and then He spoke to this lifeless body and she heard His voice and got up.
There are two or three morals here:
- Never laugh at Jesus or anything He says: it is not wise to mock God.
- There is always a conflict between His word and our logic or powers to reason. What Jesus said to this group didn’t make sense. They probably thought Jesus was crazy. His sense doesn’t make sense to us because we don’t have enough sense for His sense to make sense.
- Jesus is always right. If Jesus says, “She is not dead,” then she is not dead. It doesn’t matter how dead she looks, what matters is what Jesus said; His word trumps our logical conclusion.
So death is a relative term to me. It doesn’t mean to me what it means to others. Jesus referred to physical death as sleep and that is good enough for me. Kaley is not dead. I refuse to say that she is because she is not. She may be dead to some but she is not dead to Jesus, not to me, not that what I think is important. I have news for this unbelieving world, “Unless Jesus declares you dead, you are not dead.”
There comes a time in life where you have to make a decision: are you going with human wisdom and logic or will you trust Jesus Christ completely? Jesus made this exact proposition to Martha, “Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
- Kaley Celebration of Life Service today: She left this world at age 16. She was born in the year 2000. The service will be in the Ardmore High School Gym. There were hundreds at the visitation yesterday evening. It went from 3:00-9:00. Pray for parents–Paul and Elizabeth. Kaley has one brother John Paul. He was enrolled at UNA to begin as a freshman but has changed his mind and will go to Calhoun.
- AWANA swimming party Saturday night at 8:00 @ Hartselle City Pool.
- Sunday schedule: Deacon’s meeting at 8:15, LCBS 9:15, REVIVAL SERVICE at 10:15. Guatemala Report at 6:15.