FINDING
RESURRECTION COMFORT

Topics: Comfort; Death; Easter; Hope; New Life; Resurrection

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

My wife, Debbie, had the flu. When she didn’t get better, we went to the hospital for tests. The first thing the doctor said to Debbie was, “You’ve got some serious problems.”

Debbie learned she had stomach cancer. Four months later, she passed away at age forty-three.

During Debbie’s suffering, I took refuge in the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. It had been my major research area for twenty-five years, and I appreciated a student who asked, “What would you do now if Jesus hadn’t been raised from the dead?” I told him that Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the center of the Christian faith. After he died on the cross to pay for our sins, Jesus was raised from the dead. He appeared to many people in his physical body that was now immortal.

Knowing that helped me while Debbie was dying. I imagined what God might say to me in response to my questions about Debbie. He would ask, “Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?”

“Of course you did, Lord,” I would say. “But why is Debbie dying?”

“Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?” the question would come again.

I imagined God repeating the same question until I got the point. If Jesus has been raised, I can trust that Debbie will be raised someday too.

It was sufficient to know that because of Jesus’ resurrection, and because Debbie and I belong to Jesus, we will be together again—for all eternity!

—Gary Habermas, Decision (April 2000)

PART 28: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION