Ezekiel 37:1-14 Can A Valley Of Decaying Bones See Life Again?
In Genesis 1, God's Spirit storming over a dark and lifeless planet impregnates it with life. In today's text the prophet Ezekiel envisions a massive collection of dried up bones being brought to life by that same life-giving Spirit.
In the prophet's dramatic vision, as bone reconnects with bone, and as all of the other body parts of God's people are reassembled, one thing remains for them to experience life. As with the original forming of Adam from clay, it is when God breathes into divinely formed flesh that Adam becomes a living soul, a full-fledged person. Here Ezekiel says, with divine authority, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live!"
So as God's people today, we urgently pray, "Breathe on us breath of God, fill us with life anew." When God's breath ('ruach'/wind/spirit) becomes a part of our every breath, when we exhale flaw after flaw and regularly inhale all of the life-giving traits of God's Spirit, our lives become dramatically transformed. We become truly alive in the way God intended!
John 11:1-45 Can The Victim Of A Fatal Illness Live Again?
As the death angel is taking its toll all around us, we are sobered by the realization of how fragile and uncertain life can become. We don't know what illness Jesus's good friend Lazarus had, but we do know Jesus was deeply moved when he learned that he had unexpectedly died.
Mary, Martha and Lazarus were like beloved siblings to Jesus, and their house was like his second home. "Jesus wept," while known as the shortest verse in the Bible, speaks volumes about the bond that existed between Jesus and his adopted family in Bethany.
According to the gospel record, Jesus rarely exercised his Abba's power to raise people from the dead, but chose to do so here for God's glory, "so that God's Son might be glorified through it."
God's glory is what all of life is to be about, and what every death is about, a demonstration of the life-giving, death-crushing power of God's Spirit.
Romans 8:6-11 How Can God's Mind-Blowing 'Breath' Power Our Spirits?
While we often speak of God's Spirit being, metaphorically, in our "hearts," it is God's work in the very heart of our "minds" that empowers us to live transformed lives that are no longer conformed to the mindset and lifestyle of the rest of the world.
Our brains are like the computer "hardware" God has given us. But our renewed minds represent the "software" with which God's Spirit has programmed us, in this case minds and spirits that have been made alive with Christ, enabled to think and behave like our Master.
Jesus Christ alive in the control room of our minds. New life for old!
Psalm 130 For Abundant Life Like That, How Can I Keep From Praying?
Let's read, reread and immerse ourselves in this prayer of intercession from the Message:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+130&version=MSG
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