February 13, 2025
“A true follower of Jesus never becomes accustomed to the sound of footsteps headed for hell.”
Awakening. A suggestive term that might prompt us to remember Admiral Yamamoto’s statement after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. He told his commanders, “I fear we have only awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” That’s exactly what happened. The United States citizenry had been very vocal about remaining neutral to the conflicts in Europe and Asia. They did not want a repeat of WWI. But with Japan’s attack the nation was awakened to the reality that they would not escape the war.
What does that have to do with us now? I invite you to turn to Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. He had spent a few sentences contrasting the deeds of darkness the Ephesians had once walked in and their being “children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.” He goes on to spur them with an echo from Isaiah 60:1 writing, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Now note that Paul was addressing Christians. People who had already renounced the world and made Jesus Christ their Lord. He was concerned that they were “sleepwalking”. There was no passion. Picking up their cross daily and following Jesus seemed more optional. Their lives demonstrated little difference from their pagan counterparts. Without realizing it, they were drifting away from Christ and fellowship with the Father.
His message is highly applicable to us. The veneer of abundance and distractions we enjoy desensitizes us to the true state of our souls. It’s hard to have a sense of desperation for God when our needs are met at such a level that we find it difficult to want some gift for our birthday or Christmas present because “I have all I need.” We need to wait a while peering into and listening for the echoes of our lives and gauge them against the life of a true disciple that Jesus talks about in the Gospels. For that, not the accepted diluted walk of Western Christianity is authentic. Sleepwalking indeed.
To rise from the dead, we must desperately seek the face of God and lay our lives before Him to surrender ourselves to Him and service to His Kingdom. C.S. Lewis wrote:
“He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There’s no bargaining with Him.”
This requires us to be ruthless with our sloven like souls. We must ask the Holy Spirit to work in us and, in a spiritual sense, startle us awakened by His piercing light. This is what we are seeking to do in our band meeting. We are not looking to learn some quaint historical or theological insight. No, we ask Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is answered in us:
“Heavenly Father, we pray that out of Your glorious riches You would strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And we pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. We ask this in Jesus’ name.” (Discipleship Bands: A Practical Field Guide, p.11-12)
Read that prayer again. Would you make it your own? Really? For that is the beginning of the journey to truly Love, Follow, and Serve Jesus . For that is the only way RiverStone Church will Thrive in ’25.
Loving you in Jesus!
Pastor Brian
“A church that neglects prayer becomes disunited, scattered, lethargic, all but dead.” Charles Spurgeon
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