Sequel to Awakened to Dream: Stand Firm

 As I wrote in my last blog about "awakening" a few scriptures came to mind, and when I started to study those scriptures a new word/s came up as well, "stand firm." It keeps coming up too, or the concept of it. Since I thought it was a good idea to drink coffee at 8 in the evening, I figured I would write what I have been discovering, because sleep won’t be coming any time soon! 

The first scripture to came up was Ephesians 5:14 "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Romans 13:11-14 was cross referenced with Ephesians 5:14. When I read the verses in Romans, I literally went "WOAH!" I'm sure I've read the verses before, but they hit me hard this time! They are a call to get your butt in gear, to put it eloquently! 

"Do this knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near, therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts."

            A few thoughts to go along with these verses: first, if you read the verse that proceed and follow Ephesians 5:14 they go right along with Romans 13. I don't want to write them out, because they are long, but I JUST have to! Eph 5:6-17

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Both in Eph and Romans the author, Paul, talks about the “deeds of darkness” and putting them off. Paul writes in Romans to “put on the armor of light,” and in Ephesians he says “walk as children of Light.” And then in both of them he says “Awake from sleep” or “Awake sleeper.” Those are a few things standing out to me, but then there is more!

Thinking about what it says in Romans “put on the armor of light,” made me think of Ephesians 6:10-17 which is titled the Armor of God! Verse 11 is what really gets me though. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” Then in verse 14-17, “Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

(The words capitalized were capitalized in my Bible).  

What is standing out to me in these verses are “stand firm.” Paul also talks about putting on truth and righteousness, which he made mention of in chapter 5:9 “For the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Some points are really starting to be made now! If they aren't obvious yet, I will spell them out! The days are evil, WAKE UP! Stand firm! Stand firm by putting on the armor of God!

A lot of people think we are in the “End Times” whether we are or aren't  I don’t know. Since the time Jesus ascended into Heaven, believers have thought it was the “End Times.” Honestly, time is ending it is passing, we or the earth will not go on forever! So what I know is this world is not getting better, but getting worse! It is not getting more moral, but more perverted and scandalous! And since morality is lost, we are told and encouraged to tolerate what is perverted and scandalous. Otherwise we will lose popularity and followers. My biggest annoyance, if we vocalize that we do not agree with what is perverted and scandalous, we are labeled as haters! I do not hate, nor have ever said I hate anyone, I merely do not agree when people are perverted and scandalous.

THIS is why we must stand firm, and learn to do so! The time has long since passed to flit and flaunt around! If we do not know where we stand, we will fall and be swept away by anything! And all that can be said is shame on us!

A song I really love called Oceans, has a verse that goes

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders,

 Let me walk upon the waters,

Wherever you may call me.

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander,

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior!”  

I listen to this song over and over and over again, because it grabs me deep within. I am one who loves adventure, and has many times gone out into the unknown with only my faith and trust in my Savior to lead me. We, YOU, ME, MUST STAND FIRM!!! Then when we are called out upon the waters we will have the faith to go, knowing we will not sink! Though the water may look unsteady and uncharted, we are standing firm upon our Savior, Jesus Christ!     

Awakened To Dream

I was talking to a friend today and she was asking me how Clothe Syria was going. I told her it was going really well, and how it has been so cool to see how God has opened doors and how my small dream has caused me to dream even bigger. I also told her that it has been cool, because I haven’t dreamed in a long time. When I started college I always thought I would go straight from graduation to the mission field, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Some would say I was hit with “real life” like having loans to pay off, and having to get a job to pay those loans off.  I know as you get older there are responsibilities you have to take care of, BUT I do not think paying off loans, getting jobs, even getting married and having kids, is what God created us for! I love God, but if the above is the extent of why He created me and the rest of the human race, “Here you go humans; here is your REAL LIFE!” Then it is pretty lame and I want my money back! No, I believe He had/has so much more in store and we NEED to be awakened to it!

Going back to my conversation with my friend, after I told her that I had started to dream again, she said “Oh like awakened!” I told her yes, and it was funny that she used that word, because the word “awakened” has been coming up a lot! I repeated the conversation to my sister, and she said it is funny because awakened and dreaming does not go together. You dream when you are asleep. My mind really started going after that!

I started to think how in dreams, most of the time, they are absurd and crazy and stuff happens in dreams that could never happen in real life! Then I started to think about how people treat their lives like they are sleeping and in dreams. Stay with me here! I wonder a lot how cool it would be if everybody was living to their full potential. It would solve probably a majority, no, all of the problems in the world! BUT since we go around like we are sleeping and in crazy absurd dreams, “real life” seems to be as good as it gets.

HOWEVER! I think God placed something inside of each of us that longs for more! Not just longs for more, but is very capable of getting more! I believe we all have dreams inside of us that could change the world and we HAVE to be awakened to those dreams! Sometimes when I am having a bad dream, I will tell myself to wake up; I have to shake myself awake to get out of the bad dream! In the same way, our world is stuck in a bad dream, but the bad dream is people living apathetic, lame lives thinking the longing deep within is a crazy absurd dream and they should stay asleep instead of shaking themselves and AWAKENING to the God given longing and dream He placed inside of each of us that COULD CHANGE THE WORLD! Awake oh sleeper!

WE WERE CREATED FOR MORE! But we have been confused and mislead to believe we are awake and what we have is it! But I say NO! We do not even know what it means to be awake! To be awake is terrifying and WONDERFUL all at the same time! It is terrifying because you see just how small you really are in a world of pain and suffering, but it is wonderful because God ALWAYS uses the small for the mightiest of deeds!  When we take the dream that God placed inside of us, that we may think is crazy and absurd, and could never happen, but awake ourselves to the possibility of God using it, IT IS AWESOME to see what He does. And as we see God fulfill those dreams, you have to start dreaming bigger and bigger dreams, because you see how easy it was for God to fulfill the first one! He placed the dream inside of you; OF COURSE, he can handle it and fulfill it! GOD IS FAITHFUL! It would be against His nature not to be faithful.

AWAKE! AWAKE! AWAKE! Shake yourself out of your slumber! YOU have a dream! Awake to that dream! What is the passion and longing deep within you?! I DARE you to dream!