The Need for a Wake Up Call

"This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, You may rejoice, I must mourn."
-Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

#AwakenAmerica T-Shirt
by Lifepath08

I state this plainly and with limit idea how it might strike home for others: America needs to wake up.

I say this to those who look like me and stand with me: American minorities need to wake up.

I say this to those who work and remain poor as well as those who struggle and strive to survive from paycheck to paycheck, even those who have no employment and no foreseeable means of employment in the near future: America's working class needs to wake up.

If we do not wake up, we are doomed.

We will be doomed to repeat the last 4 years. We will be doomed to see racial tensions grow to the full extent of the law and boil over into bloodbaths and mayhem. We will be doomed to see the shrinking value of a dollar right before our own eyes. We will be doomed.

We will be doomed if we do not take an active role in the political process. We will be doomed if we sit back and expect the others to carry the weight of this election. We will be doomed if we simply accept what has passed for representation in the past as valid assurance that things will get better by and by.

Wake up and wise up.

We have to get active and mobilized, educating and empowering the average voter on how to use the power of his or her vote and voice.

#AwakenAmerica #vote2020

Revisit how 2008 was won based on concepts like HOPE, CHANGE, and YES WE CAN. Can we do something like that again?

From Eden to Egypt- - Day 47

Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
- Genesis 42:6 (NIV)

Did you remember that Joseph had a dream? Yeah.  I am talking about the dream that he shared with his brothers.  That's the one.  In verse 4, it says that they hated him and couldn't find a good thing to say about him.  then, in verse 5, it escalates a notch and it says that they "hated him even more."  Yet, when you get to verse 8, it ends with these words: So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 

Their hate went so far as to hate the dreamer, his dreams, and his words.  These were his blood, his family, and his brothers.  Yet, they hated him.  Imagine the unsettled hostility at the dinner table.  Think about how their seething hatred towards him must have kept growing as he talked among them.  They truly hated Joseph.

Fast forward some years and enter into Genesis 42.  A famine strikes the land of Canaan.  No Burt Lancaster cannot come into the land of Canaan with his dividing rod and find water buried beneath the earth.  Jacob directs his sons to do something to preserve their family, seeking grain in Egypt.  So, when this band of brothers arrive, minus their "dead" brother and Jacob's other favored son Benjamin, the find the man who has charge over all of the grain in the land.  They come to that man and bow their heads.

Joseph's dream came true.  He may not have been ready for it, but it came true.  He may not have thought that his day would involve an interaction with those who had told his father that he was dead, but it came upon him in an instant.  Joseph's dream came true as he stood over his brothers who bowed and prostrated themselves with their faces to the ground before him.

Take note that others may despise and hate you all that they want to, but you don't have to buy into it.  You don't have to do the same.  You can uphold the Golden Rule, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Set yourself apart from the fray and the ruckus of low level thinking and behavior.  Be a model of patience and obedience for others.  Surely, as we see with Joseph, your day will come.  Hopefully, you will be able to say like Joseph: So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

One Question

"Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.”- Paul Robeson (singer, actor & activist)

Artists must learn to become activists.  Artists must somehow yearn to become activists who speak up and speak out, giving an artistic voice to the voiceless and raising some sense of cultural and social consciousness in the society that surrounds them.  Without doing so, the artist leaves a void instead of a legacy along with a mere dent rather than an impression on life in his or her times.

One Question (originally, published in Words from the Underground by Bruce Jackson)

There is an alert.

Someone sounded the alarm.

They sang out like a herald,

Crying out for change.

Someone said something must be done.

Yet, I raise a question:

Who will do it?

Who will lead the change?

The ones who ask for it merely scatter.

The ones who said it was necessary cringed.

No one stepped up.

No one stepped out.

Who will lead the change?

Who will it be?

 
The question lingers on.  Will you lead the change?  Answer for yourself.

From Eden to Egypt Day 22

1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. -Genesis 17:1-2 (KJV)

5Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. - Genesis 17:5 (KJV)

God does something new with a ninety-nine year old man.  He offers a new relationship with Abraham.  He starts by using a new name for Himself- the Almighty God (El Shaddai).  He shares this with Abraham as He introduces a covenant between Him and Abraham and his descendants.  He even changes Abraham's name from Abram to Abraham ("exalted father").

Think about it.  You have been on this journey for a while.  You have been walking humbly and earnestly before the Lord.  Now, all of a sudden, He wants you to make some changes.  Don't you think that He would change some things around you to make you more aware and to get your attention? He may not change your name, but He certainly could change your heart.  He could change the way that you see the poor and the needy, the hurting, the oppressed and the afflicted.  God can change things enough to lead you to change.

What if God has already changed the things around you? Are you still awaiting more? Do you want to see more before you make a move? Think about it.  He's calling you as El Shaddai.  He's calling you as the Almighty God.  See how He desires you to change and enter into a deeper relationship with Him.  See how He wants you to extend yourself in this relationship.  Then, once you have set your heart upon it, go to the utter limits.  Go with God.

From Eden to Egypt- Day 12

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.- Gen. 5:21-22 (ESV)

 

Change can come in many forms.  We may have different causes for our change, but we need to ready ourselves for change.  We need to prepare for it as much as possible.  You may never see it coming down pipe, but you still need to ready yourself for the day it comes.  Sam Cooke sang: "Change gonna come." In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said,"In everything there is change."

My suggestion is that you be so prayed up and prepared that no change catches you by surprise.  You need to downsize your home.  It will come one day.  Your children will move out.  Hope and pray that you have done all that you can to prepare them.  Your job is laying off people in every department.  Think over your next career move.  Your wife just said that she's pregnant.  Get yourself ready, buddy.

I have always been amazed about Enoch's walk.  Not only did he walk with God, but he walked with Him and "he was not" due to the fact that God did not let him see death.  The New International Version says: "he was no more." Let's take a factual approach to this.  He was gone.  He was out of everyone's sight.  You could have turned over every rock east of Eden and still never would have found Enoch.

Why?

God's sovereignty.  God did with Enoch as He does with us all.  He did whatever He chose to do with Enoch.  Let's not get this theologically twisted.  Let's not dummy-down the doctrine here. 


Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.- Psalm 115:3 (NIV)

He is sovereign.  Yes, Enoch walked differently due to his son being born.  He walked with the Lord.  Yet, we tend to stress the goodness of Enoch and his walk, not the greatness of God who "took him away." 

Look at God and His power.  Who but God could open up heaven and allow on such as Enoch to walk in? Who but God could look from on high and be considerate of the ways of man, still saying that there is none that does good; no, not one? We have to pay more homage and honor to God for His goodness because He is holy.  Enoch shows us the power of God, not a perfect example of submission.  Don't put too much emphasis on Enoch when you need to see the power and might of the Lord at work in Enoch's life.  Surely, through His power, He can bring about change.

The Found Prophet

14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:

“I was no prophet,

Nor was I a son of a prophet,

But I was a sheepbreeder

And a tender of sycamore fruit.

15 Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock,

And the Lord said to me,

‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

- Amos 7:14-15 (NKJV)

Amos' defense of himself in response to Amaziah's accusations of him let us know that Amos was "no prophet" and certainly not "a son of prophet."  Among the prophets of the Old Testament, we discover that Amos was not of a priestly lineage like Jeremiah or Isaiah.  Amos was a "herdsman" who "followed the flock."  In fact, it is Amos' claim that God found him as he "followed the flock" as "sheepbreeder."
 
The Lord will seek us out in order to get us sparked.  He will seek us out to get us started.  He will seek us out to show us or send us, even to summon us.  He initiates something within us that causes us to respond to His call upon our lives.
 
Once we have been found by the Lord, we begin to start. . .

• Seeking the Lord
• Serving the Lord
• Satisfying the Lord

Think hard about it.  When did God call you? Where did He find you?

God expects a response to His call. He waits on the weary soul that has been beckoned. He awaits a change to come over the one who has been summoned.

Did you start seeking Him? Did you start serving Him? Did you start satisfying God?

Respond to God bidding you.  He sought you out for a purpose. Don't resist or rebel.