Dead and Loving It!

Sometimes people love being dead. You heard it right....dead and loving it! Here is what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2:1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.[a] He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

We are supposed to be alive and in that life Christ has great plans for each of us in service to Him. Where does this life come from? It is the Holy Spirit doing great work through each of us. When a group of believers get together in fellowship and commitment and that life in you is combined with others experiencing this life also, then great work for the Lord can be done and should be done. The Lord calls it His church and in that church setting more can be done than what we can do alone, even though each of us is very important to that vision. The church at Ephesus had a great awakening and the people who came to faith in Christ began to leave the old ways behind, including idol worship. And all of that was ok until it got in the pockets of those who were making those idols. In fact, a riot broke out because of the opposition to the changes in those believer's lives, but God protected Paul and his companions through it all.

Since scripture says that money is the "root" of all evil we can see that money sometimes can control the believer and keep them dead because of not wanting to give up that money for one reason or another. If that excitement and life in Christ is held back long enough by one thing or another then the person who is held back will begin to enjoy being dead and they will accept it and even love it. END OF STORY? Not yet.

Paul expounds even more in Ephesians 5: 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13 But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14 for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

If you want to rise from the spiritual deadness that has crept into your life, then God is saying arise. Wake up! This is no time for slumber. I know how tired we can all get and sometimes the heaviness of life can bog us down and make us want to just take it easy. Rest is a very helpful thing, but......Then we come back to life again and our faith continues to grow and grow and the light shining through us gets brighter and brighter. Then we can no longer enjoy being dead. The life we have in Jesus becomes overwhelming and we continue to grow and grow in our faith and get back on track. John said it this way in John 1:4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

The Pilgrimage Continues

David Warren