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

Thursday, July 6, 2017

"'Men of Galilee,' they [the two angels] said, 'why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'"¹

Yesterday we shared the words of one person who had had a near-death experience. Another person explained, "The first thing he (the being of light) said to me was, that he kind of asked me if I was ready to die, or what I had done with my life that I wanted to show him?"²

Others experienced a deep sense of loneliness immediately after death. One person said, "I was aware the whole time of being aloneâ€"very aloneâ€"almost like I was a visitor from someplace else. It was like all relations were cut. I knowâ€"it was like there was no love or anything."³

While these experiences are interesting, the most reliable textbook we have on life after death is God's Word, the Bible, which says, "Yet we have this assurance: those who belong to God shall live again! Those who dwell in the dust shall awake and sing for joy! For God's light of life will fall like dew upon them!"⁴

In the New Testament Paul wrote, "I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies.... For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever."⁵

While the most reliable textbook of life after death is the Bible, the greatest proof is Jesus Christ's own resurrection from death. He wasn't classified as merely "clinically dead" for a brief time. After dying on a Roman cross, he had been dead and in the grave for three days when he came back to life again.

Both the Jewish and Roman leaders hated Christianity. So all they had to do to destroy it forever was to find the body of Christâ€"which nobody ever did, for the Christian faith was established on the fact of his resurrection.

Christ's disciples were so convinced of his resurrection that each one gave his life for preaching that Christ had risen from the dead. They believed this because they had seen him killed, buried and resurrected for themselves.

The morning of his resurrection, Christ was seen by Mary Magdalene⁶ and women returning from the empty tomb.⁷ That same day he was seen by Peter,⁸ later by two of his followers on the road to Emmaus,⁹ and at night by the disciples.¹⁰

To be continued . . .

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You for the record in Your Word, the Bible, regarding the witnesses who saw the 'Living Christ' following His death, burial and resurrection. And thank You again for Your promise of life after life for all Your true followers. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

Note: To be sure that you are prepared for life after death, read: "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christianâ€"without having to be religious" at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian.

1. Acts 1:11 (NIV).
2. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Life After Life, pp. 47. Mockingbird Books, Inc., Covington, GA 30209 Copyright 1975. Used by permission.
3. Ibid, P. 43.
4. Isaiah 26:19 (Living Bible)(NLT).
5. I Corinthians 15:51,53 (Living Bible)(NLT).
6. John 20:14.
7. Matthew 28:9,10.
8. Luke 24:34.
9. Luke 24:13-33.
10. Luke 24:36-43.

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