WAKE UP!

 REPRINT FROM MARCH 2011

John 11:11

This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep."

Lazarus is asleep?
Lazarus is dead.
Isn't it funny how Jesus viewed death?
We look at death with a finality.
Death......
The person who has died is no longer with us.
We continue to live and breath, but the deceased doesn't.
We go on with life....
They don't.
We grow older...we pay bills.....we cut the grass.....we make visits to the doctors trying to delay the inevitable.
The one who has died has no concern of such matters. They have indeed passed over to a better life. What we claim to believe, they now know as truth.

Jesus looked at death and referred to it as sleep.
Jesus knew that death was merely a transition from life on this side of eternity to life "IN" eternity.
I use to fear death.
No so much any more.
Oh, I confess that there are ways that I would not want to die.
I think everyone would simply like to go to sleep and not wake up. That would be the easy way.
Now days, I am filled with the hope of glory.
The assurance that Jesus has in fact gone to prepare a place for me. Maybe age has a way of strengthening your faith. You've seen more than someone younger. You've had more experiences and possess way more memories. Hopefully we have matured as we have grown older. All of these life experiences causes us to live by faith more than sight. At least I believe that is the way it should work.

The cool part of the Lazarus story is that Jesus has the power over death.
Think about it.....
With his voice, he commanded Lazarus' spirit to return to his body.
Jesus spoke to a dead man and commanded him to live.
I don't think I will ever be able to wrap my head around this.
Jesus spoke and the scientific laws of this world had to obey him, even if what He said was contrary to what the law said.
If the scientific law obeyed..........
Would it not reason that the spiritual law would obey also?
I think it would.
The Law of Moses, which is not capable of bending the rules, was overcome when Jesus cried out from the cross...."IT IS FINISHED!"
What was finished?
Payment for sin.
Sin no longer held sway over mankind.
Jesus paid, once and for all time, the price........the ransom.........for my soul so that I would not be held accountable for my sin.
That humbles me more than anything I could ever think of.

Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself. He saved me.
Thank you Jesus....
Thank you Jesus....
Thank you Jesus....

God on you....
mb