The most notorious criminals of the wild west would often have a “WANTED” poster tacked up on the local saloon wall. This let the towns people know to be on the look out for a person by that name. The deeds of the person were considered so terrible that the law man didn’t care whether they were found dead or alive.
It got me thinking about the significance of the day to day activities of the church. Are we doing something so great that the devil has a bounty set on our head? Are we wanted dead or at the very least, alive but ineffective?
So, are we dead or alive?
Either we are already dead and ineffective and haven’t fallen over yet, or we are really alive in Christ, actively demonstrating the Kingdom of God.
Let me put it this way, either we are just dead men waiting to be buried, or we are alive and just haven’t awakened from our dreaming.
Today is a great day to be alive in Christ.
The apostle Paul, after writing joyously about being fully alive to knowing Christ: perceiving, recognizing and understanding the wonders of the Person of Christ more strongly and clearly, then says that he himself is still waking up the fullness of what that means (Philippians 3).
He sums it up with this amazing encouragement, saying “I purpose to forget what is behind me to strain and press forward to what lies ahead, to win the prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward!”