Stone and Stench: Be Removed!

BE REMOVED!

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John 11 (AMP)

"37b Could not He Who opened a blind man's eyes have prevented this man from dying?

       39Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, exclaimed, But Lord, by this time he [is decaying and] throws off an offensive odor, for he has been dead four days!

    40Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?

    41So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

    42Yes, I know You always hear and listen to Me, but I have said this on account of and for the benefit of the people standing around, so that they may believe that You did send Me [that You have made Me Your Messenger].

    43When He had said this, He shouted with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!

    44And out walked the man who had been dead, his hands and feet wrapped in burial cloths (linen strips), and with a [burial] napkin bound around his face. Jesus said to them, Free him of the burial wrappings and let him go.
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This was my Scripture reading today. 

Many of us have had or still are in dire circumstances in which the stench of death makes us repulsive to others, to ourselves. We are consumed with grief and even numb at the seeming senselessness of it all.

-broken relationships

-financial devastation

-broken bodies riddled with disease

-broken spirits blanketed in depression

-death

Many of us also are aware that God could have prevented this.

But what's done is done. 
The damage has been made and it is irreparable in human eyes. The odor of death rankles around you. Some cry with you, many avoid you.

Then God inexplicably and undeniably materializes and you can't help but say:

"Lord, I have been crying out to You. Look at the debris left behind.

Look at the losses suffered. We can't go back and undo it, Lord. I know You could have intervened and saved the day. Yet even now, I'll say as Martha did, "even now I know that whatever You ask from God, He will grant it to You."

And Jesus said: " Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?"

Yes, Lord, You have the power over death, over the odor of death.

I ask You, now, with faith believing that You are able and willing, to say to my gravestone: Be removed! And with eyes of hope, with all the trappings of death removed, I will be free to soar for Your glory. No one will be able to dispute that it was You and You alone, not by human might, but by Your power.

So that men will know.

So that I will be a display of Your glory."

My friend, if today you have been like me, and have lost heart over the losses and damages, believe with me, with Mary and Martha, that He is moved by your grief, and when it is the right time, to display His glory, to honor your belief in Him, He will say: Be removed!

I invite you to go read this article by Francis Frangipane, The Real Jesus, that speaks profoundly to why God allows the 'impossible' in our lives.