December 21st, 2010
Hey everyone!
So, we had house church this last Saturday at David and Laura's house. Thanks guys for openeing up your home! I had to work, so I got there late at around 6:00pm. But that's ok. There was an invite for everybody to go sledding at 4:00pm for anyone that wanted to come before house church, but not a lot of people showed up I heard. That's ok. Next time maybe!
So when I got there, I was asked to pray for the food and so I did, and then we all ate! There was a variety of soups and chili and it was super good. I love food! We ate and hung out for a while until about 7pm and then I got out my guitar and we began to play some worship music. I had David play the drum with me and also Alysha (I hope I spelt your name right!) accompanied me with her guitar as well!! We played a number of worship songs that was really good.
We then went downstairs to watch the video on the Gospel of John for chapter 11. The video was interesting and pretty good, but I personally didn't think it portrayed Jesus like I imagine Him in chapter 11.
Chapter 11 is the story of Lazarus. It's such an interesting and powerful story!! So, in chapter 10, after Jesus basically said to everyone in the temple that He is God, they all picked up stones and wanted to kill Him. But Jesus got away. He went somewhere else. Now in chapter 11, Jesus hears that His friend Lazarus is dying. So he stays where He is at for 2 days and then decides to go to where Lazarus is and resurect Him. It's interesting that Jesus stayed for 2 days longer after hearing that Lazarus is dying. I believe Jesus stayed there on purpose to wait until Lazarus actually died. Jesus even says in verse 14 that He is glad that He wasn't there when Lazarus died so that Jesus could go there later and resurect Lazarus so that God can be glorified and the disciples believe. This can be a controversial topic, but it appears that Jesus willed for Lazarus to die, so that He can resurect Him and God can be glorified. He did the same thing a few chapters ago with the blind man. It says that it was God's will for that man to be blind, so that Jesus could come and heal him so that God might be glorified. So does God will for people to be sick? Maybe, maybe not. Who knows exactly what God's will is, but we do know that people do get sick, and that Jesus has commanded us (and given us the power and authority) to lay hands on the sick so that they may be healed so God can be glorified.
Anyway, like I said, in the previous chapter the jews just tried to kill Jesus. Now when Jesus says he is going back there to raise Lazarus from the dead, His disciples think He is crazy because He is going back to the place where the jews just tried to kill Him. Jesus' disciples think that He is walking to His death. But here in verse 16, His disciples say "Let us also go, that we may die with him." (NIV). Isn't that interesting? Jesus' disciples think that Jesus is walking to His death, and their response is to follow Him anyway to His death. It got me thinking, if we were following Jesus and then all of a sudden Jesus starts walking towards death, and we thought He was going to die, would our response be to keep followig Him? A true disciple of Jesus would, I believe. And Jesus does call us to follow Him and to die also. He calls us to pick up our cross, the cross being a place of death, and to follow Him. We are dying, dying to sin, so that we might come alive to Jesus and Life!! It's painful though. The cross is a painful place.
Now when Jesus gets close to the place where Lazarus dies, Mary comes out crying saying that Jesus should have come sooner to save Lazarus. Jesus then basically asks her if she believes that He is the Christ and also asked her if she believe He can do anything. Her response is yes, she believes. This interesting though because then when Jesus actually gets to the tomb where Lazarus was laid and tells the people to remove the stone, Mary doubts again and tells Jesus that there would be a stench coming from the cave. Jesus confronts her in verse 40 saying, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" It's interesting how Mary said she believed and trusted Jesus, and then just a few minutes later didn't believe, but doubted. It reminds me of us. We often say we believe and trust, but do we really? Sometimes it's really hard to trust in Jesus when it comes to impossible situations. According to our minds, it should be impossible for someone that died to come back to life. It's hard for us to really trust Jesus that that can happen. So what are some things today that we have a hard time believing and trusting God for? God help us to trust You more!!
So then Jesus calls out to Lazarus and commands him to come forth, and he does! And he's alive, but still bound by the grave cloths. This whole thing of Lazarus dying and then Jesus calling him forth from death into life is symbolic. It represents Jesus saving us, people. He is calling each of out of death, and into Life, into a relationship with Him. Paul talks about how we all at one point in life where living in darkness and death, but when we accepted Jesus and He entered our heart, that's when we left the grave and became alive. And it's not for just when we recieved salvation the first time, but I believe that Jesus is always calling our name, calling us from death and darkness into Life, even if we have been a Christian our whole life. No one person is perfect. Jesus said that He has begun a good work in us and will continue to cultivate that good work in us and we will not be completely good and perfect until we are with Him. So He's always changing us, healing us, making us better, making us more like Him. He's calling us out of different area's of darkness and death into Life. So, are you paying attention? Are you listening for Jesus calling your name? Where is He calling you to step out of darkness and death and into Life?
So that was the study. It was pretty good I say. We then had men go with men and women with women and had our ministry time of sharing how our weeks went and praying for ourselves and one another.
Overall it was a really good house church night! It always is! Next week is Christmas, so we will not be having house church that night. Merry Christmas!! And then the week after, which is January 1st, we are having The Gathering! There will be more posted soon about the Gathering.
Ok that's it!! Have a great whatevertimeofdayitiswhenyoureadthis!!!
Your servant in Christ,
Joshua
