and the One who walks with me on it.

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Heart Pounding Wake Up

Fake awake won't work
        When the movie for Diary of a Wimpy Kid came out, I thought it would be a complete waste of time, but there was actually one scene I thought was hysterical.  The older brother bends down to yell at the younger brother to hurry up, get up, get dressed or he’ll be late for school.  The younger brother jumps up, grabs his clothes and begins putting them on as he races to get out of the house quickly.  Of course Mom and Dad eventually wake up to see what is going on…

       I’ve done something like that myself a couple of times.  My mind is suddenly alert early in the morning, I check the time and think, ‘Oh no, I’m late for work (or other event)’ and jump out of bed to swiftly get dressed.  Minutes later, with heart pumping fast, I realize it’s the wrong day and I don’t have to go out, but it’s too late to go back to sleep because my heart is racing and my thoughts whirring a hundred miles an hour.  Be assured though, now is the time to wake up!!!

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.  Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Rom. 13:11-14 NKJV

       There are many warnings in the Bible that say to be ready, watch or wake up (Mt. 24:42,44;1Th. 5:6) and they are said to believers.  Paul the apostle lived from about 5 AD to 67 AD said back then, it was high time to awake out of sleep, the night is far spent (almost over) and the day is at hand.  He’s writing of the end times and he considered himself to be living in it.

       Paul is not a liar.  He was right, for after the resurrection of Jesus (the only one who can redeem mankind and the world), time began ticking down.  John agreed for he wrote, “for the time is near.(Rv. 1:3)  He also warned the church- Jesus speaking, “if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you…” (Rv. 3:3)

       Now it is about 2000 years later and we are so much closer.  Jesus says to watch, so if we watch He will not come as a thief.  If we don’t, it’s a different story.  Right now, the night is almost over, the dawn of a new day is closer than ever.  What are we to do?  Cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.  Some of the works of darkness are listed:

revelry- riots of pleasure and debauchery
drunkenness- intoxicated, drunk
lewdness- defiling the bed (as in sex) inside or outside of marriage
lust- unbridled lust, unbridled excess or freedom, contempt of what is just or moral
strife- disagreements, arguments, anger, conflict
envy- discontent or covetous of what another is or has, and acting on it

       There are many more works of darkness listed in various places in the Bible.  But since God is light (1Jh. 1:5) and darkness is Satan’s abode, “turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God…” (Ac. 26:18), we are to turn to from the darkness to the light.  God has provided the way through Jesus Christ, His Son, who died for the sins of the world.  Now we are “…called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;(1Pt. 2:9)  Think:


...what fellowship has light with darkness? 2Cr. 6:14 ESV
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (convict, refute, expose, correct, admonish, chasten) them. Ep. 5:11

We should question ourselves daily and often. 
       Am I walking (acting) in darkness or in the light?
       Am I doing things Jesus would be ashamed or appalled by or am I only doing what He 
       approves of?
Remember:

that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1Jh. 1:5-7