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Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Edwin Elisha James is an Evangelist whose commitment to preach wherever the Lord leads him has fructified in bringing hundreds of souls to the Lord - a dream and a desire that he has harboured for the longest time!

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Rising up early to be with the Lord.

Friends, generally we see people’s attitude about rising up early from their sleep. We observe some people sleep late and gets up late and their daily routine will be adjusted according to their sleeping and getting up attitude.

At this moment, I would like to bring few thoughts from the Word of God, why one should get up early in the morning. It’s very old saying that “early to be bed” gives a person lot of benefits in his life.

According to the Bible, why one should get up early - for meeting Jesus, stand before Him, worship Him, give Him sacrifice, teach about Jesus/Gospel, and hear the Word of God and most of all pray.

Let’s see these few thoughts i.e. Stand, Worship, Sacrifice, Meet, Teach, Hear and Pray. 

Stand:

Let’s turn to Genesis 19:24 & 19:27

Genesis 19:24  Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

In the Bible we see here, Chapter 19 says about “Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed”. Why people then were not tune with the Lord’s commandments. God was grieved seeing their attitudes and their sins and finally He decided v.24 - rained down burning sulfur and Sodom and Gomorrah. 

For this reason here we see, that Abraham is getting up early - v. 27: Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
We see here Abraham is praying for his children in the presence of God for His forgiveness for their sins. He gets up early in the morning for the sake of others.

Today what we are doing in our lives? Are we concerned about other’s spiritual lives? Are we praying like Abraham for them? Are we getting up early in the morning and taking our prayer petition to God?

Worship:

Here we see that Jacob is worshiping Lord early in the morning. Jacob was man of God, he was close to God. We see this one in Gen. 28:15 - “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

If you are close to the Lord, He will take care of you. That’s His promise. Above verse is very clear that - “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Accordingly Jacob was blessed.

After getting blessed Jacob did not ignoring Lord, we witness here that he is worshiping the Lord. How? By getting up early in the morning!

In Gen. 28:18 - “Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.”

Because he was blessed according to His promises, Jacob gets up early in the morning to worship Him.

When we secure anything and everything from our Lord, what we do? Do we like Jacob worship Him? Let us learn from this incident to worship our Lord God, early in the morning when we were blessed.

Sacrifice:

We see in the Bible about Job. Job 1:1 says “Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” But he was worried and disturbed about his children. They were far from God. Job knew that his children’s spiritual lives are in danger. He had great concerned about them. That’s why we see in v. 5 - “When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job's regular custom.”

Job used to get up early in the morning and used to pray for his children.
Today in many of the Christian homes, our children are not tuned towards spiritual facts, they are not tuned with Jesus, they are not regular in going to Worship places, not reading the Bibles or not even they make an attempt to say the Prayers on daily basis.

Do we have burden like Job for our children? Tomorrow when we stand in the presence of Jesus, when He asks us where is your children? Do we have any answers for that?
Friends, let’s follow Job’s pattern, let’s also get up early in the morning to be with Lord and pray for our dear children.

Meet:

In Exodus 34:14 we see that - “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

Today, we witness some people are worshiping, following or praying for other God’s. That’s not done. Our God is jealous God. v. 14 is very clear about it. No doubt people come to church, yet they are involved in worship or following other God’s. They are having other idols.

That’s the reason we see in v. 4 - “Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.”

Moses could not tolerate to see what the people are doing. He had burden, he goes to Lord, early in the morning to get the ‘Ten Commandments’ to tell people, to rescue the people from their wrong attitudes or actions. He knew that will destroy them spiritually. He had a burden. Hence he goes to Lord early in the morning.

What about us? How much do we care around us when we see these things are happening? Like Moses, let’s go early in the morning for the sake of spiritually dying people.

Teach:

Our Lord God, Jesus had so much burden for His people that early in the morning He used to go to Temple courts to teach the Word. We see in John 8:1-2 “But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts; where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.”

It is so pleasing to see that our Master had tremendous concern for His children that early in the morning He used to teach His people.

It is time for us as His servants to think about fellow brothers and their spiritual levels. It is our duty to teach them the Word of God. It is no better time to teach them than early in the morning. 

Hear:

Jesus never missed single day. He used to teach His people the Word of God. Beauty was people used to come to hear His teaching/Word of God early in the morning. Luke 21:37-38 says - “Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives 38  and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.”

If we examine ourselves as Christians, yet times it becomes difficult even to go to church on Sundays. Luke says, every day and early in the morning people used to go to temple hear Jesus’ teaching.

It is time for us to take note, and approach our Master and hear Him day after day, that too early in the morning His voice. Let’s hear Him for His Word.

Lastly, Pray:

Praying. This is the main reason I began sharing this message for you all. Pray, pray and pray. In Mark 1:35 we see that - Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

What a message and lesson for everyone those who are reading this message. When Jesus Himself can get up early in the morning to pray, what about us? When we are going to learn. By the time we realize our life will end.

Friends, our life and time is short. It’s time for each one of us to meditate what we have learnt from the above message. It is very hurting to know that we never give much importance for prayer. Prayer is the only way where we can meet our Lord every day. Jesus Himself is teaching us to learn.

So, it is time for - “Rising up early to be with the Lord.”

- Edwin James.






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