{"id":31196,"date":"2024-05-19T22:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-10_31-42-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-05-14T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T00:34:32","slug":"john-11_1-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-11_1-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus is the Light in Your Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

John\u00a0 11:1-16 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s passage is John 11:1-16.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 11:1-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-4:\u00a0 Once again we see Jesus\u2019 view on sickness.\u00a0 Jesus saw sickness as an opportunity for God to display His power and an opportunity for God to be glorified through how people deal with the sickness.\u00a0 Likewise, when you see problems in your life, train yourself to see them with Jesus\u2019 eyes.\u00a0 See your problems not as gravestones marking your death, but as stepping stones to something greater.<\/p>\n

John 11:5-6 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-6:\u00a0 How could Jesus truly love Martha, Mary and their dying brother Lazarus if Jesus, upon hearing that Lazarus was sick, decides to delay his visit by two days?\u00a0 It\u2019s because Jesus was writing a greater story with the life of Lazarus and the life of his family than they could fathom: instead of healing the sick, Jesus planned to raise the dead.<\/p>\n

When God allows pain in our lives, it is not because He is not there or doesn\u2019t care.\u00a0 Much the opposite, it is because God is writing a greater story with your life, greater than anything you could have imagined or invented for yourself.\u00a0 God loves you so much that He lets you play a part in a greater story that He is writing.<\/p>\n

John 11:7-10 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-10:\u00a0 Jesus tells his disciples that together with them he would like to go back to Judea to see Lazarus (v7). The disciples question Jesus\u2019 decision because Judea was the very place where people tried to stone Jesus a short while ago (v8).\u00a0 The disciples probably didn\u2019t question Jesus purely out of concern for Jesus.\u00a0 For deep down the disciples probably feared, \u201cIf we go back with Jesus to Judea, we might get stoned too.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus reassures them that as long as they have the light (i.e. Himself) with them, they will be fine (v9-10).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 When you have Jesus with you, you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, because you have the light with you.\u00a0 You have Jesus.\u00a0 As Psalm 139:11-12 suggests, there is no darkness that is too dark for Jesus to light your way.<\/p>\n

John 11:11-15 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-15:\u00a0 I am impacted by Jesus\u2019 last sentence in verse 15: \u201cBut let us go to him\u201d (v15).\u00a0 Dead Lazarus had no way of going to living Jesus, so living Jesus went to dead Lazarus.\u00a0 Likewise, when we were dead in our sins, when we had no way of going to God, God came to us.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s eyes man-made religions are so silly: they\u2019re all about dead people trying to reach God who is life, thinking that by doing some good deeds they can go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t work that way.\u00a0 Only God can raise the dead, and that\u2019s why Jesus came for you and me: to do for us what we could never do ourselves, which is to raise us back to life.\u00a0 As C.S. Lewis once famously wrote, Jesus didn\u2019t come to make bad people good.\u00a0 He came to make dead people alive.<\/p>\n

John 11:16 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 16:\u00a0 Historically Thomas is known for being the doubter among the disciples.\u00a0 Yet here Thomas is the only disciple who verbally expresses his faith and commitment to Jesus in a time when everyone else was full of fear.\u00a0 Quite possibly fearing the worst if he went with Jesus, Thomas still says, \u201cLet us also go, that we may die with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

This shows me the fluidity of faith.\u00a0 Sometimes our faith is strong.\u00a0 Sometimes our faith is weak.\u00a0 But praise God that, though our faith can sometimes go up and down, God never changes.\u00a0 God is always strong, always faithful and we can always depend on Him to hang on to us even when we\u2019re struggling to hang on to Him.<\/p>\n

Jesus, in my spiritual deadness I had no way of going to You, but You came to me and reached for me.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank You that even when I am faithless You remain faithful.\u00a0 You hang onto me even when I struggle to hang onto You.\u00a0 Thank You that every challenge and problem I face today is an opportunity for You to show Your glory.\u00a0 Because of You, I can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, for You are with me.\u00a0\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 11:1-16.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJohn 11:1-4 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
\n4\u00a0\u00a0When 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.”
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-4:\u00a0 Once again we see Jesus\u2019 view on sickness.\u00a0 Jesus saw sickness as an opportunity for God to display His power and an opportunity for God to be glorified through how people deal with the sickness.\u00a0 Likewise, when you see problems in your life, train yourself to see them with Jesus\u2019 eyes.\u00a0 See your problems not as gravestones marking your death, but as stepping stones to something greater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31199,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31196\/revisions\/31199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}