Shaken Awake

You have one chance, and for many of us including myself, it’s more than half over….what are you doing with your time and free will – it’s the two most precious assets God has given you to do His will.

How much love, obedience, faith, and action will you place in the remainder of your days that are not self-serving, but will be put towards doing the will of the Father? That amount is ENTIRELY in YOUR HANDS.

The enemy has been so successful your entire life having you believe the lie that you have all the time to do good. All the time to be a good and faithful servant. All the time to do the wil of the Father. All the time to turn things around. All the time to put off till tomorrow what God says shall be done today. All the time left to pull out a win. All the time left to make up for lost time. All the time left to make an impact for the Kingdom. All the time left to be faithfully obedient and consistent and love and obedience to Him and your neighbor. All the time left to do the things you should have always done but didn’t. All the time left……but there’s not time left. When the last speck of sand hits the bottom of your hourglass and God calls you home…..there is NO time left afterwards. The race is over. Your chance at life ceases to ever continue again. There is not a second that remains or will ever remain again – FOR ETERNITY!!!!!!!! THEREFORE, HOW precious is your life right now? This is what the enemy fears most – it’s what you’ll decide to do with it from this second on.

Shaken Awake gets shaken away by Korey Burris - the man whom God would not allow to die. Growing up under severe family abuse, suicide of his best friend, and his own attempt at suicide that almost ended his life, 54 reconstructive surgeries, to more chaos with drug and alcohol abuse, to time in jail and prison, to a life where most can't image - God came and shook Korey awake. From Chaos to Glory. And from glory to glory to glory - how God used a broken man to come back to life and make it his prime mission to serve God with everything he has and to help others overcome what he almost couldn't. This is an amazing testimony to the Almighty God we serve, and to those, like Korey and the Apostle Paul, that take what the enemy meant for evil, and use it for good. Korey is now a licensed and ordained Chaplin and a certified clinical Christian counselor. Let's support Korey Burris in his mission to help others that are in need, suicidal, and living a life in pain. He's got one mission in life now - to run the race God has set before him and be the good and faithful servant God's called him to be. You DON'T want to miss this episode!!!! Links are provided in the show notes on how to contact and/or support Korey Burris.

BE THE LIGHT! We can shine in this dark world. However, we must remember where the light originated and then step out with a willing heart. Don’t for a moment think a small little flicker won’t make a difference. It will!

I hope that each of us, each of you, will let Jesus shine in our world during this season we’re in, and beyond. We will reflect God’s love for others through our light, and we will be a light in this dark world.

Sodom & Gomorrah never had a beacon of light like you…. like you that America does have right now – don’t ever forget or neglect that. You are a huge factor in how God uses people to lead them to Him and be saved from eternal destruction.

No matter how insignificant you may feel, living in a country of darkness and sin, you are still a perfect match that’s in God’s perfect matchbook, to be used as a flicker of light to take away the darkness in others’ lives.

When will you actually believe that and take God’s hand and strike your match that He has given you?

The beatitudes, statements of characteristics and blessing, are part of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus spoke and is recorded in the book of Matthew. Each beatitude looks at different circumstances of life and how all Christians are blessed through their faith. Through these 8 Beatitudes, Jesus teaches of virtues and values in life that will result in blessings and rewards. These beatitudes are not singled out for specific people - they are blessings applicable to all Christians.

These Scriptures will encourage you and give you hope as you face each day knowing that you are called blessed! No matter your age, job, or family role, if you apply the beatitudes to your life you will experience a joyful, fulfilled life!

The world, the god of this world (satan), and the distractions in it and of it hold the same value that misdirection and sleight of hand to a magician holds to his performance. If he can get his audience to be redirected and focused on something else, it allows him to not only perform his work, but in a matter that keeps the audience members entertained and thrilled with the performance and the time spent watching the show. You see, it’s all a show. It’s a staged performance. That, my friends are what the devil and the powers of darkness use the world and those in it to do to you. They’ve done this for thousands of years…. They are really, really, REALLY good at it.

God placed us here to do His will; that is, if you are His child. If you are one of the wicked and unsaved, you will not spend your life doing His will. No one that goes to Heaven goes there because they were “Good” on the earth during their lifetime. In fact, we will see many that were plain evil on earth when we knew them, up in Heaven with us when we get there because at some point, they surrendered themselves to the Lord, believed in Jesus and the resurrection, and were convicted of their sinful nature and not only did they, from their heart ask for forgiveness, they actually repented of their sinful ways and turned from their wicked ways and lived for Christ alone, and no longer for themselves. THAT is who goes to Heaven.

So today, we’ll focus on 5 ways (there are more, trust God on that one), but these are 5 that worked well for me and other brothers and sisters that I know. They take effort, they take awareness, and they take discipline; then again, doesn’t anything good that is accomplished take those 3 things? Of course – as the saying goes, nothing good comes easy.

My whole life I’ve heard the phrase, “In the world, but not of it,” right? Sound familiar? But like many sayings or quotes, unless they’re earth shattering or life changing, I can simply move on from and forget by the very next day. This had always been one of them. My simple mind thought – Of course, I’m a Christian living in a fallen world – makes sense…..move one…..right? However, there’s more conviction and power in this one phrase or quote than you could ever imagine, or at least, that I could’ve ever thought or imagined. You see, today we’re going to see very quickly how deep and meaningful this is to God, how deep this rabbit hole goes, and what this means to your existence while on earth and where you end up after this life. Yes, you heard me correctly – all that is contained in the meaning behind his quote, and it’s all biblically sound and has been right in front of our noses our entire lives, in the Bible – God’s very Word. Today, I pray that the Holy Spirit holds a spiritual mirror up to your face and allow you to look in it and see yourself how He sees you. For He searches your heart, where everything flows from. I want you to see yourself, how God sees you, based on what He has told us.

I never knew how much God hated the world and everything in and of it until He told me, by His Word.

“Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.” Another is just like it and perhaps equally or more damning – this one from Marianne Williamson – it goes, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die.”

The reason I use both quotes is that they both are self-fulfilling prophecies that we do to ourselves by not forgiving. We inflict the additional damage on ourselves, not realizing this compound the issues stemming from the original acts that cause the unforgiveness to begin with. It’s a double-death! Here’s the third-death and the worse death we get from unforgiveness that most don’t know, or don’t realize – God does not and will not forgive our sins unless we forgive others! Yes, it’s true and here is the scripture to back this up –

Matt. 6:14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matt. 6:15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

When we repent and confess our sins, as a believer, the Lord will grant us relief from His discipline, but Jesus says in Matthew 6 that if a believer is so hardhearted that he or she withholds forgiveness in earthly relationships, then the Lord will withhold His forgiveness for that person's sins as well, which means the Lord will visit earthly discipline against such a hardhearted believer.

How many more hours or days or years do you want to remain in bondage over a person who God can help free you from in the blink of an eye? The answer to that belongs to you and rests solely on your shoulders, or in this case, your heart and your faith in God. Don’t wait another day!

In this episode, I’m going to provide you 10 ways to live right according to God’s Word and challenge you to take on all 10 – every day. Why? First, because God asks us to and it’s important to Him. Second, we are to love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. Why would we then not, right?

Christians are called to live for Jesus and follow Him in EVERYTHING we do. But what exactly does it mean to live for Jesus, and how do we do it? The best way is to look directly into the Bible for examples of how Christ lived and try to be as much like Him as possible; He lived a life that set the perfect example of how we are to live ours.

How many of you would easily agree that living for the Savior is more meaningful than living for ourselves? I hope all of you!

How many know that much of the time, we can be living more for ourselves than for Him?

So, here are 10 real-world steps you can take TODAY to start living your life for God, and should be used as a daily resolution to Him and to yourself…

In this episode, I will show you what and where in the Bible it gives authority to use a day to worship the Lord, whether it be on Easter or whether it be on Christmas day, regardless of its worldly, pagan roots or tradition.

Before you judge the world and body of Christ and become so conscience of your faith that you begin to sound and act like a Pharisee, search the Word of God to see what He says – not as the world says. He looks at the heart…your motives that come from it. What HE sees is the only thing that matters – don’t let the enemy lure you over to his side, with false pretenses that become judgement over your fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Other than Easter and Christmas that we just discussed, is there any other stronghold the enemy may have on you through guilt, shame, oppression, or other that otherwise, is well with the Lord after all? If so, get into the Word on this and in prayer. When you place God first above all, you’re obeying His first commandment – you cannot be wrong or sinning while doing so. Have peace knowing that.

Of all the topics I’ve spoken on to date, this will more than likely be the most important of all, and I’d image one of the most important I will EVER speak on. This episode, I feel so passionately about, that if I had only a few minutes to live, and was surrounded by friends and family, this is the topic I would choose. Why?? Because it’s THAT Important to your life here on earth, and that of your eternal resting place. Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die. Ever heard that one before? The deeper you analyze that, the more you uncover the real reason – everyone WANTS paradise, but no one wants the hard road to get there. They want their cake, to eat it too, and to be able to go back for seconds, possibly thirds as well, ok? You with me so far?

Again, I’m going to attempt to do in these few moments we have together, to break the chains the enemy has had on you since birth and certainly since you became a professing Christian. By the way, I’m saying professing Christian, because many profess that they are true Christians, until they, ironically, read their Bible and find out they’re not truly saved. So, not knowing everyone I’m addressing, I’ll continue with professing Christians – for all you know, I’m the same. I’m going to try to hit a nerve so deep with you hearts and minds, that you will be forced to look at God’s Word differently, and with the help of our Helper, the Holy Spirit, you will not continue refusing to dwell, which is the same as consistently reading, the Bible any longer. I can’t make you, but the Holy Spirit can convict you – and that, my friends is what my hope is today, God willing.