Raising the dead...

I remember staring at the tiny casket and having so many conflicting emotions. One, I was trying not to snicker at the site of eight grown men shuffling what looked like a cooler to a small hole and two, trying not to cry knowing my precious son was in that “cooler” and I was never going to see his precious face again. It was without a doubt the most removed from my body experience I had ever had. My son was dead and I was left here to grieve. In life we are dealt things that leave us frozen. They leave us feeling as if we are outside of our own bodies paralyzed with grief. Death is a part of life. It is the effect of sin entering the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. It is the reason Jesus Christ chose to come as a human being and die for us. It is what Jesus defeated. Yes, He defeated death. Jesus bore our sins upon himself, died and then rose again. He came back to life! Now, take a moment and contemplate that. We read it so many times in Bible studies and hear it in sermons but have you ever taken just five minutes and actually contemplated the weight of that statement? He Died and CAME BACK TO LIFE. Takes your breath away. The thought of something being dead, all life removed from the body and then life returning to what was once empty and making it LIVE. Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice rose from the dead and defeated death. Scripture tells us in Romans Chapter 8 that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. Wow. That is amazing. The SAME power that RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD lives in US. I am actually sitting here dumbfounded by that statement. Then I am realizing that all that is dead in me HE has raised back from the dead. All my past sins, my old life the things that brought me pain and suffering HE has helped me allow to die and then HE has raised them from that death and made them NEW. I am NEW! It never ceases to amaze me that in the simplest of scriptures that we read over so many times He can bring to us a fresh revelation. Dear God, help me to cruicify my flesh. Help me to deny the desires of my old life. Help me to allow them to die. Continue to raise the dead in me to the new life I have in You. Amen