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Every single day is a gracious gift from God.
With undying hope in my heart and unwavering trust in my personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I begin each day with bold, optimistic faith in my faithful God. “This is the day the Lord has made; we (you and me) will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 As I look forward expectantly to every day, the Lord has told me to stay awake spiritually and morally. More than ever before. Why? Because of the day you and I and our families are living in. Our Word For This Week is found in Romans 13:11. “And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.” Romans 13:11 Note Paul says, “knowing the time;” it was the hour for Roman Christians to “awaken from sleep.” Why? Because salvation was nearer than ever before. Paul was writing to Christians who were being persecuted for their faith. Roman culture rejected Jesus. Believers in Christ were suffering for the sake of His name and cause. During intense, costly cultural oppression, Paul exhorted his fellow Christians to know the time and to wake up and stay spiritually awake. In II Timothy 3:1-15 Paul told Timothy that “in the last days, difficult (perilous, trying) times will come” (verse 1). Read these fifteen verses and see if they do not describe our nation and world. Difficult days. Perilous times are indeed here. You, me, our families and the body of Christ in the United States and around the world are experiencing a monumental societal shift. A cataclysmic cultural change that is altering what Americans believe and how they behave themselves. America is changing----in the wrong direction. A deadly, deceptive spirit stealthily slithers its way through our slumbering society. Self-absorbed, mean-spirited peddlers of personal agendas distort truth and bombard our culture with fabricated falsehoods. Slick-tongued liars, motivated by selfish-ambition, self-interest and power, sell naïve people a bill of goods that is not good for them. We are told to save trees and whales, while we kill babies. We are expected to tolerate and accept as normal, and even God-caused, perverse sexual conduct that culture laughs at, but God calls abomination. We are railroaded to redistribute wealth while burying our children in mountains of greed-based debt. All that is innocent, sacred, holy and pure is being sacrificed on a carnal altar of comfort, convenience and preference of arrogant, unbelieving men who believe they know better than their Creator. While average Americans snooze spiritually and morally, sinister forces stay wide awake, huddling behind closed doors late at night, deviously, and without moral conscience, plotting the demise of society as we have known it. We are being taken for a dangerous ride, and many of our fellow citizens do not even know who is driving the bus to destruction. Why? Because they are spiritually and morally asleep. Sadly, many professing Christians have fallen asleep too. Today is not the day to fall asleep spiritually or morally. Does it matter if we fall asleep spiritually and morally? Indeed it does. Read Mark 14:32-42. In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus prepared His soul for going to the Cross to become sin for us, the disciples were sleeping! Jesus rebuked Peter and the others for sleeping when He needed them to be awake. When it was time to go, Jesus was ready to face what was coming. The disciples were not. They fled and failed because they slept. May we not be like the disciples who pushed the snooze alarm, hoping to catch a few more z’s because they were weary of the battle. While the disciples slept and you und I sleep, spiritual conflict rages on. This day and everyday we cannot afford to go to sleep while the devil is wide awake. Snoozing will not make Satan and his evil, demonic forces fade away. Sleeping on our part provides opportunity for the evil one to steal, kill and destroy. My brother or sister in Christ: do you know the time and are you staying awake? You and I are God’s righteous remnant. As His witnesses, we are here, not to sleep and slumber our way through life, but to stay awake in Christ, walking firm and steadfast in our faith, sounding the alarm against all who deceive and distract precious people for whom Jesus died from coming to the knowledge of God’s only Son. Staying Awake
Stay awake my fellow Christian. Wide-eyed awake. Man your post. Remain on spiritual alert. Give no quarter to the enemy of our souls. Cover your family with the Word of God. Stand up courageously, in the name of Jesus Christ, to resist and resoundingly reject the anti-Christ, anti-Christian spirit stalking our society. Personally resolve to rise up in Christ’s resurrection power. Boldly and joyfully enter each day with the love of God in your heart, the grace and goodness of Jesus in your words and conduct, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit that empowers you to fulfill His will on earth. Stay awake every day. “For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14 “Awake to righteousness, and stop sinning…” I Corinthians 15:34 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” I Peter 5:8-9 A Word For Your Week: Stay spiritually wide awake while others sleep. |
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