Jonah 1
5) Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
It would be nice to say that the Lord had given Jonah such peace that he was able to sleep even in the midst of the tempest, but this is not that kind of slumber.
Have you ever tried to wake a teenager before? I have a son that could sleep through a tornado! The hardest thing to get him to do is wake up most of the time. You can move him around, pour water on him, yell in his ear to wake up, and he doesn’t flinch.
God has been trying to get His church in America to pay attention, but it has fallen asleep. He has allowed us to go through 9-11, economic crisises, terrorist plots and war and these things have failed to awaken the church. Of course they have provided some end-time preachers and opportunity to write another book, but none of these things have caused His church to rise from its slumber. We are an apathetic, lazy, and undiscplined people. We would rather sit around and make excuses and blame others as to why we do nothing. We see sin, but we say nothing so we can say we are “seeker-friendly”. We watch our brothers and sisters that are excited and passionate for god and say “They will chill out one of these days”.”Wait till they’ve been in church a while.”
We ask for God to bless our plans and efforts yet we never pursue HIS heart, HIS will, HIS glory. We base success on how many people attending our churches, while many of them still do not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have those that have been in church who are as spiritually dead as those who do not believe, who have no fruit produced in their lives to show they are saved. We have those who have fooled themselves into thinking that you can have a great relationship with God without ever being a part of the body of Christ. Tell me, when was the last time you saw a body organ that worked long after it was removed from the body?
I am afraid…..
I am ashamed…..
I am working a lot….
I am trying to figure things out…..
I have a good enough relationship with God…..
I don’t need church….
I’m tired of trying….
I can’t do this anymore…..
These are all things I have heard out of the mouth of those who ”believe” in Christ.
We all need to repent.
Kevin
