Life Among The Dead Things

Luke 24:5
...."Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

This was a verse I used last night, speaking at Celebrate Recovery North Glencoe. To me it defines the mindset of addiction....Looking for life...searching for real comfort....yet our search has us looking in places of death.

What is a common theme throughout all graveyards? They are a place of memories. We gather to honor those who have gone on, yet we remember the times and events of the past. Well, in the addiction/search for life, we are driven to mental graveyards....we are living death, but we are looking to forget about today. Forget about today's problems so we can remember only the good times. Problem is, the times aren't so good.

In fact, repeated usage keeps us bound to the graveyard. We become like the demoniac Jesus encountered....This man lived among the tombs. He roamed the hills around the tombs crying out day and night. No comfort in His life. No peace. No evidence of real life. Have you ever wondered why the Bible never mentioned how he got into this state? Truth is, it doesn't matter how. What matters is that there among the place of the dead....among those tombs, this man had an encounter with the only One who possessed the power and authority to release him from his condition. That One would be Jesus. 

The demoniac was hopeless in his situation. He had given himself to the darkness and the darkness had consumed him completely......spirit, body and soul. He was bound in misery to death and darkness. It was so terrible that he would take rocks and cut himself. You know when you're in that state of being, sometimes pain is only thing that let's you know you are alive. There was no hope for that man.

But then Jesus came....
Jesus came to him....
Jesus came to where he was...
Jesus, the ultimate symbol of life, went to the place of death. 
Jesus, possessor of real life, took this man out of the darkness.
This man, who was under the rule and torment of demonic spirits, found life...
It wasn't in the tombs...
It wasn't in the hillsides surrounding the graveyard...
It wasn't in the memories...
Real life came when Jesus showed up.

Such is no different today.
Real life begins when we encounter Christ.
He alone can take us out of our "graveyard" where we are searching for the living among the dead. 
There are a lot of hurting folks out there who are trapped in the graveyard of addiction. They need an encounter with the real POWER that can free them.


God on you....
mb