The 21st Century Retooling of the Church – Part LXI
I can’t shake this question, “Who Is My Brother’s Keeper”? It keep resounding in my head. “Who is My Brother’s Keeper?”
In church yesterday, we sang a chorus about revival and an awakening. I can’t help remember Keith Green’s classic song, “Asleep In The Light,” and the impact it had on me when it was first released. The church needs to again listen to its lyrics:
Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don’t you care, don’t you care are you gonna let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. “Oh bless me lord, bless me lord,” you know its all I ever hear. No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear, but he cries, he weeps he bleeds, and he cares for your needs. You just lay back and keep soaking it in. Oh, can’t you see it’s such a sin. ‘Cause he brings people to your door, and you turn them away, as you smile and say, “God bless you, be at peace,” and all heaven just weeps ‘cause Jesus came to your door and You’ve left him out on the streets. Open up, Open up, and give yourself away. You seed the need, you hear the cries, so how can you delay? God’s calling, and you’re the one, but like Jonah you run. He’s told you to speak, but you keep holding it in, oh, can’t you see it’s such sin. The world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can’t fight ‘cause it’s asleep in the light. How can you be so dead when you’ve been so well fed. Jesus rose from the grave and you, you can’t even get out of bed. Oh, Jesus rose from the dead. Come on get out of your bed. How can you be so numb, not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. Don’t close your eyes, don’t pretend the jobs done. “Come away, come away, come away with me my love. Come away, come away, come away with me my love.”
The lyrics are so relevant today, almost 30 years after they were written. Here we are praying for an “awakening” and the price of that “awakening” streams through my mind through Keith Green’s lyrics. In order to experience this “awakening” will take “brokenness”. Brokenness is always an ingredient to revival. Until we completely surrender to the Lord, allow His Holy Spirit to take the lead, we will not experience the revival we seek. The “Great Awakening” of the 1700’s swept America with the call of repentance. That cry is going forth two and a half centuries later!
It may be prophetic, but I believe the church in America is about to get what it has been praying for. Joining the cause of smaller government, budget reductions, and tax relief, will come the responsibility for the Church to do Mathew 25 as I shared in my last blog. A response to Keith Green’s song will become a reality. The sleeping giant, the Church, will again be called to rise up and take care of the poor, the sick, the widows, the elderly, the lost, the dying, etc. It will take sacrifice, faith, grace, mercy, and love, all ingredients the Holy Spirit has to offer.
I remember standing in a crowd at an Jesus rally in the ‘70’s hearing Keith sing his song and thinking what a “tough” word it was. His prophetic message hasn’t softened, but our response to it has. Awake church! Now is the time for retooling, redoing, reviving, renewal, rebirthing, but it will come with a price. My questions is “Is the Church willing to pay that price” or better yet, “Am I/You willing to pay that price?” And the questions still resounds in my head, “Who is My Brother’s Keeper?”