Death Defeating 1 Kings 17:8-24 Luke 7:11-17

Broken people in need of divine intervention have the greatest opportunity to see God move. Why? because God can do more when you can do the least yourself. Those who need little or nothing from God won't see His full power displayed. But those who are broken can see God's glory unfold in their lives.

2 single moms knew God's life giving power in tough times 1 Kings 17:8-24 Luke 7:11-17. Both widows hard circumstances were getting worse. Both moms lost sons way before their time. Death always shocks us. A child's death shakes our core. We assume the world follows a natural order. These 2 moms lives didn't go as assumed.

Don't be tempted to blame these women for their circumstances. Maybe you think, if they just had a little more "faith" or a little more "holiness" they wouldn't have suffered. Don't even go there. The faithfulness of these moms wasn't the issue. One opened her home to God's prophet sharing the last of her worldly goods with him 1 Kings 17:8-16. The other met Jesus as her son's body was on the way to the cemetery Luke 7:11-17.

Maybe you've been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Maybe you are in a fix right now today. Where ever the place of need is God can act. Maybe you look back with amazement at a moment when you thought things were too broken even for God make things better. Does this sound at all like you or maybe where you've been?

• exasperated
• at the end of your rope
• sick and tired of being sick and tired
• hitting rock bottom

The church is called to be light for the world. We are called to carry the promises of God into lives of pain and hurt. Jesus never said we should just wait for the hurting to come in the doors of the church. Faith holds on to the promises of God made known in Jesus Christ as we reach out together. It's as the church, as the communion of saints, that we remember together who God is in the hard times and the good times. It's through our shared life as sisters and brothers that we hear the promise of God's love again and share it. Its a gift to share the Word in faith reminding one another of God's goodness. It's a great time to be church meeting people who've been kicked hard in life with the promise of God's love. It's a good time to speak of the second chances God gives even in the face of death.

These two hurting moms watched as their sons were raised from dead. They watched as breath came back and blood flowed again. On the way to Jesus rising were other resurrections, other times when God exercised dominion over death. The Bible's high point is always Jesus resurrection; but God's death defying power broke in at other times in people's lives even before Jesus rose. These moments revealed who God was, is, and will be.

Thanks be to God for the moments when His death defying power breaks in reordering our world and our lives. AMEN.
Peace to you and thanks for reading, John