Today's Passage - Luke 7:11-17

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Luke 7:11-17   "When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, 'Don't cry.'  Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, 'Young man, I say to you, get up!'  The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.  They were all filled with awe and praised God.  'A great prophet has appeared among us,' they said.  'God has come to help his people.'  This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country."   Healing is associated with personal faith, but more importantly it is out of mercy of God.  If we don't understand God's mercy, we won't understand healing.  This desperate widow never asked for anything, but the Lord knew her situation and understood her pain.  Because of His merciful heart, He proactively brought the son of the widow back to life.  Our Lord is indeed a merciful God, and He's also the Almighty Lord; He can resurrect the dead because He is our Savior who has gone through resurrection Himself.  He understands the sorrow, weakness, and pain in our hearts, and He has the power to save us from our circumstance of suffering.  This is such a precious grace!   Aren't we also frequently in the same situation as the widow?  Our life can be filled with the scent of death, and we feel that it's hard for us to overcome our current obstacle, thus we don't know how we could go on.  When we look forward, we often see a future of desperation.  Our God, however, is the Savior who came back to life from death, and He can resurrect people from the scent of death, and give us sufficient grace to go on with life.   By His resurrected life, God will remove the shadow of death brought onto us through sin in our life.  He will remove all the walls of sin between God and people and between people.  He will bring reconciliation between parents and children, husbands and wives; He will wipe off our tears and heal our wounds; He will break all our fear and all the bondages on us brought forth by fear and worries, all so that we can regain freedom in our heart.  No matter what your circumstance is, even if you don't dare to cry out to God any more, God still wants to touch your life though His power of resurrection, because He is merciful.  You must believe in His grace and receive it by faith!                Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you because you are the Lord who resurrected from death, and you can save us from the scent of death.  You can enter our life and circumstance today and resurrect us from any shadow of death, just like how you resurrected the son of the widow.  We ask that you renew our strength in you!  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!