"The Light of Life" - To

 "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12 KJV) 

  ""Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds. In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence. Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of the dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."" (Hosea 6:1-3 NLT) 

 As we are most likely well aware, this is called Resurrection Sunday, as it is a celebration of the day that Jesus rose to life, having defeated the grave! It is the celebration of hope, not just based upon faith, but fact, because He did rise, just as He said that He would! It has been proven time and time again, based upon the facts: the death really did happen, the solar eclipse did last for three hours, He was seen by a multitude of people, and His disciples were killed for their testimony of the Resurrection! 

 Now, I know that many people will mock and dispute every single one of those claims, as it has been the case for two thousand years; but the hope we have in the Resurrection is real, not based upon a myth, but can be proven, over and over again! So, what do we do with that? 

 The Light that Jesus is speaking of, is that of 'the power of understanding' which allows those that have the Light to understand spiritual truth. It might be easy to better understand, if we were to relate this to what Jesus said to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3 KJV) 

 When I accepted Jesus, my eyes were opened to a whole new view of life; this current life was torn away, and a new, everlasting life, was placed before me! I really don't know how else to explain it, but it changed my whole perspective of death. No longer was death a threat, because the grave was just a new beginning. 

 In other words, our understanding about death has been changed to the eternity of life! This fact, that there is life after death, was made abundantly clear by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! Because He rose from the grave, we will rise also; that is a fact! You can take that to the grave, and actually do something with it...

"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 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 is useless and you are 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." (1 Corinthians 15:12-20 NLT)