“I Would Like to Raise Awareness”
It is pink day or blue day or green day. Wear this color to raise awareness for this cause or that. You just received a Facebook challenge from a friend to do pushups, or have water poured over your head, or you are supposed to copy and paste a certain message to your wall. Everybody wants to raise awareness about everything these days. It may be cancer, or something political, or some travesty, or some compassionate plea for those who are hurting and need support. This is all fine and good. But I would like to raise awareness about a few things myself.
1. I want to raise awareness that people are lost. This includes some people who are religious and all people who are not religious (Matt. 7:21-23). The majority of the people in this world are not going to go to heaven (Matt. 7:13-14). So we need to preach the gospel and reach those people who have never heard the truth, or who have been persuaded by that which is false.
2. I want to raise awareness concerning the Bible. This past Sunday evening we had a speaker at our congregation who asked people to turn to Acts 29. Half the church tried to turn there. There is no Acts 29! We need to read our Bibles more. Even people who are Christians don’t know the Bible like they used to. I am astonished and confused and sometimes even disillusioned at how little people know about God’s book.
3. I want to raise awareness about the church. Yes, the church. Not the church on the corner, and not the church in the phone book. But simply the one church that Jesus built, the one body of Ephesians 4:4-6. I want people to know that there truly is only one church and that outside of the body of Christ salvation is impossible. I want there to be awareness that Jesus purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28) – that when He was on the cross He was in death actually building His church. And if the church is worth dying for to Christ it ought to be worth dying for to me.
4. Finally, I want to raise awareness about Jesus. Taking guns away is not going to fix our problem. Marches are not going to fix the problem. Knowing about the situation we are dealing with is not the solution to the problem. Laws being passed and certain people being elected….these won’t fix the problem either. Only Jesus can fix it. Only His love, His cross, His words, His promises, and His example can ever fix the problems with our world, and with me and you.
So while everyone else is wearing different colors and making public statements raising awareness for all of these troubles we are facing in the world, I would like to raise awareness about the solution. We need to recognize we are lost, consult the Bible, locate the church, and let Jesus save us.
If we are going to be aware of anything, let’s be aware of the things that eternally matter.
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” – Eph. 5:15-17
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