Take Off The Grave Clothes
written on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. home study
John 11:40-45
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
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.
45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
Thoughts: This passage was a portion of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus called Lazarus and he rose wrapped in mummy attire he instructed people to take off his grave clothes. The thought that comes to my mind is when Jesus has raised us from the doom of sin (saves us) we must become new creatures. We must take off the grave clothes meaning put off old ways (talk, walk, appearance, etc.) and take on ways and characteristics of Jesus through study and application of His word in our life by allowing Him to change us.
People believed in Jesus after witnessing the miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection. But amazingly there were those who didn’t change but rather told Pharisees to fuel dissension. So it should not strike us strange when today people can be in the midst of the power of God falling around us and blessing and changing lives and circumstances and still not come to Jesus for Him to change their life…and even go spread dissension…which tells me you can be in the midst of God and be spiritually blind to your need of Him. It is such a blessing to be spiritually aware of our total dependence on Jesus. We need Him. Thank you Jesus for knowing this.
I thank God for time – time that He has given me with my parents and family – time that He has given me to serve Him – time that He has given me to learn of Him – time that He has given me to pray and work on my soul salvation – time! It is time to grow up – time to write. Ecclesiastics talks about how there is a time to reap, a time to sow, a time to laugh, a time to live and a time to die. So rest assured there is a time for everything. Life is like a bus, people are getting off and on every day and all day. We don’t know when it will be our time until the doors open. But we should as the Bible says, work while it is day – work while in our youth, while we have health and strength. We need to utilize whatever gift God has given us and use it to the fullest fervently with gratefulness and humbleness and graciousness. Working like there’s no tomorrow, not putting off for tomorrow what can be done today. We only have now.
