Today is an oddity of sorts, February 29, 2020, a leap year. So most but not all of the devotional readings that were for yesterday were repeated today. It was sort of a good thing though. For one app in particular I am sort of glad. I listened and read through it twice yesterday morning and again two more times this morning, it was that good!!!
Part of the reason it seemed to speak so loudly to my head, heart and spirit is that the topic is something I have been dealing with a lot for the past couple of months. I have been learning of and trying my hand at propagating some fruit trees, fig, mulberry and blueberry. I have bought and planted apple, plum, loquat, blueberry and grape vines too in the past few weeks. Along with that I have been getting our raised plant beds ready for this springs vegetable planting season.
I guess by now you might be wondering what are the scriptures related to my recent activities. The devotional readings in MyDailyBible app for yesterday and today are here, DailyPlan : one-year-tract : 2020-02-29 #Bible https://www.mydailybible.org/dp/esv/one-year-tract/2020-02-29.htm
The ones found in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 made me really take note and relate as I read these words,
1 Corinthians 15:35-38 – The Resurrection Body
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
My Note: Jesus also said that the natural (fleshly) body comes first, then the spiritual,
John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
As I read those verses my mind’s eye recalled the corn seeds I plan on planting sometime in March if God says the same. When I had looked at them I thought, “how decrepit looking y’all are.” I took this pic of them this morning so you can see too.
When you think about the wonder of how God propagates all of creation by the way of “seeds” it gets pretty amazing.
The oldest carbon-14-dated seed that has grown into a viable plant was Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed campion), an Arctic flower native to Siberia. Radiocarbon dating has confirmed an age of 31,800 ±300 years for the seeds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed#:~:text=
When I had checked out my corn seeds it was really amazing to think that each one of those seeds had the potential to grow up someday into two or more beautiful ears of sweet and tasty corn,
The corn seeds turning to tasty corn on the cob is the natural application but as a “Born Again with God’s Spirit” Christian the Spiritual meaning is also really amazing as Paul continues to write,
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
When I think about the condition of Jesus’ mangled body, so beaten and bruised it reminds me of what Isaiah prophesied of this,
Isaiah 52:14 NLT But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
As I write those words tears fill my eyes just to imagine how beaten my Savior was and yet He being God Incarnate, He foreknew exactly what would be done to him and subjected Himself to it. There’s a psalm that speaks of why Jesus did this.
Psalm 2:7-8 I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Have you even considered what the repercussions would be for Jesus to “ask for the nations.” When Father God speaks of His Son, Jesus, asking for the heathen as an inheritance Jesus fully understood what it would cost. Jesus would have to come down to earth, be born of a woman for the main purpose of dying this cruel death that Isaiah spoke of. Only by His shed, perfect blood sacrifice could He obtain this inheritance. God follows patterns and Jesus became like that decrepit kernel of corn but of the “Spiritual” kind. When Father God said, “I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,” He was speaking of a “Spiritual” type. Jesus had to shed His Holy, Sinless and Perfect Blood to end the temporary shedding of animal blood because,
Hebrews 9:22 ESV Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The Apostle Paul continues his writing in 1 Corinthians with the same train of thought,
1 Corinthians 15:5055 – Mystery and Victory
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
Some Glorious Day, everyone who are in Christ will “sprout up” like that decrepit seed of corn into something that we find hard to invision, a “Spiritual” body. We have a roll to play in this. We must “remain in Christ” and “endure till our end” as Jesus taught to inherit a “Righteous” Spiritual body. The Apostle John made one point in doing this for those who claim to be “Christians” on this leap years Bible verse.
1 John 3:16-18 KJV
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
https://tbibl.es/9arr
The Bible verse of the day from MyDailyBible app today is,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV) #Bible https://www.mydailybible.org/dv/nkjv/2020-02-29.htm
And from YouVersion Bible app,
in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
Deuteronomy 30:16 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/deu.30.16.NKJV
Unless you are “Born Again with God’s Spirit” you won’t have the “spiritual seed” of life in you to sprout up when the Great Mystery that Paul spoke of happens. Some will inherit a body of corruption.
Matthew 25:42-45 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Jesus Is The Aleph & The Tav, The Alpha & The Omega, The First & The Last
א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω
Revelation 1:17-18 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
My Note: Do you ever wonder about those people who Jesus appears to and describe their event as cutting up and being with their pal? John was the “beloved Apostle who leaned on Jesus’ bosom (John 13:23) and yet falls as a dead man in the Glorious Presence of His Glorified Body.
Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
In The Word 