For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 (ESV)
This is a partial repost from a previous blog post written July 2018. This theme that has been ringing constant in my spirit for a number years. It’s time for the church to wake up! Ephesians 5:14 says, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
In the letter to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, they were applauded for their hard work and perseverance they had done for the Kingdom. They didn’t tolerate evil. They bravely endured trials and persecutions because of Jesus name and did not become discouraged. Yet, Jesus had this against them. They had abandoned the passionate love they had for Him at the beginning. about He then admonished them to think about how far they had fallen, urging them to repent and do the things they did at first otherwise He would come and remove their lampstand (Rev. 2:1-7).
In, “The Church Awakening, An Urgent Call For Renewal (2010), by Charles (Chuck) R. Swindoll, urged the church to become aware of how far we have drifted from the gospel message. I’m sadden to see that nine years later the Church is still asleep. The deception has been so subtle that we believe what is wrong is right, and what is right is wrong.
The body of Christ must awaken many from the deadness of religion and strengthen what remains. We must be stretched out of our religious way of thinking to receive revelation that opens up new realms of thinking and possibilities otherwise the church will continue in it’s present state (Prov. 29:18).
Paul wrote in Romans 13, “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Will we stand for God’s Word? Will we live righteously or is the truth and God’s Way a dead thing of the past?
Christ declared that He will build His Church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it (Matt. 16:17-19).
“When the Church is absolutely different from the world, she attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen her message, though it may hate it at first.”
– D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
Blessings,
Dr. Francine
Note: All Scripture is taken from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.
BEYOND CHURCH WALLS 