Grace and Peace to...

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Above is the story of Lazarus, a good friend of Christ. As many of you know Lazarus died early in the story and Jesus went to see him. All of Lazarus’ family thought Jesus came to morn and comfort them but as you have read he did much more. The story of Lazarus can be applied in many parts of our life and walk with God but I want to focus in one spot in particular.

"Take off the grave clothes …"

In our lives, or at least mine, I do a lot of stupid things. I am not perfect in any way, other than in Christ. You see when you accept Christ you are made perfect in him because he wipes the bored clean. Anything you ever have done he forgets and he just sees you, not your actions. Unfortunately so many of us get caught up in our own sin and feel unworthy to be in the presence of Christ.

And here is Lazarus; the dude has been dead for four days. We do not know what he was thinking or what was going on in his head but imagine what it must have felt like. I am sure he thought of all his sins when he died and what he could have done for Jesus. I am also sure after Jesus raised him from the dead he felt unworthy to be in his presence.

Have you ever felt like that? You know Jesus just helped you get through a time or you just messed up so bad but you feel his forgiveness or you just been dead inside for awhile but he just raised you up? And even though you should feel great, you do not. Your thoughts are just plagued with what you have done or should have done.

"Take off the grave clothes…"

Jesus was not telling Lazarus to get the grave clothes off because they were a fashion disaster but because he wanted him to have nothing to remember about his death. When Christ redeems us he does not want us to feel guilty about he just wants us to take off the grave clothes, the things that are going to make us feel guilty and push us away from God, and come to him.
I just want to be able to run to my Abba Father freely without these darn grave clothes holding me down so you know what…

Grace and Peace to…

My Past-

Doubt

Blasphemy

Drugs

Alcohol

Hate

Depression

Cutting

Suicide

The death of my Mother

The death of Koty

Numbness

Betrayal

My Present-

My relationship with my Dad

My loneliness

Pornography

Swearing

Anger

Lust

Coveting

Doubts about myself

To that stupid part on my truck I need to replace

Denny’s

To the people who I have held grudges against until this second

My future-

In the future I pray that I will not let things bottle up inside me that I will just take off my Grave clothes and through them on the floor and say, "Grace and Peace to you."

Grace and Peace to you!