Friday, May 30, 2008

Time to WAKE UP!


Few things wake you with a start, like the sound of weather sirens. That was the sound that woke me from sleep this morning. It's funny how you can hear things like that and think you are dreaming, or that it's the cat next door, or a baby crying (even when you don't have a baby!). When I finally realized what it was, I jumped up, ran to the window and looked outside, and then went to the computer to check the weather alerts. There were no alerts though, other than strong thunderstorms being forecast for our area. I don't know what I expected to see when I looked outside. Maybe a stage 5 tornado whirling down our street? Truth is, the only tornado I've ever seen was when I was about 15 and lived on a farm in Indiana. It was out over the corn fields and didn't do any damage to our house, but my Mom made sure we were in the basement, in safety until that storm passed.
There are other things that wake you from sleep. An alarm clock. Someone touching you. Snoring (your spouses or your own). A barking dog. Sunlight. Birds chirping. Emergency vehicles. The telephone ringing. The buzzer on my clothes dryer (it sounds like half time at a Piston's game!). When the video you are watching is done and the TV switches over to snow and fuzz - I know this from MANY personal experiences.
When I was thinking about being woke from sleep by that siren, a Scripture passage came to mind.

¶ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Romans 13:11-14
So many believers today are asleep spiritually. Apathy reigns supreme in this day and age. There are those rare ones who are filled with zeal and remain stedfast in the work, but it just seems like so many are slumbering while the world careens head first into Hell. Even the most basic of our fundamentals, like faithfulness, is hard for many to maintain. I wonder why that is?
Could it be that Christians aren't saturating themselves with the Word on a daily basis? What is it that makes people fall into such a spiritual stupor, then stretch and yawn, when we are told to work while we can? Oh that we would be more like Jesus, who said:

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all in a constant state of revival? I love revival meetings! It's a week of saturation with the Word. Meeting every night with other believers. Praying together. Preaching. No outside influence, like TV or radio. It's easy for the Lord to speak to hearts that way. But alas, almost as soon as the revival ends, the emotional high goes with it.
I praise the Lord for our little church. They are an amazing bunch of people. We run around 200, but it is nothing to see 30 or so out for soul winning! I just think that is phenomenal! And it makes me love them so much more.


But I know that's not the case in most Bible believing churches. I've seen the Lord "wake" slumbering believers up before and it can be a sobering thing. I honestly believe not just individual believers, but believers as a whole are in for a real awakening in this land, before too much longer. It's hard to hear things when you're asleep. We need to be AWAKE to hear what He has for us to do. Like Samuel of old, we should ALL be saying,

Speak; for thy servant heareth.
I Sam. 3:10




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