Gather

Another season of lent where I commit to blogging has begun.  This year I am adapting a lent idea that was to take and share a photo each day based off a word.  Instead, I will take some time each day to look up Bible verses containing the word, reflect, and blog some thoughts.


Today's word is "gather".  The verse I've chosen is Job 34:14-15, which says, "If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust." (ESV)  I read this at my church's Ash Wednesday service shortly after having the ashes placed on my forehead and hearing the words, "From dust you came; to dust you shall return."


Fortunately, this is not what God has set His heart to, and that is the grace of this season.  I've been doing Beth Moore's Bible study about the Holy Spirt called "Breath".  We've examined verses similar to the one in Job linking words like "breath", "spirit", and "life", which is one of the reasons this stood out to me.  Another reason is the passage we studied in the last session.


I encourage you to read Ezekiel 37:1-14.  It's the passage about the dry bones being brought to life.  In short, God asks the prophet Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?".  Ezekiel replies, "O Lord GOD, you know."  God tells him to prophesy life over the bones.  As he did so, the bones came together and were covered with flesh, but there was no breath.  He was then commanded to prophesy to the breath to breathe on the slain so they might live and they did.  The passage ends with God's promise to raise His people from their graves and place His Spirit in them so they might live.


I go to a church where communion is usually only taken once a month, except for special occasions.  Communion happened to fall the day after this lesson.  As I watched everyone go up for communion, I reflected on this passage.  "Can these dry bones live?" God seemed to still be asking.  "O Lord GOD, you know," I thought as I watched person after person receive the sacraments that said, "Yes."  Bones metaphorically coming together and being covered with sinews and flesh.  God breathing new life into His people that were once dead in their transgressions.  While advent looks forward to the birth of Christ, lent looks forward to God breathing life into dry bones.


From dust we came; to dust we shall return.  Praise the God whose heart is not sent on leaving us that way.  The God who instead chose to open our graves and breathe life into us a second time.  He could have gathered His breath instead.  We'd had our chance and blown it.  Yet He chose to give His last breath so that we might once again have breath.  This is the beauty of lent and Easter.

The Hope On Which Our Faith Rests

Happy Easter, everyone!  He is risen!  The grave is empty.  Death has been defeated.  The curse that led to death has been broken by the new Adam who brings life to all who believe in Him.  This is the hope on which all of our faith rests.  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14, "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."  If Christ had not been raised, our faith would be completely useless.  But because He has been raised, we can have a true hope in redemption that will be worked out in this life and ultimately when we see Him face to face.


The fear of death no longer has power over us.  This is how the world was transformed.  Christians were willing to die instead of rejecting Christ because they trusted that He had been raised and trusted His promise that He was only the first of many who had put their faith in Him.  It's kinda hard to stop someone who whole-heartedly believes that.


Christ died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.  Simple words and so easy to take for granted.  Yet they are the deep foundations of our faith.  God Himself came down as a man, died, was raised to life in the same body that was crucified, and will return.  Simple words, yet altogether life altering when we realize just what they mean and choose to believe them.

The Day In Between

Holy Saturday.  It's the day in between death and life.  The day when the harsh, unbelievable realities of the day before began to sink in.  The day when there seemed to be little hope for the future.  A day of confusion and pain.  A day that reminds us just how hopeless we'd be if Jesus had only been crucified and not raised from the dead.  His death is crucial to our salvation and His resurrection is equally as crucial.  There is no hope in death if the promise of new life is not fulfilled.  The time in between is important too.

Throughout our lives, sin will cause many deaths and God will bring about new life. But we will also have to face the time in between.  How we deal with the time in between is crucial to the direction our faith will go.  Will we believe all is hopeless, get angry at God, and lose faith?  Or will we rely on what He has taught us thus far and dare to keep believing against all hope?  There is a reward for this who dare to trust Him even when all seems hopeless- restoration.  The time in between May be the most difficult because it forces us to come to terms with a death brought about by sin.  It's painful.  We often feel powerless. Hope seems to have died.  But His mercies are new each morning.  His plans are to prosper us, not to harm is.  To give us a hope and a future.  He will do something we wouldn't have believed even if we had been told if we will watch and pray.  This is the time that are faith is tested and stretched.  This is where drastic growth can take place.  But all 3 days are crucial to this process.

Life From Death

As usual, we enjoyed a great discussion in my life group tonight.  We have been going through the book of Acts since September.  One of the things that has amazed us is how much the church grew in times of heavy persecution.  Large numbers of people came to Christ even as the people preaching the Gospel suffered hardships many of us here can't even imagine for sharing their faith.  The suffering wasn't a deterrent.  These people wanted Christ.

Should this surprise us, though?  After all, our faith is built on the horrific death of Christ and the hope that comes from Christ defeating death.  The apostles had seen the risen Christ.  They knew death had no power over them.  As the enemy came after their lives, the church only grew.

A similar situation is currently being seen where unimaginable persecution is taking place.  I've read stories about how fleeing from ISIS has allowed Christians to reach people that had previously been unable to reach.  In Niger, the Gospel is spreading after attacks on the Church. The pastors are filled with joy believing that this will lead God's Kingdom to grow.

All of this has shown me that there are two different ways to look at the situation.  One is to look at it as the enemy defeating the church.  The other is to look at it as as God defeating the enemy. The latter is counterintuitive, but Biblical.  I am choosing to believe the latter and think that it will be proven to be true.  Our God is a God who brings life from death. Death is equated to a seed being planted in order that new life and more of it may be brought forth.  I think that is what will happen here.  I think there will be a large harvest that will come from this time when Christian persecution is at a high.

I think we also have roles to play here.  WE are the Church.  WE are being attacked.  Let's be in constant prayer for our brothers and sisters that face persecution.  Some of us might be able to help financially.  There are groups trying to provide for ISIS victims.  There are groups trying to help Christians who may have lost everything in Niger rebuild. The world is more connected than ever.  I think the most amazing thing that could come out of this would be for the Church to stand together in unity in whatever ways possible in the power of Christ.  I think that would make Satan tremble.  Let's do it!