Gary Dockery, like a 20th-century Rip Van Winkle, slept in a coma for 71/2 years. He was a police officer who had been shot in the head while on duty. Unconscious and unable to communicate, he was dead to the world.

Then a medical miracle occurred. He awoke! He immediately recognized his family and told his two sons he loved them. For 18 hours he talked, recalling the past and learning what had happened during his long sleep. After emergency surgery to drain fluid from his lungs, however, Dockery never regained the same level of consciousness. He died a year later.

Many people who are physically alive are existing in a spiritual coma. They are unaware of divine realities, totally out of communication with God, and dead to the supernatural world. But just as Jesus raised Lazarus physically from the grave, the Holy Spirit can give new spiritual life to those who respond to the urgent entreaty, "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light'' (Eph. 5:14).

How thankful you can be, if you are alive in Christ, that you were aroused from your spiritual slumber! But if you have been unresponsive to God in the past, today is the time to wake up! He will give you eternal life.  — Vernon C. Grounds