I hope you’ve been enjoying our Awakening series. I was enjoying it myself until this morning–when Rebecca came in and “woke me up” by turning on the light. She simply said, “That’s for talking about me on Sunday!” The awakening continues . . .   Thanks to those who have shared with me your “awakening” stories. It is both encouraging and inspiring to hear how the hand of God is at work in your lives.  

As I was thinking about this idea of God’s hand being on a person who is determined to know, obey and teach others the ways of the LORD, another passage of scripture came to mind, but didn’t make it into Sunday’s message:

Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is hearer than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the desires of the sinful nature (Romans 13:11-14).

It’s the call to live an awakened life–not just to be awakened and then go back to sleep, and not just to walk through the light (and then back into darkness), but to walk continuously in the light.  If we have experienced an inward awakening, it has to work its way out in every area of our lives.  I love the image Paul uses when he says clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.  It’s a picture of the awakened life, not just as an inward thing, but as an outward manifestation.  Others can see what you are wearing–are you clothed with Christ? 

This weekend (October 7) we’ll conclude the Awakening series, talking about the high cost of an awakened life.  We’ll also observe communion and remember the high price Jesus paid for us to be awakened.  It will be a great weekend and it’s a good time to bring a friend in need of awakening.  We will pray that God awakens them and I’ll try not to put them to sleep!

Now that we’ve been awakened, starting October 14, we’ll begin a new series of messages entitled Say What? Things Jesus Said, but You Kind of Wish He Didn’t.  I almost called this series Tell Me He Didn’t Just Say That . . . because we’ll look at some of Jesus’ teachings that seem really difficult for us–both to hear and to do.  Some are difficult because they seem impossible for us (See Matthew 5:48), and others are difficult because we just don’t want to do them (See Matthew 5:41).  These are some of the ”hard sayings,” and there’s no easy way around them.   As Oprah once said, “There’s no easy way out. If there were, I would have bought it.” So we will go through and examine some of these teachings and (hopefully) allow Jesus to help us embrace them in our lives.  It may not be easy, but who ever said living an awakened life was easy? Not me. 

 blessings,

pastor greg