The Walking Dead
Posted by Michael La Framboise on Sunday, August 4, 2013
The popular TV show “The Walking Dead” is about survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Their lives are ever in danger from monstrous cannibals, and lead character Rick Grimes does his best to keep his friends and family safe. In one episode, an older Christian man named Hershel begins to lose hope. Rick chides him for giving into fear, telling him strongly, “You're a man of God. Have some faith!”
In 1838 missionary James Calvert set sail for Fiji, determined to share the gospel with fierce tribes who were known cannibals. The captain of the ship sought desperately to dissuade him, expressing the grave danger of attempting to make contact with the natives, saying, “You will be risking your life and the lives of those who are with you!” Calvert’s magnificent reply was simply: “We died before we came here.”
As believers in Christ we are expected to exercise our faith in Him. Stepping out boldly where others fear to tread. The source of our strength resides in the fact that we are already dead, for we died with Christ, and the life that we now live, or, are intended to live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
No matter the situation we are to face it by faith, we are to confront it in Christ. But how is this even practical if we have not first reckoned ourselves dead in the world and to the world? IT IS NOT!
We must first stop living for ourselves, and start living for Christ. Then when others wonder at our confidence and stagger at our boldness, we can simply reply that we’re dead to the fears of this world, and we’re in the battle to resist the Enemy and to tear down his strongholds, “for God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
In 1838 missionary James Calvert set sail for Fiji, determined to share the gospel with fierce tribes who were known cannibals. The captain of the ship sought desperately to dissuade him, expressing the grave danger of attempting to make contact with the natives, saying, “You will be risking your life and the lives of those who are with you!” Calvert’s magnificent reply was simply: “We died before we came here.”
As believers in Christ we are expected to exercise our faith in Him. Stepping out boldly where others fear to tread. The source of our strength resides in the fact that we are already dead, for we died with Christ, and the life that we now live, or, are intended to live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
No matter the situation we are to face it by faith, we are to confront it in Christ. But how is this even practical if we have not first reckoned ourselves dead in the world and to the world? IT IS NOT!
We must first stop living for ourselves, and start living for Christ. Then when others wonder at our confidence and stagger at our boldness, we can simply reply that we’re dead to the fears of this world, and we’re in the battle to resist the Enemy and to tear down his strongholds, “for God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
