Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"¹

A family on vacation were driving along in their car, windows rolled down, enjoying the cool breeze of the warm, summer's day. All of a sudden a bee darted in the window and started buzzing around inside the car. A little girl, highly allergic to bee stings, cringed in the back seat. If she were stung, she could be in serious trouble.

"Oh, Daddy," she screeched in terror, "It's a bee! It's going to sting me!"

The father pulled the car over to a stop, and reached back to try to catch the bee. Buzzing towards him, the bee bumped against the front windscreen where the father trapped it in his fist. Holding it in his closed hand, the father waited for the inevitable sting. In pain from the sting, the father let go of the bee.

With the bee loose in the car again the little girl panicked. "Daddy, it's going to sting me!" The father gently said, "No, honey, he's not going to sting you now. Look at my hand." He showed her the bee's stinger in his hand."²

And that's exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. He took the sting of death for us ... as the songwriter put it, "You will know him by the nail prints in his hands." And as the Bible says, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that when Jesus was nailed to the cross in my place to die for my sins, he took the sting out of death and gave us victory over it for all eternity. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

Note: If you have never accepted God's gift of forgiveness and his gift of eternal life, be sure to read, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian.

1. 1 Corinthians 15:55 (NIV).
2. Author unknown. Cited in Encounter magazine (Australian edition), Jan/Feb 2004.

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