I’m Alive!

“Thank you LORD” (then everyone responds) “Thank you LORD”, (back to student praying) “Thank you for waking us up this morning.” This is the way kids I’ve worked with have began their prayers. Thursday in after school Bible study I asked the young men where they see God. One answered along the same theme, “I see God when I wake up each morning.”
We had a discussion about seeing God or meeting God in some surprising places. Reading Acts 16 the young men read about a Roman prison guard meeting God after the earthquake had knocked its’ walls down. Earthquake, Roman prison, not a whole lot of feel good there. In fact it must have been an awful and miserable place. A perfect place to meet God!
When people in bad places see they’ve still got life what is their response? Kids who’ve seen more than their fair share of difficulty, housing projects, family breakdown, Katrina, wake up and take stock, and say “thank God I’m alive”.
After the earthquake the guard assumed his charges had run away from the damaged prison. The guard was going to kill himself because that was his penalty for letting them escape. A voice calls out of the darkness. It was the voice of God through Paul saying “don’t, you’re alive!” You don’t have to die, you can live was the double edged answer. You can live now, but you can also live when you die (physically) by interestingly, dying now and beginning a new life in Christ. Paul said it in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The jailer did what Paul told him to do, “Believe in the LORD Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” Had Paul and Silas not been obedient who would’ve told the jailer that he was alive? Who needs to hear this in your world?