Wake Up to Glory

Jesus asked a startling question, “When I come back, will I find faith on the earth?” Will Jesus find His bride waiting for Him or will He discover that His church stood Him up because she was too busy looking and longing for other lovers that would never provide what He has already faithfully promised?
Why is it that we never realize what we have until we don’t have it anymore? Why is it that we are apathetic towards what should matter most and much too enthusiastic about what is passing away? Could it be that we are in danger of losing that loving feeling?
God loves His people with a honeymoon love that never cools down or runs out of steam. The only reason He expects us to love Him back with all of our soul, heart, mind, and strength is because that’s the intensity with which He loved us first.
When believers start moaning, it is caused by the fact that they have misplaced what should be meaning most to them. God is always passionately pursuing us.
Unfortunately, human beings are notorious for getting their priorities mixed up. Jesus longs to be our first love and not just another kiss on our list.
The Lord longs to keep us on our toes so that our relationship with Him constantly grows. We all need to be aware that it’s impossible to be a disciple and not really care.
We are living in a day when political correctness is attempting to lull our hearts and souls to sleep. Today’s tolerant movement has proved itself quite intolerant to anyone and anything that disagrees.
God would rather have us disagree with Him than just plain not care. To do or feel nothing is the proverbial way out.
Life needs to feel like more than just a never-ending nap when the biggest move of the day is to keep hitting the snooze button. God is calling His church to be made with more substance than a “Jell-O mold.”
It wasn’t an accident that Jesus once said that if human beings did not cry out in surrendering praise, the very rocks would have stepped in and done the job. It is quite embarrassing when the stones cry out while the people do nothing more than politely roll their eyes.
We who should be the most animated become stale and stagnant. Scripture points out that the heavens declare the glory of God and the trees of the field clap their hands while the men and women who have benefited most from the goodness of the Lord need to be convinced to come out of hiding.
Could it be that we have been softened by a spirit of entitlement? American families have more Bibles than they know what to do with but are pretty good about ignoring them all.
Yet, in the persecuted part of the world, our brothers and sisters gather all around just a tiny portion of the Word of God that they smuggled in because just having it in their possession has made them guilty of a death sentence.
When will we too treasure the wonderful words of life like it was the purest of gold? When are we going to wake up and strengthen the aspects of life that remain the most important even when we treat it as cheap trinkets?
Last week, I saw something in the Bible that I had never seen before. It is from the passage that defines the Transfiguration of Jesus.
In the Gospel of Luke, we read, “About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
“Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”
You would assume that with all of this happening right in front of their eyes, Peter, James, and John were having the time of their lives. They were probably so engaged that they were hanging on every moment of this miraculous experience.
That is not what the Bible says. As a matter of fact, it is quite enlightening and almost alarming to read what Luke describes next. Luke goes on to say, “Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.”
Did you catch that? “When they became fully awake…”
They were oblivious to what was going on until they woke up. Could we be missing what God is doing in our day and age because we are sleepwalking our way through what we should be wide awake to?
When we sleep, we are dead to the Word and hence blind to the scenery of the Savior that we should be savoring all around us.
The very first time I went skiing in Colorado, I couldn’t wait to ride the lift because, for the first time, this wasn’t the Poconos. This was the majestic Rocky Mountains. This was the inspiration behind so many of John Denver’s songs.
I anticipated the moment for a long time. When I finally got there, it was after driving all night from Omaha, Neb. I wasn’t on that ski lift a minute before I was out like candlelight in a windstorm.
I was so zonked that they had to shout at me when I never got off when I was supposed to. I didn’t even realize who or where I was until I woke up, but when I did, it was apparent I wasn’t at Camel Back anymore.
God is still very much at work all around us, but we are not aware of it and cannot engage with it when we are snoring rather than soaring. When we awaken, what we finally see is God’s glory all around us.
This is no time to be looking for a pillow when the Lord wants us to be pillars of what He is about to do at such a time as this. Today, I have the honor to wake you up in the name of Jesus. 
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.