Awareness

AWARENESS

Awareness is crucial to survival, yet many people are unaware of this critical truth--therefore, they will not survive.

"Therefore evil will come on you; you won't know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know" (Is. 47:11).

It saddens me greatly to see a world intent on pursuing temporary pleasures of little significance while ignoring eternal matters of supreme importance, such as the eternal fate of one's soul. Because of this, they will not survive death and God's judgment. Their unawareness of the importance of the condition of their soul before God will doom them to an eternity apart from him.

I still remember well reading long ago an article in the newspaper by a famous advice columnist. A reader had written in asking for advice about her boyfriend's talk about hell. She wanted to know what this famous advice columnist thought about hell. Her reply? I was astounded to read that she said, "Well, I have never really thought about it." Never thought about it? Astonishing! The possibility that she herself might someday wind up in the ultimate place of suffering for eternity--and she has never thought about it? Yet here she was, looked up to around the world as a wise person, full of useful advice to everyone about life. But I ask you, what good is such advice about living if one does not know how to prepare for dying, as God and Scripture advise us to do?

"Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?"  (Jer 8:9).

It is bad enough when so many never stop to consider what is going to happen to them when they die; it is far worse when a person of influence over multitudes of people does the same, for they will follow this person into the eternal darkness.

"Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?" (Lk. 6:39).

I do not want anyone to go from this life into eternal darkness. That is one reason I have written numerous articles and posted them on this site and various other places on the internet (http://www.christianblog.com/archive/wisdomsfriend/ ; http://spirit-filled-devotions.blogspot.com/): I want to warn as many as I can to wake up from their complacency and consider their eternal destiny. In doing this, I am simply echoing the words of the preacher as recorded in Ecclesiastes:

"Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart"  (Eccl. 7:2).

We should indeed take this to heart . . . but so few do. Rather, they are like the people of ancient Jerusalem, whose complacency alarmed the prophet Jeremiah and caused him to declare of her:

"She did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding" (Lam. 1:9).

The prophet's words apply just as well today. So many are wrapped up in pursuing comfort, while so few even think about where it will all lead. They do not consider their future, only the pleasure of the moment. Therefore, their fall will be astounding. No wonder the book of the Bible from which the above quote is taken is called Lamentations. How sad! We should lament with the author at the fatal lack of awareness of so many, whether in one part of the world, as in the Jerusalem of his day to which he spoke, or in the world today as a whole. Wherever or whenever it is found, lack of awareness of what life is all about and its brevity and seriousness is just cause for lamentation.

But it is one thing simply to lament the sad spiritual state of a people; it is another to do something about it. That is the Great Commission (Mt. 28:19,20) that Jesus gave to those who call themselves by his name: to wake up the people of this world to their dangerous spiritual condition, to make them aware of the coming judgment and the only way be saved from condemnation in that judgment: to make them aware of Jesus. The light of the morning star, Jesus Christ,  shining in the darkness of the human heart, is the only cure for unawareness:

"We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Ptr. 1:19).

Jesus said "I am the light of the world (Isaiah 60:1). He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life" (Jn. 8:12).

Darkness obscures and hides. Light reveals; it enables one to have awareness. Jesus is the light that brings awareness to one's heart and being. He shows us the reality which we inhabit, especially the reality of our own heart.

But that, of course, is precisely the reality that the human heart does not want to see, for the reality is that the human heart is, by nature, opposed to God; it wants to live for self instead of for him who created it to live for God.

"This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn't come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. (Jn 3:19,20).

Nevertheless, those who truly love the truth will let God's searching light into their hearts, because they know that truth and reality do not disappear simply because one refuses to accept them. Truth and reality are stronger than one's wishes, stronger than the human heart's desire to conceal its sinful nature. Therefore the wise person will let the Son shine in his heart to reveal the truth. These are those who love the truth, who is Jesus (Jn. 14:6).

"But the one doing the truth comes to the Light) (Jn. 3:21).

So it is that the world is divided into two groups: those who love darkness because it hides (they think) their heart's desire to do evil, and those who love the light even though it exposes this same evil in their own hearts. They love the truth more than their own lives.

"They do not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" (Rev. 12:11).

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 9:15).

Even though the light of God searching their heart reveals the sin within that heart and exposes them; even though this bringing to the light of their own sin rightly condemns them to death; even so, they trust the God who is light when he says that through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, that just sentence of death will not kill them, for he has promised them that though they die (physically), they will not die (spiritually).

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (Jn. 11:25,26).

That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But before people will accept this good news, they must first be aware that they need it. One way to help make them aware of their need for Jesus as Savior is to remind them of their own mortality. No wonder the psalmist cries out:

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting is my life" (Ps 39:4).

"Remember how short my time is! For what vanity have you created all the children of men! What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol" (Ps. 89:47,48).

Notice that in this last passage we are given not only a warning to become aware of the brevity of life and its seriousness, but are also given the one source where we can find the cure for any lack of awareness: We obtain it from God, the One who is aware of all our sins:

"They don't consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face" ( Hos. 7:2).

Every person alive needs to consider while yet alive his own lack of holiness before a holy God . If this is not done, then that person will die in that uncleanness and forever forfeit the heritage of heaven that could have been his.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (Jonah 2:8).

We tend to think of idols as being carved images of stone or wood that ignorant people worship. But the truth is, anything that takes the place of God in our hearts and lives is an idol. And without a doubt, the single-most common idol is self. Self, however, is a worthless idol, for self cannot save self from death.

"All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can't keep his soul alive" (Ps 22:29).

"What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol" (Ps 89:48).

If self cannot save self, then it is an idol with no power. How foolish to trust in something that cannot save.

"Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before" (Isaiah 47:14).

"All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame" (Is. 44:9).

"They are ignorant . . ." In other words, they are unaware. They will remain ignorant and unaware as long as they refuse the light of Christ in their hearts. For stubborn refusal of the light of God brings ever-increasing darkness, so that the heart grows in hardness until it is finally abandoned by the Lord to its own desire to be apart from God.

"Because, knowing God, they didn't glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened" (Rom. 1:21).

"Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (Rom. 1:28).

This is the terrifying end to which unawareness leads: to end up with no awareness of him who is the source of all that is good in life. This is the life of drab existence only, not life, an existence of going through the motions with no enjoyment of life.

"For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?" (Eccl. 2:25).

Indeed. But that is just one side of awareness, the side of lack. There is another side, the side of fullness. Even as there are those who are unaware of God and want to stay that way, so are those whose passion is to become more and more aware each day of this wonderful, magnificent, gracious God who is the all in all of their life. While the unaware pull back into the shadows and darkness, these others run into the light, wanting all the light God offers to them.

"But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light" (Jn. 3:21).

This is what God wants us to do, to come into the light with a heart yearning for that light, for him. And we need to do this with a sense of urgency, for the time to do this is growing very, very short. There is very little time left to put off our unawareness and to become fully aware of God and his ownership of us. We must do this and do it quickly.

"Do this, understanding the present time. The hour has com for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here" (Rom. 13:11,12).

Even though a believer in Christ, a Christian, has become aware of his own sinfulness and also aware of God's provision to save us from that sinfulness that separates us from him--even though this is so, we must not sit back content in this awareness. For like everything else in life, awareness has degrees. The first step in our walk of faith with God is not the last step; there are many steps of growth in between.

So God calls us to increasing awareness of him and his demands and desires for us in our walk with him. We are to grow in awareness, just as we are to grow in all others of our relationship with him. The knowledge of each other and the relationship with each other that a man and a woman have on their wedding day is not the same as that which they have after many years of marriage. They grow in that relationship, and so are we to grow in our relationship with our heavenly bridegroom.

This piece of writing that you are now reading is meant to be a call for you to wake up and ask the Lord to give you ever-increasing awareness of him. For the day of judgment approaches, when each person's relationship with the Lord will be revealed. Some do not see that day approaching, when God's hand of judgment is raised to strike the earth, and they will suffer for their lack of awareness and lack of saving relationship with God.

"O Lord, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see" (Isaiah 26:11).

Others--those who are aware of God and the coming judgment and have prepared themselves for it by being found in Jesus Christ--they are not only aware but have sharpened that awareness through the Holy Spirit, who makes one aware of Jesus, to the extent that they hear him speak to them even when asleep.

"I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks" (SS. 5:2).

To which of these two groups do you belong? Are you aware of your need for the Lord Jesus Christ to make you acceptable to God, before his judgment falls upon this earth and upon you? Are you aware of the late hour? Do you see his hand raised to strike this earth in judgment? The signs are all around us and increasing in frequency and intensity.  Those who have the awareness provided by the Lord to those who call upon him see it. I pray that this article will help you to see even more and help motivate you to call out for more awareness of God and his coming judgment as well as his grace provided for all in Jesus Christ.