{"id":2260,"date":"2013-09-17T14:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T18:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2013-09-17T14:05:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T18:05:02","slug":"rise-up-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=2260","title":{"rendered":"Rise Up Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everywhere you turn, a tragedy befalls us.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/17\/us\/shooting-reported-at-washington-navy-yard.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0\">mass shooting in the DC Navy Yard<\/a>. This morning the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/georgia-teen-abducted-gunpoint-article-1.1458254\">abduction of a 14-year old girl in Georgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2261\" style=\"width: 522px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?attachment_id=2261\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2261\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2261\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-2261 \" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/sorrow.jpg\" width=\"512\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/sorrow.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/sorrow-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2261\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Creative Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s not that I\u2019m focused on tragedy or negativity, it\u2019s just what is happening all around us.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I can perhaps bury my head in the sand, and pretend all is well, but I would only be lying to myself.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not the type of person to focus on myself and forget about everything else.<\/p>\n<p>My life is good, but just because things are relatively good, doesn\u2019t mean I should forget others who are suffering.<\/p>\n<p>I guess I\u2019m this way because I have been through my share of hardship in life.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, following the news can be overwhelmingly hard and there are times I do need to unplug from it all.<\/p>\n<p>But most times than not, I feel burdened for the state of affairs. It\u2019s not something I can shake off or ignore. I wish I could, but for whatever reason, God didn\u2019t design me this way.<\/p>\n<p>Even in the midst of tragedy though, I can still see God\u2019s goodness and beauty. His signature is everywhere; from the rising sun, the mountains and vast oceans.<\/p>\n<p>He is a divine artist and the master designer of this universe. He is a great and loving God.<\/p>\n<p>His heart grieves and for whatever reason, so does mine. \u00a0He yearns for His Church to rise up in this lost, dark and broken world.<\/p>\n<p>Every Sunday He passes the pews and sees His beloved sleeping. He is so loving and kind, He just passes quietly as not to disturb them. But oh, how sorrowful He is, when those He passes aren\u2019t discerning the time nor the hour.<\/p>\n<p>He is calling His sheep. He is saying, Rise up Church, for now is the time and the hour. Wake up from your slumber.<\/p>\n<p>The days ahead will be far worse than they are now, we must wake up before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n<p>I tremble at that thought as my heart can hardly stand what\u2019s happening now.<\/p>\n<p>I am so broken and burdened, and I don\u2019t even understand it myself. It\u2019s definitely not depression, it\u2019s this heaviness or sorrow in my soul.<\/p>\n<p>The sorrow of seeing the Church powerless.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been praying for revival. The Church and this world needs a revival. I know there are many scattered, praying for this as well.<\/p>\n<p>May the Lord come and visit us soon.<\/p>\n<p>Am I the only one who notices the direction in which this world is going? Do you see it too? Please share in the comment section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everywhere you turn, a tragedy befalls us. Yesterday was the mass shooting in the DC Navy Yard. This morning the abduction of a 14-year old girl in Georgia. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m focused on tragedy or negativity, it\u2019s just what is happening all around us. Yes, I can perhaps bury my head in the sand, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10,8,7,93],"tags":[607,606,328,50,157,605,603,604],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2265,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions\/2265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}