a l i v e & a w a k e

So as many of you may have noticed - it's been a long while since we've written anything new. I think we have found this fall very busy and are waiting to process it all. In the meantime, feel free to browse through the links on the right and comment on anything that might be of interest.

I know this is an old picture, but it will serve the purpose.

Looking at my boy Rhys growing up is fun. I see so much potential and so much life. Sometimes as a father you wonder what the future holds, and while it is senseless to try to guess, I found this quote that helps me to keep focus, and perspective. For all you people out there who are fathers, or who work with boys, here it is:

IT IS EASIER TO BUILD STRONG BOYS, THAN TO REPAIR BROKEN MEN.

To say you are alive is common. Many are taking in breath and exhaling. Many are eating, working –existing,
But not many are awake.
People who are in a coma are still alive but lack the ability to seize and capture any and every given moment. There is a different quality of life; one that is aware, enlightened and purposeful, that is abundant life!
 

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.
    
-Barbara Hall
 
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life or death to you.”

-C.S. Lewis
Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus. 
    
-Oprah Winfrey
The opposite of life is not death, but wasting life.
Christ has already sufficiently answered death. It is the ‘wasting of life’ problem that God has not completed fully.
We are somehow empowered to sacrificially, moment by moment, bring life to a fresh new level that reveals the fullness of God –that is abundant life

-alive and awake
 

Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain."

-C.S. Lewis

I believe the human heart is the canvas on which God paints His dreams. As the pinnacle of His creation, God associates Himself with people in a way that is unparalled by any other creature - including angels. I think He actually enjoys "bending down" and whispering some of His best kept secrets into our ears.

In this day and age, God wants us to be a part of what He is doing, and has entrusted us with some of His most valuable plans. It says in the Bible that as Christians, He has written His law on our heart (Jeremiah 31:33), He has given us His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16), He has given His own Spirit to us to guide us into all truth (John 16:13) and that He desires that we understand secrets and mysteries hidden from others in the past (Ephesians 3:4-6). One of the promises given to the Church at Pentecost was that "young men would see visions and old men would dream dreams" (Acts 2:17).

What's on your heart?  What part of God's dreams or visions or ideas or secrets has He painted in your life? Have you taken the time to look- to really look? I find the more I spend time listening and talking to God, the more He reveals, and consequently the more I become excited at everything I see. I see myself becoming more like Jesus. I see my wife blossoming into the fantastic woman of God that she is. I see my boy growing up with both parents who love him and with a personal passion to love and serve God. I see my extended family succeeding in becoming the people they were meant to be. I see the students in my school transformed by the message of the Good News of God. I see my fellow Christians committing to a life of righteous, peaceful and joyful living. I see injustices righted. Poverty abolished. Crime eliminated. Illnesses and diseases cured. I see people finding the true meaning of life, and experiencing complete satisfaction. Overwhelming? Not at all, because more and more I am beginning to see the largeness and power of God.

I know it can be done. I know God is able to do anything. Where I sometimes fail is to see exactly where I  fit in. I know that in myself, and by my own effort, I am very unable. In the past I have tried to figure it all out and attempt to fulfill God's dream using my limited understanding. Usually it meant I ended up in the wrong place, doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Disaster!

So lately God has been reminding me that He "knows the plans He has for me...", and that I need to spend time with Him, listening. As my good friend Dave Roberts continuously reminds me, I need to have "my spiritual antennae up", constantly asking, "God is that you?". I am finding that He indeed does speak. He speaks volumes - a lot of which I shamedly admit I miss. But what does get through is becoming clearer and clearer. I am beginning to see myself in the picture. I am asking for the wisdom, discernment and ability to see these "inside" things become reality on the "outside".

So what's on your heart? What has God said to you? Where do you see yourself fitting into His picture? What kind of things dwell inside you? Get your spiritual antennae up. And might I suggest that when He speaks, you listen. Write it down. Surround yourself with people who will encourage and listen with you. You will find that in God's perfect time, He will show you how to make your dreams reality.

Jon

  

A train is only as useful as it stays on the right track. These tracks ensure the train doesn't derail (lose its focus) and also ends up at the right destination (achieves its purpose). Alive and Awake is likewise guided by 5 working principles that help us to remain focused on accomplishing its primary objectives.

1. The Principle of Connection - We want to be the knd of people who guided by God's agenda and not our own. There is an overwhleming need for clarity of truth in a world that says a lot, but seems to miss the point. Individually and a whole, we agree to dedicate ourselves to listen and hear what God is saying in these days.

2. The Principle of Follow-Through - Talk is cheap, and there is plenty of it. Ideas are only as profound as their ability to be worked out as actions. We are determined to do everything in our power to develop strategies that will take ideas from concept to reality.

3. The Principle of Empowerment - So many people are interesting only in creating their own empire, and surrounding themselves with people who will support their dreams. The only way to leave a lasting legacy in the world is to invest your life in those closest to you. We are committed to duplicating our best attritbutes in the lives of others, in order to see them succeed in life and reach their full potential.

4. The Principle of Free Sharing - In a dog-eat-dog world, the most one could expect would be that one man's garbage may be another man's treasure. But on a different level, a higher law would encourage people to freely share their treasure with each other. We will facilitate an environment in which people are able to donate their best conceptual, material, financial and human resources as well as being able to draw upon these resources.

5. The Principle of Community - Sometimes the loneliest place to be is within a group. One of the loudest cries of society comes from the disconnected individual; those who choose a life of solidarity and those who have no choice but to go it alone. People are hard-wired to grow and develop in the context of those who care for and support them. We seek to foster a greater spirit of dependancy among those who will carefully and respectfully hold each other accountable to principles of Alive and Awake, as well as to primary relationships.