E43 - Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions - And Then I Woke Up

Hope’s Harbor

Gritty Bible Devotions

Episode #43

Title: And Then I Woke Up -

Date: February 28, 2022

Contact: info@hopesharbor.net

Key verse(s): John 11:11 – ‘These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up."’ NKJV

John 11:11 – ‘These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.’ KJV

Intro: Please allow me to give you a principle of ‘life from the dead’ as a spiritual analogy of what is common among Christians. This will involve me explaining my own spiritual awakening, first to salvation when my spirit was born, then 6 years later to spiritual life as a Christian in trouble.

Mark 9:10 – ‘So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.’

Devotion focus: Rising from the dead… as one already a Christian –

When I first came to faith in Jesus and was saved, it was September 7, 1977. I had grown up going to church frequently, usually taken by my grandparents on my mother’s side.

Because of the disconnect I saw between what the preachers said was Christian conduct and what I saw adults actually doing during the week, I rejected Christianity. This lasted until I was 22 years old.

A friend witnessed to me about Jesus and the gospel. After arguing against what he was saying for several months (I knew enough Bible to hold my own), he finally explained those carnal people who didn’t exhibit love, mercy, purity, etc. did not mean the Bible was wrong. Furthermore, he said, faith in Jesus’s death on the cross as the means to find forgiveness for sins was the first thing I needed to settle.

You see, I was spiritually dead to the things of GOD. The Bible made little sense. But as I thought through the things my friend said about Jesus’s death, one day I relented and prayed, asking GOD to forgive me. Immediately I felt a relief, like a heavy burden lifting off me. I was happy… until I tried attending church. There I saw the same carnal behavior, and as I would learn later, the same legalism at work.

I visited several denominations and the carnal behavior and/or legalism was always there. I gave up trying to find a church. Since I couldn’t understand what I was reading in the Bible other than it is a historical account of long ago, I died to my newfound faith.

Six years later I encountered serious marital trouble, the kind that ripped my heart out. My first thought was it happened because I wasn’t living for GOD. I, too, was a carnal man and didn’t attend church because I didn’t want to be a hypocrite.

No matter – I was convicted by GOD’s Holy Spirit for the way I lived. I had a foul mouth, would fight at an instance if someone crossed me, and was angry and bitter. But when I repented in prayer and cried out to GOD to help me, I woke up. And then GOD gave me a hunger for the Bible. I couldn’t get enough of it. I began reading it each morning, during my work breaks and lunch, and before bed.

Listen to the following verses concerning rising from the dead and think of the spiritual application:

·         Luke 15:24 – ‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.’ (The prodigal son)

·         John 5:21 – ‘For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.’ (Jesus explaining who He gives life to which means to whoever calls to Him to be saved.)

·         John 5:25 – ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.’ (Jesus when declaring His authority.)

·         Romans 6:4 – ‘Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ (Paul explaining the spiritual reality of those, who by faith believed on Jesus unto salvation, and what the outcome of that declaration of faith should be.)

So I was awake from the spiritually dead. Next, I made the decision to find a church. So here I go again… After visiting different denominations and finding the same conditions existed in each one as before, I gave up looking.

Now, this is a good point to explain something: these churches all contained good, well-intentioned people. It was just that, even though I couldn’t explain it at the time, there was no spiritual life there that I could tell. It felt like going through the motions of rituals.

The friend who led me to the Lord, so to speak, when I told him of my disappointment and that I had given up looking for a church, asked what it was I looking for. I told him I didn’t know but believed somehow I would know when I saw it. Isn’t that interesting? I knew next to nothing about spiritual life but somehow knew I would recognize what I needed when I found it.

I found out later this was the Holy Spirit living within my awakened spirit and guiding me.

During my searching my friend would call and ask me to try first one church and then another. You know the saying ‘The last straw?’ Well, the last straw for me happened after attending one of his recommended churches on a Wednesday evening. After listening to 2 ½ hours of praises for a deceased Christian leader’s life, I got up to leave. I was working as a self-employed sub-contractor and got up early each morning for a long day of labor.

As I walked up the aisle to leave, two ushers moved in front of the double doors and blocked my exit. I asked to be allowed to leave. They glared at me and didn’t move so I had to force my way out. That was it, I was done. When my friend called and asked how the service went I told him not to call me with any more suggestions.

You see, it was difficult to tell him this because I wanted to find a place of worship; I was hungry to learn.

A few weeks later he called again. I listened, angry, while he said this was the last time he would ask. He knew a young pastor who just moved back to Georgia from out west and that he started a new church that was meeting in a daycare facility while members looked for a permanent building.

With my best sarcastic voice, I asked why he left his former church. Did they run him off? After all, he was in a daycare. No, I was told, this pastor was originally from Georgia and the Lord led him to return.

I agreed to visit but told my friend sternly this was the last one.

Remember what I said about knowing when I found what I was looking for even though I couldn’t tell what it was? Yes, I found it. (The year was 1983.)

The pastor taught from the Bible. I learned later it was line by line, precept upon precept, and the congregation, though only 15 or 16 people loved the Lord and it showed. And I knew from the first time I attended I found where I belonged.

In my awakened spiritual state I faithfully attended 3 times a week for nearly ten years until I moved and then joined another congregation where the Bible was also taught and held in high esteem by the majority of members.

Summary: Our spiritual state of being has eternal consequences. If we have the new life promised for all who believe in Jesus’s death for our sins and prayed for forgiveness, then GOD expects us to live for Him by reading the Bible and obeying its teachings. The teachings of Jesus.

If you feel spiritually dead I plead with you to go to the Son of GOD and ask Him, by His Holy Spirit to raise you from the dead. To wake you to the full life He promised in John 10:10 – “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (Italics mine)

Action to consider: You can change your eternal experience by asking to be given a spiritual awakening and a deep desire for GOD Himself. Not His blessings only, but to know the experience of Jesus’s presence. This is possible, I’ve experienced it. Falling deeply in love with GOD will lead to a desire to serve Him however He leads you. This too I have experienced.

Next week’s devotion: Maybe I’ll go into what being awake from the dead has brought about so far. I can tell you, a few results were surprising.