CHIC 2K9 Day 4

Day 4

You are the most beautiful without makeup...

Next in the lineup to speak was Judy Peterson. She is the campus pastor of North Park University. Quite a wonderful gal full of wisdom.  She spoke about self (pretenders).  She began by asking, are you afraid of the real you? Truthfully, if most of us take this question seriously, most of us are afraid of the real us.  Pretending what protects you; protects you from the real hurt you have, facing a challenge, taking responsibility for your actions, doing what God wants, etc.  If you pretend in a relationship, isn't it a pretend relationship? I'm pretty sure it is.  So if you just go through the motions at church and youth group, trying to look it all and pretending to  be a Christian, then get this...you AREN'T really a Christian. Why? Because you have a pretend relationship with Jesus and pretend relationships aren't real.  There is no fruit in your life, no change at all due to your relationship.

At one point the night before Steven Furtick said something about it being Wow! if a drug addict homosexual abusive, angry, and downright terrible person says 'I need Jesus' (which is pretty horrible in the first place to say).  If you think about it, that is pretty cool, but...its pretty obvious they need Jesus to us Christians right?  It is so much more Wow! if a big business man CEO who has it all together says 'I need Jesus!'  Which is so true! so many of us are fake and pretend we have it all together and truthfully we don't!  We all need Jesus, from the pope down to Hitler, we all need Jesus.  If you don't confess your mess, you'll be alone in that mess.  Some think pretending means you won't have as much pain.  Well, pretending isn't without pain, the pain of holding back who you really are, who God created you to be. Once you confess that mess, you can deal with that pain, nail it to the cross (give it up to Jesus), and move on.

Who might be one of the ultimate pretenders from the Bible? King David. Yeah! thats right, little dude who threw the rock at the big guy, Goliath.  The KING, the cool Jewish dude. He has it all together, right? He has everything you could possibly imagine. A kingdom. Money. Power. God's favor. He has it all! Except one thing...that woman bathing on the roof over there whose husband is at war. David should have been at war as well...So what does he do? Obviously he sleeps with her. Gets her pregnant and then kills her husband by sending him to the front of the line to cover up. Yikes! now that is a man who does not have it all together. He couldn't man up to his mistakes earlier and confess.  Eventually he does and realizes the error of his ways and writes Psalm 51 as he asks God for forgiveness. Read it, its some good stuff.

We are selfish people. It's a shameful fact that will be true until our Lord Jesus comes back.  We focus on ourselves, on what we want, why the world isn't our way.  People wonder why the world is such a bad place, yet do nothing to fix it.  We are wasting all our energy on our own problems instead of what God wants. What He wants in your life.  He has a plan for your life, all you have to do is start praying and listening and take a hold of it.

Be honest with yourself and God, don't hide your sin.

At the end, she revealed her real self to her.  She wears makeup all the time because she is afraid of what people will think of her, her real face. So at the end of her message, she rubbed it off. It was a big deal to her.  Then she said, Jesus says you're the most beautiful without your makeup. Stop pretending!!

Are you AFRAID, afraid of the Real you?