Tuesday, February 20th, 2018
“Yawn! The start of another day in jail. Day after day after day in jail, one week after another in jail.” That’s the interior dialogue of sleepy Christians in the Wright County Jail, or any other jail or prison for that matter. Below will be my opening statement when I give two talks at the Benton County Jail this Thursday (by the way, will you please pray for me that day that I speak only out of the power and direction of the Holy Spirit).
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A young boy of seven named Charles accepted Jesus into his life during a Wednesday youth meeting at his church and excitedly told his whole family when he got home. Three days later Charles pushed his younger sister who had grabbed one of his toys.
She said. “Why did you do that? I thought Jesus was living within you.” Still seething with anger, he answered, “He fell asleep.”
Now the story is a joke, but it’s not a joking matter. You see, it’s not Jesus who was asleep to Charles, but it was the young boy who was asleep to Jesus. And that’s the story of all of us.
There are a few Christians who are wide awake to God all the time. I’m not one of them. And there are non-believers who are sound asleep to God all the time. Thank God, I’m not one of them.
In between, there are Christians who are awake or asleep to God in various degrees. Some are mostly awake and some are mostly asleep. Some are awake more often and some are asleep more often. Which one of these are you? Which one were you when you committed your last crime?
I can’t 100% guarantee that you’ll never go back to jail again when you get out. But I can say this: “If you stay awake to God in your life most of the time, if you walk His way instead of your own way, your odds of staying out of jail will be dangerously close to 100%.”
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You realize, of course, being the astute Christians you are, that I’m not speaking only to the inmates. I’m speaking as well to you and me. Are we wide-awake Christians most of the time or sleepy Christians much too often, like couch potatoes in the kingdom of heaven here on earth?