"Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.'
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him,
'Lord, by this time there is a stench,
for he has been dead four days.'"
John 11:39
The scene is at the graveyard where Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus was buried in a cave. Jesus told the attendants to roll back the huge stone that covered the entrance.
Imagine what they must have thought when he told them to roll the stone away! In fact, Martha told him that Lazarus has been dead now for four days and if they roll back the stone there's going to be a stench, especially after four days of Middle Eastern heat.
But they rolled back the stone, and were totally unprepared for what Jesus was going to do next. Not in their wildest dreams…
vs 41:
"Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead man was lying.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,
'Father, I thank you that you have heard me.'"
Four days before, someone had been sent to Jesus asking him to come because his friend Lazarus was sick. But Jesus waited four long days before going. Mary and Martha were appalled that he didn't come when they called for him, because they knew it was crucial that he come NOW, because Lazarus was dying. But Jesus did ONLY what the Father directed him to do, and the Father directed him to WAIT.
Have you expected Jesus to show up - yet it was as though he hadn't heard you? When God says "wait," you can expect something greater than the request you had put in. Jesus knew there was a greater result coming than the desired healing of Lazarus. After four days Jesus showed up. And everyone was watching:
Can you imagine the wonder…
vs 43:
“Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”
They watched, and waited ...and then:
vs 44:
"And he who had died came out
bound hand and foot with grave-clothes,
and his face was wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus said to them, 'Loose him, and let him go.'”
"LOOSE HIM ..."
Salvation is a supernatural miracle in every person who comes to the Lord, in every one who has been brought out of darkness into the light of Christ. Every person who is born again has been taken out of death and brought into new life. He saves us - then he looses us from what has bound us.
The miracle of salvation doesn't stop there. After Lazarus was brought out of death into life, out of darkness into light, there was more - Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go." When a person has been walking in the world for a long time, when he has lived in sin, he needs more than just salvation. He needs to be loosed, to be set free from those things that controlled him, and this miracle is as great as the first.
Many of us have been praying for a long time for loved ones to come to the Lord and be saved, and we've learned only too well that our arguments with them are not able to bring them in. But when the prayer is answered, then we know we've seen a miracle, for the grace of repentance is a supernatural gift from God, and is not the result of OUR efforts to persuade them. Only God can bring them in, and he knows the best time and place and circumstances needed to bring them into his Kingdom. He knows HOW to best approach them. He knows what they will respond to, and what they will not. While waiting - TRUST him!
One of the greatest things one can witness in life is to see how a newly born-again person's life changes drastically. The things of his former life pass away, and everything becomes new.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."
2nd Corinthians 5:17
Friends, when you pray for the salvation of a loved one, don't stop there. Pray for the grace of repentance, and ask for the total restoration of the sinner. Ask that he/she be loosed from the grave clothes that had kept him bound. And prepare yourself to witness a miracle.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort those
who are in any trouble,
with the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God."
2nd Corinthians 1:3-4
"Who comforts us in all our tribulation..."
We are not alone in our trials and tribulations, for it is there that we encounter God in depths that can only be experienced through the crucible of suffering. The depths of comfort we receive from our God in those times, we are later able to comfort others with. This makes Christianity stand out from all other religions. Our God is real, he cares, he is personally involved, and he demonstrates his care for us in very personal ways. It's not book knowledge, it's a living relationship with the Creator who truly loves us and who is with us in our dark hours and comforts us.
So if he loves us, why does he let us suffer? Because suffering matures us and shows us what really matters. It brings priorities clearly into focus. When gold is refined, it is heated up to incredibly high degrees and the dross rises to the top where it is skimmed off. Then it is heated up again even hotter, and the rest of the dross rises to the top where it is skimmed off. Then ...what is left is pure gold.
"That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes,
THOUGH IT BE TRIED WITH FIRE,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ..."
1st Peter 1:7
As in the story of the three Hebrew children whom the king had thrown into the fiery furnace, they were seen along with a fourth, the Lord who was in the fire with them (Daniel 3:24-25).
As in the picture "Footprints In The Sands," we do not go through it alone. His footprints are always beside ours. And sometimes ...he carries us.
When I look back on the deep trials and suffering experienced in this lifetime, I learned that only because of those dark times are we enabled to feel and understand the pain of others. Only because of those things are we able to plead for them before the Throne of God, so conditioned has our heart become as a direct result of those sufferings.
Don't resist sufferings. Later when it's behind you, God will be able to use those sufferings to bring a heart of compassion alive in you which will enable you to truly care about the suffering of those who God places on your heart, and to accurately present their case before the Throne of God, through what he has taught you.
I know - that's not much comfort now while you're suffering - but it will be later. Oh it WILL be, later!
"But may the God of all grace,
who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
AFTER YOU HAVE SUFFERED AWHILE,
perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you."
1st Peter 5:10
And the rewards are ...eternal!
"A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease;
it is made ready for those whose feet slip."
Job 12:5
The Scriptures tell us that the Word of God is a lamp given to mankind.
"Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path."
Psalm 119:105
Why is it then, that so many do not shine its light upon the issues of their lives? Why is it then, that it is "despised?" The Scripture answers that for us. It is despised "in the thought of one who is at ease."
In his wooing us, God often places sufficient trial and trauma into our lives for the express purpose of being that lamp in times when our "feet slip." He calls through mercy, he calls through stories that make his call very obvious. But for many, that isn't enough. Sometimes he has to place very painful circumstances in our lives - to rescue us from ourselves.
When you are "at ease," do you think of God, or do you just go along, maybe with God in the background of your mind, but making him relatively just an afterthought? Not a forethought, but an afterthought, a resource when you need him but easily forgotten when you don't. How soon we forget him when all is well. How soon we NEGLECT him.
Almighty God desires to be the center of our lives, not an afterthought. He desires our time. He desires that we not let busyness occupy us to the extent that we forget him, not placing him first before all.
If people had a sufficient understanding of just who God is, they would be shocked. He is not a Santa Claus in the skies waiting patiently for us to perhaps give him some thought from time to time. No, he is the creator of the universe, the one who holds every atom, every molecule in place. He knows us intimately and thoroughly and is constantly trying to get our attention. How sad that the most high God has to resort to such efforts to get our attention. And how dangerous for the ones who don't respond.
God so loved the world that he sent his Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die on a cross in order to bear the judgment on our sins. This was the greatest demonstration of love history has ever known, the torture and death of the sinless one on behalf of sinners. How soon we forget what he has done for us. How soon we allow circumstances in life to crowd him out of our minds. We're too busy for him.
Turn to the Lord today and give to him the time your creator desires from you. He loves you with a love that is far above anything you've ever experienced or could ever understand. What he wants from you is your time, time to spend in his presence, time to spend in the Word he has given to us, meaning for it to be the very sustenance of our lives. He wants you to CARE about him. And to place him first in your life, not as an afterthought.
Is that too much to ask? If so, you're on your own - and your foot can so easily slip. And THEN you will remember the lamp you need to take the next step. How much better it would be to put him first, to give him the place of honor in your life and let him shine his light on you as he so desires. It changes everything.
