Under A Shroud

 

“Under a Shroud.” This was the response the LORD gave when I was praying for someone and I was concerned that they had seemed to have lost some of the joy of the LORD. The smiles had faded despite Biblical pursuits and study.

A shroud? I looked up the definition. It was defined as “Jewish grave clothes.” It is attire placed on a deceased body.  Jesus was known to have been wrapped in grave clothes. You may have heard of the shroud.  Shrouds are a mostly Jewish custom.

This is an awareness for us.

 Many Christians are being drawn to Biblical study in Hebrew ways of old because it is the roots for Christianity. God is making a powerful move to link us and understand it as He draws Jew and Gentile together.  Some are getting tangled up along the way and are becoming encumbered in Law and losing the vision of the grace that first drew them to Him.  Others aren’t necessarily in that area of study, but linger in the death of Christ because of their sin. Their faith remains shrouded in the death. They don’t know how to move past the funeral.

The death is vastly important. It is the display of God’s love and simultaneous Holiness. The wages of sin is death. The Law revealed to us just how sinful we are, but it also delivered a grace that could only come from God. The outpouring of love amidst His holiness flows like a river throughout His ways in the Old.

When focus becomes Law minded, it is easy for our mind to start to focus on the rules and focus less that the rules were about love for God and each other and we begin to operate toward self-righteousness.

 We’ll die trying.

 As much as we try to own our sins and mourn what we did to Jesus, we again come into self. We need to know this; He planned His death. He fulfilled it and it was written and prophesied thousands of years before we were even born and started to sin. We need to see Him!  It can’t be said enough. He died because He FIRST LOVED US!

We need to see His love! We need to see His resurrection! We need to face His grace and glory with our faces uncovered.

He rose!

 He did His incredible thing for our freedom out of  His love so that we could be born again.

 Like Him!

Our death or dying is so that we may live is a dying to our old life’s ways of self-focus. Self focus  leads to sin. Dying to sin is what we do when we live God-focused and grace-focused and gospel-focused. Sin loses its power over us in His power.

The good news!

New life in Christ! He is a redeemer! He is God! There is a song, “My Redeemer Lives!”  If we are born again and living a new life in Christ, we shouldn’t be living in grave clothes. He says we are clothed in His righteousness in Isaiah 61:10-11 

10.I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

my soul shall exult in my God,

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,

and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,

so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise

to sprout up before all the nations.

 

The power and influence for the Kingdom of God came following His resurrection and to man now redeemed, for His Holy Spirit to be for all who will wait on Him for it. His death caused the disciples to hide in the covering of  a house in fear until they received word that He had risen.  From there was the explosion of a people moved to move for His Kingdom without fear and without glumness.

So much was their desire to live for Him that they were willing to die for Him in order to make Him known and to not forsake Him. We needed to see death to life. We needed to see sin and death conquered. His Spirit brought that strength to us so that we are empowered by His righteousness to sprout up and follow Him, rejoicing and giving Him praise. 

Our studies are good as we dig back to our foundation and better comprehend His Holiness, but the flowing waters of His grace is what keeps us moving in His freedom and love. Be attentive in those Hebrew studies to see His love multiplied over again by His frequent manifestations of Himself, His Words through His prophets and His graces extended after every mess up as hearts  returned to Him. His grace is everywhere in the Old Testament. His resurrections in fresh starts and redemptions by His love are present right alongside His people.

The Light of His countenance upon us shines brightly for all the nations to see when we come out from under the shroud.

Luke 20:38  “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."