God’s Invitation; Your Choice It doesn’t take one with a seminary degree or a long list of theological pedigrees to understand the times that we are living.   Jesus said in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  Also, in John 16:13, He said, “But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”  Friends, He has put eternity into our hearts (Ecc 3:11) and deep inside we know  that the future prophesied about in Scripture is upon us. Even as much of the Church is awakening to the stirring of the Holy Spirit that we are living in a unique time of all history, why is it that most American believers are living disconnected to the reality of this day and hour?  The morals of the unsaved of the 1950’s are far more righteous than many believers filling the pews today.  If there is a general awareness within every believer that we were born into an age that is significant in all of God’s history, why is it that our lifestyles have not changed to reflect this reality?  I remember as an unsaved teenager in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s reading a couple to books about the end-times that really stirred me in this area.  I knew that God had sent His son, Jesus, to die for me and would someday return again.  Knowing this and living my life for Him were two different things.  I lived as though I had time to live my life for my own pleasure, and that I was safe from hell because I had prayed a prayer that would “magically” save me without truly living a repentant lifestyle.  I figured, “I still had time.” The sobering reality is that we, as American believers, are caught in a dream-state web from which we are struggling to awaken.  We are caught in the reality of going to bed Sunday evening and waking up on Friday wondering where our week went.  Each passing day and week brings us closer to eternity.  Each passing day and week brings us closer to an increase of the “birth pains” described in Matthew 24.  We are out of time! Now is the time that we must cry out to God for help.  We must ask for a revelation of our true condition in order for true repentance and for an awakening of the Bride of Christ.  We must pursue God with an insatiable hunger for Him and His ways that will eclipse our present reality and so releasing the glory of the Lord and His Church for this day and hour.  The world, also caught up in this web of darkness, is desperately holding on for the sons of God to be revealed (Roms 8:19.)   We must awaken! Just as Misty Edward’s song “People Get Ready” says, “People walking ‘round with fingers in their ears, saying, ‘na na na na na, I don’t want to hear the sound of the coming King.’”  Many in the Church and outside are saying the same thing.  The greater reality is the pain that is deep inside, buried under layers of the cares of life, drunkenness, and dissipation (Luke 21:34).  We have been dulled to say, “Tomorrow, I’ll wake up.”  But awakening is too painful, like a hangover.  It is too painful to recognize the sounds of Jesus return.  It is too painful to change.  It is too painful to get out of the rut.  The rut is far more comfortable and familiar. Things are shaking like never before.  The pressures have increased more than any other generation.  We must press into to know Jesus and His perfect leadership.  Knowing about Him has never been enough.  It is imperative to know Him intimately in this day and hour.  It is not about the current events.  It is about knowing that His heart is for us and that He is coming.  He is not coming to snatch us out, He is coming to establish His rule and reign.  To do that, everything that can be shaken will be shaken – our lifestyles, our comforts, our security, our theology.  It must happen.  He is the only secure “Rock” to anchor to.  Are you ready? As Pastor of Life of Worship, and simply as a follower of Jesus, the Messiah, my heart is to raise up a generation of believers from the deception of the ordinary to the superior reality of the extraordinary.  Awakened, sobered, and fully equipped, we will be a generation that makes a mark for the sake of God’s Kingdom and that supernatural dimension on earth.  We will be a people engaged in a lifestyle of worship and intimacy with Jesus and empowered with the Holy Spirit to live beyond our circumstances for His purposes. Ordinary means are inadequate.  Extraordinary living requires extreme changes.  Join us in this venture.   Pastor John Craig Life of Worship * 4310 S. Western Suite U * Amarillo, TX * 79110 © 2012 Life of Worship Ministries, Inc.