Do You?

 In my prayer journal, I have a quote from writer Chris Tiegreen. He says, "We're to believe what the Word of God and the Spirit tell us, regardless of the witness of the clouds." 

Casual faith and a casual relationship with Christ will not get you very far into a life with Him. Scripture says that whom He loves, He disciplines. We see discipline as a negative, His response to something we've done wrong. He sees it as love, using the realities of life to deepen and strengthen our relationship with Him. He allows hard things but means to use them to grow and shape us in Christlikeness. He tests our faith and our trust in Him.

In Matthew 9:28, two blind men came to Jesus, asking for sight. Their blindness was real, and in that day final, yet they came to Him for healing. He asked them a simple question; "Do you believe I can do this?"
They answered that they did, and He gave them sight. Being blind at any time would be an oppressive state, but so much more so in Christ's day. Yet, they dared to believe He could heal them, despite "the witness of the clouds." There are things, oppressive things, that He will allow in our lives. Do we dare to believe Him, even in the midst of the darkest and most threatening clouds?

My world came crashing down in August of 1989. My wife left me. I had to leave my ministry. A total unknown lie before me. Yet, I believed that somehow, He would restore my life and my ministry. I didn't find a great deal of support for that. Not very much in the church and not very much even among family. My belief was tested, and though it weakened more than once, I never let it go, and He did bring into my life those who did believe with me and encouraged me. The road was hard but He walked with me and lived within me every step of the journey. He did restore my life and my ministry, and my witness today is of His faithfulness and His glory. The thickness of the clouds that surrounded me could never stop His Light from piercing them and breaking through to me.

I am not saying that everything you want will take place if you just believe. I am saying that what He has spoken to your heart will come to pass if you refuse to give up and keep pressing on in Him. Clouds, thick and dark clouds, will be a reality in our lives. He will be a greater reality. Trust Him. Hold to Him. Believe Him. He is faithful. He is Light and Life greater than any cloud and any storm.

Blessings,
Pastor O

How Near?

 In Scripture we're given the promise, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." The question that comes to my mind is, "Just how near to Him do we want to be?" 

I once borrowed a book from a friend, and in the margin, where this promise had appeared he wrote in response, "Draw near to Him, He draws near to us. Good news/Bad news." He's on target, for it surely is both good and bad news. Good, because when we come near we have the opportunity to see, hear, and know Him in ways we never believed possible. It's bad news though to our inward desire to center upon ourselves, to be our own gods. That fleshly self-life cannot stand in His Presence. His character and Person are far too intense. That's bad news for our flesh.

We sing songs and make declarations that we want to have more of Him, to have all of Him that we can. Are we really prepared for what that means? If we're to venture into the deep of God we had better be prepared, if indeed we even can be, for an intense encounter. There is nothing shallow about Him, though there certainly can be much that is shallow about us. As Scripture says, it's a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. He is, as His Word says, a consuming fire. A fire that will consume every part of us that lifts up our self-life at the expense of His life.

I'm saying all this not to deter us from coming to Him. That's exactly what He desires. He craves intimacy with us. He yearns for our company, but we need to understand this is not some casual thing. He is a holy God, His Son, Jesus Christ, is a holy King. When Peter got his first glimpse of who Jesus was, he cried out, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." His holiness reveals how unholy we are, but this is not something to flee from because His desire is to cleanse, heal, and deliver us from all that pollutes our heart and spirit.

As a young believer, I remember listening to my pastor preach on Jesus' exhortation to the disciples to "launch out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." He spoke on venturing out into the deep of God. I still remember how my heart burned at that. I wanted to launch out. I wanted to partake of the deep things of God. It has been both wonderful and terrible. He has grown me, stretched me, and purified me in His fire. He is still doing so. It's been very hard on my flesh, but a blessing beyond description for my spirit. He continues to invite me to draw near, and you as well. It is a fearful thing and a wonderful thing. Will you dare to find out just how much? All you need do is draw near....if you dare.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Altars

 Altar..... : a usually raised structure or place on which sacrifices are offered or incense is burned in worship 

—often used figuratively to describe a thing given great or undue precedence or value especially at the cost of something else......"And Abram built an altar there to commemorate the Lord's visit." Genesis 12:7b

I think in the modern, western church, altars are something we associate as being related to the Old Testament, the Law, and the offering of sacrifices by the Levitical priests. This is very sad because the altar and its significance was never meant to lose its place in the church. It's not meant as a verdict against the 21st century western church, but in many of the newer sanctuaries, altars, once a regular feature, have disappeared. Again, not a verdict. Altars are spiritual before they are physical and one can build one in their heart and offer the sacrifice of worship upon it. Still, I have to ask if their absence literally has allowed people to allow their absence spiritually?

Chris Tiegreen wrote, "Everyone has an altar." This is the total truth. If you ask online "what is an altar," you will receive not only the meaning, but an abundance of different kinds of altars used for worship by a multitude of religious beliefs. They are a place where worship, sacrifice, and offerings are made to the object or "god" that we have chosen to give ourselves to. That is seen in Webster's definition above. Don't miss these keywords; "a thing given undue precedence or value at the cost of something else." For the one who calls themself a follower of Christ, that "something else" will always be Almighty God.

As Tiegreen says, everyone has an altar. So, what is yours? Where is yours? You can attend thousands of "worship services" and never worship Him. Yet everyday we do worship something or someone upon the altars we build at His expense. The ancient Israelites never did away with His holy altar or Temple, but they raised seemingly infinite altars to the various "gods" that they gave their hearts to. Those gods had names like Chemosh, Dagon, and Baal. Today they have names like Pleasure, Money, Success (even in ministry), Family, Children, and an abundance of others. In themselves none of these are evil, but when pursuit of them pushes Him from His throne within our hearts, when we now worship having them above having Him, we have sinned against Him, at terrible cost to ourselves.

Has His altar disappeared from your life and heart? It can happen so easily. I believe He is calling us back to His altar. That altar can be made anywhere, and right where you are. The old hymn asks, "Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?" Is your all, all of who you are and wish to be, offered up to Him on His altar? Has everything that has sought to remove Him from His throne in your life been removed so that only He remains?  As Tiegreen says, we all have an altar. Is yours and mine found in Him, or in something or someone else?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Chain Gangs

 There was a time when prison movies were a Hollywood staple. Classic actors like Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson were usually the stars. One of the greatest of these was a movie entitled Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman.

The central character of this movie was named Luke, who was a member of a prison chain gang. He and the other prisoners were routinely taken from their prison camp and put to work maintaining and clearing roads. They did this while having their legs in shackles, chained together, literally living in chains. 

I heard an evangelist once say that too many believers live and look like they're a member of a chain gang. He was referring to their countenance, the looks upon their faces, but our faces only reflect what is happening in our heart and spirit. The great tragedy in the church today is that the very ones Christ came to bring life and victory to are continuing to live like members of a chain gang, going about their day to day lives shackled by burdens, cares, addictions, and wounds of the past that have rendered them living their life in chains that seem unbreakable. Are you one of them?

Let's return to Luke, the central character of the above movie. The desire of the warden and guards was to break the will and spirit of the prisoners they controlled, never letting them forget that they were prisoners. Prisoners in chains. Luke possessed a spirit that was stronger than the chains, and soon that spirit captured the other men. Try as they might, the warden and guards could not break his desire to be free. They could not make him live like a prisoner in chains. 

Luke was a Hollywood character, but the apostle Paul was a living, breathing person who wrote 2 Timothy 8-9 from a prison cell. He wrote, "Never forget that Jesus Christ was....raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach. And because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and chained like a criminal. But the Word of God cannot be chained." Paul was in prison and in chains, but he was not a prisoner. His heart and His spirit were free. He wouldn't and couldn't forget that the Lord he served was risen, alive. Death could not hold Him, and so, neither could it hold Paul. If death could not keep Him in its chains, then no literal prison cell and its chains could hold Paul. Not Paul, and because He is risen, not you or I either. 

What chain gang might you be held in today? What shackles and chains has the devil managed to fit you with, formed as a result of your past, your fears, your wounds, and your sins? He seeks to be your warden, and these things are what he uses as your "guards." The Good News for all of us is that Satan's strongest chains cannot shackle the power of His Word, nor the power of His risen life. Christ, the Living Word is alive and He is risen. This is the reality that Charles Wesley wrote of in his great hymn, And Can It Be. "My dungeon flamed with light....my chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." It's true. It's real. Can you believe it? Will you believe it? Leave the chain gang. Let your chains fall off at His Word. In Christ, we are free. Let us live free.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Finding Him

 "When you walk through the waters, I will be with you." Isaiah 43:2...."There's nothing more heavenly than finding Christ in your hell." Joni Eareckson Tada

Whenever I read her writings or listen to her speak, I am always humbled by the faith and witness of Joni Eareckson Tada. Those who are merely casual listeners tend to think she's a superhuman woman of God who has overcome all the mountains and giants in her life. Yet we so easily forget that what she has already walked through, she still walks through. Pain and extreme difficulty are daily companions in her life. Giving up is a temptation she deals with by the day. It is not herself that sees her through all of that. It's her Jesus. Her Lord and her Savior.

I think that we who are true followers of Jesus Christ, people created for an eternity in His Kingdom, find, in the midst of their suffering, some understanding of the awfulness of hell. Suffering comes upon both the unbeliever and believer alike. For the unbeliever the only outcome is despair, but for the one who belongs to Him, we can discover a great part of the beauty of heaven in the midst of it. How? Because He enters into it with us. He is within us, and at the same time beside us, above us, and beneath us. It is in those times when we feel that we are "going through hell" that His companionship is most rich, and also the place where He reveals ever deepening truths about Himself....and about ourselves as well.

Tada says that "Everyday, God is ready to reveal more about His Son Jesus Christ." Most often this happens in the darkness. In the fires and floods and losses of life. The pain is real, but if we will be looking for Him, He will be more real. 

The other day I watched an old video of a dear elderly and saintly woman. She said that she had been praying and worshiping Him but feeling so inadequate in the effort. She told Him, "Lord, in eternity we will worship you forever for who You are, yet here, I am out of things to praise and worship you for in 5 minutes." She said He then whispered into her spirit that heaven for her, for all who believe, would involve His revealing to her an infinite amount of knowledge as to who He was. An eternity of knowing Him more deeply. A never ending and glorious hope. Our valleys and floods are but a taste of that. May we not miss that taste. 

Thank you Father, that for the one who trusts and follows you, there is no end to the wonder of knowing you. In our present fires and floods, may we discover ever deeper precious truths about You. May Your heaven never cease to enter our journey here, even when the journey leads through hell.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The God Who...

 We have just celebrated another Resurrection Sunday, and in our fellowship, as I'm sure it was in yours, it was a beautiful time of giving glory to the Father for His Risen Son. It puts me in mind of seeing Him as the Lord who came, the Lord who lives, the Lord who died for us, and the Lord who rose and lives forever. It also puts me in mind of the Father, who gave us His Son. Jesus said that "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." 

The wonderful writer Chris Tiegreen, in one of his devotionals, dealing with the Prodigal Son, gives a picture of Father God as, "the God who waits, the God who runs, and the God who celebrates." I want to explore a bit as to just how He is all of those, and more.

Briefly, the story of the Prodigal Son is that of a rebellious son who demands his inheritance from his father, wastes all of it in riotous living in a distant country, ends up living in a pigsty and eating pig food.

He comes to the end of himself and decides to return home, believing he could no longer be a son, but could be a servant, even rehearsing what he would say to his father. In the actual reaction of his father, we see the heart of God the Father.

He's the God who waits. I, we, cannot begin to understand the patient waiting of God upon we who are rebels by birth. We reject Him, we waste His blessings, and we seek to live as far from Him as we can. Yet all the while, He waits, searching the horizon for the ones His heart longs to see come home to Him. I, a rebel by birth, experienced this first hand. He reached out to me so many times as I wasted my life running from Him. All the while He waited, continuing to reach out for me. He should have given up on me, and on you as well. He never did. He kept waiting and watching, till His grace laid hold of my heart, calling me home.

The God who runs. When the prodigal appeared in the distance, his father ran to meet him. I remember so clearly the Sunday evening in the home I grew up in, living in the midst of the sty I had made for myself, living on a diet of earthly pig food, turning to Him in desperation. His response was immediate. He who had been waiting came running. He met me and swept me into His embrace even before I finished the prayer. He met me, one who smelled of the pigsty, dressed in the filthy rags of my sin. He came running and took me into His love and care.

The God who celebrates. I didn't truly sense it all then, but I have grown to since. He didn't just celebrate my coming home to Him then. Indeed, Scripture says all of heaven rejoices when a lost sinner comes home, but I've learned that the celebration only begins at that moment. It goes on for the rest of our life here and then forever into eternity. A celebration for one who had been His enemy. One who had mocked, blasphemed, even hated. It continues on right now. I rejoice in the celebration today, and look forward eagerly to when I will enter into the celebration in eternity. I am so grateful for the God who waits, who runs, and who celebrates. I've never deserved it and neither have you. May we rejoice in this not just once a year, but in every day of our lives. The God who, in His Son, Jesus Christ, welcomes us home.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Questions

 Luke 2 gives the account of Jesus and His parents going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. At its conclusion, His parents, Mary and Joseph, join the crowd of fellow celebrants on the road home. At least a full day goes by before the realize Jesus is missing. This brings me to a question for each of us; how much of a day, how many days can go by before we realize He's missing? Individually and corporately. In the midst of the carrying out of our everyday lives (and ministries), how much time can pass before we realize His absence?

When Mary and Joseph did notice, they quickly returned to Jerusalem. After 3 days of searching, they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers. He was astounding them with His wisdom and understanding. They rebuke Him. "Why have You treated us this way?" they ask. This brings another question. Have you ever noticed how, when we're in a place where He seems absent, we also ask, "Why are You doing this to me?" In fact, many of our questions to Him in that place aren't really questions at all. They're accusations. Why have you done this? Why haven't You done that? Where were You? Where are You? Why aren't You where I want You to be, doing what I want You to do? Don't You care?" These questions were also asked by His disciples. He answered His parents, just as He answers us. 

Most translations render His reply as, "Why is it you were looking for Me? Didn't you know I had to be in My Father's House?" We've often used this verse to get people into church on a regular basis, but the original language says something much deeper. In effect He says, "Didn't you know that I am all about My Father?"

His life wasn't all about being in church, reading His Bible, or tithing. These are excellent things, but they were not His focus. He was totally centered on joined to His Father. Where the Father was, He was. Where the Father was, He was. What the Father did, He did. He was surprised that His parents didn't realize that. How surprised must He be that so many of us don't realize that either.

We're in a time when those who call themselves His followers are very willing to be involved with Him, but being in-volved with Him is not the same as being IN Him. Being involved keeps everything under our control. Being in Him surrenders all control to Him. We are not our own. We are His. It's here that we come to understand what Paul meant when he said, "It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Paul lived in two worlds, the temporal and the eternal. His physical life was here, and he was aware of that, but his mind, heart, and spirit abide in the Kingdom, and he was fully aware of that as well. No aspect of his life was unaware of it. He could say, as did His Lord, "I am all about my Father." In Him. Fully in Him. 

One day, when all of this world has passed away, we who profess to follow Him will give account for how we have lived for Him. Many may have words and thoughts as to how we have lived for Him and with them. I hope that their testimony for me will be a good one, but really, only the words of the Father will matter. How will I have lived for Him? Where did my life most often find me? In Him, or merely around Him, at times most convenient for me? What will my life have been all about? What will He say about yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O