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Devotional for April 13, 2020

Still Here

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:3-6 NIV)

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! After Jesus rose from the dead, He did not ascend into Heaven right away. Instead, to show to everyone He was alive again, and in order to provide comfort and relief for His disciples, He appeared to them multiple times, not as a spirit or an apparition, but as an actual flesh-and-blood human being. He did this to prove what He had already promised: that He was going to die, as had already been prophesied, but He was going to rise again after three days, in an actual, literal, physical resurrection. Furthermore, He appeared to His disciples to prove that He was fulfilling another important promise - to be with them wherever they were.

The wonderful good news is that Jesus continues to fulfill that promise. Wherever we are, He is still with us. Even though we cannot see Him, we can still experience His presence. We experience His love and care daily. We experience His power through prayer and unexpected life events, both large and small. We experience His presence in the love, care, support, and acceptance shown to us by others. We can talk to Him any time by prayer. We can hear from Him any time by reading and hearing the Bible. We can be with Him any time, because He is always with us. 

Even though many of us still remain at home a lot of the time because of the pandemic, we are not alone - Jesus is still here, He is still with us. He is risen, alive again, never to die again, and so He remains forever. He remains with us forever, is still with us, and will be with us, wherever we are.

Dear Jesus, thank you that wherever I am, you are still there with me. In your Name, Amen.

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