Donald Miller Jr.
was declared legally dead in 1994. He
had vanished from his home eight years earlier.
Miller, 61, told Hancock County Probate Court Judge Allan Davis, that he
disappeared in the 1980s because he had lost his job and he was an alcoholic.
His ex-wife claims that he vanished because he owed $26,000 in overdue child
support payments. Miller lived in
Florida and Georgia before returning to Ohio around 2005.
He said his
parents told him about his "death" when he came back to the state.
Miller went to
court this week to ask the Probate Judge to reverse the 1994 ruling that
declared him legally dead. He wants to
obtain a driver’s license and reinstate his Social Security number.
But Judge Davis,
admitting that this is a “strange, strange situation,” turned down his request,
citing a three-year limit for changing a death ruling. "I don't know where
that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is
concerned," the judge said. *
Consider...
Because of our
sins, YOU and I are dead! The Apostle
Paul diagnosed the condition of those in Ephesus before God saved them: “As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways
of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:1-2).
Even so, WE are
dead in our transgressions and sins – separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), under
the condemnation of death (Romans 6:23), and completely unable to resurrect
ourselves!
Despite our sins,
however, God loves us and has provided the Way for us to have eternal life.
To those who were
dead in their transgressions and sins, the Apostle Paul wrote: “But because of
his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us ALIVE with Christ
even when we were DEAD in transgressions – it is by grace you have been
saved. And God raised us up with Christ
and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in
the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7).
Because of His
great love for us, God sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins (John
3:16). Jesus “gave Himself for us, that
He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own
special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).
He suffered the
“death penalty,” so that you and I can have eternal life! “He died for us so that... we may live
together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10).
God has promised
to raise those who are dead in their transgressions and sins when they place
their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in
repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are
baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16).
The Apostle Paul
explained to Christians in Rome how God had raised them up:
“Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him
through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans
6:3-4).
We are dead in
our transgressions and sins but God provides eternal life through Jesus Christ
His Son.
Won’t YOU submit
to the Savior so that He can give you new life?
* Information from: The Findlay (OH) Courier,
http://www.thecourier.com
- David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of
Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic
devotional entitled Living Water."
To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their
website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org
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