Hey all, how goes it? I have been MIA recently, I am back down in San Diego hanging with the folks and working as much as possible(which isn't much ha.) But I am reading through John right now and came across the story of Lazarus.
The story of Lazarus can be found in John 11:1-44, since it is so long I will paraphrase and share with you what is going on in my life with this snippet from scripture.
So Lazarus is a great friend of Jesus and Lazarus has two sisters, Martha & Mary who truly understand who Jesus is, the Son of God, the Messiah and so they all have a great relationship. Since Lazarus was ill, I am sure it was something serious, such as pneumonia. His sisters sent word to Jesus that his great friend and their brother is dying! But Jesus ends up staying where He is. He finally makes His way to Lazarus. Meanwhile, Lazarus has been dead now for 4 days and many of the townspeople are in the house mourning, including Mary and Martha, but Martha gets word that Jesus is near so she runs out to meet Jesus, probably out of breath and attempting to explain everything in one breath.... 21"Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died." HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART ... Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life, anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying, do you believe this Martha? Martha says, Yes, Lord, I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God. Then Mary comes out to meet Jesus, saying the same thing, "Lord if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping with everyone from the house, a deep anger welled up within Him and he was deeply troubled." Jesus ends up raising Lazarus from the dead, 4 days of out cold, dead, no pulse.
So let me cut to the chase(I never understood that phrase but nonetheless I'm gonna cut!) In our lives, in mine specifically, just like Martha, we know who Jesus is, we have seen His power in our lives, His faithful love and pursuit of our lives. But yet, we still question Him when He doesn't show up, GOD WHY! Why is this happening? It is such an easy problem to fix, just do this and it will be all better. But nope, God has other plans and we know that He is perfect and good, but how many times do we question? But what does our Lord do? He brings glory to His name by raising someone from the dead... now if I were to ask you... what is greater, healing someone from a sickness or raising them from the dead? But yet I so often get caught up in the healing part(metaphor) versus the raising of the dead. I am writing this because I want to encourage everyone out there that we don't know the end product of what is going on in our lives, could be small, could be big.... but if you give God the glory He will make it 10,429 times better. Isaiah 55 says... "For as the heavens are above the earth so are God's thought above ours." God is so much bigger than anything we could ever comprehend and He is way bigger than death, love, relationships, finances, struggles, and sin.
He raised a man from death!
Be encouraged!
I am alive, thank God. I spent the last 42 hours in hell it feels like, I have never had the stomach flu that bad ever. Think of all the possible symptoms of the flu and I had it to its fullest, and you know what, it sucked. I pretty much lived next to the toilet and all I saw was water cups and coke cups. I had the fever so bad I couldn't stop dreaming I was a pirate stealing ships and gold. I forgot how crazy your mind goes when your body has such a high fever on top of other symptoms. Right now though I am fine, but the reason why I wanted to post today was to just put to perspective how much more Christ went through on the cross. I felt like I was dying...to some extent, but to realize how much MORE Christ went through is such a humbling experience.
