When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
Luke 23:33 NRSV
Jesus…
God in the flesh…
nailed to a cross…
“It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
John 19:30 NASB
Jesus…
dead and buried…
along with all the hopes and dreams of the disciples…
Sometimes… He allows the worst to come to pass…
His dear friend Lazarus… dead… four days in the tomb… before He showed up… even though his sisters called for Jesus earlier… wanting Him to come quickly and bring healing… (John 11:1-39)
He allows the worst… to come to pass…
so we can see His glory… in ways we could never imagine…!
When the sisters sent for Him… they fully expected healing…
but He wanted something greater…
“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
John 11:40 ESV
He wanted resurrection…! new life…! to be raised from the dead…
[Jesus] cried out in a loud voice,”Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out…
John 11:43-44 ESV
I say this in a season of watching some very difficult things… some hopes and dreams seem dead… done… way past any healing or recovery… quickly moving toward being completely finished… no coming back…
[Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash]
But God is the God… who raises the dead…!
Who calls things that are not… as though they were…
The God for whom NOTHING is impossible…
It is His people… Believers… who need to expect more than just healing…
to not look at death and mourn like the world…
but to expect… RESURRECTION…!
Too often we have no vision… except what we want… what we want now… and we fail to be open… to the more He has to offer…
He tells us over and over again in His Word… that His Way is not our way…
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
His Way… sometimes leads to death… before it brings life…
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
John 12:24 ESV
The way of man… is NOT the way of God…
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Mark 8:31-33 NIV
Looking to the gospel… the good news of Jesus… fills us with resurrection hope… if we believe…
And not just for the life to come… but for this life NOW…!
“I believe; help my unbelief!”
Mark 9:24 ESV
Amen…!
Jeremiah's Menu 