HOW TO STOP BEING A ZOMBIE

Believe it or not, many of the people in this world today are zombies. Worse yet, they don't know that they don't know that they are. Fortunately, there is a way to become unzombied, if there is such a word.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus that "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:" Unless a person is born again, as Jesus told Nicodemus, they can't see the kingdom of heaven. This means that non-Christians are dead to the spiritual truth of God and therefore need to be born of the spirit.

All this means that people aren't truly alive without becoming adopted into the family of Christ. All the good works in the world won't get people to heaven because they are done with wrong, often self-centered, motives.

Because Christ was raised from the dead physically, we who believe in him also have the assurance of physical resurrection. But first we need to be made alive spiritually. By repenting of our sins and surrendering our lives to Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit. This third person of the Godhead helps us understand the Bible and become steadily more like Christ. This process is called sanctification.

God has made the good news, called the gospel, so easy that even a child can understand it. Yet theologians spend their lives plumbing the depths of this wonderful offer from the Lord. If you wish to be made alive spiritually, admit to God in prayer that you're a sinner and you need saving from the eternal death sentence all humanity inherited from Adam and Eve. Jesus said he would never turn away anybody who came to him and asked for forgiveness.

The next step is to find a church where the pastor teaches from the Bible and explains what each verse means in context with the rest of Scripture. Since so many churches have ministers who would rather give moral advice than explain what God has said, it's a good idea to pray for help in finding a well-balanced church.

I wish I had known all of this when I surrendered my life to Christ at a home-based vacation Bible school in 1969. Because nobody helped me understand my new life, I ended up in a cultic house church. I wrote how the Lord led me to freedom in How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. You can find out more about this wonderful story at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers.