Wake Up!

While listening to the story of the sleeping air traffic controller this morning, my mind was awakened to some Scripture passages where the Apostle Paul exhorted believers to wake up! The planes were flying in the dark skies and the pilot needed the opened eyes and alert discernment from one in the tower so they could safely land but he was fast asleep. "We are coming in for a landing- is anyone there? Are you there, tower?"  We cannot imagine the frustration and fear of the one who is trying to get his plane and passengers on the runway but can't get his guide to hear his cry. He's in dreamland!

Saints, don't we sense the urgency that Paul was conveying to the church when he wrote in Rom.13:11?  "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."  He tells the Thessalonion church this: "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."  I found myself in Ephesians 5 where I was reminded that we should be awake and alert because the days are evil, the Greek word being poneros, from which we get our word, pornography. Do you think that is applicable for our day?  There are few places we can go today without being inundated with the permissive and promiscuous attitudes that permeate our society. "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to purposely seek that circumspect  wisdom or we will find ourselves apathetic instead of alert. Our children and grandchildren will be adversely affected by our sleepy indifference. Parent, you have every right and the responsibility to monitor what your child sees on the computer and on the television shows which for the most part are working against everything that you are trying to impress upon those little hearts. I have written lately about the childhood attributes, good and bad, but the one I love maybe the most in little people is their innocence and the evil one who schemes for their demise seeks to steal that innocence as soon as possible. Please be alert to it because they are so worth our best. They so want to know their boundaries and feel safe there. I love the illustration that I have heard for years about a daycare backyard which was surrounded by trees but no fence and the wee ones huddled close to the teachers at recess When a fence was erected, they scattered and played freely because now they knew how far and were constrained from going further than they felt safe. Isn't that good?  I fear that we have become so callous to the evil, actually adopting and justifying it in many cases because "actually, it's the day we are in , things have changed and a little acceptance is pretty benign and ...." when really, we have just been lulled to sleep by the world's philosophies which are just packaged differently today.  Oh, how convicted I am this morning of my spiritual tiredness and sleepiness while those we love are flying in the darkness and some are "silently" crying out- "Is anyone there? I need some help. I don't know where the runway is."

I am sure some who read wish that I could be lighter from time to time and the truth be known, I do enjoy life and have good laughs. I just finished a book by Chuck Swindoll entitled Laugh Again taken from the Epistle to the Phillipians. If anyone has the reason to be joyful, it is we who are born again. But in that rejoicing, we must be aware of the sobering fact that many are lacking discernment and direction and are staggering around like drunken people. We who are being filled or controlled by the Spirit of God are acutely aware of the time and it's late, Friends, so let us wake up!

Hoping to help!

Deborah