Waketh part 5
"Waketh" appears two times in the King James Version of the Bible. We used one of them, Song of Solomon 5:2, as our key verse for this Rant series. "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." So to end this Rant series we'll use the other one. Psalm 127:1, "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." And that's the whole point of the whole thing: Jesus came to wake us from sleep. Its not what WE do, its what HE does in us, and through us, and as us. Unless God--unless LOVE--is involved, all is vanity. And that's what He woke us up to--Himself. Love. No matter what WE do, unless we let HIM do it (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us... its no good. We don't try to live Jesus' life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. Our true identity is who we are in Christ. Who Christ is in us. That's what our heart knew, even when we were asleep. The deep calls out to the deep. Real recognizes real. The light in me responds to the light in you. The LOVE in me responds to the LOVE in you! That's what it means to get woke. That's what it means to awake to righteousness and sin not. It doesn't mean we have to sin not in order to awake to righteousness. That's backwards. WHEN we awake to righteousness we WILL sin not. And not by trying really hard to be good either. We will do it naturally. When we understand our true nature--the love nature--everything we do will flow from that. Labor and works (which don't work) will be taken out of the equation, and we will flow in the living water of God. The living water of love! So here's what I'm trying to say: Its all love. Its all Jesus. HE came to wake us up. To rouse us from sleep. To bring us out of death and into life. And the difference between life and death... is love. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love each other. Love is the proof of life. But when you're just going through the motions--or worse yet, chasing it... trying to earn it--you miss it. And sometimes you've settled for so much less that you don't even realize what's missing. You don't even realize what's available to you. There's a more excellent way. And His name is Jesus. His name is love. So don't try to build the house by yourself. Let the Carpenter build it (and, as always, I know carpenters build furniture, but its a still a pretty good turn of phrase). Don't try to keep watch without letting the Lord keep the city. Do whatever you do because its in your heart to do it. Because love made you do it. Do whatever you do because you're resting, and letting Jesus do whatever HE wants to do. Wake up to who you really are, and stop trying to be someone you're not. Generally speaking, when you're awake, the light is shining. The light of the world. Which is Jesus. Which is love. Which is YOU!