EVERY FORM OF DEATH

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?  shall I redeem them from death?  O Death, where are your thorns?  O Sheol, where is your sting?  Hosea 13:14

    Most any Christian who has stood at the graveside of a loved one ascribes to Christ’s triumph over death.  I have said goodbye to my father and my mother.  Both died of cancer.  While their loss ushered in profound grief, death was bittersweet for I knew they went immediately into God’s presence.  There was no doubt in my heart about that.

    However, while I can say that God was victorious over death, I have not been as willing to put Him to the test regarding other kinds of death in my life.  I have known what it is like to be the ‘living-dead’.  Dead to myself, dead to my dreams, dead to the experience of Jesus, dead to my past and my future.  Can God triumph over these kinds of death?  Yes, if I am willing to do my part.

    How do I know if there are ‘dead places’ that need a resurrection?  If I live frantically, preventing reflection.  If I answer a penetrating question with, “I don’t want to talk about that.”  If I fear being by myself too long because there are things I am running from.  If I have compartmentalized my life.  If I’m wordless about any past, painful experience.

    God is not bound by the grave, whether it be physical or spiritual.  He said through the prophet Ezekiel, “You will know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves.”  Until I allow Him to touch every dead thing and commence a resurrection, I will not fully know that He is the Lord!  How do I begin to appropriate His eternal life?  God reveals the secret in Ezekiel 37.  “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord’.”  I must speak the Word of the Lord over myself, act on its truth, and allow the Spirit, God’s breath, to infuse my being with life that transcends the physical.  He is the Word, He is the breath of life.  Both bring life to the grave.

I stand at attention to Your Word today.  I adjust my breathing to Yours.  Touch every part of me that languishes for life.  In Jesus’ name, Amen