Verse of the Day - 1 John 4:9

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
~ 1 John 4:9 (NIV)

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It's hard to believe that we are living the film, "The Night of the Living Dead", but we are...so to speak. Although most of humanity isn't running around trying to consume each other for dinner as some zombie films portray, those who have not come to know Jesus as their Savior are "the walking dead". No single human being has spiritual life apart from God's gift of love in Jesus Christ. Although we all breathe air and physically live, it is a half-life....a dead life....without God.

Those who don't know Jesus don't realize their spirits are dead -- they think they're alive, just like the zombies in horror films. Jesus was very clear in John 3 when he talked with Nicodemus...

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' ~ John 3:5-7 (NIV)

My pastor has said, "'Lost' people don't know they're lost." And the walking dead don't really know they're dead. So, for those of us who have been born of the Spirit through faith in Jesus, how do we help "the walking dead" realize that they're dead, so that we can offer them life through Jesus? Hmm....good question.

Many people live and breathe apart from God and seem perfectly content. They think livin' is pretty good! They don't see their need for God or a "savior" -- Save from what? they say. For those, I say simply live your Christian life before them. You can talk til you're blue in the face about how 'lost' they are, how spiritually dead they are -- but it probably will run off like water on a duck's back. Or like seed sown on a desert floor.

But if we are sensitive to others around us, we will hear the heart-cry of people who are coming to realize they are lost and spiritually dead...

~ When this physical life finally lets them down and the pleasure and thrills are gone, they're left hanging with nothing but a boatload of disillusion and doubt . . .

~ When their attempts at spirituality through human effort don't assuage their guilt and spiritual emptiness, they're left wondering what it takes to be whole and complete on the inside . . .

Do you hear the cries of the walking dead?

If you have Jesus in your heart, you have the contentment for their disillusion. You have the filler for their emptiness. You have the purpose for their purposelessness. He is it! Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Let's have our ears and eyes open today to the walking dead that "live" among us. Let's be sensitive to their cries for help, and offer them real hope and help in God's love, through His Son.

Love,
Joelene