Verses Mentioned:
(1 Corinthians 15:12-21) Focus on vs 17 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
Read on Vs 50-58 “Your labor is not in vain.” Out of this one life so much has come. So much has been transformed.
Jesus says in Revelations. 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new.” In Greek: “Note well, look closely, examine carefully.” Everything that Jesus Christ touched, He utterly transformed.
A Quick Overview of Christianity’s impact:
- Hospitals, which essentially began during the Middle Ages
- The Red Cross
- Universities, which also began during the Middle Ages. In addition, most of the world’s greatest universities were started by Christians for Christian purposes
- Literacy and education for the masses
- Capitalism and free enterprise
- Representative government
- Civil Liberties
- The abolition of slavery
- Modern science
- The discovery of the America by Columbus
- The elevation of women
- Benevolence and charity
- Higher standards of justice
- The elevation of the common man
- High regard for human life
- The codifying and setting to writing of many of the world’s languages
- Greater development of art and music
- The salvation of millions of souls
Many people read about the seemingly small incidents in the life of Christ while never dreaming that those casually mentioned “little” things were to transform the history of mankind.
The power of one solitary life – Ephesians. 3:20 “He is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Mountain movers are people who bring life to others. On 2/4/93, officials at the Flight Control Center near Moscow reported the successful deployment of a space reflector. This aluminum-covered disc was used by cosmonauts in the space station Mir to reflect from the sun to the dark side of earth. With a 25-foot disc in space, they were able to produce a two-mile circle of light on earth.
A 25-foot dish reflecting the light of the sun to the night side of the earth made a path of daylight two miles long. A 25-foot dish! A two-mile long stretch of daylight! The aluminum dish does not contain the power to light up two miles of the earth and make it daylight. The sun does. But the sun uses the dish to bring light to darkness.
You don’t have what it takes to bring light to the dark parts of people’s hearts. Jesus does. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). You are a reflector. When you focus yourself on the Son of God, there is a geometric increase in the light and the life you bring to other.
Think about it every time you see a hospital, School, Salvation Army, Goodwill Store, Beautiful art:
1) Ask God to open your mind to new patterns of thinking. Focus on what he can do. His power far exceeds anything you have ever thought or imagined.
2) Ask God to reveal to you new approaches to the issues that confront your life. Don’t settle for the negative, old ways.
3) Ask God to give you new ways of seeing the situations around you. Break free of the barriers, under the power of God’s Spirit. “Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
He is bigger than our painful past. He is so awesome yet he wants to be involved in our everyday activities. Keeping our eyes on the resurrection propels us out of our comfort zone. He gives us eyes that go beyond our own neighborhood to the whole world. He empowers us through prayer and provides the power to overcome prejudice. The resurrection and it’s possibilities puts His dream for us in perspective.
More Great Resources from Jeff
Find free blogs, videos, and resources about Scripture and the Catholic faith at http://biblestudyforcatholics.com/.
Learn more about The Great Adventure Bible Timeline and preview any study for free.
For an easy way to transform your approach to reading Scripture, check out Jeff’s Bible Timeline Chart.
For an illustrated resource introducing God’s love story to children while helping them to understand how the Catholic Church is the body of Christ on Earth try The Great Adventure Storybook.
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