The Living Dead

Today's society paints vivid pictures for us of the living dead. Maybe you follow or have seen the tv series, The Walking Dead, which earlier this year completed its fifth season and has been renewed for a sixth. There are two comic book series, The Walking Dead and Talking Dead.  Then there's the 1968 horror film, Night of the Living Dead.  Can't leave out the 1965 rock band, the Grateful Dead, which lives on. Get the picture, know that your children are even if you are not.

Jesus described one of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 as having a reputation of being alive but was, in reality, dead (see Revelation 3:1).  Do you have a reputation of being alive but, in reality, you are dead?  Are you like the prodigal son who left home and squandered all his earthly possessions on wild living -- freestyle sex, gambling, alcohol and drugs, and more? Upon his return home, his father described him as having been dead.  Or, are you like the woman, that Paul described to Timothy, who lived for pleasure and was dead even while she lived? 

Have you chosen to live life self-focused -- self-indulgent ... selfish ... self-seeking ... self-absorbed ... self-loved ... self-centered ... self-conscious ... self-determined ... self-gratified ... self-important ... self-reliant ... self-serving ...self-willed -- get the picture?  Will you concentrate on self and remain gratefully dead? Or, will you do as Jesus commanded, deny yourself (see Luke 9:23)?  Don't be among the walking dead. Choose not to be among the living dead?  Rather, choose life, life more abundantly, life to the full, life in Jesus (see John 10:10).