Wake Up

Today, at lunch, I was asked by two friends to pray about a situation that is plaguing my community. Essentially, what seems to be people sleeping and falling away from Jesus in the sense that He is now, seemingly, number two, three or even four in their lives. They used to be on fire and now they are luke warm, choosing to place things before Him! This is a HUGE deal because to follow Christ means that you'd be willing to leave anything and everything, to keep Christ first and not to worship any other idols before him. That means that we can't keep our wives or husbands, children or jobs, addictions or friendships before Christ. The world is reconciled to God through Christ and so are we, reconciled to God and reconciled to the world through Christ. I digress but essentially, people in our community were on fire for Christ, wanting to share him with others and slowly as we moved away, got jobs, and became "old," our intentionality and affect has been diminished - that is in the purpose God has placed on our lives, to help bring Jesus and the Kingdom of God to the nations!

Obviously, God does not need us specifically but God desires to use those who submit themselves to him and though we were submitted at one point, other things have become first in our lives. I am one of these people as well. Though God will also call others and the Kingdom will eventually advance, it is clear that as long as people are effectively saying "no" to fulfilling God's plan, they will not experience the blessings in helping to bring it as well as the great potential that many may not come to know Jesus and be rescued. Obviously big questions are raised here about predestination, open theism and things like that and I don't want to deal with those here. These are the kind of questions that open up lots of issues, including how important or necessary is it to submit to God's plan in order for God's will to be fulfilled.

These questions are important but in the context of living a life on fire for Jesus and going and reaching the lost, the Bible is certainly clear in either context that we are to drop what we're doing and follow Jesus' call to follow him. Additionally, we are to say "yes" to God when He calls (asks) us to do something and included in this call is the great commission, to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This isn't really optional and it is God's desire that we take part in His Miracles - especially in the rescuing of those who were lost and away from God, bringing them back to the Father through the miracle of salvation!

In all of this, these same friends call me Don Quixote. They call me this because I like to insert myself in situations to help save the day, to be the White Knight and and the proactive desire to help people is great but usually the White Knight is stabbed in the back by those he comes to save. I love my friends and will do whatever I can to help them but this doesn't always mean that you put yourself into every situation or that you should. I'm learning that unsolicited advice should not really be given, at least not very often. Most importantly, I'm learning that it is God who makes life transformation happen — all good and perfect gifts come from the Father of Heavenly Lights! I will whatever I can to help my friends but some people are beyond simple nudging and they need the intervention of the Father. I pray we again would be a community that is white hot for Jesus and that Christ would be Glorified for who he is, what he has done, is doing and will do forever and ever amen!


James 5:19, 20
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.


When I think on this, I hear the words "wake up" - more on this later...