With many random events happening in the church here in the U.S. (specifically Colorado) there have come with it a renewed view of how God the Father deals with His kids, and how we deal with His dealing.  Anyway, there is a pattern emerging in the Church, one of the need of discipline and a correct view of how God intends to "shake everything that can be shaken."  Here are some (long) views:

Individual:
I don’t know how much I like this, but the only way I know I have a Father is that I receive discipline.  I can remember being young and sneaking out of my parent’s house late at night.  This one particular instance involved two friends of mine.  We were sneaking out of my house to go meet up with some friends and then I suddenly froze.  Well, my two friends kept on walking without breaking stride.  But I stopped because there was a man standing at the end of my driveway…it was my father!  Of course I was sent back inside and disciplined.  But my friends kept walking because it wasn’t their father.  The reason I know I’m disciplined is that my Heavenly Father stands at the end of the driveway in my life.  If I try to sneak out at night, or get away with something, there He is standing and waiting.  It doesn’t matter about the other “kids,” He is there to discipline me. 

Now, with a weakness in our character, Satan will seek to exploit this.  In fact, he is a smart creature who has been around longer than I have, and is very crafty when it comes to studying everything which will make us squirm and trip off the path in which our Father is lovingly waiting to have fellowship with us.  The problem is this however: we give Satan too much credit.  He (Satan) is not omnipresent and cannot temp us all at the same time.  So, he has Demons who pester us and study our weaknesses as well (scary, I know, but thus is war).  But here is what I want to get at; many times when we are struggling or uncomfortable in our walk we pass it off as “I rebuke you Satan!!”  And many times we are correct in asserting that. 

But, I want to tell you that God our Father disciplines in uncomfortable ways.  Some people have a hard time with this and will say “I can’t believe this is from God…” and it’s true.  I have wrestled over the past years with this notion that God disciplines me because He loves me, but in return I will be frustrated and angry.  And I have come to the realization that many people would rather be in denial that “God is this way,” than to accept the loving correction from Him…even if it is uncomfortable. And you know what?  God sees this process as a worth while investment in me because He wants others to see His work through me.  I can see this so vividly with my little nieces and nephews.  They are smart little kids, and they are sweet, but sometimes they are selfish.  They will try to steal a little fudge or a cookie off the table.  Before you can blink my brother or other sibling will be there to stop them and discipline them.  They are of course disappointed (who wouldn’t be if they couldn’t get any chocolate), but in return they receive a love that, if it was unavailable to them, they would parish in a lonely world.  Likewise, I may not get what I want in life, but what I most certainly need is discipline and a love that, if it were unavailable to me, I would perish.   My acceptance of the discipline of the Father is dependant on one fact:  That it is from the Father.  The reason I would know this is that God does not use Satan to discipline His kids.  Though we may become confused and frustrated, our Father will never use Satan and the demons to prove a point to us.

We all know the story that Jesus tells about the men who built their houses on two different substances.  The first was sand and the second was rock.  The same storms came into their lives (Jesus never promised that there wouldn’t be) and the man’s house that was built on sand collapsed “and great was the fall.”  We can build up our lives on all the religious fancy talk, theological discourses, and Biblical knowledge we can muster, but Christ says this, “if you begin building without me, I promise that at some point, your life will fall.”  The second man built on the rock, whom was Christ.  Sometimes in our lives, we must clear away all the sand, all the preconceived religious notions to find that bedrock, to find that sure foundation; Christ.  And though we will be facing storms and being shaken in our individual walk with Christ, we see that the only sure bedrock is not my intellect, or how important I am in public life, it’s a submission that Jesus Christ is the only foundation I need.

White Knuckles:
I try things on my own a lot.  I used to rock climb way too much, to the point of an everyday obsession.  When I would strain on a problem or a long route my knuckles would turn white when I was pulling from hold to hold. “I can do it!” I would think, “It’s all in my strength.”  The same is true when applied to challenges we face in our walk.  If a test is on the horizon, or we are struggling with sin, the natural instinct would say “I can do it, it’s all in my strength.”  The fact is, we are living in an upside down Kingdom.  What we think would work, doesn’t; and what we think doesn’t work, usually does.  The moment I am faced with the fact that I have gone my own way, thinking that it will satisfy my needs better than staying on the path that leads to the Father, I am in a dilemma.  At this point the natural instinct would be to, “read more Bible, say more prayers, try to look good for God, and try to act right in front of Him.”  The thing is, we can’t come out of this confusion without the help of our Father.  We can’t work our way back with white knuckles, we can only wait on Him…which is one of the hardest things we can do.  The good news is that by God being an eternal father by His very nature cannot allow me, a kid of His, to be left in confusion.  He will not do that.  It is not our white knuckles that lead us to the Father, but through the guidance of Christ and the love of our Father’s discipline.

Church Shaking:
God said that He will shake everything that can be shaken.  He will shake heaven and earth.  Most of us can see Him shaking the earth, the nations, and people.  But, when it comes to shaking the Church, we tend to tread lightly.  True, the Church is eternal and will be victorious…but it will only be victorious because it has been shaken!  The only thing that can’t be shaken is the Kingdom.  So, through this shaking of the Church we can see how the Father’s discipline becomes corporate.  If it turns out that a pastor has been leading a double life, or that members are doing likewise, God may shake the church to allow this to stop.  It is amazing to see how the actions of one in the Church can affect thousands.  The Church is an amazing thing.  Christ, being its foundation, gave himself so that through One, many might be made righteous.  And this principle still applies to all of us who are in the Church.  If one of us (maybe an important figure) is corrupted by this world, than many are affect in positive and negative ways.  Shaking is something that the Father performs regardless of the person.  He is not interested in publicity, or what people might say if one of His kids is exposed for their sin, but rather He is concerned in if our hearts and minds are in surrender to His will.  There is no higher law than that of the Will of the Father, and if He wants to shake something or someone He will…all for love and discipline.  As the Church we know we have a Father by the fact that we are shaken and disciplined.  If we, as the Church, begin to sneak out to do our own thing, I pray that we will begin to take notice, and submit to the Father’s loving discipline.  We must not think that it is our possessions and clever ideas that will make us victorious, but that it was through the Father’s will of Christ’s blood for us that brought us out of death, and that it will be by His shaking and refining that will allow us to be victorious.

“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12:25-29