The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was a story of living with God in a close relationship. They had everything! they experienced God fully — walking and talking with Him.
When they chose to sin, separation came i.e. death. It is hard for us to understand anything different. It is all we have known. God is perfectly holy — sin cannot exist in Him. Sin has separated us from Him.
Jesus came to restore the relationship lost. His desire is for us to live connected to Him now and to one day be with Him in heaven.
““Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3 NIV
He wants us to be with Him, where He is! What was lost in the Garden was restored on the Cross! When we accept Jesus we live our lives no longer separated by sin!
Where Jesus is, we may also be!
Am I experiencing the relationship that Jesus died to restore me to? Am I walking and talking with God every moment of every day? Or is sin keeping me at a distance from my God?
There is a perceived finality in death. More than once I have attended the graveside committal of someone I love. The separation we feel here on earth becomes so real. But Jesus!
These words of Jesus are often read at such an occasion where we stand next to the casket of someone we love moments before they are lowered into the ground:
“…“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”” John 11:25-26 NIV
Jesus experienced the things we do when He walked this earth. He stood outside the tomb of His friend as well. He saw the heartache of those left behind. He felt compassion for those who could only see the finality of the situation. Verse 35 says, “Jesus wept.” But that was not the end. Jesus ordered that the stone covering the entrance to the tomb be rolled back, and then He spoke. “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus walked out of that tomb fully alive!
This section of Scripture stirs up questions as well as comfort within me. Sometimes I don’t understand why things go the way they do. I find comfort knowing that Jesus has stood graveside and wept. Not because it was the end, but simply because He loved the ones who thought it was.
Then there have been the times I have seen Jesus do miracles that I could not explain and completely turned impossible situations around.
I have often thought how convenient it would be to be able to say, “Do x,y,and z and this will result.”
“Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”” (Verse 40) The glory of God is His manifest presence and power. Simply put, I believe and God will do more than I could ask, think, or imagine within impossible situations. Martha could not conceive that opening a tomb with a dead body would ever be a good idea. BUT with Jesus, what is dead becomes alive.
Do I understand that Jesus truly cares about the things that I am weeping about? Do I believe that no matter what I am up against Jesus is bigger? His Words He spoke to Martha are a promise to me as well. If I believe, I will see His Glory! (Verse 40) I will see He is with me and He is acting in His power on my behalf. He will do miracles. And “even though” I die. I will live! I always win when I believe (trust in and rely on) Jesus, who is Victor over everything including sickness and death!
(I’ve been writing a lot on the Gospel of John lately. I felt like I should share today’s thoughts on the account of Lazarus’s death:)
Good morning! Let’s read John 11:1-16 today!
“So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,” John 11:3-6 NIV
Being sick is a horrible thing. Especially a major illness. In sickness, there is pain and discomfort. Jesus heard His friend, the one He loved, was sick. BUT Jesus delayed going to His friend for two days…
I have been thinking this morning about God’s delays. Jesus knew all things. He was and He is God. He also knew the end of Lazarus’s story, “…This sickness will not END in death. No, it is for God’s Glory…” God always had a plan. Jesus’s delay was a part of it.
In the book of Isaiah God tells us something that is very important to consider:
““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
Jesus knew the reason that Lazarus had to SUFFER and DIE. He knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead in order to display the glory of God to the people. It was an opportunity for Him to make Himself known in a way the people had not known Him as before. “I am the resurrection and the life.” (Verse 25) Jesus was going to display HIs power over death itself.
There are circumstances of life that we simply will not understand. Sometimes it seems that God is delaying doing what is best for us. We suffer. BUT God wants us to know that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways either. What we think is best may not be what is the best in His Heavenly perspective. We must trust in Him!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Is there a circumstance in my life that I am suffering in? Am I trying to make sense out of it? Does it feel like Jesus has delayed? Can I believe and trust that Jesus is always working in every circumstance for my good? (Romans 8:28)
““Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.” Isaiah 43:18-21 NIV
Jesus always makes all things new! What was dead always comes to life at the sound of His beautiful voice!
Today marks the last day of 2025. A New Year is a time of eager expectation of a new beginning. However, we do not have to experience newness just once a year! We can live our lives with each new morning as a new beginning as we pursue a relationship with God!
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 NIV
In Jesus, our past is complete. Whatever happened there can be forgiven, restored, and healed. In Jesus, our present is full and alive. He never leaves us alone or forsakes us. He fills each moment with Himself— the true and abundant LIFE. In Jesus, our future is secure! We have nothing to fear of what is to come!
In Jesus, we can forget the troubling, former things of 2025. We don’t have to dwell in the could have’s, should have’s, would have’s… God is more than willing to do a new thing when we surrender our lives to Him! He has a way of turning things around. What was a dry deserted land inside of our spiritual hearts becomes a beautiful oasis with His living water flowing strong! Whatever was a wasteland and a total loss becomes NEW!
Walk with Jesus every moment of 2026 in the present! Spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer. Then on December 31, 2026 you will be amazed to see all the transformation (making all things new) He has done!
Leave 2025 in the past! Jesus is ever present in our now, and the hope (confident expectation) of what is to come!
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2 NIV
The New Life we have been given by Jesus is a gift like no other! We can leave behind the old way we used to live and experience God in a deep and intimate relationship.
No condemnation! Such beautiful words! We have been set free! When we understand just how much we have been forgiven, we become overwhelmed with just how much this freedom from sin and death means!
Not only are we forgiven of a debt of sin we could never repay, we are taken from the position of a spiritual pauper to being positioned in a relationship with the God! Our position of being “in Christ” means we have been united with Him, which is being attached to Him and connected to Him. We are a part of Him!
He has given us His Spirit to dwell within us so we can live in victory over sin! This is as we walk “according to the Spirit.” We are guided by Holy Spirit’s counsels and His influence. (Websters 1828) When we live our lives in agreement with the Spirit, united to Him, we will experience His “life and peace.”
What we were we are no more! We are forgiven, alive, free, victorious, at peace, full of the Spirit… In Christ!
“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” Romans 7:21 NIV
We are at war! Our enemies — the devil, the world (the ungodly state or corruption on earth), and our flesh (our unrenewed, corrupt nature) want us to be destroyed!!
We are always going to face temptations because as Paul said, “evil is right there with me.” Our enemy is ruthless and relentless. He does not call a cease fire. He does not take vacations. He is always plotting and scheming against us.
Our greatest enemy is our flesh. This is because it desires to make the choices. It desires to dictate our behavior. And its influence is hard for us to see because it is within us. It would always have us to choose evil and to follow the way of the world and listen to the voice of Satan — the deceiver.
Our awareness of our enemy helps us to also be aware of our dependence upon God! We need Him!
If sin and our sinful nature are at war within us, Jesus has given us victory! We can live free in Him!
“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!...” Romans 7:25 NIV
Jesus has paid the price for our sin. He offers us forgiveness and cleansing from the sin that has held us captive. He has given us the Holy Spirit within us to empower us to receive and obey His Word.
Jesus has given us everything we need to live victoriously in this war against sin that wages within us!
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11 NIV
Alive — Regenerated, Renovated Heart, Born Again! (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)
There is beauty in living “alive.” The only way to really understand this statement is to experience it. When you know the depths of what you are without Jesus and then experience Him, you know the death, darkness, and destruction you dwelled in. But thank God that we can live “alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
You and I were dead. There was nothing good in us. BUT GOD! He has taken what was completely broken, without hope… dead. And He has breathed His life into us, regenerated. He has renovated our hearts because He is the ultimate “Fixer Upper.” He takes the completely ruined by sin heart and makes it new! We are born again into a New Life! We are ALIVE!
Being fully alive in Christ is something you have to experience to understand at all. It is foreign to us. He breathes life into us so we can KNOW what His life is like: It is joy. It is peace. It is love. It is mercy. It is goodness. It is all these things and more.
The beauty of the New Life of being “alive to God” is the very thing that God desires for us! He wants us to live attached to Him receiving His life in every circumstance and situation. This starts with salvation, where we enter our relationship with God. It continues as we live day in and day out connected to Him in relationship!
We need to come to Him each and every moment of each and every day so we can truly experience living “alive to God!”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:1-2 NIV
(Today we start Romans 6)
Baptism symbolizes a very important fact in the life of a follower of Jesus. We follow Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. Our old sinful life that we all lived before Christ is to die. It is “buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised form the dead… we too may live a new life.” Being “dead to sin” enables us to live the “new life” that God has given us.
If I were physically dead — at the funeral home, lying in a casket — it would be impossible for me to sit up and eat a donut that you may bring and pass before my nose and my mouth (even the cream filled ones…). I will not take a bite. I am dead to that donut. Our enemy will bring temptation to sin into our lives, but through Jesus we do not have to take a bite. We can live our lives dead to sin!
How can this be? I have this nature, a sinful one, that desires to do things that are wrong all the time… We cannot forget that WE HAVE NEW LIFE! This life is the Holy Spirit living in us. He comes as our Helper to help us to say “no” to the temptations. He comes as the Power to enable us to live our lives “dead to sin.”
We can live free of the patterns of sin that we have been chained to i.e. addictions, bad habits, sinful thought patterns, etc. We don’t have to “live in it any longer.”
As a Christian, it is one thing to slip up and say a hateful thing, do a sinful action, or make a wrong choice, chose to do a sinful act…God has given us a remedy for such a scenario…
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 NIV
It is a whole other thing to embrace our sinful choice, sit down for coffee with it, and indulge in it day in and day out… that is not being dead to it… That is preferring the sinful choice over obedience to God and His word. It is loving God less and our sin more… In this case, we are not dead to sin, we have chosen to let it grow, fester, and consume our lives.
Thank you God that You have provided all that we need to die to sin! We cannot die to sin on our own. The Holy Spirit is very willing to fill us with His life so that there is no room for sinful patterns to grow. God has given us His Word so we can keep our way pure. (Psalm 119:9) As we read His Word, live according to what the Word says, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness, “we too may live a new life” that is dead to sin!
“so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21 NIV
(This Week is Romans 5)
Before Jesus comes into our lives, all you and I will truly ever know is the death, the darkness, and the destruction of sin. On our own, we are helpless to overcome sin’s reign – its power and its influence. The struggle is so real. We know the good we should be doing, but we choose to do otherwise… this is sin. (James 4:17) Then the consequences we see of our wrong choices have a ripple effect. This influences even more wrong choices. Sin’s grip grows and grows. It is a merciless tyrant over our lives.
This is what makes the grace of Jesus so beautiful. Even though we have failed time after time after time. He comes with His love and favor. He has provided a way for the reign of sin to be broken over our lives — The Cross. Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection provides the way for grace to reign — have power and influence over us. Jesus forgives us our sins and gives us His righteousness. What we have done in the past no longer has power over us. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit living in us. He empowers us to live our lives where the rule of Grace grows and grows.
This is why it is so important that we spend time coming to know God better through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we will understand His love, and in turn we will love Him. The more we love Him, the more we will obey Him. The more we obey Him, the more we will experience His blessings. Simply put, the closer we are to Jesus, the more we will experience His freedom!
You and I weren’t meant to be living our lives subjected to the reign of sin! We were meant for the reign of grace and the true life we will experience through Jesus our Lord!
“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” Romans 5:17 NIV
(Today we read Romans 5.)
The Garden of Eden was a happy place! Imagine being able to walk face to face with God — who is complete peace, complete joy, complete love, complete goodness, etc. There wasn’t any pain, sadness, or sorrow. Happiness, all the agreeable sensations from enjoying all of God’s goodness was all Adam and Eve experienced 24/7. But then they CHOSE to sin.
Death entered the picture. They were separated from that beautifully happy i.e. blessed relationship with God. From that moment on “death reigned.” The divine life they had experienced was just a memory. It remained that way until Jesus came.
Jesus is God’s “provision of grace.” (Or divine favor) His righteousness becomes ours when we place our trust in Him and receive Him as our Savior. Jesus came to restore what was lost in the Garden of Eden, and He has come to us to restore what was lost in our lives!
Sin only brings death to us! It separates us from what we were created for, living in relationship with God — being fully alive. We can possess the Happiness of Heaven through the new life that Jesus gives to us. This is what it is to “reign in life” through Jesus.
The more we experience God in close and intimate relationship, the more we will experience Him in our lives. His complete peace, His complete joy, His complete love, His complete goodness, etc. will be what we experience over and over again. Because God is who He says He is, and He wants us to KNOW Him. This knowing is to experience Him day in and day out.
Jesus told us when He walked on earth that we would experience troubles as we live on earth. The effects of sin are still with us… But we could take courage, because He has overcome the world! (John 16:33)
To reign is to “live victoriously” (Webster 1828 Dictionary). We can “reign in life (live victoriously), through the one man, Jesus Christ. He has given us all we need to live victoriously. His Holy Spirit living in us, empowers us and produces in us the fruit of a victorious life — peace, love, joy, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. (Galatians 5:22)
The secret to this life of victory is close relationship to God. Just like Adam and Eve experienced before they sinned, we are to walk and talk with God. Jesus provided the way for our relationship to be restored. Once again we can experience the “happiness of the garden”, but now that happiness goes with us wherever we go because the Holy Spirit is living inside of us!
Your Love 