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Give Thanks Daily
Luke 17:18 'There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.'
LUKE 17:11-18
Relatively few people who receive the goodness of the Lord return to give Him thanks for what He has done. That does not keep the Lord from doing what is right for us. He healed all ten of these lepers according to their request - not just the one who was thankful. However, there was only one out of the ten that was made 'whole.'
The Lord desires that we prosper in spirit, soul, and body. He wants us to be whole - not just healed. Part of the reason God meets our physical needs is to prove to us His willingness and ability to meet our emotional and spiritual needs. The Lord is concerned about our temporal...
Focus On The Things Above
John 11:44 'And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.'
Symbolically, Lazarus is like many Christians. The Bible speaks of us passing from death unto new life when we get born again. But it is also true that in the physical and emotional realm, we bring our 'graveclothes' from our old life with us (i.e. habits, attitudes, etc.), and we need to be 'loosed' to fully enjoy our new life.
Our emotions and attitudes follow what we think. When we focus our attention on our problems, they are magnified out of proportion. When we neglect our problems and think on God's provision, the answer is magnified and the...
Groaning In The Spirit
John 11:33 'When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.'
The Greek word that is translated 'groaned' expresses that Jesus was deeply moved, but not necessarily with sorrow. It was more a groan of anger at Satan who had caused all the grief Jesus was seeing around Him. Jesus came to 'destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil' (Heb. 2:14), and He was grieved to see the pain that His enemy had inflicted on those He loved.
This is the type of groaning that the Holy Spirit does for us. It is not just the Holy Spirit sympathizing with us, but it is the Holy Spirit doing battle for us when we don't know how to pray. In this case, it...
Live Forever In Him
John 11:26 'And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?'
Some people have interpreted this as saying that it is possible to never die. Therefore, there are people today who are believing that they will live physically until the second coming of Jesus, even if that is thousands of years away. Although it is understandable how someone could interpret this verse in that manner, it is very doubtful that this is what Jesus truly meant.
First, a doctrine as profound as this would certainly be well documented in other scriptures. Other scriptures may sometimes be quoted as supporting this claim but they would not lead a person to this conclusion by themselves.
There would already have to be a...
Confess God's Truth
John 11:14 'Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.'
Jesus spoke of Lazarus being asleep instead of dead because that is really a much better description. Death, to their carnal minds, would be final; whereas the word 'sleep' would not. When the disciples misunderstood what He was saying, He clarified the situation by saying plainly, 'Lazarus is dead.'
This looks like a contrary statement to what Jesus was going to do (raise Lazarus from the dead) and indeed it would have been if He had left it at that. But He went on to say in verse 15, 'I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe.' This was referring to Lazarus being raised from the dead and it turned Jesus' statement of a negative fact...
Our Resurrected Bodies
John 11:13 'Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.'
JOHN 11:11-14
There are many scriptures where death is spoken of as sleep, however, the disciples thought Jesus was speaking of Lazarus simply resting. Jesus eventually clarifies their misunderstanding by using the word 'death,' but that was not His first choice. This is because God's perspective is different than ours. Death is final to natural man but not to God. There will be a resurrection.
In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul uses natural illustrations to explain the resurrection. He speaks of seeds that are buried in the ground and 'die.' Then they are resurrected as a plant. The...