Is The Church Awoke?

As we hurtle to the November 3rd election, our country still is mired in a deepening hole. The debate to add  1 trillion or up to 3 trillion dollars to our national debt hardly gets a second glance as "bigger" issues have captured our attention. Sports of all varieties seem to be on the shifting sands of the next "hero" to test positive for covid. The big issue whether to mask or not to mask has many captured in this battle. Deciding which lives matter has another group on edge. The assault upon our history and whose story gets stricken from our books has another group riled up. Perilous times seem to describe these days well.

The church, the Ekklesia, the call out ones, sit positioned in the midst of all this. These events have challenged every church leader in this country. No one has been immune from the effects of these events. It has been a wake up call, without a doubt. 

In the book of Isaiah chapter 51, an interesting dialogue takes place between God, God's people, and the prophet. In summary, God reminds the people where they came from spiritually speaking. Two senior citizens, who in the natural had no chance of producing a child, did just that. Verse 2 says "but I blessed them greatly so that one became many." What God has blessed, it will always reproduce and multiply. God then promises a process of restoration with great joy and righteousness. This sounds wonderful to the people so they respond with this shout, verse 9, "Wake up God, do your mighty words again!" A typical response to people wanting an easy way out, 'you fix this God!'. God responds by saying 'I have placed my word in your mouth and hidden you in the palm of my hand', so basically 'YOU wake up!'

Yes, God has staked our bed, it's time to get up! No more hitting the snooze button, it is time to wake up! Rise up! The heart of this conversation is in Isaiah 52:5-6.

Praise the Lord for this promise! That we will become aware, once again, of the power of His name!
Wake up, put on our strength, clothe ourselves with glory!
America needs a church that is 
​AWAKE!