There is a fascination in our popular culture with zombies,
dead people who walk. For example, World
War Z, a zombie movie, raked in $540 million making it one of 2013’s ten
biggest blockbusters. Think also about DVD sales, video games, comic books,
novels, Halloween costumes, zombie walks, merchandise like T-shirts,
conventions and even zombie art. Zombies are worth billions of dollars. Some
sources say it is a $5.74 billion industry or more!
Why the overwhelming interest in morbid zombies? “We’re living in very uncertain times,” says Max Brooks, who wrote the book on which the World War Z zombie film is based. “People have a lot of anxiety about the future. They’re constantly being battered with these very scary, very global catastrophes. I think they (zombies) reflect our very real anxieties of these crazy scary times. A zombie story gives people a fictional lens to see the real problems of the world. You can deal with societal breakdown, famine, disease, chaos in the streets, but as long as the catalyst for all of them is zombies, you can still sleep.”
Legendary horror and zombie film director and screen writer George Romero, observed, "We’re the living dead.”
"We're the living dead." That's a stunning assessment of people today.
What are the characteristics of living dead zombies? How are they like people today?
First, the living dead stumble around. They are aimless in their wonderings and have a hard time standing erect. With all the stress, worry, and demands placed upon us today in our culture, we stumble around like dead-people walking. It's all we can do to get through a work day, to make it to Friday, to meet the demands, standards, and regulations bureaucrats put us through. It's enough to kill the spirit, numb the emotions, and confuse the mind.
Zombies are lonely. They are not very social. Like the living dead, who really has close friends today who accept and understand you with all your hang-ups and dysfunction? Relationships wither and die. We don't have time for each other. We are too exhausted to give compassion and empathy for another. Instead, we confide and hug our pets, gaze for hours into our computers, and have television as our constant companion. You can't even go into a doctor's waiting room without the TV blaring. Who can make small talk to a fellow patient with that one-eyed monster dominating everything in the room? Loneliness is deadly. Loneliness is not just making us sick, it is killing us. Loneliness is a serious health risk. Studies of elderly people and social isolation concluded that those without adequate social interaction were twice as likely to die prematurely. The increased mortality risk is comparable to that from smoking. And loneliness is about twice as dangerous as obesity. Yes, people are lonely and not very social today. Like a zombie, we are lonely dead people walking.
Zombies are infectious. They can turn living persons into a zombie by biting them. Consider how a gloom and doom person can adversely affect another person or a group. A critical person can infect another person too. A constantly critical boss, parent, or spouse infects another causing him/her to feel worthless and "dead" or wishing for death.
Zombies can't communicate either. They just groan and howl. Many can't talk calmly. Like zombies, all they do is scream and yell. Every little slight sets them off. They resort to cursing out the perceived offender making them feel little and of no value. How many times have you been cussed at and given the finger by another driver? Communication is a lost art. Zombie-like yelling are the profane bombs that leave behind wreckage and ruin.
And finally, Zombies can't love. They feel no emotional attachments to other zombies or to living humans. It's like there is a bonding block. There is a feeling that there's something missing in life, but they don't know what it is or how to get it. The bonding block could come from fear or past hurts. If I risk loving another, it will hurt. So, a wall forms that won't allow love to be expressed or received. It's zombie-like. Without love, we are non-loving dead people walking.
The living dead zombie is pictured as the sin dead life that the Apostle Paul appropriately describes as a spiritually dead life (Ephesians 2:5). The spiritually dead stumble around aimlessly not knowing where they are going. They have no direction or purpose for life. It's all they can do to exist and to put one foot in front of the other. They feel lonely and alienated because they are alienated from God and the loving fellowship of a safe group of believers.
The spiritually dead are infectious like a zombie that bites a living soul and turns him/her into a walking dead person. Doom, gloom, and a critical spirit spread from person to person like the flu. I've seen it's fatal bite spread in a church like a deadly gas. Spiritual death is also passed from generation to generation in families. The Bible calls this the generational curse. (See my blog on my generational curse). Parents who are constantly critical of their children spread the infection to their children who grow up criticizing their children. It's zombie-like.
The spiritually dead can't communicate. They don't know how to relate with love, forgiveness, or assertiveness. Instead, their faces gnarl up in anger. They blame, accuse, constantly confront, and condemn. They mouth is filled with cursing instead of blessing. They become a tool of the devil seeking someone to eat just like a zombie. (1 Peter 5:8). The spiritually dead can't effectively share their thoughts and feelings. They can't converse with another without it ending in an argument. They are the walking dead.
And lastly, the spiritually dead can't love. They've hardened their hearts to the extent that they feel nothing. They are out of touch with their emotions and feelings and what feelings they do have are not authentic. Some cannot even love themselves. They are filled with self-loathing and self-hatred recoiling and lashing out at everyone like a viper. They are the walking dead unable to live and enjoy the life and healthy relationships God intends for us to have.
The Bible says it like this, "They do not understand, and they know nothing, because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives. They have lost all feeling" (Ephesians 4:18-19). A spiritually dead zombie-like person feels nothing. They are incapable of love. And what is love? It is a warm positive regard for others. Something the walking dead cannot feel. Theirs is more like a cold negative iciness toward others because they are as incapable of loving as a rock is of feeling.
What is the opposite of dead walking zombies? Life! It is the Easter life lived in the same power that raised Christ from the death and the grave!
How is Easter life obtained?
By faith and only by faith does a divine-human transaction occur creating Easter life. Eugene Peterson makes this clear in his paraphrase of Romans 10:9-10. "Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation." And, the living dead become truly alive!
God took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ (Ephesians2:4-5). You are no longer a walking dead zombie in the power grip of sin's cold grip. You become alive with God through Christ Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11).
I am alive with Easter life! The resurrected life of Christ lives in me! That's the message of Easter. Out of the cold, dark death chamber of my soul, I have been resurrected. I now live because Christ lives in me! (Galatians2:20). He gives life because His Spirit lives in me! Wow! (Romans 8:11). I am living in the power of Jesus' resurrection. I have passed from death into life because I believe in Him. Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24).
This is graphically pictured in eating the bread of the Lord's Supper. The bread is the life of Christ entering my body, becoming a part of me. My blood, my mind, my hands, all of me. His life, his resurrected life lives in me!
Jesus resurrected life in me is true life. I have His purpose. I have His mind. I have His reason to live. To serve and worship the Father. To serve my fellow believers in love and to serve in love others who I meet and know.
I have the ministry of reconciliation to give make me alive with purpose (2 Corinthians 5:18). Instead of alienating others by cursing them, arguing, and condemning like the spiritually dead do, I am alive to reconcile, to bring peace, to be a peace-maker, and to be an agent of reconciliation in my relationships. My life is infectious for the good life and bringing others to experience the reconciling power of Christ. I am alive. Truly alive.
Christ is forming his image in me because His resurrection power makes me alive. He is teaching me how to manage my temper so that I don't explode in a rage which scorches and destroys relationships and exiled to the inhospitable desert of alienation and loneliness. But thanks to the mind of Christ in me, I am learning how to live in peace with myself and with others. That's the transformational power of Christ's resurrected life in me. It's really amazing.
There is so much more to life than walking around like a dead man. There is nothing like feeling gratitude, companionship, love, satisfaction, peace, hope, comfort, and rest. It is an incredible feeling. It's real life. It's the power of Easter life through His resurrected power living in me.
"I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead" (Philippians 3:10).
The anxieties from these crazy times we live in don't bother me. I know that I'm safe. I know I have eternal life. It's liberating and true freedom. When time runs run out for me, time will just have begun. There will be no clock. Nothing will mark off the days, weeks, or years. It will be a time that never ends in a place that Jesus prepares for me in a spiritual body robed in eternal life which will not be destroyed through sickness, pain, or death.
On that Hallelujah Day, the trumpet will sound for me. On that day when I breathe my last breath, I shall rise, clothed in my new body, and filled with the fullness of life given to me by my loving Savior, Redeemer, and Friend. What a day! Because of Jesus' Easter morning, I too will have my own Easter morning. My life will be completed in victory, triumph, and power over death and the grave!
I am walking in the Easter life now. Alive! Feeling His love. Receiving and giving His blessing. Sharing life with others. Alive! Yes! Alive!
Oh! Praise His name! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and the a Holy Ghost! I live because He lives! Hallelujah!
Click the link to finish your Easter devotional with Chris Tomlin singing "I Will Rise". Or click the arrow to start the video.
Why the overwhelming interest in morbid zombies? “We’re living in very uncertain times,” says Max Brooks, who wrote the book on which the World War Z zombie film is based. “People have a lot of anxiety about the future. They’re constantly being battered with these very scary, very global catastrophes. I think they (zombies) reflect our very real anxieties of these crazy scary times. A zombie story gives people a fictional lens to see the real problems of the world. You can deal with societal breakdown, famine, disease, chaos in the streets, but as long as the catalyst for all of them is zombies, you can still sleep.”
Legendary horror and zombie film director and screen writer George Romero, observed, "We’re the living dead.”
"We're the living dead." That's a stunning assessment of people today.
What are the characteristics of living dead zombies? How are they like people today?
First, the living dead stumble around. They are aimless in their wonderings and have a hard time standing erect. With all the stress, worry, and demands placed upon us today in our culture, we stumble around like dead-people walking. It's all we can do to get through a work day, to make it to Friday, to meet the demands, standards, and regulations bureaucrats put us through. It's enough to kill the spirit, numb the emotions, and confuse the mind.
Zombies are lonely. They are not very social. Like the living dead, who really has close friends today who accept and understand you with all your hang-ups and dysfunction? Relationships wither and die. We don't have time for each other. We are too exhausted to give compassion and empathy for another. Instead, we confide and hug our pets, gaze for hours into our computers, and have television as our constant companion. You can't even go into a doctor's waiting room without the TV blaring. Who can make small talk to a fellow patient with that one-eyed monster dominating everything in the room? Loneliness is deadly. Loneliness is not just making us sick, it is killing us. Loneliness is a serious health risk. Studies of elderly people and social isolation concluded that those without adequate social interaction were twice as likely to die prematurely. The increased mortality risk is comparable to that from smoking. And loneliness is about twice as dangerous as obesity. Yes, people are lonely and not very social today. Like a zombie, we are lonely dead people walking.
Zombies are infectious. They can turn living persons into a zombie by biting them. Consider how a gloom and doom person can adversely affect another person or a group. A critical person can infect another person too. A constantly critical boss, parent, or spouse infects another causing him/her to feel worthless and "dead" or wishing for death.
Zombies can't communicate either. They just groan and howl. Many can't talk calmly. Like zombies, all they do is scream and yell. Every little slight sets them off. They resort to cursing out the perceived offender making them feel little and of no value. How many times have you been cussed at and given the finger by another driver? Communication is a lost art. Zombie-like yelling are the profane bombs that leave behind wreckage and ruin.
And finally, Zombies can't love. They feel no emotional attachments to other zombies or to living humans. It's like there is a bonding block. There is a feeling that there's something missing in life, but they don't know what it is or how to get it. The bonding block could come from fear or past hurts. If I risk loving another, it will hurt. So, a wall forms that won't allow love to be expressed or received. It's zombie-like. Without love, we are non-loving dead people walking.
The living dead zombie is pictured as the sin dead life that the Apostle Paul appropriately describes as a spiritually dead life (Ephesians 2:5). The spiritually dead stumble around aimlessly not knowing where they are going. They have no direction or purpose for life. It's all they can do to exist and to put one foot in front of the other. They feel lonely and alienated because they are alienated from God and the loving fellowship of a safe group of believers.
The spiritually dead are infectious like a zombie that bites a living soul and turns him/her into a walking dead person. Doom, gloom, and a critical spirit spread from person to person like the flu. I've seen it's fatal bite spread in a church like a deadly gas. Spiritual death is also passed from generation to generation in families. The Bible calls this the generational curse. (See my blog on my generational curse). Parents who are constantly critical of their children spread the infection to their children who grow up criticizing their children. It's zombie-like.
The spiritually dead can't communicate. They don't know how to relate with love, forgiveness, or assertiveness. Instead, their faces gnarl up in anger. They blame, accuse, constantly confront, and condemn. They mouth is filled with cursing instead of blessing. They become a tool of the devil seeking someone to eat just like a zombie. (1 Peter 5:8). The spiritually dead can't effectively share their thoughts and feelings. They can't converse with another without it ending in an argument. They are the walking dead.
And lastly, the spiritually dead can't love. They've hardened their hearts to the extent that they feel nothing. They are out of touch with their emotions and feelings and what feelings they do have are not authentic. Some cannot even love themselves. They are filled with self-loathing and self-hatred recoiling and lashing out at everyone like a viper. They are the walking dead unable to live and enjoy the life and healthy relationships God intends for us to have.
The Bible says it like this, "They do not understand, and they know nothing, because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives. They have lost all feeling" (Ephesians 4:18-19). A spiritually dead zombie-like person feels nothing. They are incapable of love. And what is love? It is a warm positive regard for others. Something the walking dead cannot feel. Theirs is more like a cold negative iciness toward others because they are as incapable of loving as a rock is of feeling.
What is the opposite of dead walking zombies? Life! It is the Easter life lived in the same power that raised Christ from the death and the grave!
How is Easter life obtained?
By faith and only by faith does a divine-human transaction occur creating Easter life. Eugene Peterson makes this clear in his paraphrase of Romans 10:9-10. "Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation." And, the living dead become truly alive!
God took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ (Ephesians2:4-5). You are no longer a walking dead zombie in the power grip of sin's cold grip. You become alive with God through Christ Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11).
I am alive with Easter life! The resurrected life of Christ lives in me! That's the message of Easter. Out of the cold, dark death chamber of my soul, I have been resurrected. I now live because Christ lives in me! (Galatians2:20). He gives life because His Spirit lives in me! Wow! (Romans 8:11). I am living in the power of Jesus' resurrection. I have passed from death into life because I believe in Him. Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24).
This is graphically pictured in eating the bread of the Lord's Supper. The bread is the life of Christ entering my body, becoming a part of me. My blood, my mind, my hands, all of me. His life, his resurrected life lives in me!
Jesus resurrected life in me is true life. I have His purpose. I have His mind. I have His reason to live. To serve and worship the Father. To serve my fellow believers in love and to serve in love others who I meet and know.
I have the ministry of reconciliation to give make me alive with purpose (2 Corinthians 5:18). Instead of alienating others by cursing them, arguing, and condemning like the spiritually dead do, I am alive to reconcile, to bring peace, to be a peace-maker, and to be an agent of reconciliation in my relationships. My life is infectious for the good life and bringing others to experience the reconciling power of Christ. I am alive. Truly alive.
Christ is forming his image in me because His resurrection power makes me alive. He is teaching me how to manage my temper so that I don't explode in a rage which scorches and destroys relationships and exiled to the inhospitable desert of alienation and loneliness. But thanks to the mind of Christ in me, I am learning how to live in peace with myself and with others. That's the transformational power of Christ's resurrected life in me. It's really amazing.
There is so much more to life than walking around like a dead man. There is nothing like feeling gratitude, companionship, love, satisfaction, peace, hope, comfort, and rest. It is an incredible feeling. It's real life. It's the power of Easter life through His resurrected power living in me.
"I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead" (Philippians 3:10).
The anxieties from these crazy times we live in don't bother me. I know that I'm safe. I know I have eternal life. It's liberating and true freedom. When time runs run out for me, time will just have begun. There will be no clock. Nothing will mark off the days, weeks, or years. It will be a time that never ends in a place that Jesus prepares for me in a spiritual body robed in eternal life which will not be destroyed through sickness, pain, or death.
On that Hallelujah Day, the trumpet will sound for me. On that day when I breathe my last breath, I shall rise, clothed in my new body, and filled with the fullness of life given to me by my loving Savior, Redeemer, and Friend. What a day! Because of Jesus' Easter morning, I too will have my own Easter morning. My life will be completed in victory, triumph, and power over death and the grave!
I am walking in the Easter life now. Alive! Feeling His love. Receiving and giving His blessing. Sharing life with others. Alive! Yes! Alive!
Oh! Praise His name! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and the a Holy Ghost! I live because He lives! Hallelujah!
Click the link to finish your Easter devotional with Chris Tomlin singing "I Will Rise". Or click the arrow to start the video.
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