Our friend Bradford Smith has just moved into town and is staying with us for a few nights. I let him borrow my alarm clock so he could be on time for his exciting new job and I pulled Bobby’s old alarm clock out of the hall closet to use in the interim. My clock gives a soothing beep-beep-beep as the wake-up. What a shock to wake up to the old one. I couldn’t believe that obnoxiously loud buzzing was coming from inside our apartment, let alone right next to my head! I told Bobby I had a whole new perspective on why he didn’t like mornings.
Mornings are not Bobby’s favorite time of the day. He prefers to sleep in, wake up at his leisure, and even when he is up and about he still says, “I’m not all the way awake yet.” I didn’t get this too quickly because I enjoy mornings. I love starting a new day. When I wake up I open all the curtains and a window or two when the weather permits. I’m usually well-rested and ready to go. I thought I’d help Bobby with his morning plight by getting him a CD player clock. He can set his favorite songs as the wake-up tune and toss out the old buzzing alarm. I think my plan backfired on me because he would get a CD all set for the morning. When the time came the first song would play, the second, and the third…I realized that instead of waking up grumpy, but quickly to the obnoxious buzzing, his morning wake-up took a 12 track CD now!
Today was different. Bobby was up and at ‘em at 7:15 this morning, ready to go and off to work and quite chipper about it I might add. Maybe it had something to do with the music he set or possibly the new lessons he’s teaching on called “Alive”. Either way, I found this change of the habit to be very inspiring. So much so I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve been learning with Bobby about being ALIVE!
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose life,
that both you and your descendants may live,
that you may love the Lord your God,
that you may obey His voice,
and that you may cling to Him,
for He is your life and the length of your days.”
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
In this passage Moses is exhorting the Israelites to make a decision before God and man to believe in and love the Lord. This choice is required of all mankind. Bobby said, “Right now all people fall into one of two categories: alive or perishing.” We tend to place the importance on spiritual life with death. People always ask the question, “Do you know where you’ll go when you die?” But a better question is “Do you know where you are right now?” Spiritual life is not something that begins at death, it begins at salvation and never ceases. Eternal life is a part of how you live now. Either you are living as one alive in Christ, or perishing without Him.
“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:11
Bobby taught on this the weekend that his grandma died. He asked the students, “How many of you have known someone who has died?” Almost everyone in the room raised their hand. Then he asked, “How many of you have seen that person since?” No hands. “That is how you must be to sin,” he said “Dead to it.” I was challenged by this because I know it can be easy to go through life with a passive day-to-day apathy. I can see now that this is not what life ought to be. In the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 30 we are to love the Lord, obey His voice and cling to Him. These three commands don’t sound like they would lead those who believe down a boring, mundane or hopeless path. It sounds like an exciting path of trust, change and hope.
Perhaps no other passage better captures the essence of what it is to be alive than Ephesians 2. In the first three verses Paul shows how we were so lost in our sin, how awful we were and separated from God. Then in verses four to ten he proclaims the freeing reality that in God’s amazing grace we are saved and set apart to new life in Him.
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
in which you once walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
among whom also we once conducted ourselves
in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind
and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.
But God, who is rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ,
by grace you have been saved,
and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the age to come He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith
and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Some of Bobby’s students told him that a speaker at their Christian school’s chapel had said that people all can be divided spiritually in the following percentages: 10% Christians, 10% non-Christians, 80% in the middle. I remember Bobby sharing this with me, shaking his head and saying, “That’s a lie, you’re either choosing life or death right now today.” What are you choosing?