By GEORGE HOLLIS / Guest Columnist

As we go through the Lenten Season, this past Sunday we were reminded how life comes only from God.

In the Scripture readings, the authors describe forms of death God can overcome and bring to us renewed life.

The first reading is Ezekiel 37 where Ezekiel is put into a place by the Spirit of God were there are a vast number of dried bones.

Of the hundreds of thousands of bones, God takes one bone at a time and finds the exact next connecting bone to build the 206 bones needed for each human body. God, as only God can do, breathes life into these lifeless bodies.

Psalm 130 gives us another death, the death of despair. A verse says, “I wait on the Lord more than the Watchman waits for the morning.”

Waiting for the morning is the same as saying waiting on God for a new day. Sometimes we find ourselves trapped in a chemical imbalance. But, praise God, with the help of doctors, new medicines, friends, family and the Holy Spirit, God can renew our joy.

The next verse is from Matthew when Christ brings Lazareth out of the tomb.

Four days in the grave, already rotting, every cell’s decaying with no life anywhere. God restores all 100 trillion cells, each one having 30 billion moving parts, and restores Lazareth to life.

Finally, Paul in Romans, tells us of death by living in the flesh. When we are born, we exist only to die. Without God, the best we can hope for is to live in a better way than our neighbor. Until we find life in the Spirit of God, we are dead. The only life that God sees as true life is life living in the Godly gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Rev. George Hollis is senior pastor at Cahaba Valley Church. You can reach him at hollistree@aol.com.