I’ll admit it, there was a time that is longer than I would like to admit that I was sound asleep in my faith. Blissfully slumbering away instead of watching my post that God Himself had called me to. Sure, I would get up from time to time and do some things, but I know in my heart of hearts I still had one eye on the pillow, one foot under the covers just waiting for the moment when I could crawl back in bed, turn off the lights and go back to sleep. It’s no way to live.
We sing a lot of songs at camp, you can’t even begin to imagine how many songs we sing at camp. We sing before meals, we sing after meals, we sing in the morning we sing in the evening, we sing constantly. I love it! One of the songs we sing, usually on the last day, is “Rise and Shine”. If you have ever done a VBS or children’s church or been around kids who have done either one of these things I’m sure you know it. Here, let me refresh your memory.
Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!
Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!
Rise and shine and (clap once) give God the glory, glory!
Children of the Lord.
If you didn’t sing that song in your head while you were reading it you really didn’t get the full experience. Now imagine 200 people singing it with there full voices, in a dining tent while people are dressed in costumes leading it before breakfast. Honestly, that’s how that song should be sung. However, did you know that song is scripture? It’s a take on Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” The verses is also repeated again in Ephesians 5:14, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”.
The words a powerful and meaningful and they are meant to be a literal wake up call. In Isaiah the context is God’s people finally waking up and seeing God’s glory and his beauty for what it is and experiencing the unification of the nations under One True God. Paul is reminding the readers in Ephesians that this is referring to us as Christians. That the nations are coming together, that we are to walk in love and live in way that sets us apart from the world, to be a Holy Nation. Guess what, we can’t do that if we are asleep. So its time, it’s time to wake up and start living for Jesus, it’s time to wake up and start praying for revival in your own life and the lives of your family and church. It’s time to wake up and finally cut that sinful part of your life out and to seek God every day.
If we do this, if we all do this then we will enter an age of revival unlike anything the world has ever seen. Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory you Children of the Lord!!
Brett and Bronwyn 