THOUGH HE DIE YET SHALL HE LIVE (John 11:25-26)
THOUGH HE DIE, YET SHALL HE LIVE (John 11:25-26)
The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. —Psalm 41:3
All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me. They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies.” —Psalm 41:7-8
Are you afraid to die? Then you cannot really live. If the fear of death has closed you in, has crippled you, they you have not known or applied Hebrews 2:14-15— “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
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You can die of a heart attack at any moment. Something could fall out of the sky and kill you. A stray bullet fired from a gun could end your life. Or as I heard of someone out in a very rural area randomly shot an arrow into the air and it came down about a mile away, hit and killed a woman. Or we may be on our death bed with some sort of sickness. We do not know how we are going to die, but we should not be living in fear of death. Yes, we can take the proper action as we deem fit with the information and convictions that we have, but we need not live in fear of death. Death is “The last enemy to be destroyed” (I Corinthians 15:26) and “thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57). 150,000 people die every day and one day we will be included in that number. You ready? It could be today!
Even on our sickbed our Lord sustains us and it is He who decides to restore us to health or not according to His purposes. We live in an age where people, at least in the West, depend more on doctors and medication than our Lord. He is the One we should be going to first. Yes, He is the Great Physician. Do we go to Him first… or last? Do we disagree with those who go to Him first, those who are trusting in Him alone? Do we think we have the answers because we follow the world’s medication ideas? It is a sad situation when we even see those in the Body of Christ at odds with each other because of choices being made out of convictions. Let me ask you if you believe God’s Word… really. Because we read this— “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” (James 4:17). “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:14-15). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=johgSkNj3-A&list=RDuMsMiluCUUI&index=2
Do you have convictions to take certain actions for your health? Great… but do not project your desires onto someone else that may have different convictions as they seek the Lord in their health decisions. It is one thing for the world to be against the Body of Christ, but it is quite another when the Body of Christ is pitted against each other because of the convictions others may have that do not agree with our own. That a type of Pharisaism? We better be careful as to how we judge the decisions of others. If indeed they are doing what our Lord is telling them, then what does that say about us trying to encourage them otherwise?
Dear Father please help the Body of Christ to be wise in speech and actions. May this be so by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Your Son Jesus. Oh yes, may this be so.