SHOOK

Recently, a word has surfaced that indicates surprise, a sudden heightened awareness, and often fear.  Maybe you’ve heard it.  The word is “shook.”  [I was laying in bed when I heard a loud noise, so now I’m “shook.”]
When I first heard it in context,  the clues surrounding it made its definition easy to surmise.  And I just imagine it probably originated with a person who shares a similar childhood to me.  As a kid/teenager when dad or grandpa said something, their words were law.  And at times, if obedience was delayed,  one might be awoken from a daydreamy sort of daze by two large hands on either shoulder jolting you to awareness.  Now with wide open eyes and fixed attention,  you might describe that feeling of alertness as “shook.”

Our world today is shaken by so many things.  Natural disasters have us in a panic.  Mass shootings leave many living in fear.  Political upheaval in all parts of the world stir a frenzy of emotions that motivate negatively charged actions and social media posts. WebMD results have thousands on their death beds during allergy season.  And Dr. T.V. Expert has soccer moms everywhere smothering their kids with the organic supplies intended to save them.  Both literally and metaphorically,  our world lives in an alertness or fear of just about everything.  And therein lies the problem.  “Just about.”
Once you arrived at chapter 9 in the book of Acts you will find some interesting facts about the local church.  Through their influence entire areas come to know Christ.  The power they possessed had the world convinced these Christians were supernatural deities.  Acts 17:6 describes them as “these that have turned the world upside down.”  In fact,  in Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”  From the walls of Jericho in the Old Testament to the ground in Jerusalem in the New Testament,  when Christians walk in the power of God,  everything and everyone around them is shaken.  

In John 14:12,  Jesus makes a declaration that we would do “greater works than these.”  That the believer, the church today would walk with more power and influence than the ground shaking wall breaking power we read about in Scripture.  How is this possible?  Because in Matthew 28:2,  after the death and burial of Jesus, after 3 days the promise was fulfilled.  The ground began to shake.  The stone was rolled away.  And the same power that took death’s sting of sin and resurrected our Savior now lives in us!  Jesus said “I AM the resurrection.”  In other words,  resurrection wasn’t just something Christ did.  It’s who he IS!  #shook
When we truly recognize and live in the power of Resurrection,  “whatever will come our way, through fire or pouring rain, and with whatever tomorrow brings:  WE WON’T BE SHAKEN.”  BUT the world around us certainly will be.  The church has become content with shaking hands when we have the ability to worship in such a way that the foundation of our very culture is shaken.  Paul and Silas praised their way out of a prison cell one night,  and they serve the same God I serve!  Walk in that boldness today.  Then brace yourself.  Something is about to get SHOOK!