Unfailing Love

 Back in the early 90's, I was seeking to share about the life to be had with a young guy I worked with named Ron. Ron was trapped in a life of drug use, anger, bitterness, and hopelessness. One day he lashed out at me, saying that what I was telling Him of that life didn't seem to be working for me. I was a pastor who wasn't in full time ministry. My marriage had broken up and I was working at a job that gave little satisfaction. From his perspective, I'd lost everything. How could I talk about a Jesus who makes all the difference when the results indicated to him that He'd made no difference to me at all?

Questions like these will come to all who journey through life with Christ. We will encounter pain, suffering, and loss. Jesus said that we would. To the world, it's a fair question; how can we trust Him when He seems to have forgotten us? How can we follow Him when He seems to be leading us nowhere except ever deeper into the wilderness? I find answers for these questions in John 11 with the account of Jesus, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. 

Jesus was with His disciples when word came to Him that His beloved friend, Lazarus, was sick. Sick unto death. His disciples expected Him to go to Lazarus immediately, but instead, He stayed where He was for two more days. Finally He set out, and the disciples held to the hope that Lazarus could be saved. Jesus simply said, "Lazarus is dead!" When He came to the village where Lazarus had lived, along with his sisters Martha and Mary, He was met first by Martha, and then Mary. Both said the same thing to Him. "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Left unsaid was the question, "Lord, why weren't You here? Where were You? Why would you allow this?" Watching all of this were more than a few "Ron's," asking the question, "This man healed a blind man. Why couldn't He keep Lazarus from dying?" What they meant was that the Lord must not have cared, couldn't have helped anyway, or....both.

You likely know the rest of the story. Lazarus was in a sealed tomb and dead for three plus days. In Jewish thinking and belief, he was past all hope of being brought back to life. Jesus ordered the stone removed and then called Lazarus forth from his grave. He did come out, and to the joy and amazement of all. Yet, there was no joy or amazement before this. Just pain and loss. Life with Christ can be like that at times. And we can come to Him with the same questions as Martha and Mary....and Ron. Maybe you're coming to Him with those questions right now. If so, these words of Christ must come to live in your heart. When Martha hesitated to order the stone removed as Lazarus had been dead for more than three days and the body would be decaying, He said, "Didn't I tell you that you will see God's glory if you believe?" That is our answer in all of our "Why's?" In the death of our dreams, hopes, and plans and in the center of our current wilderness, He calls us..."Believe Me!" Believe Him and we will see His glory. Martha and Mary did. Lazarus did. I did. 

Romans 10:11 says, "Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed." As writer and pastor R.T. Kendall says, "God will clear His name." Little more than a month or so after Ron's biting observation of my life, the Lord opened the door for my re-entering into full time ministry. Since then He has given to me far more than all that I had lost. The wilderness time had been very hard, and I had my own share of questions, but I kept determined to believe, even when my heart grew faint. What He gave back to me was far more than all I had lost. In his book, The Unfailing Love Of Jesus, Kendall says that it's likely that if Jesus had been there Lazarus wouldn't have died, but neither would he have been raised from the dead, which was a far greater thing. Wherever you may feel that death in some form has taken a grip on your life, stealing joy, hope, and life, BELIEVE! Believe Him. Hold to Him. You will see His glory. God, who cannot lie, has promised. The promise is sealed with the blood of His Son.

Blessings,
Pastor O