Woke!

Redeeming The Time Brothers

Character challenge by Gene Kissinger

RTTBROS  blog and FB page

A quote from one of my favorite movie characters Inigo Montoya from "The Princess Bride"...
"Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

like inconceivable, I would like to look at another word we are pretty sketchy about the meaning of....

Woke!

Woke is a term thrown around a lot these days it has been defined this way "Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term it refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice"
it seems that ever one is "woke" if we are to believe our daily social media deluge. It got me wondering if I am biblically Woke. Here is a telling passage out of Paul's magnum opus the book of Romans 13:11-13

11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Paul understood the real meaning of WOKE!
He understood not just the frustration of the conditions humanity finds itself in, he saw the solution, it was a spiritual awakening.
When my brother Norman says "all problems are spiritual problems" he is hot on Paul's theological trail in chasing down the real awakening needed by the world at large and each of us in particular.

*Salvation is the spiritually woke banner we march toward and under. Rom 13:11 '....it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

*Urgency calls the cadence of our spiritually woke march to Zion.  "12a "The night is far spent, the day is at hand..."

*Right Action not just empty words are the marching order of being spiritually woke.
Rom 13:12b "...let us therefore cast off the works of darkness..."

*Spiritual armor is the war wardrobe of the spiritually woke soldier. Rom 13:12c "...and let us put on the armour of light."
see also Eph. 6

*A spiritually woke person walks in integrity.
Think of Daniel and Joseph in the old testament and you will be on point with this.
Rom 13:13a "Let us walk honestly, as in the day,

lastly a spiritually woke soldier doesn't get entangled in the affairs of this world.
Rom 13:13 b " ..not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying"

The puritans get short shrift in our modern cultural dialog. They are portrayed as backward judgmental pharisees. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Pastor and Author Robert J. Morgan who studied and writes a lot about the spiritual history in America wrote this about the Puritans.

"  Did you know the best Christian thinkers, preachers, and scholars–many coming out of Cambridge in England–migrated in droves to America? Did you know the nation’s first democratic constitution was established by a Puritan minister in Connecticut? Learn the fascinating story about the providential migration of these wise and committed Christians who built the foundation for a democracy of free individuals and autonomous churches derived from Biblical principles"

These Puritans were "WOKE" in the best sense of the word to the spiritual realities of life and they didn't let themselves drift back into spiritual somnolence. I conclude with a famous Puritan prayer may it also be our prayer.

"O my Saviour,
  Help me.
      I am so slow to learn,
     so prone to forget,
     so weak to climb;
  I am in the foothills when I should be     on the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,     my prayerless days,
     my poverty of love,
     my sloth in the heavenly race,
     my sullied conscience,
     my wasted hours,
     my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:     take the scales from my eyes,
     grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.   Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,     meditate on thee,
     gaze on thee,
     sit like Mary at thy feet,
     lean like John on thy breast,
     appeal like Peter to thy love,
     count like Paul all things dung.
  Give me increase and progress in grace        so that there may be
     more decision in my character,
     more vigour in my purposes,
     more elevation in my life,
     more fervour in my devotion,
     more constancy in my zeal.
  As I have a position in the world,
     keep me from making the world my position; May I never seek in the creature     what can be found only in the Creator; Let not faith cease from seeking thee
     until it vanishes into sight. Ride forth in me, thou King of kings
        and Lord of lords,
     that I may live victoriously,
        and in victory attain my end.” 

(Taken from ‘The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers,’ edited by Arthur Bennett)