WHY IS TRAINING IMPORTANT?

Lazarus

Picture it: Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. So many people were very angry with Jesus, disappointed because He took so long to get there. They felt that had He come when He got word of Lazarus’ condition, that Jesus would have healed him before he died. Where WAS Jesus????? When Jesus arrived, He felt their pain and wept with them. He had not forgotten them. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and he emerged out of that tomb, he was raised to life. He wasn’t dead anymore. But he couldn’t walk very well, he was wrapped up in grave clothes. From the top of his head to the soles of his feet. 

They wrapped people in two or three sections of grave clothes back then. Around their top, around the middle and around the legs and feet. So, though Lazarus was miraculously raised from the dead, he still couldn’t walk free.

Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

John 11:43-44

The same voice that raised him from the dead, surely could have caused those grave clothes to fall off. But He did not. He turned to the people and told them “take off the grave clothes and let him go.” There was no embalming as we know it today. Think about how stinky, messy, how disgusting it surely was. It took great compassion, mercy and love to take the time to remove those stuck on, smelly, weeping of body fluids grave clothes. It takes from us, a strong desire to see them truly walk in the freedom of their resurrection.

That might be you. Or that may very well be someone you love.  

When we have trauma and abuse in our past, it affects the way we live. There are residual effects that influence our choices, relationships, and the ways that we think. We might just very well still have some grave clothes that need to be removed so you experience the freedom that your relationship with Christ has for you.

Like some of you, many others have sat in offices like mine, or other pastors and leaders and shared some of the issues in their lives. They come in with a problem to solve. As we continue to talk, we see problems with behaviors, decisions, relationships, and other issues that continue to occur and they can’t figure out why. What is wrong with them or everyone around them. As conversations continued, I was able to ask these dear people if there was abuse in their lives. Shockingly, the answer is often, “how did you know.”

So much brokenness, in Christians, pre-Christians, young people, old people, men and women alike. One thing I have learned from abuse victims is that they are survivors. It might be a bit upside down now and then, but they have learned how to survive. Jesus wants so much more for us than to just survive. He would tell us today that He has healing and restoration for us. That we would THRIVE not just survive.

“But forget all that—(the old broken things) it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. ¹⁹ For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.“

Isaiah 43:18 (NLT)

He has plans for you friend, that include hope and future.  

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² In those days when you pray, I will listen. ¹³ If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.¹⁴ I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NLT)

When we come to Him, He literally flips the script in our lives. Take what was already written, and makes it all new. What I was, I am being made new. IT’S A NEW DAY!!!! The residual effects of past abuse begin to fade when we find healing and restoration in Jesus. IT TRULY IS A NEW DAY!!!

That’s what this curriculum is about. A path to healing. A path to restoring what has been stolen from you over a few, or many years of your life.