We tried.

I felt in my heart to share a story with you. On the surface it may not seem like a great success, but when you look deeper (like we did) you see that it was indeed.

The day we tried to raise the dead…

So far, we have had only one attempt at this, and it was no doubt a learning experience for us. The news of one of our “part time” church member’s death reached us, and we made preparations to conduct the funeral service. By the time we reached the house of the family, many people had already gathered to share the family’s grief; a husband, two sons, and a daughter were left without a mother.

As we spent time with the oldest of the three children, we sensed a need to step out in faith. This step involved the preaching of the gospel, a look at the resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus, and us following Jesus’ example. We would command the deceased to rise.

So, we preached. We preached Jesus Christ; the resurrection and the life. We proclaimed the resurrection power of Jesus; declaring that in the name of Jesus the dead could be raised! We began to worship God, all the while speaking life over the corpse of this dead woman, this wife, this mother. We went as far as to pull the cotton out of her nose and mouth. Soon, all of the mourners began to come and honor the dead in their traditional way. One after another they came and laid gifts on the body of this dead woman. Nothing happened. She didn’t rise.

For lack of better words, we were shell shocked. After reaching home our minds reeled, we wondered what in the world had just happened. What did we do?

After lots of reflection, we realized that though we didn’t see what we had anticipated, this was a step in the right direction. After all, if we ever plan on raising the dead, we have to start somewhere. Our conclusion was this, “next time!” and so we wait for our next opportunity to obey the command of Jesus and raise the dead.

Oh yeah, at least one family came to Jesus on account of this experience. They were relatives of the family who suffered the loss, and the lady’s two sons; we took them into our orphanage. We are now raising them up to be mighty witnesses for Jesus. Those who witnessed our attempt were mostly amazed that we would even try to do such a thing. The general attitude was, “Wow! these Christians believe that their God can actually raise the dead!”  We are guilty as charged.

If you would like any other details, please feel free to post your questions.