Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

LAZARUS COME OUT

June 3, 2010

The reason Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life" is indelibly connected with him bringing life again to the dead man, Lazarus. However...

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When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
- John 11:43,44 TNIV
 

 I risk biblical heresy here. But there's a bit of Lazarus, a dead person, in all of us. One of the ways Jesus is the resurrection and the life in our lives, is when he calls out the dead in our lives. Dead? Yes, all the crud, the stuff that kills our lives--the sin, the ego-centricity, the ugliness in our spirits, the not-too-pretty-stuff that we hide from other people. Jesus stands this day before us and says, "Lazarus, come out!"

Might we have the boldness to offer up those dead things today? When we do, the story of Lazarus' new life, becomes new life for us as well. "Lazarus, come out!"
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson