" For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal " .2 Corinthians 4: 17,18.( NKJV ))
The family and friends of Lazarus saw him die, saw his corpse prepared for burial and then he was buried in a tomb, a cave which was sealed with a large boulder.
"These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” John 11:11.
Lazarus had died four days prior to the moment Jesus made this statement.
Even minutes after his body died , the decay had set in and so after four days, the body of Lazarus was in an advanced stage of decomposition
Sleep and death look alike , sort of ; but they are as different as floodlight is to daylight.
To everyone who was present at the funeral of Lazarus, it was obvious that ; not only was Lazarus not "sleeping ", he was in fact stone dead and they had seen his body buried in a cave and sealed up for ever.
These were the indisputable facts about the death and burial of Lazarus which stared the family and friends of Lazarus in the face before Jesus Christ arrived on the scene .
As far as the mourners knew , that was the end of Lazarus' life journey.
" Jesus said to her , Your brother shall rise again ". John 11 : 23.
In that atmosphere of sorrow and mourning , if those words of Jesus Christ were heard by the mourners who were gathered there , those words must have caused raised eyebrows ,shock , anger , ridicule and mocking words like : " Jesus has come again with his jokes ! "
What are you SEEING now and what are you HEARING now about the challenges in your life which have made the word of God sound to you like "jokes "?
You could be in the depths of despair and depression because for many years now , you have seen your life become a roller-coaster of rejection , failure , disappointment and shattered dreams.
Maybe the solid facts of your life experiences which you have been seeing are showing a vicious circle of you being " almost there ", of rising and falling; sliding down into defeat and despair again ?
Are you even thinking of you giving up the fight and doing the unthinkable ;
"getting closure" by ending the whole messy situations in your life.
Have you been hearing voices instructing you to "end it all" , to commit suicide and the voices are even detailing how you should do it successfully ?
Please speak out and rebuke those voices with the Word of God which is the Truth of your situation :
" I will live and not die , to declare the glorious works of the Lord in my life ".
Psalm 118:17.
Past and recent events in your career , your church ministry, business , family , relationships and in your job could be stating the facts which confirm that as hard as you have tried to hold them together ,what you have seen is that your projects which should have guaranteed success have failed again and again.
Your medical reports have confirmed your worst fears about a life-threatening disease in you.
The facts of your financial situation are stating that you are seeing the standard of living of your family nose-diving because you have lost your job resulting in months of lingering unemployment and financial hardship. What you are reading in the your creditors' letters and hearing on your phones from your creditors send chills down your spine.
Are you seeing the imminent loss and collapse of all you have spent decades toiling to build up ; leading to what you fear most , which is financial bankruptcy and the repossession of your beautiful home , your cars and all your valuable household contents ?
Voices , both the ones in your head and those of "experts " who seem to know everything about your situations are reminding you of the disturbing facts of your case.
The facts could be confirming that you do have an ailment , you have suffered financial loss , family upheavals, disappointment , betrayal , rejection , failure and other unpleasant events.
But these are facts , they may be 100% accurate data and statistics but they are not the TRUTH about your situations .
What you are seeing and hearing now , could be very disturbing and alarming facts about your situations but they are NOT the Truth of your matter..
Those facts can change even now, but the Truth is ever constant.
Facts are based on statistics of realities which could change because they could be distorted.
Some of the facts the world held on to 10, 20, 50 years ago have been proved to be unreliable and so they have changed and have been replaced by current and up-to-date facts.
What is the Truth ?
Facts and the truth are similar to the extent that they are both data based on actual records.
The difference is that facts could be distorted , revised and updated , but truth is based on not only actual statistics, it is based also on proven , unwavering and constant records.
The facts could obscure the Truth , but not forever.
The Truth is personified in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ alone is the Truth who is proven , unwavering and has remained constant throughout the ages .
Christ is the same yesterday , and today , and for ever . Hebrews 13: 8.
The solid facts you are seeing and hearing have resulted in you seeing the impending ruins, the losses , the pain , shame, sorrow , death and decay only ; because you have believed the facts rather than believing the word of God which is the living Truth .
Have you began to panic, began to despair and to wonder when help will arrive from the Lord ?
Your refrain now could be :
"Does not the Lord see me swimming for survival against this huge tide : does He even hear my cry to Him for help?
Why has He forsaken me ; why does He delay , when will He answer me ?!"
You have been hearing voices which say "Where is this your God ; when will He come and deliver you ?"
I have pleasant news for you
The Truth exposes the lies of the Devil .
The Truth is that Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly.John 10:10.
In that challenging situation which you are now , all may seem lost because the solid facts of your case indicate that all the odds are , indeed, stacked up against your surviving the impending deluge .
Long before it happened , Jesus knew about the illness and death of Lazarus his friend whom He loved dearly , but Jesus Christ chose to stay away from his friend's struggles for life.
John 11: 1 - 15.
Certainly, Jesus knows you and sees you in that unpleasant situation.
He knows all about its full details and effects , even more than you know about them .
"Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord ". Jeremiah 23 :24 .
What am I saying ? Did Jesus see Lazarus on his sick bed but left him to suffer the pain of death and the ugliness of decay , just to prove that Jesus had power to raise the dead ?
Does the Lord see your struggles and hears your cries, yet He chooses to ignore your plight and your cries for help , just to show you He is sovereign and that He is in control of your life ?
Be assured that your life, your challenges and your emotions are not play things in God's hands.
In every painful experience , He feels what you feel .
Lazarus was delivered from the firm grip of death and decay; he walked out of the grave a free man.
During the rest of his life.he became a celebrity in his community
Everything which you are experiencing now and which you have passed through are meant to strengthen and establish your faith firmly and to manifest the love and grace of God.
You will come out of every furnace of affliction and become stronger and wiser and purified and shiny as refined gold. Afterwards, you will give thanks and you will be celebrated.
Your life must be filled with God's glory in every one of those situations .
" For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day ". 11 Corinthians 4 : 15 -16. ( NKJV )
I declare to you that if you believe , there is life , restoration , renewal , revival and stability in Jesus Christ for every one of your situations.
John 11: 43.
When the Truth comes into the scene , lingering facts become exposed as half-truths and as such , they must take a bow for the Truth to come forth and reign .
Instead of dwelling on the facts of the diagnosis and the prognosis of your challenges, begin to see the glory of God manifesting in your life as from now on.
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40.
When the Truth comes into any situation , all we see is GLORY .
For the Truth to reign in your life , you must embrace the Lord Jesus today .
Romans 10 : 8-11
We are not alone for He abides in us and with us . John 14 : 16-18
.I end this piece with the words of this famous hymn . Be blessed by these words
"Why should I fear the darkest hour ? "
by John Newton ( 1725 - 1807 )
while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal " .2 Corinthians 4: 17,18.( NKJV ))
The family and friends of Lazarus saw him die, saw his corpse prepared for burial and then he was buried in a tomb, a cave which was sealed with a large boulder.
"These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” John 11:11.
Lazarus had died four days prior to the moment Jesus made this statement.
Even minutes after his body died , the decay had set in and so after four days, the body of Lazarus was in an advanced stage of decomposition
Sleep and death look alike , sort of ; but they are as different as floodlight is to daylight.
To everyone who was present at the funeral of Lazarus, it was obvious that ; not only was Lazarus not "sleeping ", he was in fact stone dead and they had seen his body buried in a cave and sealed up for ever.
These were the indisputable facts about the death and burial of Lazarus which stared the family and friends of Lazarus in the face before Jesus Christ arrived on the scene .
As far as the mourners knew , that was the end of Lazarus' life journey.
" Jesus said to her , Your brother shall rise again ". John 11 : 23.
In that atmosphere of sorrow and mourning , if those words of Jesus Christ were heard by the mourners who were gathered there , those words must have caused raised eyebrows ,shock , anger , ridicule and mocking words like : " Jesus has come again with his jokes ! "
What are you SEEING now and what are you HEARING now about the challenges in your life which have made the word of God sound to you like "jokes "?
You could be in the depths of despair and depression because for many years now , you have seen your life become a roller-coaster of rejection , failure , disappointment and shattered dreams.
Maybe the solid facts of your life experiences which you have been seeing are showing a vicious circle of you being " almost there ", of rising and falling; sliding down into defeat and despair again ?
Are you even thinking of you giving up the fight and doing the unthinkable ;
"getting closure" by ending the whole messy situations in your life.
Have you been hearing voices instructing you to "end it all" , to commit suicide and the voices are even detailing how you should do it successfully ?
Please speak out and rebuke those voices with the Word of God which is the Truth of your situation :
" I will live and not die , to declare the glorious works of the Lord in my life ".
Psalm 118:17.
Past and recent events in your career , your church ministry, business , family , relationships and in your job could be stating the facts which confirm that as hard as you have tried to hold them together ,what you have seen is that your projects which should have guaranteed success have failed again and again.
Your medical reports have confirmed your worst fears about a life-threatening disease in you.
The facts of your financial situation are stating that you are seeing the standard of living of your family nose-diving because you have lost your job resulting in months of lingering unemployment and financial hardship. What you are reading in the your creditors' letters and hearing on your phones from your creditors send chills down your spine.
Are you seeing the imminent loss and collapse of all you have spent decades toiling to build up ; leading to what you fear most , which is financial bankruptcy and the repossession of your beautiful home , your cars and all your valuable household contents ?
Voices , both the ones in your head and those of "experts " who seem to know everything about your situations are reminding you of the disturbing facts of your case.
The facts could be confirming that you do have an ailment , you have suffered financial loss , family upheavals, disappointment , betrayal , rejection , failure and other unpleasant events.
But these are facts , they may be 100% accurate data and statistics but they are not the TRUTH about your situations .
What you are seeing and hearing now , could be very disturbing and alarming facts about your situations but they are NOT the Truth of your matter..
Those facts can change even now, but the Truth is ever constant.
Facts are based on statistics of realities which could change because they could be distorted.
Some of the facts the world held on to 10, 20, 50 years ago have been proved to be unreliable and so they have changed and have been replaced by current and up-to-date facts.
What is the Truth ?
Facts and the truth are similar to the extent that they are both data based on actual records.
The difference is that facts could be distorted , revised and updated , but truth is based on not only actual statistics, it is based also on proven , unwavering and constant records.
The facts could obscure the Truth , but not forever.
The Truth is personified in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ alone is the Truth who is proven , unwavering and has remained constant throughout the ages .
Christ is the same yesterday , and today , and for ever . Hebrews 13: 8.
The solid facts you are seeing and hearing have resulted in you seeing the impending ruins, the losses , the pain , shame, sorrow , death and decay only ; because you have believed the facts rather than believing the word of God which is the living Truth .
Have you began to panic, began to despair and to wonder when help will arrive from the Lord ?
Your refrain now could be :
"Does not the Lord see me swimming for survival against this huge tide : does He even hear my cry to Him for help?
Why has He forsaken me ; why does He delay , when will He answer me ?!"
You have been hearing voices which say "Where is this your God ; when will He come and deliver you ?"
I have pleasant news for you
The Truth exposes the lies of the Devil .
The Truth is that Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly.John 10:10.
In that challenging situation which you are now , all may seem lost because the solid facts of your case indicate that all the odds are , indeed, stacked up against your surviving the impending deluge .
Long before it happened , Jesus knew about the illness and death of Lazarus his friend whom He loved dearly , but Jesus Christ chose to stay away from his friend's struggles for life.
John 11: 1 - 15.
Certainly, Jesus knows you and sees you in that unpleasant situation.
He knows all about its full details and effects , even more than you know about them .
"Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord ". Jeremiah 23 :24 .
What am I saying ? Did Jesus see Lazarus on his sick bed but left him to suffer the pain of death and the ugliness of decay , just to prove that Jesus had power to raise the dead ?
Does the Lord see your struggles and hears your cries, yet He chooses to ignore your plight and your cries for help , just to show you He is sovereign and that He is in control of your life ?
Be assured that your life, your challenges and your emotions are not play things in God's hands.
In every painful experience , He feels what you feel .
Lazarus was delivered from the firm grip of death and decay; he walked out of the grave a free man.
During the rest of his life.he became a celebrity in his community
Everything which you are experiencing now and which you have passed through are meant to strengthen and establish your faith firmly and to manifest the love and grace of God.
You will come out of every furnace of affliction and become stronger and wiser and purified and shiny as refined gold. Afterwards, you will give thanks and you will be celebrated.
Your life must be filled with God's glory in every one of those situations .
" For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day ". 11 Corinthians 4 : 15 -16. ( NKJV )
I declare to you that if you believe , there is life , restoration , renewal , revival and stability in Jesus Christ for every one of your situations.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? "John 11: 25-26.
Those alarming facts in your situations are just features of a passing phase and a prelude to the manifestation of God's glory in your life.
If you believe , though the solid facts of the matter is that your business , your job , your finances , your relationships , your marriage , your family life, career, your dreams and so on are struggling to stay afloat , they could be dying or they could be stone dead indeed ; surely they shall arise , come forth and live again !
"And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth !".Those alarming facts in your situations are just features of a passing phase and a prelude to the manifestation of God's glory in your life.
If you believe , though the solid facts of the matter is that your business , your job , your finances , your relationships , your marriage , your family life, career, your dreams and so on are struggling to stay afloat , they could be dying or they could be stone dead indeed ; surely they shall arise , come forth and live again !
John 11: 43.
When the Truth comes into the scene , lingering facts become exposed as half-truths and as such , they must take a bow for the Truth to come forth and reign .
Instead of dwelling on the facts of the diagnosis and the prognosis of your challenges, begin to see the glory of God manifesting in your life as from now on.
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40.
When the Truth comes into any situation , all we see is GLORY .
For the Truth to reign in your life , you must embrace the Lord Jesus today .
Romans 10 : 8-11
| Believe He can save you to the uttermost and let the Truth usher in His glory. The Truth abides for ever .He has not left us comfortless . He is Emmanuel , our hope of glory , living in us as the Comforter till the very end. |
.I end this piece with the words of this famous hymn . Be blessed by these words
"Why should I fear the darkest hour ? "
by John Newton ( 1725 - 1807 )
1. Why should I fear the darkest hour,
Or tremble at the tempter's power?
Jesus vouchsafes to be my Tower.
Or tremble at the tempter's power?
Jesus vouchsafes to be my Tower.
2. Though hot the fight, why quit the field?
Why must I either fly or yield,
Since Jesus is my mighty shield?
Why must I either fly or yield,
Since Jesus is my mighty shield?
3. When creature comforts fade and die,
Worldlings may weep, but why should I?
Jesus still lives, and still is nigh.
Worldlings may weep, but why should I?
Jesus still lives, and still is nigh.
4. Though all the flocks and herds were dead,
My soul a famine need not dread,
For Jesus is my living bread.
My soul a famine need not dread,
For Jesus is my living bread.
5. I know not what may soon betide,
Or how my wants shall be supplied;
But Jesus knows, and will provide.
Or how my wants shall be supplied;
But Jesus knows, and will provide.
6. Though sin would fill me with
distress,
The throne of grace I dare address,
For Jesus is my righteousness.
The throne of grace I dare address,
For Jesus is my righteousness.
7. Though faint my prayers and cold my
love,
My steadfast hope shall not remove,
While Jesus intercedes above.
My steadfast hope shall not remove,
While Jesus intercedes above.
8. Against me earth and hell combine;
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and He is mine!
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and He is mine!
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