Are You Dead?

Are you dead?

 

You may be,

and not even know it

 

Because until you reach out to Jesus

and place your life

into His hands

 

the Bible says

you are dead

 

You need His Spirit

living inside of you

 

to be alive

 

You will think you are alive

but you are not

 

You are a shell,

with a soul wanting

 

So humble yourself

before God Almighty

 

and accept His beautiful gift

of LIFE

in His Son

 

May you know

salvation from your sin

light for your heart

and freedom for your aching soul

 

Trust Jesus

and wake up from death

 

– Susie Stewart

 

As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before Him. “My daughter has just died,” he said, “but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.”…

When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, He saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. “Get out!” He told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” But the crowd laughed at Him. After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up!

– Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25 (NLT)

 

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose His temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on His own, with no help from us! Then He picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

– Ephesians 2:1-6 (MSG)

 

God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 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!)

– Ephesians 2:4,5 (NLT)

 

Tomb

In the tomb

encapsulated

deceased

 

Not hearing

not perceiving

not awake

 

This is the place

for many

 

Dead

to the Way

to the Truth

to the Life

 

And God’s Spirit

comes into that tomb

and wakes the sleeper

 

and He provides a way out

 

a way out

 

And when the deceased

takes hold

of Him

 

He walks out

 

New

and Alive

 

with the risen King

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.  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. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  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.

But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much,  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!)  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.  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.

God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

– Ephesians 2:1-10 (NLT)

 

Since we have been united with Him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.  We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.  And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him.  We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him.  When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God.  So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

– Romans 6:5-11 (NLT)

 

Photo by Ferrell Jenkins