Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
The Kodiak bear is one of the largest bear species in the world, running in second place only to the polar bear. They are native to Alaska and can weigh up to three quarters of a ton! They can tower upright over 10 ft tall, almost like a Goliath of the woods. But when the weather begins to cool down, they will begin filling themselves up on incredible amounts of food so they can endure the long winter months. Like other grizzlies, a normal hibernation period for them is between 5 and 7 months long, give or take considering the cold and their location. They might wake up for a little bit, but like shifting around on your bed in the middle of night, they will flip over and hit the sack again for another month or two. They don’t even eat during hibernation, not even a Dagwood bumstead sandwich for a snack in the middle of the night! Before hibernation they will store up huge fat reserves, and when they sleep, they can slow their heart and breathing rate down to the bare minimum, with a 75% decrease in their metabolism. You might think they need to get up to use the bathroom occasionally, but that is not the case. They actually recycle their waste and reuse it in their body during the whole time of hibernation. No need to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, because they are sleeping, and don’t want to be bothered with those human frivolities.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Like the Kodiak, many people are hibernating, but the den that they are sleeping in is deep inside of their hearts. Oh sure they might look alive, and even perform different tasks and duties during their day, but like putting a child to bed.and watching them close their eyes, many people have closed their eyes to biblical truth and have fallen fast asleep in their unrepented sins.
1 Corinthians 15:34 (KJB) Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
Like a bear in hibernation, when you are asleep, you really are not conscious of what is going on around you. On the other hand, if somebody is awake, they will be very alert to their surroundings. The Apostle was trying to wake up the church, kind of like a dad who goes into the bedroom and tries to shake their child out of sleep. The church needed to open up their eyes to the truth, and turn away from the darkness of sinful living, walking on the path of repentance and turning to the light.
Romans 13:11-14 (KJB) 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. 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. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Each day that passes, we are one day closer to the judgment. With that in mind, people should be taking advantage of every opportunity that they have been given, to walk in the will of God and obedience to His calling and purpose. Someday life on this Earth will come to an abrupt end, and at that point, the chance to repent will be over. Jesus wants men to come to a place of repentance, but if they are too hard-hearted to do that, then the only option available to them is to face His wrath.
Romans 2:5-11 (KJB) But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.
In order to be successful in the Christian Life you must have the quality of being circumspect, which is to consider the consequences for what you do, before you actually do them. It is to be cautious to avoid pitfalls or mistakes. Someone might ask you to rob a bank, but being circumspect means that you tell them no simply because the consequences for doing that is a stretch in prison. Life is filled with consequences both good and bad ones! There are simply a result of the choices that you make everyday. Some people’s minds are in complete hibernation, because rather than being alert and making decisions based in the teachings of scripture, they make foolish choices and don’t even think about the outcome.
Ephesians 5:14-17 (KJB) Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Many times when you try to wake somebody up, they simply won’t hear a thing that you are saying. You might wake a child up in the morning for school and tell them to get their backpack ready, but when you come back twenty minutes later, they never did anything and they are still fast asleep! The same type of thing goes on within the church. Their hearts and minds go into hibernation mode, and although they might listen to somebody preaching, it goes in one ear and out the other. The entire message is lost because they are dull of hearing.
Hebrews 5:11-12 (KJB) Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
So, when you are awake, you will remember things, rather than forget about them, and you certainly never want to forget about the person that got expects you to become.
James 1:23-25 (KJB) For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
So make sure that you are completely awake and alert to the lives that we must live for our precious Lord Jesus, because you never want to fall fast asleep and back into hibernation mode, otherwise the life that you profess for Christ, will become incredibly reminiscent of,……
…….The Kodiak
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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