Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25-26 NIV
Many years ago, when I was in seminary in North Carolina, I purchased a lifetime subscription to Wildlife in North Carolina magazine. It was a great deal. For $100, I would receive this magazine every month until I died. As with many magazines, the mailing label listed when my subscription expired. Originally it just read “Expires: Lifetime”.
Then somewhere along the way it started listing an actual date. “Expires 2032”. This was rather troubling. Were they trying to tell me something? I had rather hoped to live longer than that. And what if I did? Would they cancel my subscription anyway?
I called to let them know I had a lifetime subscription. The next magazine came and the label still listed a date, but this time it read “Expires 2100”. Now that’s better. They now were telling me I was going to live to be well over 100. Then they switched from publishing monthly to publishing every other month, and so they doubled everyone’s subscription to fulfill their guarantee of receiving the number of magazines they paid for. My lifetime was then doubled. This was getting better all the time.
This month, I noticed the label had changed yet again. This time it simply read “Expires Never”. I don’t know how a magazine can promise that my lifetime subscription will never expire. But Jesus can and does. When his friends Martha and Mary were lost in grief over the death of their brother, Jesus promised, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live…and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” In other words, he says of the lifetime of every believer “expires never.” What a promise! Knowing that, we can face life confidently and be braver than lions*.
Blessings,
Pastor Mark
(*One of the newer ministries at Resurrection is the free Braver Than Lions app developed by Seth Johnson, our band leader. It contains daily devotions, a place for prayer requests, and (soon) original music produced by REZ. This week’s letter is a devotional I wrote for Braver Than Lions.)