Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

Dinah has taken to carrying a little, pink New Testament around with her. She will sit down, open it and "read" her little Bible. The other day our family was gathered around the kitchen table visiting with my Aunt Brenda and her family, when Dinah asked me to read to her from the Bible. 

The Bible fell open to 1 Corinthians 15. After I turned the book right side up (she was reading it upside down--talented, little girl), I scanned the pages and began to read a few verses. 

1 Corinthians 15:42-44
New International Version (NIV)
⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

I paused and said, "Do you understand that?"

Without hesitancy she replied, "Yes!"

We all laughed and smiling I asked, "What did it mean?"

She grinned and shouted in her best almost 3 year-old voice, "JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!"

We all agreed that was the gist of it all really--Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  

A few nights after this happened, I sat in a room with a group of ladies that I didn't know. We had come together to study and learn how to be different. We sought understanding, help and community. As the evening progressed, I had to keep asking God to reveal what He wanted to show me. I asked Him to help me not dismiss the information as for "them" and not for me. 

It crossed my mind that I didn't have any right to be there. That my problems weren't really problems compared to theirs. Like if I spoke that they might laugh me out of the room for being such a weenie. Or as if I was trying to compare first-world problems to third-world ones. 

You would think with all this conversing in my head that I wouldn't have heard a thing. :) But I did. I heard the hurt that sin could cause, whether it was our own or someone else's. I heard the lies that fell upon lies that Satan loved to whisper, plant, water, and provide a warm place to grow. I listened to stories of women struggling to believe the Truth to kill the lies that had taken root. I saw the battle scars from the war against sin and self. 

After hearing all that, I knew that no matter what we looked like on the outside, or how different the places were that our struggles had led us--we were the same. We are all just sinners that desperately need JESUS. We need to empty ourselves of our hurts, our insecurities, our selfishness, our weakness, and fill up with Jesus. We need Jesus to heal us. We need Jesus to lead us. We need Jesus to save us--the way that only He can. 

1 Corinthians 15:42-44New International Version (NIV)⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Only with Jesus can what is sown that is perishable be raised imperishable. Only with Jesus can what is sown in dishonor be raised in glory. Only with Jesus can what is sown in weakness be raised in power. 


I didn't read it to Dinah that day but I read it today and share it with you. Later on in the chapter it says:

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?    Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus