Sleeping in Church

 

“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God… If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief.”

—Revelation 3:2, 3

I can remember my father and other farmers who sometimes fell asleep during church services. Most people excused such behavior because these men had arisen at 5:00 a.m. and spent hours milking cows and doing other necessary chores before they rushed in, changed their clothes, and headed out the doors of their homes on the Lord’s Day.

How do you think our God reacts to see His people not only sleeping in church, but unconsciously living each day in a kind of “sleep walk”? What might God have to say to those “sleep walkers”?

The Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and warned seven prominent churches of deadly habits that would keep God from using them. Most of those churches were pretty useless for the purposes He had created them. In the case of the church in Sardis, He stated that they had a wonderful reputation of wakefulness, of life, and of vigor.

However, like the farmers in my illustration, the Sardis Christians had fallen asleep and displayed only dead works. They were seemingly asleep to what God wanted to do with them. They needed a reawakening.

This letter from John should have stirred them back to their call to effectiveness. John called them to strengthen what remained of their glorious past and to stop slipping ever closer to a deadly sleep.

I like what the Puritan, William Gurnall, wrote about this condition:¹

The Christian is seldom worsted by his enemy unless he is negligent in his spiritual business and the enemy is upon him before he is thoroughly awake to draw his sword. The saint’s sleeping time is Satan’s tempting time…

Sampson was asleep, and Delilah cut his locks. Saul was asleep, and his spear was taken from his side. Noah was asleep, and his graceless son had opportunity to discover his father’s nakedness. Eutychus was asleep, and he fell from the third loft.

The Christian asleep in security may soon be surprised and lose much of his spiritual strength…

Sleep creeps upon the soul as it does on the body. Take heed that you do not indulge yourself in a lazy distemper, but stir up yourself to action, and stand up.

We get so comfortable that sleep comes easily. Yet, the “thief” is upon us. We need the wakeful, vigilant pose of Christians ready to act on behalf of the Savior in this world. God help us all!

Lord, Your church appears asleep, or at best, very drowsy. We have allowed our eyelids to get heavy, rather than standing tall to move at Your command.

Send us watchmen to warn us. Sound “Reveille” and reawaken Your church. Alert us to dangers that have intruded into our bed chambers and wait to kill us in our sleep.

Stir us up. As You awoke our churches in times past, come again and reawaken Your people for Your glory, through the power of Christ our Lord. Amen.

______________________

1 Gurnall, William (author) and Richard Rushing (editor). Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 358.

 

 

Evaporating

 

What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

—James 4:14

I used to teach the following folk round to my third and fourth graders:

Man’s life’s a vapor full of woes.
He cuts a caper, down he goes.
Down he, down he, down he, down he,
Down he goes.

                —Anonymous

Of course, along with the music, I also had to teach some vocabulary—words that they probably had not heard. I always wondered how many of them had ever been faced with the proposition of their own deaths, and how many people that I knew actually gave it much thought.

As I have moved into retirement, I acknowledge that the prospect of death is far too real. The very idea of death fills the minds of most people with a least a little bit of horrible apprehension. The unknown nature of death tends to do that.

As Christians, I would imagine that we have far less apprehension than our non-Christian peers. We know what Jesus has said in His written Word about the fact that He has gone to prepare a place for us. (John 14:2). We also know from His “High Priestly Prayer” that He wants us to live with Him in His glory. (John 17:24). If we have a strong desire to see our Lord in the afterlife, we have a much more healthy view of physical death, especially as it draws near.

I would also imagine that both non-Christians and Christians alike have the same desires to make the most of our lives in the later years. Knowing that the days evaporate before our eyes, we want to do and continue to become that which will count.

Non-Christian people may desire to spend more time with family, or travel, or put their minds to learning new things, or experience completing the items on their “bucket lists.”

However, Christians, beyond all such similar desires, have the foremost desire to allow God to use them and to sanctify them fully, in order to prepare them to live forever in His presence. This gives us a far different set of priorities.

During this COVID-19 pandemic have you felt, like I do, that “time is a-wasting”? We know what we would like to do for God and His church, but we feel that our hands seem tied at every turn.

Let me offer some ideas for ways in which we can still make the most of the days we spend during the pandemic. Though God never tells us how long a particular trial will last—and He certainly has not let us know about the length of this pandemic—He has given us specific ways that He expects us to serve Him. For example:

• How can we find a better time in which to pray for others than during this crisis?
  
  
• The written Word of God speaks to us about praying for those in authority, both civically and spiritually.
  
  
• The written Word of God speaks to us about loving others and giving generously.
  
  
• The written Word of God tells us to study God’s written Word, to meditate and encourage others with that Word.
  
  
• The written Word of God speaks often of sharing our faith with the next generation.
  
  
• The written Word of God also urges us to remember the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the widows, and the orphans.
  
  

Many of these activities may not appeal to our natural sense of accomplishment. But, in God’s eyes, these living acts of sharing God’s grace may hold a much more important place than we would normally give to them in our lives.

Let us remain faithful, doing those tasks nearby, searching and praying for ways in which the Lord would use us in these days. And, let us fervently pray that the Church will rise from this time of forced sleep with an energy that spurns us onward toward a much greater usefulness and power in the days to come.

 

 

The King's Table

 

He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love.

—Song of Songs 2:4

During these days, we hear a lot about a peaceful “transition of power” within our own country. We also observe the destruction that happens in third-world countries when one party stages a coup to overturn an election and forecefully place their party’s chosen government in power.

As we study the Bible, we read of hundreds of transitions of kings, judges, and empires. Never was there a more unusual turnover than when King David began his rule in Jerusalem.

You may recall the stories of King Saul, David’s predecessor, who in jealous rages attempted to kill David on various occasions. Yet David, already anointed by God to serve as king, returned grace for hatred. David did this even though he had several opportunities to retaliate.

After Saul’s death and going against God’s will, Saul’s loyal army crowned his son, Ish-bosheth, king. David struggled against this opposition until God eventually gave him victory.

As newly crowned king over all of Israel, David asked this question, as recorded in 2 Samuel 9:1:

“Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”¹

When he was told about King Saul’s grandson, Mephibosheth, crippled in both feet, David called him to come. Then, David said to him, as recorded in 2 Samuel 9:7:

“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”

This picture of grace should reinforce for all of us the way in which God treats us for His Son’s sake. We also have been invited to sit at His table all the rest of our lives.

When we consider God’s grace to us, we should worship Him, rejoice in His portion and in His riches that He has given us. And, we should vow to give ourselves in fealty to Him by living in grace toward others, just as He has given His grace to us.

The Puritan, George Swinnock, wrote:²

The believing soul feasts like Mephibosheth at David’s table continually. In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore… His love is infinitely better than life itself. Exalt him in your heart as your chiefest good, and he will make the gift of himself to you. Here is God, there is the world; here bread, and there husks; here substance, there a shadow; here a paradise, there an apple; here is fulness, there is emptiness; here a fountain, there a broken cistern; here are all things, there is nothing; here is heaven, there is hell; here eternity of pleasure, there eternity of sorrow and pain. Now, is not this an infinite reason to choose God for your portion?

Today, let us meditate on the way God’s abundant grace allows Him to look at us. Though He may see us clearly as unlovely and poor, nevertheless He lavishly bestows us with His presence and His riches. May His kindness demonstrate to us the way in which He would have us show kindness to others.

______________________

1 Jonathan was King Saul’s son and David’s dearest friend.

2 Swinnock, George (author) and Richard Rushing (editor). Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 270.

 

 

Carrying His Glory

 

God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

—Romans 5:5

Can you imagine how Mary must have felt as she carried the baby she knew was the Son of God? What an awesome responsibility! What an awesome privilege! How carefully she must have cared for herself. With an eye to her Heavenly Father, how carefully she must have lived. How she must have constantly prayed and given herself daily to God’s loving care.

Of course, God hasn’t given us that very special kind of glory to carry within us. But, if we know Him and have experienced the incarnation of His presence in our lives, He has given us the glorious presence of the Holy Spirit within us. Do we consider often enough how this fact should impact the way we live?

As we carry His glory within us, do we consider how we take care of ourselves spiritually? Do we live with an eye to our Father, purposefully determining to walk in His ways and honor Him with our living? Do we pray, asking God to enable us to understand His work in the world and how we fit into His plan? Do we consider that carrying His glory is a high privilege, one that is above all others?

I like the way that the Apostle Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians 4:7, and I appreciate the way that Eugene Peterson places the biblical text into our modern vernacular in The Message.¹

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that.

Does that give you a sense of privilege and joy? It should. God has chosen us to carry His glory and His message to this world—a world that is very much in need of Him. Let us not put this glorious light under a bushel and hide it. Let us wear the glory of God proudly and humbly. Amen!

______________________

1 Peterson, Eugene. The Message. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Company, 2002.