OUR DAILY BREAD : THE REAL DEAL

[cimi]

August 31
Saturday


THE REAL DEAL

READ:
1 Corinthians 15:1-21
___________________________________________________________________________________________

[Christ] rose again the
third day...[and]
was seen by over five
hundred brethren.
__1 Corinthians 15:4-6
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes cleaning out Grandpa's attic pays off. For an Ohio man, it paid off in the discovery of a more than 100-year-old set of mint-condition baseball cards. appraisers placed the cards' value at $3 million.

One key to the high value of those cards was the fact that they were well-preserved. But beyond that, the true worth of the cards rested in the fact that they were authentic. If they had been fakes or counterfeits__not matter how good they looked__they wouldn't have been worth the cardboard they were printed on.

The apostle Paul had something similar to say about Christianity. He said that our faith would be completely worthless and counterfeit if Jesus' resurrection were not the real deal. It took bravery and confidence in God's plan for Paul to say, "If Christ is not risen your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" (v.17).

The Christian faith rests on the authenticity of this story: Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. Praise God for the clear evidence of Jesus' death and resurrection (vv.3-8). It's the real deal, and we can stake our eternity and our total dependence on God on its truth. __Dave Branon

````````````Lord, we're eternally thankful for the truth```````````````
``````confirmed in You Word and in our hearts that You died````````````
``````and rose again for us. We love You, Lord, and lift our````````````
``````````````````````voices in praise!`````````````````````````````
____________________________________________________________________________________________
God is the only true God.

******************************Today's Bible Reading __ 1 Corinthians 15:1-21*************************

1 Moreover, brethren I
declare to you the gospel
which I preached to you,
which also you received and
in which you stand, 2 by
which also you are saved, if
you hold fast that work
which I preached to you__
unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first
of all that which I also
received: that Christ died for
our sins according to the
Scriptures, 4 and that He was
buried, and that He rose
again the third day according
to the Scriptures...

12 Now if Christ is preached
that He has been raised from
the dead, how do some
among you say that there is
no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there is no
resurrection of the dead, then
Christ is not risen. 14 And if
christ is not risen, then our
preaching is empty and your
faith is also empty. 15 Yes,
and we are found false
witnesses of God, because
we have testified of God that
He raised up Christ, whom
He did not raise up__if in
fact the dead do not rise.

16 For if the dead do not rise,
then Christ is not risen.

17 And if Christ is not risen,
your faith is futile; you are
still in your sins! 18 Then also
those who have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished. 19 If
in this life only we have hope
in Christ, we are of all men
the most pitiable.

20 But now Christ is risen
from the dead, and has
become the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep.

21 For since by man came
death, by Man also came the
resurrection of the dead.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The testimonies of eyewitnesses are legally accepted as effective proof
of establishing the truth of a matter (Deut. 19:15). According to Paul
there were more than 500 people, many of whom were still living,
who could testify that Jesus rose from the dead (1 cor. 15:5-8).