It Was My Tomb, Till I Met You

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

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“It Was My Tomb, Till I Met You”

2 Corinthians 5:17

NIV- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

NLT- This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

 

One of my favorite songs from Passion Conference is “Glorious Day”.  We play this on our church praise team somewhat often and I always enjoy playing it with the team.  It’s such an energetic song with a very powerful proclamation.  As we played this again on Sunday, I got to thinking about the words “It was my tomb, till I met You”. 

 

Before we came to know Christ, each one of us was stuck in a tomb of some kind.  Some of were buried with shame, some of us tried to hide our failures.  The list could go on and on of things we tried to hide before we accepted Christ.  We found ourselves living in some tomb that seemed impossibly to escape.  However, when we met Christ, it was the GREAT ESCAPE! 

 

Last year, one of the Sundays we played this song, we had MN Adult and Teen Challenge come to our church.  We started the service off with this song and I cannot describe the overwhelming feeling it was to hear these men shout, “It was my tomb, till I met You!”  It blew me away as I was playing drums!  It was a powerful proclamation coming from these men, many that had experienced renewal and freedom from some kind of addiction. 

 

The key word here is “Was”.  Whatever bound us before we met Christ, we are now freed from!  This is past tense!  We are not still in the tomb because Jesus freed us from whatever bondage it was!  It’s an incredible freedom we experience when we are freed from whatever bondage kept us in a tomb of shame, regret or failures.  The enemy wants nothing more than to bring those memories back to haunt us.  However, we have been bought by Christ and we are freed indeed! 

 

Whatever tomb held you in bondage, never ever forget the words in this song, “It WAS my tomb”.  It no longer is your tomb.  Christ rescued you!  Every time the enemy tries to remind you of that past, remember it is not your tomb anymore.  You have been freed!  Christ lives in each one of us and we don’t have to be haunted by our past. 

 

I really like the words in the chorus, “You called my name, and I ran out of that grave.  Out of the darkness into Your glorious day!” 

 

We are no longer bound by the tomb!

It Is Finished

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“It Is Finished”

John 19:30 NIV

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

 

I don’t know about you, but I am a person who likes to begin a project and see it through till the end.  I don’t like starting something and not finishing it.  Drives me crazy.  It has happened more times that I would like and there’s still many projects around my house that have remained unfinished.  Life happens and you just get distracted and say you’ll get to finish some day.

 

Many of us like the feeling of finishing something we start.  There’s a great sense of accomplishment when we finish something we have worked on for a short period of time or a long period of time.  We really like watching the HGTV shows of home renovations and also the show of Building Off The Grid that shows people putting in way more than expected hours, days and months to build a home they’ve envisioned for years.

 

When we finish a project, it’s great to say the words, “It is finished.”  There’s nothing like that feeling of accomplishment. 

 

As we have just celebrated Easter weekend, I so often think of the words spoken in John where Jesus said “It Is Finished.”  Those are VERY powerful words.  He came with a mission and completed it.  But it wasn’t just like any mission most people would embark on.  HGTV has nothing on what Jesus did!  No mission on earth by any human being could ever be greater than His mission.  Jesus had the greatest mission and when He completed it, it was literally earth moving.  The temple veil tore I two and we gained direct access to the Throne of God! 

 

There’s an old Petra song I really like and this past weekend, it came back to mind as it does every year at Easter.  The song is “It Is Finished.”  There is no accomplishment in all of life that could ever be as great as what Jesus did for us on the Cross. 

 

His mission was completed.  The mission is now passed down to us to carry on.  We must carry His mission out and spread the Good News!  His death was just the beginning of amazing things He would continue to do in the lives of so many who accept Him! 

 

As David Phelps' song says, “This was the end of the beginning.”