Near-Death Experience – Andrea Arthur Owan

Your Body is a Temple

The last couple of months we’ve been doing a lot of meditating on whether or not we are more spiritual than physical, or if both are equally important to us. Today we’ll look at some additional supporting evidence for a blended combination.

Jesus indicated there are times when, although the spirit may be willing, the flesh fails to comply because it is weak. But does having weak flesh make it less important than our spirit? Even if our spirit/soul continues to exist immediately after physical death and simply moves on to be present with the Lord in a “new house?”

These three critical body and spirit Bible passages indicate that isn’t the case.

“[The body] is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (First Corinthians 15:44).

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (First Corinthians 6:19-20).

“…according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).

Take-away—

Temples are important structures. They’re built for a physical and spiritual purpose and are to be a source of respite, of rejuvenation and hope, joy and promise. If God considers our bodies to be temples, how can we regard them as anything less important? And treat them as such?

God says there are both a natural body and a physical one. And both are equally important to us down here on Earth. (For more support, look up the passages having to do with eating and drinking unto the Lord.)

Jesus bought us with His life. He has chosen to take up residence in the hearts of believers. He lives in us. Body and spirit. Because of this, we are to glorify Him in both body and spirit. Our focus should be to glorify Him. The spirit can drive the glorification; but the body does the glorifying.

Every chance you get you must try to magnify Christ—in what you do with your body. What you see with it, experience with it, say with it. How you approach death with it.

Meditation—

In the weeks to come, remind yourself daily that your precious body is a special place to God. A hallowed place, a place set apart for Him.

To God be the glory, great things He has done—in body and spirit!

NEXT WEEK: One more proof that we are a lovely integration of body and spirit.

Until then, take care of your temple! It belongs to the King of the Universe.

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Kirill Zakharov

Will Your Resurrection be more Spiritual or Physical?

What does your future resurrection mean to you? Do you look forward to it with longing and joy, or questions, fears, and misunderstandings?

Do you believe your spirit will go on eternally but your decrepit, physical body will remain eternally entombed someplace in the Earth?

Today we’re going to explore some Scripture that may impart new meaning, new joy, and new purpose to you for your resurrection, and for your present life on Earth.

Getting it straight—

Throughout the pages of Scripture—Old Testament and New—you can read a promise of, and belief in a future resurrection—spiritual andphysical. There is both a physicality and soul/spiritual component. The physicality of a resurrection actually defines and solidifies the definition of resurrection.

Word pictures of resurrection—

Scripture gives us word pictures of people “coming forth” out of their tombs after hearing God’s voice calling them to come forth, like Jesus called out to Lazarus when He raised that dead man from the grave.

This resurrection will be grand and unspeakable, an awesome display of God’s creative and re-creative and restorative powers. It will be a day unlike any other since Jesus’ Resurrection.

There are Old Testament resurrection passages echoed in the New Testament.

Even Job believed in a bodily resurrection.

Supporting Scripture—

Meditate on the following verses to expand, solidify and encourage your resurrection view and hope.

“But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Jesus speaking in Matthew 22:31-32).

“And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed” (First Corinthians 15:51-52).

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (First Thessalonians 4:16).

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).

“Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are I the graves will hear His voice and com forth—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29).

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:51 – 53).

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2)

“For I know that my Redeemer lives,

And He shall stand at last on the earth;

And after my skin is destroyed, this I

know,

That in my flesh I shall see God,

Whom I shall see for myself,

And my eyes shall behold, and not

another,

How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27).

May your heart yearn within you, dear reader and child of God, for the bodily resurrection you will enjoy, the eternal spirit that already resides within you, and the promise of seeing our precious Savior—in our renewed, restored, and revitalized bodies—face-to-face!

Until NEXT WEEK (when we’ll explore more about the importance of our bodies), may you revel in these truths and meditate on them in supreme joy!

For more reading on this subject see this article on the “desiring God” website.

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Hand and Sea photo by Ian Espinoza

Bible photo by Colin Carey

7 Lessons Learned From a Near-Death Experience

If you had a near-death experience (NDE), what kind of lessons do you think you’d learn from your heavenly visit? Lessons you’d eagerly tell others about once you’d returned to the land of Earth-dwellers.

Would it be the incomparable beauty of Heaven? The exquisite reuniting with friends and loved ones who’d gone ahead of you to their heavenly reward? Would you want to be able to see and describe what Jesus, and God look like?

A personal experience—

Dr. Mary C. Neal, an orthopedic/spine surgeon—who says she experienced a NDE—wanted to share the lessons she learned from her experience and does so with thoughtfulness, cogency, and grace in her recent book 7 Lessons From Heaven: How Dying Taught Me to Live a Joy-Filled Life.*

I first read about her account in Guideposts’s Mysterious Ways magazine a couple of years ago and found her experience intriguing. As a fellow health professional, I appreciated her honesty about being a pragmatic skeptic, which initially kept her from telling her story. Then I heard her on Eric Metaxas’s Show (radio program) a couple of months ago and was drawn to her gentle grace and humility. So I jumped at the opportunity to hear her speak in person at Tucson’s Good Friday Breakfast program on March 30.

She was just as humble in person. She didn’t pretend to be a theologian; she only told what her personal experiences were. And she understood where the skeptics were coming from, having been one herself before her NDE event. I snatched up several copies of her book.

Book overview—

In the beginning of the book, she gives a brief recounting of the Chilean kayaking accident that took her life and sent her on a journey to heaven. Her original book, To Heaven and Back: A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, covers this event in detail. After an overview, she intertwines her story with the lessons she learned.

One big lesson is that she still had work to do here on Earth—one of them being to tell her story, which she initially dragged her feet on doing—even though she didn’t want to leave Heaven.

Another insight the Lord gives her is that her precious son will die early, which did happen. (I’m not spoiling anything here; she gets to that event early in the book.)

I don’t know if I could handle being given that kind of information. I’ve heard people the premonitions they’ve had about losing one of their children or loved ones, but it takes a pretty incredible person to deal with it the way she did. Yet, it almost seems as though God gave her that information to prepare her heart for the event, which itself was a merciful blessing.

Some lessons learned—

Some of the priceless, life-altering lessons Dr. Neal learns are:

Life Goes Further Than Science—which was a big surprise to her, and will be to many to others
Miracles Are Always in the Making—even though too many of us dismiss that fact
Angels Walk Among Us—even though we might not know it
God Has a Plan—even if we can’t see it
Beauty Blossoms From All Things—just as Scripture says it does
There is Hope in the Midst of Loss—here, she speaks eloquently and emotionally, with the authority of experience

Then she explains how we can all live with absolute trust in God and our heavenly future. And it’s that living in absolute trust that she told us at the Good Friday Breakfast changed her life and way of living more than anything else. Trust. I plan to print that out in HUGE bold lettering and tack it on the wall of my study, so I am confronted—and comforted—by it everyday. It’s something I always need to be reminded of.

Are we physical beings with spirits, or primarily spiritual beings temporarily clothed in physical bodies?

This question would be a great discussion all by itself, but I won’t tell you in this post what Dr. Neal’s assessment is. I’ll save that for you to mull over and then read about in her book. You won’t be disappointed.

The answer could profoundly change the way you view, and live your life!

Another plus in this book—

Dr. Neal has a “Reading Group Guide” with some great chapter questions, so you might want to consider it for a Bible study or book club read. I know it will challenge some of your perceptions about theology, life, death, the afterlife, miracles and Heaven.

But isn’t it great to be challenged! It’s something the Lord does to us all of the time.

Until next week,

Happy Reading!

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo courtesy of Google Images

*You can learn more about Dr. Neal at: drmaryneal.com