Will You Wake Up?

Saul didn't stay asleep. He heard the alarm clock. He woke up. His name changed to Paul and he became arguably the most effective evangelist of Jesus Christ in all of history. Paul became an apostle (sent one) and ambassador (representative) of Christ. This is why he could write:

"Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14 NIV)

The prophet, Elijah, needed a wake up call. He ran away from God's call and hid in the mountains. While there, the Father went looking for him. He received his alarm.

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:11-13 NIV)

How about you? Are you asleep spiritually? Do you hear the alarm? What will it take to wake you up?

The Quiet Alarm

Some alarm ringtones are so harsh that they make us jump out of bed. Others, however, are quiet and soothing. They almost seem to tell you, "It's OK to stay in bed a little while longer. Just let me gently wake you up. I was never able to use those kinds of ringtones in the past. I always needed the harsh alarm and, as I said yesterday, that did not work sometimes even from across the room! In more recent years, I don't need all that anymore. I don't even turn on a ringtone. The phone vibrating on the stand next to my bed is enough now. I am more responsive to the alarm.

While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. (2 Chronicles 34:14 NIV)

The people of Judah received a "quiet" alarm. God didn't knock them off a donkey on the way to doing something in rebellion against God. There was no blindness for three days. There was no voice from the heavens. They simply found an old, dusty Bible that no one had been reading.

Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes. (2 Chronicles 34:18-19 NIV)

That quiet alarm was all they needed, though. They were ready and willing to wake up. When they read the word in God's Law and realized they were in the distant country, they immediately repented of their sin. It started with the King and continued out to everyone through the kingdom.

The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD--to follow the LORD and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book. Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. (2 Chronicles 34:31-32 NIV)

How about you? Do you respond to a quiet reminder that you are far away from God? Do you respond to the warning signs even before you get to the distant country? Do you hear the warnings before you even leave home?

An Alarm

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2 NIV)

Last night, at small group, we were discussing alarm clock alarms. The ring tones our phones have are great. You can wake up to about any alarm clock sound you want. I wish I had these kinds of choices when I was younger, although I'm not sure it would have helped much.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." (Acts 9:3-6 NIV)

Alarm clock noises when I was growing up were more like a shrill shriek that was warning you of an impending nuclear holocaust. Maybe that was because we were all afraid of Cuba back then and we were sure Revelation was prophecy of a nuclear war between us and the U.S.S.R. But I digress. It didn't matter how loud that alarm was or how horrendous it sounded, I still slept through it.

Saul's alarm clock noise was pretty loud and shrill as well. I'm not sure how I would react to God interrupting my drive to Cincinnati, knocking me out of the car, and speaking to me from a bright light. I'm not sure how my companions would have taken it, either.

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. (Acts 9:7-9 NIV)

When it bothered the people around me, like my parents and, later, my wife, I learned to lean over and hit the snooze button so they wouldn't be as agitated by my alarm. When that didn't work, because I would just go back to sleep, I found myself putting the alarm clock across the room so I had to get out of bed and walk across the room to turn it off. That still didn't work. I would walk back across the room, lay back down, and fall asleep again. I just didn't want to get up.

I wonder if this is part of the reason Saul stayed blind for three days and nights. Don't get me wrong, I see the connection between Jonah, Jesus, and Saul here, but I wonder if Saul's stubbornness might have had something to do with it, too. Could it be that simply knocking him down with a bright light wouldn't have been enough? Is it possible that he would have simply hit the snooze button and gone back to his old ways?

How about you? What kind of alarm do you need to wake you up in the morning? What kind of alarm do you need to wake you up from rebellion against God? How far into the "distant country" do you go before hearing the alarm? Do you wake up or hit the snooze button and go back to bed? How do you respond to an alarm from God?

Alone

Travelling to the "distant country" not only leaves us broke. It leaves us alone. When the money dries up, so do our "friends." Suddenly people who were attracted to us no longer see an appeal. Before we were the life of the party and everyone loved us. Now, no one will return our calls. Money and power create a "bubble" of fun and attraction. When the bubble bursts, though, no one wants to have anything to do with us...except to enslave us.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. (Luke 15:14-16 NIV)

The only person who would return his calls was a farmer. The farmer didn't want to be around the son because he was fun to be around. He wasn't interested in hanging out at the club that night. He wasn't attracted to the son's natural charisma. No, the farmer only wanted him to do the dirty, unpleasant part of his job: feeding the pigs. That's what he hired the son to do. "Hired" is a pretty strong word, too, because the son was still hungry enough that the pig's food looked appetizing to him. Maybe he wasn't getting a fair wage. Maybe he was receiving fair compensation, but he squandered it just like he did the inheritance. In either case, he was far away from home, broke, and very much alone.

How about you? Have you experienced going to the "distant country" far away from the Father? Did you watch as your relationships, one by one, all dried up? Did you feel what it was like to become completely unwanted and alone?

Broke

Stories are a great way to look at the world. I've heard it said that stories are all we have...all we are. Perhaps it is true. We certainly relate to stories. We remember times in our lives in the context of a story. We remember our first romance, first love, and first kiss. We remember when things went well. We remember when things went bad. We remember struggles and victories and we remember them all as a part of our story.

Jesus was a masterful story teller. The power of his stories still stay with us today. Last week, we looked at the beginning of one of his stories. It was a parable - a story with a spiritual meaning. It was about a father and his two sons. It started like this.

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (Luke 15:11-13 NIV)

Last week we left when the son asked for his share of the estate and the property and the father divided the property between them. Now, we see the son leaving home and going off to a distant country. In the distant country, he ends up broke. The distant country always leaves us broke. When we leave our Father for a distant country, we end up broke, too.

So, how about you? Have you left the Father? Did you go to a distant country? Did it leave you spiritually bankrupt? Did you end up broke?