Bob Hamp

Before God created the sun, He spoke light into existence.  Before He made living beings, life was present, and before Adams body died, death began it’s reign. 

I think it helps us to recognize that God’s perspective on such things (the forces of reality) is not limited to their work in a particular body or place. In fact it may be the other way around.  The work of life in a specific body may be connected to how much alive-ness hangs in the air around us.

The work of death in a given body or circumstance may be connected to how much that body has been immersed in an atmosphere of death.  

I am certain that this is not a rule…(if this then that), but it just seems that if the forces of life and death exist separate of the bodies they impact, we should learn how to engage them.

It also strikes me that this picture of life and death can enlarge our view of the cross.

Like a cold front and a warm front collide and create violent storms, so on the cross did these the forces of life and death collide.  The “ultimate weapon” of darkness, the power of death, collided with the source of all life and alivness, the very Life-giving Spirit of God, in a very specific geographical location.  At the moment of impact, the lights went out, and the earth shook.  Amazingly, Life, the very Source of all Life, succumbed, and was swallowed up by death.  For three days it appeared that death had actually  come out on top.  

Stay tuned though, with God appearances can often be deceiving. The reality is that Life, the Author of all Alive-ness,  had in mind to journey to the center of death and blow it up from the inside. We sing occasionally, and rightly, that Jesus conquered the grave.  Do not mistakenly think you are singing only of His grave, He conquered yours too!!! Sing Loudly!