Awake, O Sleeper

Awake Church, Awake!

The weight of this world and the lost have been resting heavily on me lately. How would I change the way I live if I truly walked in the reality and heaviness of the gospel every day? I know heaviness seems like a strange term to describe the gospel...because the gospel is amazing...but not to the perishing. Seriously, we live in a world that is perishing before our eyes. I know that God is sovereign and it is His job to save, but has the church forgotten her role? We are each called into a heavenly purpose when Jesus saves us. Are we living in this?

And, just a quick sidenote in what the Lord has been teaching me lately...living in this reality has very little to do with "doing for Him" and very much to do with "being with Him." I mean, try it out :) have you tried to just sit with Him, just to "be" in His presence lately? I know for me, there is SO much opposition to this in my life. Busyness, family, cares of this world etc....and a very sinful desire on my part to just be about His work rather than about Him.

All of that said, my prayer for the church is that we would remember our first love and spend time with Him. That we would slow down and discipline ourselves (or be disciplined by Him - if that's what it takes) to sit and soak in His presence. How can we pour out His love and share His glorious grace if we are not basking in it ourselves?

Ephesisans 5:14
"Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you."

Lord, I ask you to awaken your church. Pour out your Holy Spirit and revive us! Awaken us individually and collectively. Stir us in affection for You, worship for You, passion for You. Please help us to seek You and Your glory above all else. Lord, we confess that our hearts have become hardened. Sometimes it is so hard to see you. We are selfish and so wrapped up in ourselves most of the time. Please stir up our hearts and root out our selfish desires. Make us more like you. Give us a sense of urgency as we move closer to the day that you will return. Give us a holy desire for more of you. I beg you to give us your heart for the lost, for the poor and the needy. Fill us with you...to overflowing. Help us to seek you first and your kingdom. Help us to want you, not just what you can do for us. Lord do not abandon your church. Open our eyes to you and your beauty. Give us the desire to consecrate ourselves to you and only you. Lord we love and praise you! I ask all of this in Jesus' name! Amen

My First Charcoal Sketch

I have always been somewhat artistic. In recent years I have created mostly poetry but back in the day someone gave me a set of charcoal pencils. I never used them and they wound up in an old box of art supplies. Last weekend the boys were drawing so I grabbed the old box out of the garage and joined them. I opened that box of charcoals for the first time and felt inspired. The picture you see below has flitted in and out of my mind a dozen times since our son David was stillborn after 4 months of pregnancy. Needless to say, it brought Luci and I to tears. It seems that God sees fit to do things like this periodically to keep us from growing cold. I am grateful that he is keeping the memory of our son alive and helping us to grieve as those who have hope. We know in Whose arms David rests.

-Robert