ALIVE

Don't you just love it when God's word springs new to you; and you discover a verse that you know you have read before, because you have read that chapter or book or the entire Bible thru, but somehow you never noted what was there before. I had that experience just yesterday. I pointed it out to my hubby, who by the way has an incredible memory and he had the same reaction as I did...HOW DID I OVERLOOK THAT! IF I HAD READ THAT BEFORE I WOULD HAVE REMEMBER IT, BUT I MUST HAVE READ IT BEFORE, BECAUSE I'VE READ THAT BEFORE!
 
So, are you curious yet? Want to know what we read, well here it is...
2 Kings 13:21.
"Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet."
 
Okay, these guys are burying a body and they see some bad guys coming, so rather than burying him, they hurry it up by tossing him into Elisha's already existing tomb; and when the man's body touched Elisha's body, the dead man comes back to life! Seriously...how does one overlook that!
 
He was so full of LIFE that his bones brought a man back from the dead! Truly evidence that supports Matthew 25:46. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Even in death, there is life.
 
Elisha lived in the days before Jesus lived. He lived under the law God had established, it was his faith that compelled him to obey the law and by his faith that he was made righteous. It was in that same faith that he found life, and that he was able to bring life to the dead. The account in 2 Kings 13:21 is not the only time that Elisha's faith restored life in the dead. Hebrew 11:35 says that by faith "women received back their dead, raised to life again." In 2 Kings 4:8-37 we see Elisha's faith bring and restore life to the Shunammite woman's son. Here is their story: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%204:8-37&version=NIV
 
We live in the days after the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the messiah. The very one who came to fulfill the law. He lived it to perfection! It is in our faith in Him that we find life. In John 14:6, Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
 
It is our faith in Him and love for Him that compels us to obey His commandments.  Jesus said "If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15.
 
And it is our faith that drives us to share the life that we have found in Jesus with those who are dead. "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:12.

I have always thought it would be pretty awesome to go out like Enoch. To walk with the Lord, then simply be no more. But now I'm thinking it would may be even more awesome to leave behind bones that bring life to the dead. And when I think on it, I can think of a few people I have known that have lived such lives of faith that when they passed away they left such an impact on those they knew, that the dead they had touched found life.