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THE MAN AND THE MIRACLE
THE MATCHLESS
PEARL
BEYOND PRICE, BUT YOURS
FOR THE ASKING
“WE SHALL BE
CHANGED!”
WHAT YOUR HEAVENLY BODY
WILL BE LIKE
personally speaking
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Activated Ministries
P.O. Box 462805
Escondido, CA 92046–2805 I once heard someone say that he thought Easter
USA ought to be made the premier Christian holiday, ahead
activatedUSA@activated.org of Christmas. That’s not likely to happen, of course, but
(1–877) 862–3228 (toll-free) he presented an interesting line of reasoning.
If Christmas gives us reason to hope, he argued,
Activated Africa/Europe Easter gives us cause to celebrate. Christmas marks the
Bramingham Pk. Business Ctr. arrival of the long-awaited promise, but Easter marks the
Enterprise Way ultimate fulfillment of that promise. Christmas marks the
Luton, Beds. LU3 4BU beginning of the earthly life of the King of kings; Easter
England marks His coronation as the Savior of mankind.
activatedEurope@activated.org The Easter advocate went on to make an even
(07801) 442–317 stronger case for Easter being a joyous occasion, not
a sad and solemn one. His argument here was simple:
Activated India Jesus wants it that way. He wants us to marvel at His love
P.O. Box 5215 and sacrifice and celebrate His resurrection, not mourn
G.P.O. His death. (I couldn’t have agreed with him more on
Bangalore – 560 001 that.) He quoted Jesus three times to back up this claim:
India
Before His crucifixion Jesus told His disciples, “If you
activatedIndia@activated.org loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going
to the Father’” (John 14:28). And a little later, “Your
VISIT US AT sorrow will be turned into joy. I will see you again and
www.activated.org your heart will rejoice” (John 16:20,22). And finally,
EDITOR when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first
Keith Phillips to see Jesus after His resurrection, the first thing He said
DESIGN to them was, ‘Rejoice!’” (Matthew 28:9).
Giselle LeFavre Easter is almost here. Let’s be Easter advocates and
make it the happy occasion He wants it to be. Let’s
ILLUSTRATIONS
celebrate! Let’s praise God and Jesus for the victory!
Kate Levi, Rain
Jesus lives! And because He lives, we will too—forever!
PRODUCTION
Francisco Lopez Keith Phillips
VOL 3, ISSUE 4
© 2002 Aurora Production, AG
All Rights Reserved For the Activated family
Printed in Thailand
—and Jesus!
I WAS 21 YEARS OLD and living in a small town in Florida when of us were able to
I met up with an old friend from high school. Several months tip the car, open
earlier I had accepted Jesus as my Savior, and I felt God the door, and pull
calling me to serve Him. My friend had received the Lord my friend out. Two
years earlier, but problems since had caused him to become of the strangers car-
bitter towards God. I tried to tell him that no matter what ried him up to the
had happened, Jesus still loved him, but it was hard to get road.
through his hard shell. He wasn’t
breathing. One of
Jesus said, “I am One night we had gone to a party the young men pronounced him dead.
and were driving home around 3:00 My emotions welled up and I cried out
the resurrection A.M. in my friend’s sports car. As is with all that was in me, “God, don’t let
and the life. He common in that part of Florida, there him die!”
were canals on both sides of the coun- Just then an ambulance and the
who believes in Me, try road we were on. police arrived, and rushed us to the
though he may die, Suddenly a larger car smashed into hospital. In all the commotion, I didn’t
the back of ours, sending us crashing see the three strangers leave. Later,
he shall live” off the road. When I regained con- when the police questioned me about
(John 11:25). sciousness, I was on the other side of the accident, they said that no one else
the canal, unhurt and completely dry. had seen the three men.
Everything was still. The car that had “You must be praying,” one of the
run us off the road was nowhere in emergency room doctors said to me
sight. I called to my friend, but got no several hours later. “There is just no
answer. other way your friend could still be
I looked into the canal and saw the alive. His lungs were three-fourths full of
car’s wheels protruding from the surface contaminated water. We drained them,
of the water. I ran into the waist-deep performed a tracheotomy, and have
water and felt inside the car. He was him on an artificial lung machine—but
there, motionless. I tried desperately, he is alive.”
but there was no way I could get him The next day my friend was con-
out by myself. scious but couldn’t speak. I asked him,
I climbed up the bank to the high- “Did you understand what we were
way and flagged down the next car talking about the other night, about
that came along. The driver was an Jesus?” He looked deep into my eyes
elderly woman, and she was alone. and gave me the most beautiful smile. I
She sped off to call an ambulance. knew he had found the Lord again.
A few minutes later another car The next day he passed on to
stopped. This time it was three young the loving, waiting arms of Jesus—no
men who I had never seen before. longer bitter and doubtful, but happy
Once down in the canal, the four and reconciled.❍
activated March 2002 3
pearl
Morse spent many eve-
nings in Rambhau’s cabin,
reading to him from the Bible
and explaining its central
theme: God’s love and sal-
Author unknown vation in Jesus. Rambhau
enjoyed listening to the Word
of God, but whenever Morse
would encourage Rambhau to
accept Christ as his Savior,
A
Q: I’ve read several articles in : JESUS HAS A UNIQUE MISSION for you that only you can fulfill.
This is what is commonly referred to as “the Lord’s will.”
Activated that said we should Within that mission there are a multitude of tasks that He
would like you to do. The first step is knowing what Jesus wants
try to please the Lord in you to do—be it for the moment, for a certain time, or as your
calling in life. This is usually not too difficult to find out, because if
everything we do and let Him you ask Him, He’ll tell you (Matthew 7:7). The second step is doing
what He asks of you. This is where the rub comes in, especially
use us to help others. I’ve when what He’s asking of you doesn’t appeal to your human nature
or fit in with your plans. And of course if it’s something the Lord
been trying, but it doesn’t
wants you to do, you can be sure that the Devil will also try to talk
seem to work for me. Either you out of it!
You’ve probably heard the expressions, “This just kills me” and
I just can’t face doing a “This is a heavy cross to bear”—and it can really seem that way
when the Lord asks you to do something that under any other
particular thing that I think circumstances you wouldn’t choose to do (though Jesus has prom-
ised to never give us burdens more than we are able to bear).
He wants me to do, or This is when it’s important to remember what Jesus was willing
to go through for you. Even though He knew it meant His earthly
something else comes up that end, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, not as I
will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). It may mean death to self,
I’d like to do but isn’t very
but if you’re willing to pray that same prayer and go through the
high on His list of priorities. subsequent “crucifixion” when the Lord asks something difficult
of you, it can result in glorious “resurrection” of greater happiness
Any advice? and fulfillment and other blessings from the Lord.
“I have been crucified with Christ,” the apostle Paul wrote. “It
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul also said,
“I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). Why do you suppose he was
willing to go through that? Because Paul learned that when he did
what Jesus wanted him to, Jesus was able to turn what looked like
no-win situations into win-win situations. He made Paul a bless-
ing to others, and blessed Paul in the process—and He will do the
same for you. Guaranteed! (Matthew 6:33; Psalm 37:4; 84:11). ❍
prayer for
trouble with the comfort we our-
selves have received from God (2
Corinthians 1:4 NIV). Suddenly I
realized why I had needed to fight
“motherhood blues” that day: so
the day
I could learn to overcome them Jesus, thank You for leaving Your beautiful place in
through faith and prayer and hear- Heaven to come to this world, to experience human life,
ing from the Lord, and so I could be and finally to die to save me. Now I want to understand
there to help someone else who was and love others more, forgive more, and give more. In
going through the same thing. short, I want to be more like You, Jesus, because I love
Alf appeared in the doorway and You!
greeted Vivian and me with a huge
smile. “The doctor says I look great
“WE SHALL BE
must put on immortality. … Then
shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written: ‘Death is swallowed
CHANGED!”
up in victory. O Death, where is your
sting? O Hades, where is your vic-
tory?’” (1 Corinthians 15:51–55).
In this passage Paul is explaining WHAT YOUR RESURRECTION WILL BE LIKE
the resurrection of the dead. It’s
pretty hard to explain how a body By David Brandt Berg
that’s been in the grave for years—
possibly even hundreds or thou-
sands of years—is going to come
to life and be perfectly whole, even
better than it was before. How’re
you going to explain that? Paul says
it’s going to be like the difference
between a seed and what the seed
becomes once it has germinated
and grown to maturity (1 Corinthi-
ans 15:36–44).
Our resurrection bodies are
going to be new and different, and
yet they’ll be close enough to the
ones we have now that we’ll recog-
nize each other: “Then I shall know
just as I also am known” (1 Corinthi-
ans 13:12). The disciples recognized
Jesus after He was resurrected, but
not always. He was different enough
that sometimes they didn’t recog-
nize Him (Luke 24:13–16,31; John
20:14–16). That was either because
He didn’t want to be recognized at
the time, or because He was even
more beautiful and more perfect, if
that’s possible, because He had a