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During Session #4 of Bethel College's World Christian Action Conference, our speaker Connie Bissen referenced a verse in John 11 when Jesus called Lazarus up and out of his tomb. While I failed to grasp the direction that Connie took this passage, I did spend a good deal of time reflecting on what implications it has for our lives as Believers.
"Then Jesus shouted, 'Lazarus, come out!'
And the dead man came out, his hands and
feet bound in graveclothes, his head wrapped
in a headcloth. Jesus told them, 'Unwrap him
and let him go!'" (John 11:43-44; NLT)
While driving back from the airport this morning, I listened to a pastor on the radio speak very frankly about being "born twice." I don't know his name, nor do I know his church, but I loved how simple he made it:
"You're either born once or born twice.
Born once, you're blind. Born twice, you can see.
Born once, you're lost. Born twice, you're found.
Born once, you belong to the Devil. Born twice, you belong to God.
Born once, you're dead. Born twice, you're alive."
As simple as this equation is, I know many of us struggle with what happens in our lives once we are "born twice." You see, like Lazarus we experience death to ourselves and receive resurrection through Christ. Too often though, we take off into our lives as newfound children still wearing the cloths we donned in the grave. We walk around our world as mummies, experiencing life, but we reak of our lives past. We do not allow the Lord to purge us of all our sinful nature and the things that tempt us backwards.
This is why Paul writes to the church in Colossae:
"...put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking
within you...You used to do these things when
your life was still part of this world...Put on your
new nature, and be renewed as you learn to
know your Creator and become like him." (Colossians 3:5,7,10; NLT)
So what are some of the cloths draping your body that have been with you since the grave? Do they exist in the form of relationships or circles of friends? Are they items or substances that, at one point, you couldn't live without? Are they possibly things that look very nice and ornate, things that look great in your second life, but things that God has called you to leave behind?
Lord, give us the strength to rid ourselves of these bindings. If we should lack the strength, give us the humility to ask others to unwrap us, so we may go. Thank you for this life eternal, for overcoming death, that we may have life.
Humbly His,
Bobby Morton
"What do you want to do, Bob?"
It's a question that I hear from almost every angle. Whether it is asked by friend or family member; colleague or college student; it is a question that I have wrestled with answering on a regular basis since I stepped away from youth ministry to further my education and pursue ministry at the collegiate level. I was asked the question again tonight, but none of the aforementioned groups did the asking...
Sitting in a seat in Bethel's Everest-Rohrer Auditorium, I was asked by Caleb Bislow to take a moment to "ShushUpAndListen." Following his sermon on how God moves us towards our mission and purpose, he allowed us time to seek where and how God would have us carry out such a mission. As I watched student after student make their way to the altar, I began to see they all had one thing in common. Each student that responded in the moment was a young woman. Even after a morning session where Caleb rebuked the men of Bethel College for being passive participants in God's world mission, none of them seemed emotionally connected to the message.
Now, I'm not assuming that every man in that place suffered from a stroke of disobedience, or that there weren't individuals responding in the quietness of their hearts and seats, but as Chandler Bing screams during a season 6 episode of FRIENDS, "where are all the men?!"
It was there in that moment, that I remembered the cause for which I stepped away from middle school ministry. My passion, or rather my burden is for these men who are stuck in a generation of undefined masculinity. Do I know what makes a man? Surely not to the extent I'd like to assume. However, I do know that the men I've been raised in Christ to emulate chose to stand and fight for something, rather than settling for nothing. It's my prayer that we don't raise and accompany a group, a generation, or a gender of settlers.
This ends my random thought of the night.
Humbly His,
Bob Morton