Is Anybody In There?

Another Halloween has come and gone and we were fortunate enough to spend it with our good friends, the Booths. I can tell you there is nothing better on Halloween than good friends, great chili (thanks Don), and a Halloween movie or two. This year we all sat down to watch the original “Ghostbusters”. It has been so long since we have seen it that the funny parts were just as much of a surprise this time and we laughed hard all over again. But the scene that stood out most to me was when Sigourney Weaver was possessed by some demon and Bill Murray was trying to talk to her. When he asked, “Is Dana in there? I want to talk to Dana.”, she answered, “there is no Dana, only Zul.”

Isn’t this exactly what God asks of us? Not to be possessed by some demon, but to be filled with His Spirit – to be completely void of ourselves and replaced by Jesus Christ! Paul expressed it best in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (NKJV). Once we were plunged beneath the water of baptism, our spirit died and Christ took up residence and control of our lives. All too often we try to resurrect the old self and our sinful nature struggles for control. Satan keeps telling us that the old man must be in there somewhere and he wants to talk only to our former sinful self.

Our daily challenge is to completely let go of ourselves and let Christ, alone, live and work through our lives

Our response should ALWAYS be, “There is no me, THERE IS ONLY JESUS!”