What’s the point of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? What’s the purpose of it, the sense of it? What does it mean? Why did it happen? Why did Jesus Christ rise from the dead – and why should we care whether He did or not anyway? These are the questions we will explore in the message today.
Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a British researcher on aging, seeks immortality. He challenges the most basic assumption underlying the human condition — that aging is inevitable. He argues instead that aging is a disease – and one that can be cured. He claims he has drawn a roadmap to defeat biological aging. He provocatively proposes that the first human beings who will live to 1,000 years old have already been born. He may even be right.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Dr. de Grey and his work, you’ll find helpful media to view on his media page.
Today we will begin by asking the same fundamental question that Dr. de Grey asks, but whereas he asks it from the physical, biological side, we will approach it from the biblical, spiritual side. That question is: Why do we die?
After a bit of unsettling reflection on the deadly day of shopping at a Long Island Wal-Mart (see previous post), I think there may be a loose relationship to another recent event – or rather, a category of events, which occur with disturbing regularity.
MSNBC.com
India stampede death toll passes 200
Dozens more injured as 12,000 celebrated key Hindu festival in Jodhpur
The Associated Press updated 11:40 a.m. ET, Wed., Oct. 1, 2008
JODHPUR, India – A Hindu temple official blamed an unruly group of pilgrims trying to get ahead in a line of worshippers for a stampede that killed more than 200 people and injured nearly 60 in western India.
Authorities were still working to determine the final death toll, but the number had already crossed 200, said senior police official Rajeev Dosat.
The disaster occurred just as the doors of the temple were being opened for worship at dawn for more than 12,000 people celebrating a key Hindu festival in the historic city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan state. … To see the entire original article Click Here
In India this is not a random, one off occurrence. Keep your eyes and ears open to world news and you’ll certainly see it in the headlines again. For example:
You get the idea. In India it happens at the temples where they worship their gods and goddesses. In the USA, where consumerism receives the kind of frenzied devotion normally reserved only for deities, it has begun to happen at Wal-Mart. Listen closely and you can hear Jeremiah’s distant, tearful prayer:
O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?
– Jeremiah 16:19-20 (NKJV)
No doubt there is a lot that could be said about the following event, but at the moment I don’t even know how to begin. Check out the links to view the article at a local news website.
Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
BY JOE GOULD, CLARE TRAPASSO and RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Updated Friday, November 28th 2008, 10:46 PM
A Wal-Mart worker died early Friday after an “out-of-control” mob of frenzied shoppers smashed through the Long Island store’s front doors and trampled him, police said.
The Black Friday stampede plunged the Valley Stream outlet into chaos, knocking several employees to the ground and sending others scurrying atop vending machines to avoid the horde.
When the madness ended, 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour was dead and four shoppers, including a woman eight months pregnant, were injured. …
To view the complete article at the NY Daily News Click Here
For the live pics of the event on their website Click Here
Central Reflections 