PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 16:31–40
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
CONSIDER THIS
He had a steady job. It wasn’t the best job in town, but it paid the bills. He was part of the winning team, the imperial power of Rome itself.
Okay, let’s be honest. He hated his job. How could he not? Yesterday we read where he was three seconds from running himself through with his own sword in response to his prisoners being unshackled by an earthquake. It didn’t matter that it was not his fault. He would take the hit. When word went up the chain on what happened, he knew he would likely become a prisoner in the very prison he had been paid to guard. This consequence felt worse than death to him.
The irony keeps getting thicker, doesn’t it? We see the prisoners set free only to discover the real captive was the guard himself. His security in the system of Rome proved to be his shackles. Even better, the prisoners who had been set free voluntarily remained imprisoned. Who does that?! Okay—Jesus does that.
Imagine yourself as the jailer, trying to comprehend the upside-downness of this situation. This poor guy, who moments ago held absolute power over these prisoners, now found himself powerless, and the prisoners who now held the power freely offered it back to him. Their escape from Alcatraz moment had come and gone. They took their get-out-of-jail-free card and handed it back to the jailer.
What on earth is going on here!? This is not how the empire works! Precisely! This is “Thy kingdom come”! This is “on earth as it is in heaven” happening here. The jailer saw it clearly; hence his question, “What must I do to be saved?”
He wasn’t asking about how to go to heaven when he died. “What must I do to be saved?” meant something more like, “How do I get out of this horribly oppressive system of power and fear and into the world you guys are living in?” He wanted out of the so-called Pax Romana and into the kingdom of God.
The Pax Romana still thrives today. It lives all around us as the mythical American Dream, and it causes millions and millions of well-meaning people to sell themselves into whatever kind of slavery it takes to acquire it. It takes a glimpse of the dream of God’s kingdom to awaken people to ask the question: How do I get out of this and into that? It’s another way of saying, “What must I do to be saved?”
Now on to the final ironic reversal of the day. Watch as the jailer washes the prisoners’ wounds; the wounds inflicted by the very system he found himself in and now wanted out of. Behold the bigger miracle afoot here: the prisoners washed the jailer. Yes! They baptized the jailer and his whole family as the Holy Spirit cleansed their wounds and initiated them into the kingdom of God as the new creation unfolded before their very eyes.
Marvel at this miracle today. Can you see yourself in it? It is happening everywhere around us all of the time.
(For you listeners out there, I’ll make a few comments in the podcast today about how much I love this country, America, and yet how loving God and seeking his kingdom has made me a much better and completely different kind of citizen.)
THE PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all Thy quickening powers.
Come shed abroad a Savior’s love,
and that will kindle ours.
—Isaac Watts, “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove”
JOURNAL PROMPTS
Are you more bought into the temporal American Dream or the eternal vision of the kingdom of God? Do you see the difference? Do you feel the tension yet? Have you realized that trading the former for the latter will actually make you a better American (or insert your own country)?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “I Stand Amazed in the Presence” (hymn 122) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here. New shipments arriving now. Use Code: WAKEUPCALL for free shipping through the end of May (does not apply to bulk orders).
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
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P.S. NEW ROOM CONFERENCE PRICE INCREASE
The next price increase for New Room Conference tickets is tomorrow! The New Room is not just a three-day event in September. It is an “on-earth-as it-is-in-heaven” space we share and hold in fellowship together. If you plan to join us in Houston, TX, now is the time to get your tickets! You can register here.
2 Responses
There’s no doubt about it in my mind, that many in our culture would place love of God and love of country on the same level. God’s Word reveals that view would to be false. I believe that this false idea is the result of 1800+ years of Christendom, the symbiotic relationship between church and state. It’s also the reason why on social media, it’s sometimes easier to see a person’s political affiliation than whether or not they’re a true disciple of Christ, or not. In my opinion, the time is near, if not already here, that every true Christian will be forced to either place their allegiance to either Jesus or the State. My hope and prayers are that we’re all prepared and that all have the sufficient grace to choose wisely.
The American Dream is subjective. The kingdom of God is objective. Nationalism is subjective. Inner transformation that gloriously sets a person free from tormenting and self-destructive thoughts, feelings, desires, and behaviors is objective. That’s why testimonies about inner transformation by the risen Jesus are so powerful. They declare and demonstrate the objective reality of the kingdom (government) of God.
True objectivity is to be influenced and led by the living God, not by your own thoughts, feelings, and desires. Although the leadings of God’s Spirit occur within a person’s innermost being, those promptings are not humanly produced. They’re the objective working of the living God.
People who can’t tell the difference between their own thoughts, feelings, and desires and the thoughts, feelings, and desires of God mistakenly believe that being led by the Holy Spirit is a subjective experience. It’s not. It’s the ultimate objective experience because it makes you intently aware of the most objective reality that exists, the presence and power of the Creator Himself.
Testimonies don’t just lecture about what Jesus in the past. They release the awe of His presence in the present moment and make people realize that the everlasting government of God is infinitely more powerful and objective than any temporary government or nation state on earth.
Almost every church in the world has at least one or two people who have been inwardly and objectively transformed and set free (in demonstratable ways) by the living Jesus. (Some churches have many.) Yet the stories of those verifiable transformations are seldom told. Instead, church people sit in silence together and every week listen to the same man talk passionlessly about something Jesus did in the past (or about positive thinking).
O that the body of Christ would return to what Revelation 12:11 reveals. We can overcome our bondage to subjectivity by three things: 1) the blood of Jesus (His sacrifice on the Cross to set us free), 2) the word of our testimony about how the risen Jesus is objectively living, working, and speaking inside of us, and 3) by not loving or focusing on the subjectivity of our own life and self-interest.
The subjectivity of human opinion and human nationalism passes away. The objectivity of God’s perspective and kingdom is forever. Which one are you clinging to for dear life?