The Hour Has Come. Wake Up!

“The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when you first believed. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here” (Romans 13: 11 NIV).

We are living in the strangest, most potentially disruptive time in American history. When in our history has the government told the entire nation they could not worship in their churches on Easter Sunday? Is that even constitutional? What is going on? So, I asked God, “What is going on?” I heard: “fear”, “do you trust me?”, and then I heard, “This is a time of separation and preparation. I am separating you from things that you have relied on for your security, value, and comfort; I am using fear and anxiety to show you how much you depend upon these things (instead of Me); and I am preparing you to ‘stand’ in the future, because this is the beginning of “birth pains”. And then I heard, “Stress Test, Wake-up Call, Dress Rehearsal” (John Van Wagoner).

Uh Oh!

For me, the seriousness of the economic and social shut down of our society in America is beginning to sink in. It is looking like we have been plunged into a crisis unlike anything this nation has ever experienced. From what I can see, and yes, my view is limited, people’s fears are growing deeper by the day. Not just fear of the virus, but fears like: will my country ever be the same again, have we lost our freedoms, our very way of life; will my business or job be lost forever, what will the future hold for me and my family? “How”, people wonder, “will I pay my bills, buy food and gas, just survive?” These are real, deep fears; they go to the core, the very essence of us individually and collectively as a country.

Jesus – The Demander

It is against this backdrop of fear, my own fears and the fear I see in the country, including Christians, I am examining my relationship with Jesus. And it is in this reexamining that I am beginning to get a glimpse of what Jesus is telling us as His followers. 2100 years ago, he called – no, more than called – He demanded, that we live a radically new and different life. So different, in fact, our culture has lost the understanding (if we ever had it) what that Jesus-kind of life looks like.

This pandemic, which is striking deep into our hearts, is revealing this radical Jesus-life to me, and showing me how far – really, really far – I am away from living it. I think His words are so familiar to most of us and therefore comfortable, that they have lost their edge.

What does He mean when He says things like?

“I tell you the truth . . . No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields (‘lands’ in Greek) for me and the gospel (the Kingdom of God) will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age” (Mark 10: 29 – 30 NIV).

Or

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14: 26 NIV).

Or

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it” (Luke 9: 23, 24 NIV).

Jesus — First!

He is telling us that we must love Him first, and nothing or no one should take His place as our “first love”. If Jesus is not first, Lord of All;  He is not Lord at all. We must love Him– not ‘like’, and not love like “I love reading a good book” or “I love America” or “I love my work” – with a deep, passionate, all-consuming, overwhelming, “I-gladly-give-You-my-life” love. It was what Jesus meant when He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”. The key word is ‘all’. That kind of love. And then “Love your neighbor as yourself”. The kind of love that, when everything is taken away – our health, our wealth, our possessions (can you imagine that?), our freedom, our knowledge, our nation, our family, our dreams, our reputation, our very way of life – we are not crushed or destroyed; and we put others ahead of ourselves. We still walk with joy, peace, and hope because He will supply all our needs for security, comfort, and value; and nothing can separate us from Him and His love. Even more – if God told you, “you will not make it to heaven” – would you still love Him because He is God?

Who or What is Your ‘Isaac”

The radical message of Jesus is nothing should take the place of our affections for Him. Everything, I mean everything, currently more important to us than Jesus, needs to be offered up to Him. Think this way – God called Abraham and told him, “Take your son, Isaac. Your only son. Whom you love. Go to Mount Moriah. And there, sacrifice him to Me. As a burnt offering.” But, you say, “That is the Old Testament God. God would never ask that kind of thing of me now”. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That is exactly the radical message of Jesus today. And, of course, it is what God did with His own Son 2100 years ago.

Ok. He is not asking us to offer up burnt offerings. And Jesus was the sacrifice for my sin. Because He died for me, my sins can be forgiven. I am not talking about sacrificing ‘things’ to God to receive salvation. That is done; once and for all. I mean sacrificing those things in our lives that we love more than Jesus, or even love too much. Am I willing to obey and sacrifice my most precious possession, my ‘Isaac’ to Jesus, so that He can fill me with real life? I sense God is using this pandemic and the resulting ‘shut down’ of society to draw us back to Him. Part of that drawing is showing us how far, in our worldly comfort and security, we have strayed from Him – and the condition of our spiritual heart. In the same way, a cardiologist uses a ‘stress test’ to show him the condition of our physical heart, Jesus is showing us the condition of our spiritual heart. And then He is asking us to sacrifice the things we love to Him, making Him first. Really first. Only then will we be free from fear, sin, worry, despair, and anxiety. It is for this freedom that Jesus set us free when we were sanctified by His sacrifice and our faith.

All For Jesus

Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating moving to a desert island and leaving my family, my possessions, my wealth, friendships, everything behind to get closer to Jesus, or even giving everything away for Jesus (unless that is what calls me to do). That won’t work because I will go to the island and dream about everything I gave up. Part of His radical message is it’s what in my heart that counts.

We must offer it all up, put it all on the line for Jesus, especially anything that has a grip on our heart. Not that we don’t enjoy our lives today. But the radical message of Jesus is none of it, including the love of our country, ministry, our freedom from tyranny in America, our family, or our stuff – none of it – must be the source of any security, value, or comfort in my life. He wants to be the center – the ultimate supplier of all that I need to live a Kingdom life. And there is no life worth living apart from life in the Kingdom of God. It might seem in the moment that life in the kingdom of the world is wonderful, but in the long run, and Jesus always has the long view, that life inevitably leads to destruction. Life in Him is always more beautiful, amazing, and fulfilling. After all, our hope is not in the world or anything this world offers us. Our hope is in Jesus and the life to come that He offers us. That hope is, or should be, our only hope. It is this hope of eternal life that allows Christians to follow Jesus today in countries where Christians are imprisoned, tortured, and killed.

Repent, Obey, Consecrate, Sacrifice

Jesus is still the demander. His message of complete surrender and total submission to Him is even more radical today, especially in the USA where our lives are so comfortable, than ever before. How do I fully surrender to Him so that He is first in every part of my life, not second after family; or third after family, and reputation; or fourth after family, reputation, and wealth? First, it is not possible apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Second, I have a role to play which involves repentance, obedience, sacrifice, and consecration. Consecration? What does that mean? Good question. I’ll write about that in a later post.

The Corona virus pandemic has gripped the world in a way we haven’t seen for generations, or maybe ever, at least in America. It has done incalculable economic damage, not to mention loss to those families who are grieving the deaths of loved ones. But it did not catch God by surprise. He is not the author of the pandemic, but He is using it for His purposes, which include, but are not limited to, the Church. God is calling believers back to Him, waking us up, and showing how far away from Him we really are; and, I believe, preparing us for both a revival and more difficult times ahead.