Billy shares his thought from the week; our resurrection.

This being Easter week, I thought I would look at the resurrection. Not the resurrection of Christ, but our resurrection. I was encouraged when I read Paul’s words to the Corinthians when he said something like this. He said

knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:14

Thank God for the living hope we have of our own resurrection because of his. And so death ought not to have any grip on our lives because of the hope we have in the death and resurrection of Christ. And when you look at this chapter, you see the value that Paul puts upon our bodies. Yes, these bodies at present are broken. These bodies at present are clay; there’s weariness, and they’re weak. But there’s coming a day when we will put on new bodies, for he says our earthly house, this tent will be destroyed, but we have a building from God and thank God for the new body that we put on. But over and over we see the value of our body, something that we just cannot disregard.

We need to look after ourselves. We need to thank God for the fact that we live in, as Paul describes, these earthen vessels. However, he says that we have treasure in these earthen vessels. What is the treasure? The treasure is something of God’s glory, something of the knowledge of the glory of God, the understanding that we have. That is the light we have of God’s glory in these broken clay vessels that one day will be transformed when we will be like Jesus. That’s our living hope.

I love the story of the girl who was carrying water on two clay pots. One pot was nice and lovely and colourful. The other pot, well it was a little bit dirty, it was cracked. And each day as she filled up the two pots when she got home to her destination, the broken pot wasn’t full. Some weeks later the pot started to speak to the other pot and said “you’re beautiful, look at you you know you’re you’re not broken, you’re not like me – I’ve got cracks. I’m ugly and I I don’t bring all the water to the home”. The good pot turned to the cracked pot and said “well look up the lane “. She looked up the lane and saw on one side there were colourful flowers all in bloom, but not so much on the other side. And the pot said to the cracked pot, “You see, you see what you have done? The water that we’re spilling along the way, watered the seeds that I planted and brought colour and brought flowers into bloom.”

You see, sometimes we might think I’m of no value, I’m ugly, I’m not significant, I’m broken, I’m weak, I’m cracked, there’s a chip on me. But what we don’t understand is the treasure that we have on the inside, the treasure of God’s glory, we’re made in his image, the understanding, the light that we have. So when you’re feeling down and depressed and you want to give up, remind yourself of Paul’s words, “Do not lose heart.” Why? Because in these broken clay vessels, we have something of the glory of God and I too that we will water those around us so that the beauty of the gospel that might shine forth.

So I hope at this Easter time you will understand the value of the body, the vessel that you live in. Yes, and one day this tent it’s going to come down but we’re going to live in a new building, a building that God has made.

God bless you.

Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.