Already Dead

Today as I was walking by a cemetery, I prayed that I might find a Rudolph grave stone in there. I thought it would be pretty cool, since my roots are from Germany. I have tried finding other ancestors in other cemeteries and I can’t say it was a success, another story for another time. I came up to the stone wall fence and looked across and saw someone with the Rudolph last name! Not only was his last name Rudolph but his first name was Richard! He died the same year I was born, just 2 months before my birthday. It was very strange and exciting to see your own grave stone. Many thoughts came to my mind, one in a spooky way I thought that it’s a sign that I will die in a couple of days, but better thoughts came as well. I thought right away about what Christ said when we are to take up our cross and follow him. We must die to self. That is the way we are to look at our lives, dead to self, but alive to God! We must see our own grave stone and follow Jesus to where ever and to whomever he chooses. I have been reading a book about the persecuted believers who were at one time Muslim in the book “The Costly Call”. At one point in the book a man is being beat day after day by the police and they told him that if he renounces Jesus that he will not die. His response was “I am already dead”, referring to picking up his cross and following Jesus. At this point they let him go because he was unbreakable. What an amazing testimony we can be to the watching world, for the glory of God, when we suffer or die for the sake of the Gospel. Christ died that we can glorify and live for him. We have one life to live on this earth, so what are you doing with it?