I heard this new song on my Pandora station this week called “Come Alive” by Lauren Daigle (link is at the bottom). It is one of those songs that made me drop everything I was doing, listen, and worship. In these hard times, when our world is a straight up mess, when people are shooting and hating and hurting each other – we need to know this:

But we know that You are God, Yours is the victory/

We know there is more to come, that we may not yet see/

So with the faith You’ve given us, we’ll step into the valley unafraid/

 

We call out to dry bones: Come alive, come alive/

We call out to dead hearts: Come alive, come alive/

Up out of the ashes let us see an army rise/

We call out to dry bones, come alive/

We have to understand that this is the Gospel. Bringing people from death to life is what Jesus is all about. It is what He came and accomplished. His story, and therefore ours, is death to life.

The reason that song resonates with me is because I recognize God’s deepest desire in it: that those living with dry bones and dead hearts would come alive. That is the Gospel. I truly believe that knowing Him brings us back to life.

In the everyday living it is easy to make the Gospel about something less; we find ways to make it about qualification, rules, comparison, us verses them.

Sometimes I think though, at the end of the day, or especially at the end of life, it isn’t about those things. Which means it really never is about those things. The Gospel at the end of the day is about life.

That is why Jesus came to earth – to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and raise the dead.

If only we believed that He still.does.this.

He heals our diseased hearts, giving us freedom to love and trust again. He changes us; we are infected with sin and He is the Healer. He is our remedy and our life source.
He is the doctor of redefining – He tells us we are no longer defined by our sickness. Our identity is not a sinner; we walk in the freedom of His healing.

He gives us back our sight – our ability to see the good in the world, to see His Presence around us. When we notice the little things, when we count the gifts, when we call out the good in others – we are seeing again, for the first time.

He wipes the dirt from our eyes and suddenly we are capable of seeing the value in everyone around us – no matter their skin color, lifestyle, gender, or status. This is why we need Jesus, people!

He raises us from the dead – while we are sick with sin and blind with hate, Resurrection comes in the form of a Savior and gives us life again. And not just any life – abundant life (John 10:10). Life that we should live fully – celebrating, dancing, loving, giving, serving. Life that should be offered back to Him as an offering, as gratitude. He brings our dry bones and dead hearts to life not just so we can live quiet and lukewarm. He gives us life so we can do the same for others. His Gospel is the story of death to Life, for Him and for all of us.

If only we believed.

Listen here: