CREATED
TO LIVE FOREVER
By Ada
Brownell
“Whoever lives and believes in
me will never die” (John 11:26).
Is the water that makes steam gone forever?
No, because the earth has only
a certain amount of water, which is constantly in a precipitation and
evaporation cycle. Clouds, which are nothing but water vapor like steam, hold
water until they become so heavy it rains or snows. Then the sun comes out, water evaporates into
clouds, and the cycle continues.
Do you know
the Bible says our lives are similar to vapor?
(James 4:14) But when we die, we are still somewhere, just as the water
isn’t gone when it becomes steam. We are
made to live forever.
Another amazing fact is we’re not walking
around in the same bodies in which we were born, or the bodies we had last
year. Our flesh developed from one cell and now each of us has about 75
trillion living cells, constantly dying, and being replaced. Everything, except for the neurological
system, has died numerous times in our lives, then replaced by new cells that
knew exactly what to make, such as skin, blood, hair, bone and your inward
parts. Our skin is estimated to be rebuilt every seven days.
The birth and the death of cells is not the
only way we know we are more than a body. For instance, we can lose weight and
it doesn’t change who we are. We can have parts cut off, such as our tonsils, a
wart or even a hand or leg, and still live. We can even live with someone else’s
kidney, liver or heart!
The person you are, that God made you, is more than flesh
and blood. But you also have a unique personality, and a spiritual side. When
God’s powerful breath went into Adam’s nose, the eternal soul was born and
every person born since then has a soul and spirit, which lives forever.
Watchman Nee, author of The Spiritual Man,[1]
said humans are a combination of spirit, soul and body.[2] A
person’s spirit is where spiritual things happen. That’s the part us where Jesus lives if we accepted
Him as Savior and the Holy Spirit dwells.
Your soul
is your mind, will and emotions. That’s
where you learn things, make decisions (I will or will not do something), and
feel things such as love, joy, hate and jealousy.
Your body
is where your soul and spirit live, and all three parts of you work together to
make you the person we see and God loves.
The person
you are will never die—whether you choose to give your heart and life to Jesus
or choose to reject Him. God in His love, made you so you could live forever
with Him, but it’s your choice. Hell was
made for Satan and the false prophets, but people who reject God also will be
sent to that place of torment. The Bible calls that “the Second Death,” which
is separation from God.
Jesus said
“Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).
©Ada
Brownell 2012
[1]
Christian Fellowship Publishers Inc., New York, 1968
[2]Ibid, Volume 1, pages 22 and
23
Shorter swallowed summary
EASTER:
Peter wrote, "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables...but were
eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16).
Jesus
is alive!
SWALLOWED BY LIFE: Mysteries
of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal
By
Ada Brownell
Do you
believe you could live with someone else’s heart or kidneys, but not without
your body? Evidence shows we’re more than flesh. The author, a prolific
religion writer and retired medical journalist, talks about the evidence; the
wonder of life with all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell
death and regeneration; mysteries surrounding the change from mortal to
immortal; where we go when our body dies; resurrection; and a glimpse at what
we will do in heaven. Questions and answers make this non-fiction inspirational
book a great text for group study. It’s written for support groups, religion
classes, people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or
are curious about it, the grieving, and those who give them counsel.
Review: “It was wonderful how the
author merged the medical with the spiritual.”
Amazon: http://ow.ly/U11Rn
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