The Taker

 “He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’” – Mark 5:34

I heard speaker and author Ann Voskamp say, The greatest gift Jesus gives you is all that He comes to take away...The weight of what He takes away.

We love Jesus the Giver. We don't want to hear about Jesus the Taker, yet He is a Taker, and praise His name that He is. Especially if we will dwell on all that He has taken from our lives that has been a great weight for us to bear. That which caused us great pain and suffering.

The Scripture from Mark has to do with the woman who had a constant menstrual bleeding which rendered her unclean under Jewish law. She had suffered the affliction for 12 years. Jesus took that away. Scripture is filled with so many things that Jesus "took" from people; blindness, lameness, leprosy, even demonic possession. For those who have truly believed upon Him, He took the weight and burden of our sin upon Himself and removed it from us. He took our guilt and pronounced us forgiven. He has taken the sentence of death from us and given us His gift of Life. Yes, His greatest gift to us is in that which He takes away.

Still, as true as this is, there are multitudes who may have believed upon Him for salvation, but have never allowed Him to take away the shame, the condemnation, the fear, and so many other afflictions that the devil is overjoyed to lay upon us. Maybe you are part of that multitude today. Maybe you are living in the place of despair, hopelessness, sorrow, and depression. Perhaps you're enslaved by attitudes of unforgiveness, bitterness, or the effects of abuse and neglect.You may be healthy in body, but sick and lame in your spirit. He came to take such things away, to relieve us of the weight of all of it, but He will not take it by force. We have to give it to Him. We have to release it from our hands, our grip, into His hands. Can you do so? I know it's so hard. You've held onto it for so long. Release it, Surrender it. Let go of the burden of the weight. Be free. Let Jesus the Giver also be the Taker. He will only take that which is killing us by inches, and He'll replace it with life. His Life. Full, free, abundant life.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Wonderful

 Wonderful grace of Jesus

Reaching to all the lost
By it I have been pardoned
Saved to the uttermost
Chains have been torn asunder, giving me liberty
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.   From the Hymn, Wonderful Grace Of Jesus....."We can't underestimate sin or overestimate grace." Paul Tripp

I recently heard of a person who'd just completed a rehab program for cocaine addiction. They were almost the same age as myself. As I contemplated that, I was overwhelmed by the wonderful grace of Jesus.  You see, I could have been that person. I was that person. What delivered me from that same fate was the grace and mercy of God. Along with that realization came this; I would not have reached the age of that one because I know, beyond any doubt, I would have died long before. My lifestyle would have led me ever deeper into the captivity it held me in. I'm convinced I would never have reached the age of 40. Oh the kindness, the mercy, the seeking grace and love of God that pursued me until it finally laid hold of me. I can never repay the debt of love I owe, and I am so thankful that He doesn't require that I should.

Knowing this, I believe it deeply important to address Tripp's quote about underestimating sin and overestimating grace. Being addicted to a life of getting high, pursuing pleasure, seeking my own good and caring little or nothing for others did not make me more in need of Christ than someone who did none of those but still walked through life apart from Him. We are all born into the vast lostness of our sin. None of us can deliver ourselves from that state. This was why Christ was given to us by the Father. It's why He came; to take the penalty for our sin upon Himself, and offer, through faith and trust in Him, His saving grace. We cannot ever overestimate the wonder and power of His grace.

I believe His grace was always pursuing me, even from childhood, but my first consciousness of it came in my college years when I encountered a young, one time "hippie chick" whose life had been transformed by her faith in Jesus. I could not deny the transformation, and I was impacted by the light I saw in her eyes. His grace continued to pursue me a year or so later when I was walking past the small building where all the "Jesus Freaks" met. I stopped on the sidewalk to gaze at the open door. A young, long haired guy with a joyful smile invited me to join them....but I declined, continued on my way....but His grace pursued me.

Over the next five years, as my life got ever darker, His pursuing grace got ever stronger. Finally, when I had nowhere else to hide, He laid hold of me in the dining room of the home I grew up in. He had me through His grace and He has kept me through His grace. The wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin.

Do you know His grace? I don't believe you really can until you know your sin. You may not be a drunk in an alley, or an addict on the street, but if you don't know Him, then you are no better off than they are. If you don't know Him, or His grace, my prayer for you is that you would, that you will. May His grace open your eyes to your need, and to Him. Know that His wonderful grace reaches me, and you, and saves to the uttermost.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Grateful

 Gratitude comes hard to us. Mainly because we're such an entitled bunch....even in the church. We think good things, blessings, are our due. It's what life, or from a Christian perspective, God, should be giving and doing for us. When it seems like He's not, gratitude has little if any place in our lives. How blind we are.

I remember very well the first Thanksgiving after the disaster that would take my marriage and family and sidetrack my ministry. I was living on a bleak church campground, far from my family and isolated from most of those I'd call friends. Darkness was abounding everywhere around me, and knocking at the door of my heart inwardly. All I could see was what was wrong. Looking upward, to Him, was so difficult. I felt comfortless, but He would show me, as He has so often, and will faithfully continue to do, that He was with me, abounding in grace towards me.

Thanksgiving was only a few days away, and I had no idea of what I would do. I expected to be and was prepared to be alone. He had other ideas. In the area lived a pastor and his family. I'll be honest and say I'd never really known him well, and even thought him more than a little odd. He attended the small fellowship I was attending, and after the service, he approached me and asked about my plans. I told him I had none. He invited me to come and be with him and his family. I accepted, with a mixture of gratefulness and trepidation. As I said, I thought he was a bit odd and I'd no idea what to expect. What happened as I joined him, his wife and his son, was that I was with a family that loved each other deeply, and made me feel welcome. They were very gracious and I was very glad to have been invited. God had shown up in the darkness with these three flames of light. It was a small thing, but He showed me that even in the deepest pit, He is present, He is working, and I can be filled with gratitude that He is.

What I've learned, what I know, is that in this fallen and often darkened world, He has infinite ways to "show up" with the Light that is His Son, Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's in the form of people, at other times in material, emotional, and spiritual ways. He doesn't leave us comfortless. He doesn't leave us in despair. He gives us evidence of Himself. He gives us a reason to take another step in the faith journey. He gives us His Son. Over and over again. And we can be grateful.

In your life there may be pain, loss, and sorrow. These things are real....but He is more real. And because He is more real, we can rejoice, we can praise Him, and we can be thankful. The chorus goes, "Give thanks with a grateful heart." May we do so this day, and every day. Within the darkest clouds lies His greatest Light. Look for it. Expect it. And when it comes.....be glad, and....give thanks.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Friends

A question was asked in one of my devotionals today, did I know that Jesus was my Friend? I could immediately answer that yes,  I did. I have not doubted that for many years, if indeed I ever did. He has proven it to be so countless times over. Jesus Christ is my friend, and I am thankful beyond words. But then, after answering that question, another came to mind. One that impressed me deeply enough that I had to write it down in my prayer journal. It simply says, "I know that Jesus is my Friend, but to what degree am I His?"

Friendships in the days we now live in are pretty transitory. And shallow. Few are long lasting. The fact that we live in a highly mobile culture is part of the reason, but I think the truth is that we often see friends as those that can help us, or at least help make our lives more enjoyable and rewarding. If that ceases, we simply move on to other, new friends. That this happens in the world is no surprise, but it is found almost as often in the church, which is our shame. I think to some degree, all of us have been guilty of this. 

So, I go back to the question I asked myself; what kind of friend am I to the Lord Jesus? He knows I see Him as my great friend, does He see me as His? What reasons do I give Him for doing so? When we think of what is entailed in true friendship, loyalty, consistency, self-sacrifice, even the laying down of our lives, how much of any of that is involved in our friendship with Him? Fairweather friends are always looked upon with disdain because we know they aren't friends at all. Yet, in our walk with Him, are we more fair weather friends than we are real ones?

Those who come to Christ have been given the greatest gift in all the universe; friendship with the King of kings. None of us are worthy of that, but I think that truth escapes us. I don't think we realize or dwell upon the honor He gives us and how little we value it. He places a value upon us we're not worthy of, yet in return, too often we treat His friendship as having little value at all. How we must grieve Him.

I write this today so that we might all ask ourselves these questions. Scripture says that He is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother. How closely do we "stick" to Him? May it be for me, for you, that when our faces come before Him, His heart is warmed with the knowledge that we are friends who never leave His side or walk away from Him, for that is surely who and what He is to us. He has called us His friends. Looking at the way we live and relate to Him, how are we responding to that honor?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Stepford God

 There's a classic movie from the 1970's called The Stepford Wives. It's the story of a community of husbands who come up with a way to control their wives, making them into their idea of what a woman should be. They turn them into beautiful robots. This leads me to a question for each of us; have we, you and I,  been trying to "create" our own Stepford God?

Before answering, we might want to consider some things. We call Him an awesome God, but we also use that word to describe anything from potato chips to the latest Hollywood blockbuster. We sing and talk about the wonders He does and the miracles He works....until the time comes when we really need one. Then, instead of believing for one, we begin to look for solutions that we can touch, see, and understand. We talk about a Kingdom not of this world, but we rarely seem to be in touch with it. We agree that He is a God of mystery, but we aren't very comfortable with that. We actually prefer a God we fully understand and have some, much control over. We want a God who comes with an easy to comprehend "How To" manual. Know this; there is no such God.

In His Word, Almighty is often used to describe Him, but that's not really the original language. Lord of hosts is the original translation, in the Hebrew, The God of angel armies. The God of armies who fights for His people. He is a God who comes and stands with you, fights for you, literally crushing every obstacle, mountain, and enemy that stands before you. A God who, as spoken in Hosea, breaks through gates of bronze and cuts through iron bars. As Hosea 12:5 says, He is the Lord, the God of hosts. The Lord is His name.

Os Guinness said, Many Christians seem to be atheists unaware. We who profess to be believers scoff at those who say there is no God, but we have to be asked; in our day to day living, facing difficulties and impossibilities, coming up against mountains, giants, and enemies of our souls in our marriages, families, lives, and ministries, do we bear witness that we have true faith in an Almighty God? In the Lord of Hosts?

The One who is unbeatable, undefeatable, greater than all? Or do we seek solutions, answers, remedies in our own strength? And if we do invite Him in, is He god with a small g, a god we can control? One who will act like we believe He should? Are we really just atheists unaware? 

He's the Lord. The Lord of Hosts is His name. Is that what He really is to you and me today? Is He really the God who can break down any bronze gate, cut through any iron bar? A God who will be all His name says He is, and in fact, be infinitely more? What's in a name? With our God, EVERYTHING!

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Restored

 I came across a kind of paraphrase/definition of Jeremiah 30:17. It moves me deeply. God is a Restorer of what is broken. In your moments of deepest pain, He is already working to heal, to rebuild, and to make you whole again. Powerful, and so true.

One thing among many that is true for all of us is that we are born broken into a broken world. Broken by sin. Sin that affects us all, from the inside out. We are both victims and participants. We are captives, and we have no power in ourselves to make ourselves free. The evidence of this is everywhere. None of us are unscathed by this reality. Yet there is hope. Hope that has as its source, Jesus Christ. He is the Life that conquers death, the Light that pierces the deepest darkness, and the hope that crushes the most crushing despair.

All of us need to receive and experience the truth of Jeremiah 30:17. Where is brokenness laying hold of your life, your marriage, your family? Where is the pain, the suffering? Where are the wounds, the deep, festering wounds? What has been destroyed, seemingly beyond repair? Where do you feel like your life has been shattered into thousands of different pieces? Where are you feeling like just giving up?

Can you dare to believe the truth of Jeremiah 30:17. Can you dare to believe that He is the Restorer of even the most broken things? Can you dare to believe that in the deepest pain, the most intense suffering, He is there, applying His healing balm? Can you dare to believe He can bind up every wound, every broken heart, marriage, and family? Can you dare to believe that even in the most hopeless of situations, He is your hope, that despite appearances, He is at work? That He will heal, rebuild, restore, and make whole? 

I cannot give you timelines or details. I cannot tell you what His restoration will look like. I can only tell you that what He promises in this verse is true and it is real. I have experienced it. So have countless others. So can you. Dare to believe Him. Dare to receive Him in the fullness of His promises. He is the Restorer. He is the One who makes all things new. Let Him be the One who does so for you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Burning Bushes

 One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro,[a] the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai,[b] the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. 3 “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” Exodus 3:1-3

The late pastor and author Jamie Buckingham, writing about the wilderness experiences of our spiritual lives said, "The tragedy of our wilderness experience is not that we have to go through grief and suffering, but that we often miss the blessings from burning bushes - the things through which God speaks." That is a powerful statement. None of us look for the wilderness, and in fact, we usually want to do anything to avoid it, or once in it, get out of it. Yet there are wonders there if we will have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Moses, once a prince of Egypt, was now a humble shepherd walking in the backside of the desert. We can only imagine what must have been going through his mind about his situation. Foremost would have to be, where was God? We often tend to get so focused on the desert we're in that we lose all sight and sense of Him. Our ears grow deaf to His voice and our eyes dim to His Spirit. The enemy will use the desert to try to convince us He has abandoned us, forgotten us, that He cares nothing for us. As we yield to those suggestions we become hardened to His Presence. The reality is that for everyone He leads into the wilderness, He has a "burning bush" that will be unique to us alone.

If Moses had been consumed with bitterness and anger over his situation, he either would never have noticed the burning bush, or if he had, would have been so consumed by his circumstances that he would not have bothered to go over to it. If that had been his response he would never have experienced and heard the voice of his God. He never would have become what the Father was using the wilderness to mold him into. Moses wouldn't have, and neither will we. J.D. Walt said, "Everything that happens is not God's will, but He has a will in everything that happens." However it may be that we have ended up in the wilderness, He is sovereign there and He has a will and purpose for us. It will be for our good and for His glory. He will use the wilderness to take us deeper into Himself and higher in His ways and life. He will bring us out, and when we emerge, we will not be the same. We will be stronger in the power of His life, but this will only be so if we see the burning bush and turn aside to see and hear what the Lord will say and do through it.

If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, there is a wilderness awaiting you and more than one. Maybe you're there already. Burning bushes will be placed specifically for you. Will you turn aside for them, or in bitterness bemoan that you are there, bombard Him with complaints and pleas to get you out of it? If so, you'll miss His burning bush and the door He will open through it. If you're in the backside of the desert, keep walking. Keep trusting. Keep believing. He has a burning bush for you, and a way not just out of the desert, but into the fullness of His life. He never ceases to bring beauty from ashes, or green meadows from deserts.

Blessings,
Pastor O