From: "James MacDonald" <webmaster@walkintheword.com>
Sender: "James MacDonald" <webmaster=walkintheword.com@mcsv52.net>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:11:48 -0400
To: <karen_kemi@yahoo.com>
ReplyTo: "James MacDonald" <webmaster@walkintheword.com>
Subject: Awake!
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 | Awake! 
"Therefore stay awake - for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake. " - Mark 13:35-37 Jesus told us to live in a state of constant alertness—to stay awake! Yet historically, the church has had a recurring problem with spiritual lethargy. Jesus found deadly spiritual stupor in the church at Sardis (see Revelation 3:1-2). In Romans 13:11-14 Paul said, "Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." Churches asleep at the wheel are not a new problem, which is why Jesus has continued to issue a wake-up call to each generation. It's like we need to start thinking, "Let's wake up right now. Not next year or even in a few years. Not when my kids are grown. Let's rise up and get with God's program right now, because limited obedience is disobedience." Halfway isn't there. Halfhearted looks like half dead. "Wake up," Jesus told His church in Sardis, "Strengthen what remains" (Revelation 3:2). Paul said, "Our outer self is wasting away, [but] our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). This is not about your physical conditioning, though I'm not discouraging any of you from working out. Some of us really need to. All I'm saying is, at the end of the day, how are your spiritual muscles? Are you wasting away or working out? You should be getting stronger all the time. How is your prayer muscle? How is your memorization-of-and-meditation-on-God's-Word capacity? What about the strength of your witnessing? In other words, in what areas of your spiritual life is God urging you to work out? Responding begins by waking up to the need and taking action! 
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