I was reading Romans last week and in the first chapter there is a list of all the awful things people were doing. It's a long list
I have often looked at this from an "inside looking out" viewpoint. I'm on the inside looking at all the awful things Godless people do. As God often does...he changed my viewpoint. See, the text says...
"FOR ALTHOUGH THEY KNEW GOD, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened..." It then goes on to list all of the awful things people were doing.
It's still a long list.
What struck me is that these were people who KNEW GOD. They knew him...they just failed to glorify him and failed to give him thanks. And the lack of these two actions/attitudes led them to a place of futile thinking and darkened hearts. The long list of atrocities are things that I don't want to have anything to do with...but they are as close to me as my failure to glorify and give thanks.
The irony here is that these things lead to death...but the only way to avoid them is to die.
Assuming that the failure is the lack of glorifying and thanking, the question is how do we glorify and give thanks? Thanks giving is fairly understandable...but how do we bring glorifying God into our everyday life?
It actually has a lot to do with death.
My good friend Alex preached tonight from John 11 and the death of Lazarus. He pointed out that after Jesus was informed that Lazarus was sick...he stayed where he was for two more days allowing Lazarus to die. Alex talked about the disappointment that was evident in Martha and Mary's reaction when they saw Jesus. They both in frustration and anguish said "If you had been here my brother would not have died"
Alex pointed out that we all have had deep disappointments in God when he didn't show up in a situation when we wanted him to. He asked for specific examples among the congregation. We heard things like I prayed for my marriage to be restored and it wasn't....My mother has battled sickness for 13 years....My nephew died after 42 days of life....my friends haven't come to know Christ. Why doesn't he show up sometimes?
Could it be that he wants us to die? It certainly appears so. He told the disciples that this situation was "for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it." Aren't we told that if we are to share in Christ's glory we must also share in his suffering? Aren't we told that to live is Christ and to die is gain?
Lazarus died so Jesus could bring him back to life...thus being glorified.
We need to glorify God to avoid the darkening of our hearts which leads to atrocities in our life.
We need to die to glorify God.
We must die daily.
I feel like the last year and a half for my family has been deadly. Many of our plans died. Much of our stuff died. Our pride definitely died. We have been through a dying process.
But I have decided that if this death serves to glorify God...and keep me close to his heart so my own isn't darkened...then I can stand to stay in the grave for four days before he calls me out.
I bet Lazarus was glad that even though he was in the grave, perhaps in purgatory for four days, rotting and decaying and smelling horrible....he was probably forever grateful that his circumstance brought glory to God and that his NASHTY SMELLS WERE MADE GOOD.
