Grateful for the Resurrection of the dead

In our statement of faith, we say:

“I believe in the Resurrection of the dead.”

This last day we change our focus from the here and now towards the future. Life today is NOT an accident of nature. There is life because God has a Secret Plan. There was a family meeting in Heaven: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had a discussion. A decision to prepare a wife for Jesus followed.  A triune God wanted to create people in the image of God. The result would be the Wedding Feast of the Lamb,  the Son and the Church, the unity of believers.

How would that happen?

God then decides a scenario that is hard to understand.

They decided a strange test before the wedding feast: Jesus would become human and would suffer for the Bride. The Bride would become divine through suffering. Jesus said to the Father in heaven:

“Here I am to do your will O Lord,”
“I will go and join the human race, I will suffer for them; I will face death and resurrection and bring the Bride to you.”

Together with the Trinity, with the angels, humans would be part of a great party. The Lamb, that was slain, but resurrected to life, would marry the Bride, the community of believers.

The leader of Worship in heaven Lucifer, the Light-bearer, hated the idea of suffering. He understands the plan of God. The gifts he received from God + his willful disobedience, turns him into a prideful being.

“Does God want Glory through suffering? No never, that can´t be true. I will not let that happen.”

A whole army of angels agrees with him. They want to rewrite that script of Suffering, and a rebellion takes place in heaven.

The Apostel John gets the Script and Satans rebellion story, in God-language. I only partially understand something of God-language. The gist of the story seems to me that: Jesus, the Son together with the obedient angels, started the battle with Satan and his angels. It is a battle between Light and Darkness. Jesus and His army defeated Lucifer, the Light-bearer, and his co-conspirators. They were thrown out of heaven and landed here on earth. It seems to me that much of Life on earth got destroyed as a result.

God continued his plan. The Spirit of God hovered over the Chaos. A triune God said:

“let there be light…”

And it happened. God then recreated our world. Adam and Eve were created and placed in a beautiful garden.

Lucifer, now renamed Satan, the Opposer, somehow got a snake to co-operate. The snake talks to Eve and she is tempted to disobey God.

The temptation was to be like her creator. Also, the beautiful fruit before her eyes was extra appealing as it was forbidden to eat. She falls into disobedience of her Creator and takes Adam along in this Fall.

God chased them out of the Garden and placed Cherubim to keep them from re-entering. Adam and Eve understand now a little bit of their punishment: physical and spiritual suffering. Adam had to suffer sweat and hard work to provide for his wife. Eve would get children. It would be a painful process. God helped Eva though enabling her body to stand the pain and suffering. With a baby in her arms and love radiating out of her eyes, she looks at the child and gives him a sense of being. Although other births still would hurt, Eve would want to see these births happen over and over again. She would continue to love her husband and give herself to him. Their offspring grew into different people groups. Then tragedies occurred,  people killing each other, the way they lived together created enslaving systems. Men were starting to abuse each other and especially women.

God continues with his Plan. He wants this world to know his Patience and Loving Kindness. God chooses Abraham and Sara as friends. He allows them to suffer. They don´t get children. God promises Abraham that he would get offspring as many as the stars in heaven and the sandcornsat the seaside. Abraham, while he knew that this was humanly impossible, choose to believe God Promise anyhow.

God tells him

“because you believe me, I will do that for sure.”

A miracle son is born Isaac. Then God tells him to sacrifice this son Isaac as an act of worship to God.

Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us:

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,

18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”

19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

God stops Abraham from killing his only son. The sacrifice of Praise had now a new depth, as father and son bowed down before the Lord. Life goes on. The offspring of Abraham has high and low times. In Gods plan, Joseph brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. Joseph, by then the number 2 in Egypt, rescued his family from a hunger death. The nations that were in the land that God had promised Abraham got 430 years the time to repent, or He would kill them. Instead of repentance, they choose to obey Satans plan, rebelling against their Creator God.

Israel, as a nation grew. The Egyptians became scared of them, mistrusting that they would join an enemy and upset the order in the country. God allowed his chosen people to suffer as slaves in Egypt. Then it is the time for God to step in. With signs and wonders, God leads Israel out of Egypt. Through a 40 year trek through the desert, He gave them a new culture. He prepared them to enter the Promised Land.

As the people living there didn´t repent of their evil ways, they were doomed. Gods people needed to stay free from any contamination with his Archenemy Satan.  God insisted on clearing the evil out of the land through genocide.

The prophets told that Gods son would be born of a virgin. Then a young girl got pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Mary raises Jesus together with stepfather Joseph. For about 30 years the God-man-child just lived a simple life with his parents. There was faith in Gods Plan even while they suffered poverty. Father Joseph dies. John, the Baptist, his nephew, prepares the way for Jesus and introduced him to the public. Jesus is well received but ultimately rejected. Jesus chose to suffer and to take upon him all the sins of the world. In a mega battle between the powers of darkness and Jesus, He chose to die for us .  The victory came through his most humiliating and agonizing death on the Cross.

Satan thought:

“I killed God, I won… “

He didn´t realize that the death of Jesus was Gods Plan. Jesus didn´t stay dead. He arose on the Third day.  The whole world had the opportunity to believe in this Saviour. Jesus informed us that His resurrection power would be available for us as well. Thus we would become holy through suffering and be eternally united to the Lamb that was slain, but still lived. Gods Plan came into fulfillment: in the Wedding Feast in the New Jerusalem.

Jesus shared with his Followers, the disciples, the Power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples turned from very capable hand-workers, Into influential leaders, not with human power, not to rule. But through servanthood, they led. The Church grew, Jesus promised them never to leave or forsake them.

He said,

“I will be with you, until the end…”.

He wants that we are one, working to fulfill Gods plan: through suffering to Glory.

We, in IPSICC use our God-given-gifts and continue to serve the poor, the weak, the ill people, the downtrodden, “the brokenhearted” who suffer under abusive masters. God gave us gifts, and above all, the Giver is still among us, in the Church. God gives different people different callings to serve in one Church: There are also two parts: the mobile church and the local church.

God showed me how Powerful Peace could help a traumatized believers who refused help in the local church, due to shame. That is why some are called to work for the Mobile Church: a task-oriented group of people. That was always the case in the monasteries, and now it is so also in IPSICC.

The Bible tells us that the Resurrection of the dead is not just a future event to happen. Resurrection power has restored many people to grow into more holiness and commitment to Him.

There are still the many suffering people who need to know that they can turn their suffering into a fountain of blessing. I have been an abuse survivor who was marked by an intense individualism; God helped me to hold that in check through my fears of loneliness. He also made me understand that I can turn loneliness into aloneness with God. I always wanted to work together with others. He taught me to listen to others, bless their ideas and suggestions. That is how ISARPAC came into existence and evolves now into IPSICC.

My time is coming to an end. Others are taking on the challenge. May the Lord bless IPSICC in creating people who are both professionally trained and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit, committed to our Triune God. Gifted as missionaries in the many different cultures of abuse, to serve the poor, the weak, the ill people, the downtrodden, and “the brokenhearted” who suffer under cruel masters.

I bless you all…Amen!