Admittedly, we usually hear today’s words when we gather around a freshly dug graveside. The pastor speaks: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.” (v25) However, these words are not meant for the dead but for the living. We need the story of Lazarus to bring hope to our weary lives, to experience the transformation that we long for most. In our text, Jesus finally arrives in Bethany some four days after Lazarus has died. When Martha comes out to meet Jesus, He comforts her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he ..read more

The lingering Jesus didn’t just cut it close; He didn’t make it in time. In the extra days that Mary and Martha waited for Jesus, their brother Lazarus died. Their deepest fear and concern had become reality. We know what it’s like to sit with life’s losses too: a divorce, diagnosis, church split, job loss, death of a family member, shattered dream, memory of past abuse. With Jesus, however, even the greatest losses in life become fertile ground for change, for Jesus can use any circumstance, tragedy, or hurting heart as an instrument to transform us. Jesus told His disciples, “Our friend Laza ..read more

Today’s portion of Lazarus’ story comes with a surprising twist. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother is quite ill. In their word to Jesus the sisters even remind Jesus that Lazarus is “the one You love.” Clearly, the sisters hope, even assume that Jesus will come. Jesus, however, doesn’t go into rapid response mode, drop what He’s doing, and come to the rescue; rather, He stays right where He is for two more days. Jesus doesn’t show up in their greatest moment of need. While we have the advantage of knowing that Jesus does show up – eventually, His timing reminds us that Jesu ..read more

We begin a new 8-week series digging into the story of Lazarus in John 11-12. These verses speak to longings and breakthroughs, unmet expectations and disillusionment with God, the highest goal of God’s glory and clinging to hope in hard times. These are all facets of transformation. In today’s portion, Lazarus needs just that. The beloved brother of Mary and Martha is ill. We do not know what kind of sickness befell Lazarus, only that it is desperate enough to warrant his sisters sending word to Jesus of his illness…a clear cry for Jesus’ help. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus brings and effec ..read more

From prominence to ash heap, Job needed a strong hand guiding him and a tender heart loving him. Like Job, we are not insulated from life’s tragedies, but neither are we intimidated by them. In the middle of the broken pieces, Job cries out, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” These words mean that we have someone to walk with us through life’s long, dark, winding halls. Granted, there are many things surrounding our hardships that we simply don’t know, but what we DO KNOW is that on this day of resurrection our Redeemer truly lives! No matter what our dark hallway looks like and what our circles ..read more

For thirty-five chapters in the book of Job, Job cries out; his three friends speculate; and God … He remains silent. The LORD doesn’t speak a single word. In Job 38:1, however, the hidden God becomes the revealed God and what He reveals is powerful. “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.” Job does not receive an explanation from God as to the why, when, or what of his suffering; rather, he/we receive a revelation of God – who our ever-orchestrating God is. Through what will become a string of 70 questions from God to Job, the LORD emphasizes His incomprehensible greatness in all things ..read more

Just as we take many individual ingredients when we bake – which by themselves taste nasty – and combine them together to create savory cookies or cinnamon rolls, God is the master at working hardships for good. Job puts it this way: “When He has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). God desires righteous character, mature Christian faith, and lives marked by depth and compassion. To this end, God takes strange and distasteful events, and He works them together and creates lives of beauty in us. His plan always works for our good and to the Father’s glory. The secret is understand ..read more

We are given only one detail in our text from Job 14:1–17; one small part of a much larger story. But this one part, this one detail, – though it seems odd at first glance – is beautiful and it is enough. In the midst of life’s pieces, Job says, “There is hope for a tree.” (v7) A tree can overcome many hardships, including being cut down and left for dead; it only takes one small sprout. Job continues: “If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.” (v7) We, like Job, know what it’s like to be cut down in life – health, friends, work – and feel left for dead…as wit ..read more

When Satan goes to work on Job, his life is marked by extraordinary loss. Job loses his wealth, livestock, servants, all of his children, and even his own health. When it rains, it pours! Like Job, we have three choices when hardships befall us. Trials can destroy us, define us, or develop us. Job fell to the ground in worship and declared, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Suffering develops us when in humble faith we surrender our entire selves into the hands of the living God – not in despair or forfeit – but in worship, acceptance, and hope. For ..read more

In today’s text, we learn valuable insights from the life of Job on how to fly blind. Though a “blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil,” Job had no idea what Satan was scheming against him in God’s court; in other words, Job was flying blind. Job’s ensuing suffering, affliction, and loss would prove to be unwarranted, unexpected, and upending, yet the sovereign LORD was with Job and would work through Job’s hardships to deepen his understanding of and faith in Him. We can trust the sovereignty and good purposes of the same God too ..read more