Grave Clothes

I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered My Covenant...Therefore, say to the Israelites, "I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.  I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm."

Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listem to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. 

(Exodus 6:6, 9)

Amazing promises of rescue and redemption from God to His people who were so bitterly enslaved in Egypt!  Yet when Moses carried this message to the people, we are told they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.  The original language says they could not hear because of their 'shortness of breath'.  The bondage they were experiencing under Pharoah was so great it felt like it was crushing them physically.  They could not hear; so God sent Moses into His great redemption story to take them by the hand, to lead them out of bondage, to show them the way to freedom.

Sometimes life is like that.

Look around and you will see people bitterly enslaved to sin and circumstances, experiencing crushing hopelessness; people living under such discouragement, such 'shortness of breath', they are unable to hear God's promise of rescue and redemption.  People, perhaps, who are waiting for someone to take them by the hand, to lead them out of bondage, to show them the way to freedom.

Someone like you.

Consider the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept." (John 11:35)  The occasion for His tears was at the tomb of His dear friend Lazarus.  He looked around, saw the weeping and mourning of family and friends gathered there, and He wept.  Was it sorrow for those who had lost their loved one?  Was it the pain of death itself that moved Jesus?  All we know is what scripture tells us:  when Jesus saw the suffering of the people He was deeply moved and He wept.

There is more to this story. 

Jesus told those gathered there to roll away the tombstone.  He prayed to His Father and called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43)  Lazarus came out - alive -but his hands and feet were bound with strips of linen and a burial cloth was around his face.  Jesus told those standing by, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." 

Jesus called Lazarus from death to life.  Then He called those near to enter into His story of rescue and redemption, to take Lazarus by the hand, to lead him out, set him free from the grave clothes.

Do you know someone like Lazarus?

Someone so discouraged, so bound, that they need you to
      take them by the hand,
        lead them out of bondage,
          show them the way to freedom,
            help remove the grave clothes?

Someone alive in Christ perhaps,
     but still walking around in grave clothes?
    
God told Moses to say to the Israelites, 

"I will redeem you with an outstretched arm." 

He did just that, delivering His people from the bondage of Pharoah with mighty acts of judgement.  Then He called Moses to lead them out of Egypt, to show them the way.

God still redeems with an outstretched arm. 

Only this time He stretched out His arm on a cross at Calvary, shedding His blood, so that we can be free from the bondage of sin, hopelessness and finally, death. 

He still is calling people from death to life.  It happens at the Cross.

He still is inviting people into His great story of rescue and redemption. 

Perhaps He is calling to you:

"Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Time Out

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity."  (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

I watch my three-year old granddaughter refuse to pick up something she has thrown on the kitchen floor.  Her mom asks once, then twice.  Defiant, my granddaughter folds her arms across her chest and sticks out her lower lip.  Her mother pulls out a chair from the table and sets it in the middle of the room.  "Time out!" she says and puts my granddaughter on the chair.  "Five minutes," as she sets the timer and continues getting dinner ready.  Although my granddaughter is never out of her mom's sight or presence, I am sure she feels all alone.  But she isn't; her mom is right there with her.

As I watched this unfold in my daughter-in-law's kitchen, I was reminded of the words spoken by our Lord through the prophet Jeremiah.  Israel had deliberately, defiantly disobeyed God until He had no choice but to give them a 'time-out'.  When these words of future hope were spoken to them they were living in captivity in Babylon.  I imagine they felt abandoned and forsaken by the Lord.  Yet three times in this passage in Jeremiah we read that God says: 

"I carried you into exile".

Carried...carried...carried...

You cannot carry someone if you don't go with them - it is not possible.

Beloved,

if you are in exile  - in 'time out' - because of disobedience...

if you feel alone and abandoned by God...

He is with you, even in these times.  He has promised never to leave or forsake you. 

Never. 

He has said by the Psalmist, even if you make your bed in the depths, He is there. (Ps. 139)

He has said because of His mercy He will not abandon you or forget you.  (Deut. 4:29)

And He has said that if you seek Him with all your heart He will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity. (Jeremiah 29:12-14)

Lent is a season for all of us to consider we are but dust and ashes; out of dust we came and to dust we will return. 

Perhaps for some of us it is also a time to turn back to the God who has never forsaken us or left us.  A time to seek Him with all our hearts; to pray; repent; return.

At the end of this season looms the Cross, the wonderful Cross. 

The symbol of hope and a future through the shed blood of our Lord,

Himself forsaken...

so we would never have to be.



A Season of Ashes

"...I am nothing but dust and ashes."

(Genesis 18:27)

According to a wise rabbi of ages past, each of us should carry two slips of paper in our pockets.  On one should be written "I am but dust and ashes."  On the other, "The world was created for me."  From time to time we must reach into one pocket or the other.  The secret of living a balanced life comes from knowing when to reach into each pocket.

Lent, the 40 day period leading up to Good Friday, starts tomorrow.  Perhaps this is a good time to take from our pocket the paper that reminds us, "I am but dust and ashes".

Culturally we are distracted by many things and have lost the discipline of reflection and self-contemplation.  Despite the poor economy, we live in a country of great wealth compared to the rest of the world and don't often practice self-denial or sacrifice. 

Yet that is what the season of Lent calls us to.

It is an opportunity to look inward and reflect on the state of our souls; an opportunity for greater humility, disciplined prayer, self-denial and sacrifice.

It is a time to consider on a deeper level the greatest mystery of the universe:  "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

It is a time to enter into His suffering; a time to consider the Cross, the symbol of a violent death yet the door to eternal life with Jesus.

It is a time of ashes.

I invite you to check in on this site occasionally during these next 40 days as we journey to the Cross through the Word of God, remembering we are but dust and ashes.