Wake Up – A Call to Arms
“As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” -2 COR 6: 1-2
“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. -1 COR 7: 29-31
Wake Up by Jon Shabaglian
We are living in perilous times,
when to hold to God’s truth is an uphill climb,
Stranger daily is the banner Christ raised,
and if we stand with Him we’ll be quite a blaze,
But come has the day when the broad road is wider,
and the current of life is to live for yourself,
But the trumpet’s been blown and His Word’s the divider,
So he who has ears let him hear the call
Wake up,
We can’t afford to shrink back,
The days around us are black,
The time is now to arise,
And set our eyes on the prize
We are living in perilous times,
and yet ease and comfort is our paradigm,
Can we afford such a lax way of living,
when the kingdom of Heaven is groaning to come,
But the call of the Lord has made us sole becomers,
in the battle for souls raging day after day,
So he who endures till the end is a victor,
and will honor the Savior who endured for him
Wake up,
We can’t afford to shrink back,
The days around us are black,
The time is now to arise,
And set our eyes on the prize
What is it that distinguishes you from the ever-growing masses and the set apart few?
Does the passion of your heart say I’m a Christian?
Does your fruit show you’re out or in?
See the reality is that there’s a Heaven and a Hell,
and many of our friends have chose the latter to dwell,
With the Father there is no more middle ground,
so may your heart be awakened by the trumpet sound
Wake up,
We can’t afford to shrink back,
The days around us are black,
The time is now to arise,
And set our eyes on the prize
http://www.myspace.com/jonshabaglian
A CALL TO ARMS
“As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” -2 COR 6: 4-10
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” -2 Cprinthians 4: 7-10
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses [Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Samson, etc.], let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12: 1-3
What separates us from Gideon, from Daniel, from David? What disadvantages do we have to use as excuses to NOT be men after God’s own heart, to want the things God wants? We have a New Covenant, sealed by the blood of Christ, clearing our consciences, wiping our sins away that we may serve the Living God! We complain about not being filled as we sip warm milk for sustenance. And as we sip, we miss the feast that sits before us, offering a lifetime supply of meat, of wisdom, of salvation, of intercession, of joy! How much longer must we wait, shriveled up in tears in the back of a prison cell, weeping about our problems that we say still rule our lives when the door is open! Throw off all that hinders, run forth and pursue holiness- pursue God. Seek to know Him, for He has equipped us to. Or continue to waste time complaining, dwelling, living in shame and guilt and just wait to be cut. Either way, we are going to die: one way is to run the race with perseverance, knowing that the death and resurrection of Christ is in us. We will experience loss, it will be hard, but we sacrifice NOTHING as what we gain is incomparable in greatness to anything we have here.
The other way is to rot. One way ends in Life, one in death. We must choose. Yes, we must depend one-hundred percent on God but YES, we must pursue Him with everything we are. Take that condemnation and turn it into conviction, for it is meant to change us, to re-route the path we’ve created and bring us back to God’s true and holy path to Him. Take that attitude that we’ve failed and fallen short of the glory and let’s read our Word, discovering that our sins have been sacrificed with Christ and that it is now HE who is judged in our place; we’re in luck, for He has been deemed pure, holy and set apart from sin. He intercedes and stands in our place that we may serve God, equipped in a battle we couldn’t win on our own; not with weapons of the world, but with weapons of righteousness that have the power to demolish all that sets itself up against God. Go out, carry this news to others, for NOTHING can stop us now.
