"Jesus Lives"

"And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised." (Psalms 72:15) I had this bumper sticker on my first truck that I owned, right on the cab back window: it was "Jesus Lives" in big bold letters that had a rainbow going over the top of it. That was back in 1982, before the rainbow became the symbol of something else. We can argue the times of His second coming all we want, but the fact that He lives cannot be denied. If you really want to see something interesting, you should watch the movie "The Investigator" and see how criminal investigators determine facts surrounding a case, hundreds and even thousands of years after they happened. The facts surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, although it happened two thousand years ago, can still be determined by weighing circumstantial evidence surrounding the case. Without giving it all away, the main proof of His resurrection was the fact that so many people were killed for their testimony of Him being alive. That anyone would allow themselves to be put to death for a lie is not very likely, let alone a whole group of people. When you examine what Jesus told Thomas, after he exclaimed, "My Lord and my God," (John 20:28), you see the distinct difference between his belief and ours; because his belief was based upon physical evidence, but our belief is based totally upon faith. Even those that were before were more blessed than those after, because those that were after had historical facts. We have historical facts that show us the truth; we have undeniable scientific data that proves the Bible is truth; just based upon the fulfilled prophecies of Jesus alone, the chances of all those things coming to pass are astronomical. We have all the proof that we need, not including the personal contact we each experience in our lives. I think it's about time that we make His being alive known to the world, don't you? I mean really! If your walk seems to be a little dead, it might just be because you have forgotten that He is alive...
"But tell me this -since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all of our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God -for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can't be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when He comes back." (1 Corinthians 15:12-23) NLT