Made Alive

Posted by Tia Ciferno and filed in Encouragement for Daily Living

Made Alive

A few weeks ago I was honored to sing in Boston, Massachusetts for a retreat at the Hanscom Air Force Base. While I was there, my brother and his family took me to some places of interest since I love history. One of our visits was to one of the cemeteries in the old town of Concord. This was absolutely fascinating!

We ran from stone to stone amazed at the fact that many of those “remembered” in epitaph were born in the mid 1600’s! Yet so many were obviously followers of the same Jesus we are following today. I copied these words since they are inspiring to me.

May we as women have such words carved in our memory!

Here lies interred the body of Sarah Miles
Who departed this life March 13th AD 1756
in the 77th year of her life
She was a prudent and virtuous wife
a kind and instructive mother
and was conscientious and virtuous
in her life and conversation.

A short time after I came back to Ohio, I was asked to open in worship and share for a few moments at a local gathering. There were over sixty who come weekly for Bible study and prayer.Their focus that week was the second half of Hebrews chapter 10.

As I prayed about what to sing and say, I pondered those verses about “drawing near” to God through a sincere heart…

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith , having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Since my time to share would be so brief, I asked the Lord to give me exactly what to say so I wouldn’t ramble! It had to be short. For days I sought Him on this, prayed, listened, and seemed to hear nothing. Late into the night I finally laid my head on the pillow and slept terribly since my heart was not settled on what I would be sharing in just a few hours.

As I dressed and prepared to leave for the bible study, my heart was listening still. I said, “Lord, I will not be anxious. I know You long to speak to your people. I know You have promised that when I open my mouth, You will ‘fill it’. ”

And He did. My thoughts turned immediately to that phrase “draw near”. The Lord then opened my eyes. Nothing new, but for me it is a fresh way to see the Truth of this Redemption in Jesus…this “new and living way.”! The Lord reminded me of the longing I have to see Greg, my brother…and my mom. He had me think of the emotions we have when we lose someone we love, the intense longing to reach out and touch their face, sit with them, laugh with them…look into their eyes again. And our hearts struggle deeply with the impossibility of this, with the Wall that divides us. It seems so incredible that we cannot be with them, but it is an impossibility.

The Lord then showed me that He sent His Son because He had experienced the same “separation” from us…the same longing to have relationship with us, but the same impossibility of that relationship because of the Wall of death.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins… Ephesians 2:1

We can’t have a relationship with a dead person. And our God cannot either. But He is the God of the Impossible, for with God all things are possible.

…because of His Great Love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4,5

Now through our faith in Christ’s experiencing Death for us and being raised to life again, we are “born again” and made alive!!!!!!

Those headstones in Concord Cemetery are not holding any Christian brothers or sisters. They are absent from the body but present with the Lord. In Him they were made alive to have an unending love relationship with the King of Kings.

And so were we.