Intro:I love wireless technology. Wireless keyboard and mouse. A cell phone without a cord and battery bag. An XBOX controller without wires. A wireless digital camera. I love the freedom that these things have but there is a drawback. Batteries!
If I forget to plug in my device the batteries lose their juice and then camera/phone/controller will not work.
Did you know we function the same exact way? Christians are wireless. We are unplugged and run on batteries. When we run too long without plugging in we sputter and run out of juice.
The resurrection is the power of God in our lives. The resurrection is the wall plug that gives us life and energy. The resurrection is our hope of living the Christian life.
We need to be plugged in!
Read: Romans 6:5-11
5 If we have become united with him in the likeness of his *death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; 9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. *Death no more has dominion over him! 10 For the *death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Think:
How do you walk in the resurrected life? How do you stay plugged into God’s newness of life? You have to die (v. 5, 6, 7, 8, 11). Pretty much the whole section of Romans 6 is about *death and life. Count how many times some form of the word *death appears above.
Please reread verse 6. Do you see that when Jesus was crucified so were you? He was dealing with your sinfulness and mine on the cross. When He died He took our sinfulness with Him. How’s that for a great plan? His perfectness for my sin! His glory for my shame! His holiness for my sin! His place for mine! That is pretty awesome.
Here is the key to the whole thing: If we have died with Him we will also live with Him (v.8). Now, the life we live we live for God. We do this by being plugged into God’s power. His power is that by dying we live.
Do:
Do you want to stay plugged in? Do you want to grow in Christ and live the life he has prepared for you? Do you want meaning and purpose? Then die! Go to your own white funeral.
Consider these timeless words from Oswald Chambers:
No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral" - the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," - a death that has only one resurrection - a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life, it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him.Plug me in, Lord. Help me to die to myself today and let you live your life THROUGH me. Have your way Lord. I am tired of the normal Christian life. I want to live in resurrection power. Plug me in! Amen.
Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying - "baptized into His death."
Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance - "Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God."
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.
DevoLink: Devotions to help you Link with God.
