I Can See Clearly Now the Pain is Gone

Wow. I can finally see clearly now that the pain is gone. Do you have a kid or know someone that has a kid that made a mistake? At some time they were told, "No", for something, but it was just one of those things that they had to learn by themselves. I remember the other day when we told Kylie (4) not to jump off of the helicopter at the playground. The helicopter is the tallest toy at Northgate Mall playground. You see, Kylie had jumped off the rest of them and had to jump off this one. We told her no several times. With her cute, "Please Daddy" look she conned me into holding her while she jumped. Within 5 times of jumping she talked me into letting her do it by herself (sly little thing). She is the negotiator in our family. She is four years old and the CEO of the Deweese clan. Well, she jumped, and you guessed it; she hurt her ankle. Through all of the whining and "daddy pleases" she got her way and got hurt.

I recently got hurt trying to do church by myself. My prayers were to God and my heart was for God, but I was doing it my way. I have been through a lot of pain the last couple of months. There have been several times that I have been close to saying "I Quit". (That is where the logo from LifeChurch.tv comes into play. nice plug huh?). I had put the pressure of growing people on my shoulders. Thats right, for some reason I thought it was my responsibility to grow people in Christ. I guess when you are so caught up in wanting to jump off of the helicopter, what once seemed clear is now a blur.

I talked with some men in my church and a buddy/pastor Mark "show me some" Love and they were all a huge encouragement to me. They helped me through the pain and see a little clearer. I went through some pain and the main thing that I learned is that I need to quit. Not my job, but quit taking Gods job. This had messed me up so bad that we made sure we put it in our vision statement to make sure we do not go back to it again. At Awaken we have divided the vision into two parts. Awaken: The Organization and Awaken: The People. Awaken Organizations responsibility is to simply lead, aid and equip the Awaken People. Notice I did not say grow. The role and goal of the Awaken People is to grow in Christ, Connect people to Him and live in Community together. I feel free now, but it took having to go through the pain to live in and experience the freedom now.

Well, Kylie's ankle is better now and so is my focus. Hopefully we will both gain some wisdom and avoid our falls next time around.

reFocus

Do you ever get tired of your life and how you are living? If you are living away from God, you probably are because ultimately, He is the only thing that can fulfill your soul. If you are living half for God, you are probably feeling the same thing.

For God to love the world and for the world to hate God is pretty ironic, but in reality, it is who we are. Let us be honest, if we are not walking with God, then we are enemies of God. The Bible speaks of the true followers of God are on a narrow path (because it takes giving up everything) and those who are not His are on a wide path. So many tend to make up a middle path. This is the path of justification, deception, trickery and lies. This is the path that says do what you want in life as long as you prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to help you go to Heaven. This path does not exist. It is a false religion that says I can just acknowledge that Jesus is real and I go to Heaven. It's a mirage leading many to death. I have seen too many on this path. This path is just another mirage from the wide path, it just has a "Jesus" twist to it.

It is time for Christ followers to reFocus every part of their lives around, in and through the gospel of Christ. We have lived in crap called "Christianity" that breaks the heart of God. Its not Christianity. Let's us refocus, read the Bible and do what it says.

The Shocking News of Ananias

So, in Acts 5 a man and his wife are struck dead by God in front of other believers. The Bible sometimes speaks of things that I do not want to hear. Sometimes its tough for me to hear that God in His power would do something like this. As I grab a text like this and study more in depth I can see more into the heart of God. God is often in the details.

Here is what happened. Ananias and his wife were "together" in mind and in heart. But this was a different mind and heart that Luke speaks of in just verses prior (Acts 4:32) of believers being together for the common good. This husband and wife were out for their own common good of their reputation, self-trust and selfishness. They were anything but honest.

As many other believers were sacrificing all that hey had, Ananias and Sapphira pretended to do the same, but lied about giving a certain amount of money. Peter called them out on it, God killed them and the men carried them off to be buried.

Why? The reason why is because this couple had wicked hearts and were in the midst of what God was doing. If God worked in the same way in today's church, we would have more gravediggers. We live in a generation and a culture that is all out "getting ours" just like Ananias and Sapphira. God is not for the proud, selfish, self seeking. Scripture says that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

I wonder how many pastors would be dead right now if God acted in the same way today. I wonder how many church folks would be six feet under. This powerful text should call us to humility before the cross of Christ and empty us of any pride, so we can be honest before one another and God. God help me. Help my generation and guard and protect us of such pride.

Cute Little Christians

If you have grown up in the Christian life, you may not realize it, but many of us have grown up with a cute little Christian life. We listen to our Christian music and wear our Christian T-Shirt while driving in our car with our Christian bumper stickers. Pretty cute huh? "Not really" says the world. What is Christian about that. The world needs and wants to interact with real people. People who cuss and cut. People who struggle with their marriages and their money. In our "cute" little lives it can come across like we are perfect inside and out. The world see's us as phonies. So what do we do?

Try this: Be real. Get help where you need it, because even though you may be seen as perfect, you know that you are far from it and have so many areas where you need to be fixed. Interact with people. Get out of you comfort zone and go talk to people who may not look, smell, dress or act like you.

Notice Jesus. He was anything but a cute little Christian. He was a man, a radical, associated with sinners, prostitutes and scum of His day. And what do we do? We go to church.... are you kidding?? Seek Jesus, not tradition and change Christian. If you are not a Chritsian, I would like to appoligize for my life and the lives of many Christians or "Christians". I hope I would change and start to be more real and honest with God, myself and you.