ZOMBIE DEFEAT: D.B.R...Nothing More...Nothing Less

"And the hammer fell....on the wooden nail...through His flesh into the tree...and they laughted at Him...as He cried for them...there He hung...the fautless one." This is a line from the song by Randy Matthews called Didn't He. No...the CROSS is not a pristine...pretty...art gallery painting with Jesus in flowing robes ...carrying cute little sheep and spreading love around like a 1960's flower child. It was a BLOODY MESS. In our fight against the FLESH ZOMBIES...we now bring out the big guns. In my old Bible School days...back in 1971...I put a sign on my door...that read...JESUS HUNG UP FOR OUR HANGUPS. They made me take it down...but it still rings true for me in 2006...He paid a debt He did not owe...I owed a debt I could not pay...I needed someone to take my sins away...and now I sing a brand new song...Amazing Grace how sweet the sound...Christ Jesus paid a debt... that I could never pay. (Song we use to sing in the early 70's).

In the movie THE LAST MAN ON EARTH...Vincent would take a piece of wood and carve out many stakes in preparation for the warfare with the zombies. He would wait for them to sleep (during the light hours) and track them down and drive a stake through their hearts...the very core and center of their life. For our purposes the CROSS represents the stake...that we drive into the old FLESH as it rises up to recapture us. What we are doing...is using the CROSS OF JESUS as the point of identification where we died with Him...and where we live with Him. "I have been (it feels good to be a has been)...CRUCIFIED with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives...but Christ lives in me...and the live that I NOW live in the FLESH (my physical body)...I live by FAITH in the Son of God...who loved me...and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20) Another line from the Randy Matthews song DIDN'T HE...says..."we didn't take His life from Him...He gave it willingly."

Jesus's sacrifice...propitiation...substitute...satisfaction for God was an act of obedience. As we IDENTIFY with the cross...in an act of obedience...we appropriate that NEW LIFE for us in the here and now.

The key to all of this is the EMPTY TOMB. D.B.R. Without the resurrection all we would have would be the D.B. Christianity claims that its founder...was killed in our place...buried...and then resurrected. If you take a cursory look at all of the grave sites of other founders of other religions...denominations...cults..famous people...etc...you will find OCCUPIED TOMBS. Buddah...Buddah bones...Elvis...the pelvis bone is not shook up any longer...even Napoleon...his bones-a-part. But Jesus has an empty tomb...because HE IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD...INDEED!!

How does this relate to the FLESH that rises up and becomes reanimated...and how does it relate to some old B-Horror movie...about old zombies trying to recapture our new creation..pull us into sin and in essence...pull us away from who we really are? It has everything to do with it.

Either these past few Ramblings are true...or they are false. Either I have been lying to you or I am delusional. Either they are reality or a fantasy. I have been called a FOOL for believing these things. I have been called intellectually defiecient for living my life based on some fairy tales. Some have said that I have wasted my life by trying to follow Jesus...a dead man. Some say that my entire existence since 1970 has been based on a made up character of folklore proportions who was also a delusional madman on the level of Charels Manson..or a liar who deceived the world as we know it...or someone who was the way, the truth and the life. All I know is that for 36 years...my life has been changed for the better. There have been ups and downs when I allowed the old FLESH ZOMBIE to rule...but everytime I brought out the weaponry...the light, the garlic, the mirror, and the cross...I became centered again. My life has changed for the better. I look around me and I see supposedly FREE men and women with FREEDOM being defined as doing anything that they want with no limitations of pleasure...living their lives on an endless search for peace, love, intimacy, sanity, (fill in the blank)...but always coming up short...living their lives like a SOAP OPERA ROLLER COASTER.

NEXT TIME: The Final Chapter (The Cross Revealed)

Rodney