Hey, Church — It’s Time To Rise and Shine!

By Tom Gilson Published on April 28, 2016

Have you ever been woken abruptly by an “act of God”? I have, more than once.

Years ago I was a single guy living in Pasadena, California. I’d had a horrible week. I went to bed on Saturday night feeling totally exhausted, so my bedtime prayer was quick and to the point: “God, I’ve got to sleep in tomorrow. I’m not setting the alarm clock. If you want me to go to church you’ll have to wake me up for it.”

Church started at 7:30 AM. At 6:45 a minor earthquake struck. “Okay, okay, I’ll go to church!” I said. Someone there told me, “You don’t look so good, Tom.” I could only smile — just barely —  but at least I tried. What else could I do? Looking back on that morning I just laugh at how that all came about.

Another time it wasn’t so funny. On June 28, 1992, at 4:57 AM my wife and I were jolted awake by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake centered just a few miles away. Our nine-month-old son was in his crib upstairs. We made it through safely, but we were homeless for a week until a crew came to tear down our dangerously cracked stone chimney.

Sometimes God has a way of waking us up. I think He’s waking up his church now — including you and me. Just listen to the alarm bells: We have gay marriage. We have a baker and a florist being fined and “re-educated” for not supporting it. We have a bi-vocational preacher in Georgia who’s been fired from his state government job for reasons that look suspiciously like retaliation for speaking the biblical truth about morality. We have ISIS, we have North Korea rattling a nuclear saber, and we have brothers and sisters being killed on the way out of Easter services in Pakistan.

Earthquakes are hard to predict. The ringing alarm we’re hearing now was more foreseeable. Three and a half years ago I wrote an article at BreakPoint Online in which I began with a verse from Scripture and went on to comment:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12, ESV)

If any Christians have ever been set to be surprised by a fiery trial, it is American believers today. We’re comfortable. Our culture has felt like a good fit around us. Christianity shaped much of it, and the parts that haven’t been so biblically influenced have at least felt familiar.

For decades we’ve been relaxed in our world: asleep in the light, as the late Keith Green described us. That’s changing now. Are we ready?

From there my article moved on to reflect on what might happen if spiritual crisis comes. I don’t think it’s “if” any longer. It’s coming. It’s upon us. Those “wake-up calls” I mentioned a few paragraphs above have all happened since I wrote that article.

The apostle Peter would be asking us, “Why are you so surprised, as if something strange were happening to you?” Well, we’ve been drowsy. Maybe we still are. Maybe God wants to wake us up.

Maybe He wants to wake us up to encourage us. He knew this was coming. “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” (1 John 3:13, ESV) “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12)

God isn’t even surprised at the way sin is being applauded among us. When the Apostle Paul laid out a panorama of sin’s progression, he didn’t conclude it with “murder, strife, deceit, malignity,” or even with “dishonorable passions,” but with this: “they not only do them but approve those who practice them.” (Romans 1:18-32) Where we are today is where the Bible said we would be, thousands of years ago.

I don’t know all that God wants to do through this, but I do know He’s well on top of the situation. We may be feeling a bit sleepy, but not God:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From whence does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved,
he who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
(Psalm 121:1-4)

It could be that God wants to wake us up to draw us closer to Him. I know that my reading of the Psalms has grown deeper and more personal lately. The struggles the Psalmists went through seem more familiar to me now. The lesson of their continuing trust in God seems more relevant than ever before.

And it could be — in fact I’m sure of it — that God wants to wake us up so we can shine as lights in the darkness. We’ve got a lot to be concerned about, but we can carry that concern with a bright smile and a message of life and hope, in view of our confidence that God is with us. Sure, it sounds paradoxical: things are getting worse, but keep on smiling. This isn’t about trying to be Polyannas, though. It’s about knowing that God is big enough to overcome the paradox. “In him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5)

We who follow Jesus are people of the light; we are the light of the world, even!

Are you drowsy? Then stretch a bit. Rub the sleep from your eyes. Spend some time in the bright light of the Lord. Then step forward in the world with a smile in your eyes. Sure, it’s dark out there, but Jesus brought a light that the darkness can’t deal with. It’s time to rise and shine!

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