by Barbara Latta
“Blood thirsty rogues and unrepentant cutthroats,” said
Ezekiel as a crowd gathered around
him. His comment was meant to describe those
who were pursuing him and his band of followers.
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| Leave the dead girl in the grave |
This Ezekiel is not the biblical prophet, but a character
from the TV series, The Walking Dead.
I admit I have never watched an entire episode, but I have seen enough to know
the humans are fleeing from zombies.
A dead body powered by an evil spirit in a post-apocalyptic
world is out to suck the life out of those who are still alive. If a zombie
bites or scratches a human, that human is doomed to become one of the walking
dead. Wouldn’t you flee, too? A decaying, bloody skin-covered skeleton with all
the characteristics of death wants your life.
Yeah, run!
The Bible says if we are born again, we are new creations.
Then why do we sometimes act like we are friends with a zombie?
We know that our old
self was put to death on the execution-stake with him, so that the entire body
of our sinful propensities might be destroyed, and we might no longer be
enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6 CJB).
Sin sucks the life out of us. We are born with a sin nature.
We could say a zombie nature. Trusting in Christ takes away that nature and
replaces it with His. We are now made new in our spirit, but our soul (mind)
can still want to hang on the zombie traits.
That’s where the Word of God comes in to renew our minds and
line our thinking up with the way God thinks. But when life gets in the way and
disaster strikes, or sickness hits or someone gets in our way, the dead man
wants to come out and influence our actions. I call mine Dead Girl. Dead Girl was
buried when I was born again. She was placed in a grave and a new me was
resurrected with Christ.
- · But when someone drives like a maniac in front of me Dead Girl wants to yell through the windshield.
- · I lose my keys, or my glasses or my cell phone that I had in my hand only moments before and frustration opens the grave. Dead Girl knocks.
- · Thoughts of regret over the past condemn me and Dead Girl starts talking.
- · Comparing myself to others brings Dead Girl’s voice of envy.
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| Dead to sin and alive to Christ |
This is what Dead Girl does. She is an unrepentant rogue and
a blood thirsty cutthroat. She is the old person. Anger, bitterness,
unforgiveness, greed, envy, regret, condemnation and shame are the stench of
death emanating from her. Romans 6:6 says, “Leave the dead girl in the grave” (my paraphrase) because our old
self was put to death on the execution stake.
The blood of Christ is the nail in the coffin. The final
nail. No matter what we have done or what we still may do, the voice of love,
purity and redemption reminds us He has washed away the rottenness of sin. Dead Girl’s voice must be replaced with
heavenly Father’s voice.
Dead Girl will
still try to rise from time to time, but her time out of the grave can become
less and less the more time we spend in the Word of God. The Word is life, and
life and death cannot co-exist.
After all, a cemetery is not a tourist attraction. We don’t
hang around the tombs for fun, so why listen to the voice of Dead Girl and obey what she says?
We can live for God instead of walking with the dead.
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