Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Secret

 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  John 2:19...."Earth's blackest and earth's brightest days are only 3 days apart." E. Stanley Jones


A precious soul in our church fellowship has been walking through some very hard times these past months. There have been tears, sadness, loss, and grief. The Lord had put them on my heart and I'd intended to message them to ask after their well being, but this past Sunday I saw them walking past on their way to go home. I asked how they were, and in their honesty, they shared their pain. We prayed. Not a prayer that rendered the heavens, just one that I think touched laid hold of His heart. Later that day I messaged them and they responded with some of what they've been walking through. In answering, the one thing I felt led to tell them was that in this pain, He was working His life, resurrection life, into them. They were experiencing their own "blackest day," but that His brightest day was assured to them. So it is to all of us who will follow where He leads, even when He leads us to His cross, which also becomes ours.

It's a hard truth that we come to know Him best and most deeply in the crucible of suffering. He's the Man of Sorrows, and in this fallen world, our sorrows will be, if we allow it, to be the doorway into the fullness of His resurrection life. A.W. Tozer said, "We want our Easter to come without the need for Good Friday." We want the wonder of resurrection life without the inclusion of the cross in realizing it. Someone said that we can't experience the resurrection without also experiencing the crucifixion. There is no shortcut into His life of abundance. We can't, as someone said, "Sneak around Golgotha." 

His Word speaks of entering into His "Secret Place." We only can by way of His cross. We can never lay hold of His heart and life in all the fullness He intends in any other way. This is the secret, and it's only a secret because our flesh hates this truth so deeply. Our flesh, that is, our self-life and will, will do anything to avoid the cross and its crucifixion. We run from it as we run from Him. As a result, we never really enter into that secret place of intimacy and knowledge of Him, and we suffer spiritual poverty because of it. J.B Chapman said, "When life is Christ, even death is gain." That's the secret. Do we know it? Do you?

Another Easter is upon us. Good Friday, Sunrise, and Easter Sunday services will abound. Sermons on the crucifixion and the resurrection will abound as well. How will they be received.....by you? Will both be religious terms that you know something about, or will they be what has been your spiritual experience? Maybe you're in the midst of your own "Good Friday," which seems anything but good to you. Let Him come to you there, minister to you there, and lead you to His cross there. The 3 days that the disciples weathered between His crucifixion and resurrection must have seemed an eternity to them. Suffering always does, but in an instant, the blackest day was turned to the brightest. In turn, He would lead each of them to their own cross and to their own resurrection. In the journey, they would learn the secret. He invites us as well. Do we come? Will we too learn the secret?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Monday, March 25, 2024

Whose Child?

 Jesus asked, and continues to ask this question: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" I'm coming to see that He asks this question of us each day. How do we answer it?


Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chole said, "Satan always invites us to exchange the eternal for the visible." Mark Batterson said, "We gain things that perish only to lose things meant to endure." Every day we have choices come before us, and every day our choices will either enrich us spiritually, or impoverish  us, bit by bit killing our souls. Chloe asks, "With what might Satan be tempting us to bow down and worship him? How does he entice us to forfeit our soul." Not eternally perhaps, but some part of us is given over to his ways, and we suffer great loss in doing so.

How does he do this? Is it through the offer of success, whether in ministry, business, affluence, or relationships? Is it through the offer of "good things" at the expense of the best and greatest? Is it through the offer of pleasure, comfort, security, and safety? Is it through the offer of a low-risk but high reward life? In short, he offers much increase to our lives at the expense of the shrinking of our spirit and soul. His way will always lead us against God's way, and what looks like profit is instead, great loss, and we have so little idea of what we are really losing. The rich wonder of His presence and power in our lives.

In my notes I've written, "Throughout our spiritual lives, there is only one temptation; to choose against God. Our disobedience is Satan's greatest prize." I don't remember the source of that statement, but there can be no doubt that its true origin is found in the Father's heart. Each day we're faced with a myriad of temptations and they have many different faces. Actually though, the only real temptation for us is whether we choose for, or against Him. We choose by the manner in which we speak, think, relate, and live. In all of these we'll be choosing either for or against Him. 

Years ago, a Jesus Movement group named Dogwood, sang a song where a father counseled his son as he stepped out into the world and all the choices it offered. He exhorted his son to "remember whose child you are." Not just who his earthly father was, but even more, who his heavenly Father was. We'd do well to remember that simple warning. When faced with the choice of losing a part of our soul or not, we must remember whose child we truly are. It's when we forget who we are in Him that we are in the most danger of bowing down to the enemy and his desires for us. 

Where will our choices take us today? What will be gained and what will be lost in them? Will the Father have His prize of our obedience, or the enemy his great trophy of our disobedience? Whose child will we most closely resemble today? 

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Friday, March 22, 2024

Wounds

"He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; He endured punishment that made us well; because of His wounds, we have been healed."  Isaiah 53:5

We live in a fallen world and all of us will, in some way, suffer wounding because of it. Many of these wounds are so deep as to have affected every aspect of how we live and behave. How beautiful that in Jesus Christ, healing for every kind of wound, spiritual and emotional, even physical, is offered. I am grateful beyond words for the healing blood of Jesus Christ in my own life, as He has healed my wounds and continues to heal them. I pray that you would know this healing as well. All you need do is come to Him, with your wounds, and allow Him to take your heart and all its injuries into His hands and make them, and you, whole. If you've never done so, would you do it now?

However, there is a wounding that may be the most difficult for us to bring to Him, and that is the wounding we've suffered in the church, His church. He knows of this wounding. He suffered it Himself. Scripture says that He was wounded in the household of His friends. He knows the deep pain of betrayal and mistreatment from those we trusted most. He knows how deep the wounding can go, and He realizes how far we can run from the church, and Him, because of it. Maybe you have run from Him yourself. Maybe you're running right now. He knows your pain. As do I and so many others as well.

When I came out of the world and to Him and His church, I discovered a love and beauty I never knew before. I could not fathom how anything but love and rich fellowship could ever be found within it. I could not believe that the deepest wounds and suffering I would ever experience could come from the church I had not only become a part of, but would answer His call to serve and give myself to. But, like my Lord, I too was wounded in the house of my friends. It was inevitable that I would be. The servant is not above his Master. The shock of it all was devastating, and the enemy's enticements to turn away from His people were real, yet His was a love that would not let me go, and I stayed in the house of my friends, because there were still abiding there, true friends, and part of my growing process was realizing the imperfections of His church, a church made up of very flawed people but built upon a perfect Savior...A Savior who heals even the wounds inflicted by our friends.

Alicia Britt Chole said that we cannot avoid being wounded in the church. It will happen. Some of the wounds will be severe. However, she said we can avoid those wounds becoming infected. Infected with bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, the desire for vengeance. Infection that spreads to every part of our being. An untreated wound will give rise to infection and there are so many who have never taken their wounds to Him. They've withdrawn from Him and from His church....and the infection has only festered and grown deeper. Lives, marriages, families have been shipwrecked in their faith because of it. They've made the great error of expecting from His church what can only be found in Him....perfect love. 

Without going into much detail, I was wounded deeply by some of His people. Used, betrayed, and had my character and integrity attacked. I can't really describe all the pain I walked through and it would have been so easy to walk away. But I couldn't. In all of it, He walked with me, and He taught me something of what it meant to share in the fellowship of His sufferings for a church and a people that He had called me to. A church and a people that He loved, and called me to love as well. I couldn't walk away from Him and I couldn't walk away from His call upon my life and to His people. As we walked together, He tended my wounds, and as He promised, bound up my broken and wounded heart. And He taught to look through the wounds that had come and still do come, and see Him. I served and followed not foremost for them, but for Him. And because I did serve Him in love, I could again serve those who had failed me in love as well.And in the woundings of some of my "friends," He led me to the richness of His people who have become lifelong friends, forever friends as some might say. I have found that, despite all its human flaws, His church is truly a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, "washed in the blood of the Lamb."

I don't know who this is for today, but if you've been wounded, know that your Lord suffers those wounds with you. Bring them to Him and allow Him to heal them. Don't run from Him or His people. Run to Him and to them. You will find, as I have, that whatever suffering has been involved, it cannot be compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing, walking with, and ministering with Him. We will find, as the old hymn says, that it really will be worth it all "when we see Jesus." And we, you and I, don't have to wait for the fullness of eternity to see Him. We can see Him now.....in the people He has sent us to and to be a part of.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Which Table?

 When I was growing up, a common warning from my mother as we neared suppertime and she saw my siblings and I sneaking snacks, was to tell us to stop so that we didn't "ruin our appetites." It was a fair warning because we were hungry, but instead of waiting for the food meant for our overall health, we wanted to gorge on that which held little nutritional value, but tasted so good. And doing so left us with little desire for the foods that did.


I see a great parallel to this in our spiritual lives today. We in the church are gorging ourselves on the junk food of this world, filling our lives and souls with "food" that has no eternal value yet leaves us with no appetite or desire for those "foods" that do. It reminds me of a case study I came across about severely overweight people who were literally starving to death. Their bodies were not receiving the basic nutrition that they were designed to receive. They devoured great amounts of food that instead of giving them life, was bringing them death. How overweight are we today with the food that doesn't last while starving to death for the lack of His food that gives life?

Isaiah 44:3 reads, "For I will give you abundant water to quench your thirst and to moisten your parched fields." As I saw it put, before one can be filled with the water of His life, he must first realize how dry and thirsty he really is. The soda pop of this world, which we've been guzzling, masks our true thirst, leaving us craving that which doesn't quench our thirst but makes us even more thirsty. The Father said that He would, "Pour water upon him who is thirsty," but life finds most of us hanging out at the various "soda pop" dispensers of this world. We walk right by His streams of Living Water to drink what only leaves ever more parched and dry, This is true of individuals, households, and churches. Have we ever become aware of how deep our thirst and hunger really is? How long will we keep running to the soda pop and junk void vending machines of this world, spending our lives upon that which is slowly killing us? And all the while He stands before us offering the water and food of life....without cost. 

Decades ago, Jesus Movement singer Keith Green wrote, "Asleep In The Light," which asked the church, "How can you be so dead when you've been so well fed?" Could it be because of our ruined appetites? We may faithfully attend to our daily devotions and our weekly home groups and church gatherings, and His Word may be faithfully placed before us. But it's not received, taken in, made to be a part of us. It can't be, because like my siblings and I, we've already gorged ourselves on our junk foods and soda pop that's to be found everywhere around us. The "dinner," no matter how lovingly prepared nor how sumptuous it might be, goes uneaten. We've been to His table but we've not partaken of anything. We're asleep in the Light, starving to death in the midst of plenty. 

What will this day, week, life hold for you and me? More unending visits to the pop machines and candy bar dispensers? Or will we feast at His table and drink deeply of His water? The world and the enemy spread their table before us.....and He prepares His. We'll be found at one or the other. Which will it be for you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Monday, March 18, 2024

Can You?

 Desires, hopes, wants. We all have them. And we're very vulnerable in them. It's in these that we are most severely attacked by the enemy. Jesus understood this. So often in His Word, He approached people in need, desperate need, with the simple question; "What do you want Me to do for you?" I think He wanted them to express not only their deepest desire, but even more, would they, could they, trust Him with that desire, that hope, that dream? He still wants that from us.


John 14:1 relates Jesus speaking to His disciples; "Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in Me." There seems no end of things we are troubled over. Money, children, jobs, ministries. Needs of every type and kind. Impossible situations and the real perplexities of everyday life. We have hopes and desires in all of them. There are results we're hoping and longing for. Jesus asks, "What is it that you want in this?" and, "Will you trust Me to bring it about?" In the way and time He sees best? 

Will we? Will we trust Him to work in the midst of our deepest desires and needs and really bring about His best for us? What desire is it that we hold closest to our heart, and will we trust Him with it? Will we trust Him with that treasure? I heard someone speak on this verse and they put a twist to it I'd not heard before. They said that Jesus calls us to trust both He and the Father, and that what we need to do is bring that desire, that treasure, and place it between the Father and Jesus.....and leave it there. In trust. Leave that person, situation, need, that deep and heartfelt desire....and leave it between Almighty God and the One who tells us He's the Author of Life. Leave it with Them. Trust it to Them. 

Hope and trust are so closely linked together. Dutch Sheets says that the Old Testament word for hope meant "cord." The root of the word he says is to "bind together by twisting." He writes, "Hope connects. It binds us together with God." When we bring our treasured desires and hopes to Him, leaving them with Him, between Father and Son, we don't just walk away. We stay bound together with Them, connected to Them. We are not alone and we for certain are not without hope. We are not troubled because we trust God and we trust Christ. 

Can you bring your treasures in whatever form to Him, to Them today? Can you believe and can you trust? Can you leave it with the Father and the Son and rest in the hope that connects you with both? God the Father and God the Son. Nothing can touch or harm that which is left there. It's safe. Trust. Believe. Have hope. Be at peace.....Be at peace....Believe God.....Believe Jesus....and.....trust.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Friday, March 15, 2024

Dust

The songs of Keith Green, a key figure in the Jesus movement of the late 60's and early 70's, have always spoken into my heart and spirit. One of these is his song, Rushing Wind, and the lyric, Rushing wind blow through this temple, blowing out the dust within....Holy Spirit, I surrender, take me where You want to go. Plant my by Your Living Water. Plant me deep so I can grow.

As I listen, I have to wonder how much "dust" may have accumulated in my heart. It doesn't take long, as anyone experienced with house cleaning knows. How much of my life truly needs the fresh wind of His Spirit blowing through it, blowing out the "things" that, like dust in our homes, has accumulated due to neglect or complacency? These things may even be what I've deemed to be precious, but when placed beside the surpassing riches of His life are nothing more than dust in comparison. Or as Paul put it, "dung." Either way, I need those constant blowings of His Spirit through mine, ridding me of the dust that clogs my heart and mind. In your heart, you know you do too.

It's so easy as we journey through to pick up a great deal of "traveling dirt." We can get used to it and come not to even be bothered by it. We just accept it as part of the walk. Green didn't know such a sentiment and wrote in this song, Separate me from this world Lord, sanctify my heart for You. Daily change me to Your image. Help me bear good fruit.

We don't hear much of the word "sanctify" in the church these days and we understand it even less. Do we even want to? I get that the church needs to speak to the world in language they can grasp, but that doesn't bring inner transformation when we are nothing more than outwardly clean versions of themselves. I've a quote in my prayer journal from an unknown source that says, "The world doesn't need a religious version of itself." It doesn't. It needs a holy one, walking and ministering in His Holy Spirit power, bearing good fruit and more, being the portrait of Christ to a world desperate for Him. We can't when the dust of this world has become so thick in us as to render us powerless. We need the rushing wind. We need it now.

The rushing wind Green speaks of is the wind that came upon the church at Pentecost as related in the second chapter of Acts. Every year churches commemorate Pentecost Sunday without really knowing or experiencing its reality. It's deteriorated into little more than a tired remembrance of what once was instead of a celebration of what it is in us right now. It reminds me of the picture of a powerful locomotive from years gone by and now sitting in a museum. It looks powerful and it has all the equipment that can make it run powerfully, but it lacks one vital thing: there is no fire fueling the engine. It's only a shadow of what is meant to be. So too is much of the professing church these days. We need the fresh wind of His Spirit restoring His Holy fire within us and His church. Blowing out all the dust within.

One more line of the son; Jesus, You're the One who set my spirit free. Use me Lord. Glorify Your name through me. We may know He's the One, but has He set our spirit, your spirit, free? Can He really use us? Are we living dust free lives that bring glory to His name? That is what a sanctified, set apart, filled with His Spirit life is all about. Is it what our life is all about? The winds are blowing. Will they blow through us?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Bush Dwellers

 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8

....."We will not emerge from behind our chosen bushes until we admit we are hiding. We can become very attached to our bushes." Dudley Hall

The need for transparency in the church is a deep one, yet transparency may be the most lacking trait in the people of God, including those who are His preachers. It's ingrained in us and it started with our "parents," Adam and Eve. Perhaps the greatest reason we are not is a mixture of two elements, pride and shame. Pride, because it is so hard for us to admit to anyone else that we've failed, don't have it altogether, and are just as imperfect, even moreso, than they are. Shame, because we condemn ourselves, with the enemy's help, that we failed, sinned, and fell short of what we believed He wanted for us, and we wanted as well. We see both elements in the actions of Adam and Eve. Their first response was to hide. To "hide" from each other by the use of the leaves to cover their nakedness, and then to seek to hide from their Father when He came to talk with them. They didn't want to come out from the bushes. We rarely do. As Hall said, we get very attached to them. Many of us have spent years hiding in them. I did.

Someone told me just this morning that they appreciated my transparency in my writings. I told them I could be so because the Lord allowed all the bushes I'd spent so much time hiding behind to die. My failures, real or imagined, were put on display for all to see. I told them that after going through the humiliation of it all, there was little I could do to keep hiding. In the end, it was a blessing. A painful blessing, but a blessing nonetheless.

What I'm talking about in this was what I walked through in the collapse of my marriage and the temporary loss of my ministry. My marriage had been steadily deteriorating almost from the beginning of my ministry. I knew that it was, and sought help through prayer, counseling, and so on, but I was paralyzed with fear that anyone should know how bad it was. I exhausted myself trying to keep the secret, and the mask I wore got more and more difficult to wear. In the end, everything collapsed upon me. My church, not just local, but district wide, saw the ruin. Added to that was that I was accused of behaviors that I was never guilty of, but at the time couldn't disprove. All I could do was trust Him for His vindication, and He did vindicate me, but in the meantime, just about everything was out in the open. My pride, my mask, my bush, no longer hid anything....and I was ashamed. Yet, He did turn the horror of this time to blessing. He restored my ministry, and my honor. And He showed me that I no longer needed to live in the bushes.

I'm not saying that we need to be open with everyone about everything. I am saying that we need to have trusted people in our lives that we can be transparent with. I'm also saying that we need to find true freedom from the fear of being "found out." God knew where in the bushes Adam and Eve were, and He knows where we are as well. He not only wants us to come out, but I believe He wants us to share with all those still hiding in their own bushes how they too can come out from them. Bush dwellers no more.

May we find freedom from the bondage of the bushes and the pride and shame that have kept us there. We were never fooling anyone anyway. They say that sharing the Gospel is a matter of one beggar telling another where to find bread. So too is it one of former bush dwellers telling current ones how to come out and be free. Let's leave the bushes and enter into His broad place of freedom.

Blessings,
Pastor O