Heart Tracks - Have You Ever Been To Church?

     Have you ever been to church?  A friend of mine recently posed that question, and before you answer that one, can I ask another?  Do we really know what "going to church" is?  Jesus said that "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I will be also."  Usually we take that to mean that we can be encouraged if there is just a few in a service, because Jesus promises us that He'll be there as well.  Here's another question, do we know what being gathered in His name really is?
    I heard church defined as "where Christ is consciously discerned, seen, by those who gather." This doesn't mean some vague awareness of Him, as we relate the songs and music, even the message of the day to and with Him.  We may have been part of a gathering, but we certainly have not been part of a church.  If you think I'm being too narrow, can we take an honest look at what comprises the average church "worship" time?  In this I am thankful for the insights of the same friend who asked this writings opening question.
   If you were to "see" the most recent worship service of which you and I were a part, what would you see?  I'm betting that it's much like what we see many times over.  Everyone comes into the building and spends time visiting, or, fellowshiping as we usually call it.  It's usually a fairly loud and noisy time.  This is what my friend calls "the church social."  From there, we move into what we call worship.  There's music, singing, prayer, which is usually a list of all we want God to do, perhaps some testimonies as to what God is doing for ME, for US, and then the speaker of the hour gets up to speak.  Very likely he speaks from His Word, and very likely some type of response is found in us.  The key is, what is the response?  I'm coming more and more to believe that most of our worship may touch our emotions and intellect, but leave undisturbed our hearts and our spirit.  We may be stirred in some way on both fronts, we may have been more deeply aware, at least on these levels, of His Presence, but at the end of it, nothing within has changed.  These "warm fuzzies" as some have called them, make us feel we've been with Jesus, but the sameness of our spiritual condition gives lie to that thought.  Can anyone be the same after a true encounter with the Presence of God?  We may be worse off in defiance, or made more whole by yielding, but we will never be the same.  If you doubt this, take a look around the sanctuary after your next worship service and see how quickly so many go to check emails, texts, and to resume conversations begun in the church social setting.  It is impossible to lay hold of Christ, and to have been laid hold of by Him, and yet breakaway with such ease.  Such cannot happen if we have truly worshiped Him "in spirit and in truth."
     Jesus said that "Where I am, may you be also."  How often do we really come to that place of intimacy with Him, where He is, in the very presence of the Father?  The place where we cannot emerge from the same as we came?  The place where our presence become one with His.  Are we weary enough of being touched by Him only in our minds and emotions?  Do we hunger for an encounter with Him where all things become new, and they become new again with each fresh meeting?  This is worship.  This is church.  Have you ever been there?  Are you ready to be there now?  You needn't wait for the next scheduled meeting, or for the chance to get into the building.  It can happen right now, with Him, in His Presence.  Yes, we need those times of human interaction, and singing, music, and preaching, all are integral to worship, but do we ever go beyond this?  Do we ever enter into the real fullness of worship?  It starts in our aloneness with Him, and overflows as we come together.  Have you ever been to church?  Why not come right now?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - Wounding Healer

     As a young boy I had my share of cuts and scrapes, many of which required that I run home and get my mother to "treat" them.  I always approached this with a certain amount of dread, because I knew that she kept in the medicine cabinet, her trusty little bottle of iodine.  I knew that before she would cover the wound with a band-aid, she would first clean it with that iodine.  I also knew that this cleaning would sting greatly, seemingly even more than the wound itself.  I never understood why something meant to make it better, could hurt so much.  I'm not sure I've gotten any better at that when seeking to understand His healing ways.  Job 5:18 reads, "He wounds so that He may also heal."  To the flesh, this seems really counterproductive.

Our thought, like my thought as a child is that a band-aid should be more than enough.  So many of us would much rather have band-aids applied to deep wounds in our life, wounds that are caused at root, by sin, than for the Father, through His Holy Spirit, to do the deep cleansing, often scouring, work of healing.

    If one is paying any degree of attention to the day to day news, we know that our culture is decaying and collapsing at an ever quickening rate.  TV and radio personalities, along with special interest group leaders keep calling upon congress, the President, and the courts to legislate something that will make the problem go away.  These are nothing more than band-aids, for they will not cleanse the root problem which again, is that of sin.  Legislation, education, and intellectual enlightenment will not deal with this problem, though throughout history, the world has stubbornly believed that it could.  Everyone knows there's a problem, few, including many in the church, want to identify it as sin, which at root, is a conscious choice, as well as an inherent tendency,  to live against the Lordship and authority of God as He reveals Himself in Christ.  So, we go on making band-aids of one sort or another, covering the wound, but never cleansing and healing it.
    This is not confined to the world however.  The church in many ways has done the same.  The Father said through His prophets that His priests had offered superficial treatments for His people's mortal wounds.  Can we at least allow Him to examine us to the extent we may be doing that today?  Yes, we must offer to all a place of refuge in Him, but it will never be more than an illusional/delusional refuge if the wounds, the sins, that are consuming us and those around us, are not confronted, laid open before Him, and then yielded to the deep cleansing, and yes, scouring work of His healing.  That very hand that wounds, brings pain in the dealing with and healing of the infection of sin, is the same one that brings wholeness and life to that which was doomed to lameness and death.

    The infection, as it affects every aspect of our lives, relationships, homes, and yes, churches, will not be dealt with, cleansed and made new by our insistence on making minor life adjustments to His call to the holiness and wonder of His life.  It comes only by being laid open, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, by and before Him.  If we will submit to the iodine of His Holy Spirit, the infection will be healed, from the inside out.

Blessings,

Pastor O    

  
   

Heart Tracks - Beloved Chains

    The Father has so many "vessels" which He may use to speak to us.  Today He spoke to me through one that He called home to Himself well over a century ago; the British preacher of the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon.

      I was reading in Spurgeon's devotional, Strengthen My Spirit, when I came upon this sentence; "We sit too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock; only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would perhaps, if it came really to the test, be reluctant to have it snapped."  That's a powerful and convicting statement, for I think there are many among us, perhaps even ourselves, to whom those words may truthfully speak of.  So many of us are draped in chains that He would so gladly break, if only we would allow it.  Why will we not allow it?

     Some years ago, I received a call from a woman who was seeking a church, having just moved into the area.  Her main concern was whether or not we had an active support group that would minister to her in a particular need area of her life.  Now, I'm not against support groups, and I believe that we have a biblical role to support and encourage all believers, especially those who struggle, but that support and encouragement is meant to direct them to the freeing presence and life of Christ.  Too often, people end up seeking the comfort, encouragement and security of the group, rather than embracing the power and risen life of Christ.  This good sister was one of these.  Conversation with her revealed that she had been a part of such groups for a very long time, and I heard in her voice a desperation to find again that comfort and security she had physically moved away from.  I told her that I could not offer her the specific group she sought, but I could offer her the Christ who gives to all who come to Him in truth, freedom from the chains that so bound her.  I could hear in her voice the disappointment in our lacking the group.  Somehow, she did not hear the voice of Christ in the invite.  I prayed with her before hanging up, but knew in my heart we would not see her that week, or any other, and we never did.  She could not see that though removed from the physical presence of her support group, she could never be removed from the power, presence and life of Christ, and in Him alone was the freedom she so desperately needed.  She, like so many of us, find our security in a group, a person, a pastor, a ministry leader of some kind.  We can see them, but we cannot see Him.  And so the chains remain.
We become used to them.  Eventually, we cannot envision a life without them, no matter how miserable that life may be.  We fear the freedom we have never known, far more than the prison we have become so familiar with.

     Author and pastor Jack Taylor once said, "Stop asking God to help you.  He wants to kill you."  This sounds harsh till we understand that the "you" he refers to, the one we're asking the Father to "help," is the spirit of flesh that desires to cling to its right to self at any and all costs.  That spirit will do anything, even if it includes its own misery, to retain control and will refuse to come to Him, surrender, and live.  God is not interested in helping that "you," giving it His sympathy.  He wishes it to die, so that the "you" He created for us, to be can live, and live in the life He calls and is, abundant.
     Paul said in Galatians 4:28 that those who are His are "children of the promise."  Prisoners indeed.  His prisoners.  Prisoners of hope.  Christ calls us, you and me, to be His prisoners today, right now.  That every chain, beloved or despised, be broken in our lives, that we might come up to Him, on eagles wings, and live where He is.  Isaiah 2:3 calls us to "Come up to the mountain of the Lord."  Let us come, ever rising, ever free.
That the dungeons we have been held in, will, as Wesley wrote, "flame with light," and that our hearts be free as we rise up, and follow Him.  No longer chained to the rock of despair, but standing on the Rock of His life.
Let us come up to the mountain of the Lord.

Blessings,

Pastor O

 

Heart Tracks - The Trickster Within

     Recently, I've heard from several sources, good teachings on the life of Jacob.  One point made, and not very comfortably, was that all of us have an "inner Jacob."  Jacob, if you know his story, was a trickster.  He used trickery, manipulation and dishonesty to get what he wanted, and tragically, what he wanted was what God had already promised.  He just couldn't trust Him and wait for HIm to bring it about.  Jacob's life was one of tricking others, and of others tricking him.  Beth Moore says that all of us have a trickster in us and that we have to become more honest versions of ourselves, that we cannot walk in the fullness of our inheritance as part frauds.  How do we view that statement?  How do you?  How do I?

    In Exodus 33:11, we read, "Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."  Does this come anywhere close to the way you and I talk to God?  We may talk a great deal at Him, but how much do we really talk to Him?  The mark of true friendship is total honesty.  Does this mark us in our interactions with Him, or, are we with Him, as we are with most others, tricksters at heart?  Does that inner fraud lurking within seek to "get over" on God, just as we seek to get over on everyone else?  Do we try to present ourselves as something we're not, knowing all the while who we really are?  So many can pray lofty, impressive sounding prayers, yet live shallow, unimpressive lives, at least from the viewpoint of the Kingdom.  Do we, can we, really come to the Tent of Meeting, and meet with Him?  Can we really come to Him "face to face?"
    Moore says that we can start to face up to ourselves and to Him, by going face down before Him. We cannot emerge from such an encounter the same person.  We can only be changed, made more closely into the image of Christ.  Week after week, people enter into and emerge from "worship" with their inner Jacob, their trickster within, firmly intact, which results in powerless lives, and a powerless church.  We speak much of being a "missional" people, but unless we, like Jacob, truly encounter God, individually and corporately at our own Peniel, we will, as Oswald Chambers so clearly tells us, move out without power, and without Him.  James Robison told recently of sharing his deep burden for our decaying culture with his friend Beth Moore.  Moore told him, "I will join you in that burden on the floor, before Him."  Being missional starts with being face down, on the floor before God.  In our spirits, if not our bodies.  As Moore says, if we can face Him, we can face anything.

    T. Austin-Sparks wrote "Does anyone remark, 'What a presence of Christ,' when encountering us?  Or, are we more interested in being complimented on what a good person, worker, teacher, preacher, pastor, or minister we are?  Who do we long for others to notice?  Ourselves, or Christ?  Who do we really wish to see exalted?  How we answer determines the strength of Jacob the Trickster, who lurks within, and who must, as did the original Jacob, "die," so that Christ may live in, and through us.  Tricksters no more.

Blessings,

Pastor O   

Heart Tracks - Living At The Lost And Found

     A great deal of my prayer life, of my life in Him, has been spent trying to get from Him that which He has already given.  I expect you have as well.  Though throughout His Word we are repeatedly told that we have been given "all things in Christ," we somehow think there must be some kind of disclaimer attached to that, and that our part is to seek to pry from His hand and heart, things that He is basically very reluctant to part with.  Instead of living as sons and daughters of the King through a living faith in Christ, we live as orphans, who must keep after a God who really doesn't want us around.  To paraphrase A.W. Tozer, we speak the language of power, but our lives are lives of weakness.  He says in his book, Born After Midnight, "In our private prayers and public services we are forever asking God to do things He has either already done or cannot do because of our unbelief.  We plead for Him to speak when He has already spoken and is at that moment speaking.  We ask Him to come when He is already present and waiting for us to recognize Him.  We beg the Holy Spirit to fill us while all the time we are preventing Him by our doubts."  We're like people "living" at the Lost and Found window, hoping that what we so desperately need will somehow "turn up," never understanding that that which was lost in the fall of Adam, life in and with the Father, is found and restored to us in Christ.  On the cross, Christ's last words were, "It is finished."  Yet we live as if the life He gives to those who will follow Him has yet to begin.  Jesus said "Freely I have given, now freely receive."  Somehow, we just can't believe He means that.

     In Acts, a group of believers was asked, "Have you received the Spirit since you first believed?"  I heard a friend say that what they were being asked was, "Have you entered into the life of Jesus, to the place where Jesus is?"  Christ lived in the fullness of His Father's presence and it is where those who are His are to live as well.  He will meet us where we are, but then He seeks to take us where He is.  We're good at defining what it means to be filled with the Spirit, living out the definition is another matter entirely.  As Tozer points out, we excel at speaking the language of the Kingdom.  Christ gives us, has given us, the life of the Kingdom.  Which are we walking in right now?

     In John 5, Jesus said to the Pharisee's, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life."  Few of us are anxious to be identified with a Pharisee, yet how many Bible studies, memorization exercises, and sharing of scripture take place on a daily basis, yet we continue to know much about the Word, yet continue to be unaware of the power of Him who is the Word of Life.  So, we continue to see everything as an exercise in trying to wear down God, so that, in exhaustion, He will finally give in, and do what we ask.  We want the fullness of the Promised Land, but like the Israelite's, we keep standing on its border, refusing to enter in.  Like them, God asks us, "How much longer will you delay entering into what I have (already) given you?"

How much longer for you, for me?  How much more time will we spend in the lost and found department, looking for what we already have?

Blessings,
Pastor O 
   

Heart Tracks - Laying Down Isaac

      Isaac was the long promised son of Abraham.  He was precious beyond words to both His father and mother, Sarah.  God had given them so many good things, but none of His gifts came close to the joy and wonder of this son given to them in their old age.  Yet, one day, Abraham heard the voice of God speaking to him, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."  Perhaps you've read this passage many times, but has your heart ever really understood what must have been the heart state of both Abraham and Sarah?  Sarah, as she watched her husband take the joy of her heart to what she knew would be his death.  Abraham, asked to give up what had been the rich fulfillment of the Father's promise.  God was calling each to "lay down their Isaac," to give him to Himself, without explanation, and without any sense of why He would do so.  Have you ever been there?  Are you there now?

    Many years ago, the Father allowed such a situation to be mine.  I had been in the ministry for a little over 5 years and truly loved my calling.  Then, like the tragedies of Job, everything began to come crashing down.  My wife left to seek another life for herself, one that didn't include me.  The home and family I loved and found great security in were gone.  Along with that, I was forced to resign my ministry.  Not only did I love it, I found my identity in it.  I was no longer a husband and pastor.  If I wasn't those things, what was I?  More, though I knew I hadn't been perfect in either role, I also knew I had been faithful in both, had "done everything right," as far as I knew and saw things.  Why had He allowed this?  Why was He not working to bring it all back?  Why was He absent?  Just where was He in all of it?  Like Jacob, I wrestled with Him.  No, more than wrestled.  The Father and I were engaged in a knock-down, drag-out slugfest.  I was angry, resentful, over what had been lost.  He owed me...big time.  I had given Him, in my eyes, everything.  In the same way, by my eyes, He had given me nothing.  I wanted answers, and He wasn't supplying them.  The fight went on.  For some, this fight with God never ends.  Mercifully for me, by His grace, it did, at least on this front.
    In the battle with Him, He eventually broke through all the emotions and was able to show me how I had made my ministry, even my marriage and family, my own Isaac.  They had become gods to me, and I worshipped them.  I wasn't really conscious of this, and if I had been, surely would not have admitted it to anyone.  Yet it was true, and when this truth came to light for me, my only choice was to either lay this Isaac down, at the foot of the cross, or clutch it to myself, as it continued to eat away the very fabric of my soul till there was nothing left but the bitterness, emptiness, joylessness, and grief.  Aware of the loss of His gifts, but unaware of the loss of the greatest gift which is Himself.  Faced with that choice, finally, I laid my Isaac down.
It would not be the last time.  He would reveal other Isaac's in my life, desire for success, recognition, and applause.  Desire for life to go as I thought it should, for people to do what I thought they should, and all the frustration that came about when of course, it, they, didn't.  Each time, eventually, I had to lay my Isaac down.  I know that such times still lay ahead.  It's the way of the Father, the way of the cross.  Are you walking in that way today?

    T. Austin-Sparks asks, "Have we made the choice that no matter what, whether we see, understand, agree, or not, we are going on with God?  This is faith.  We put over to Him, our mistakes, failures, and trust Him with them, and go on."  We lay down our Isaac.  What is your Isaac?  What disappointment, sorrow, loss do you continue to cling to?  More, what good gift, blessing, place, ministry or person have you made your Isaac and refuse to surrender to Him?  God gave back to Abraham his son.  He gave back to me my ministry.  Neither of us had a guarantee that He would.  In the end, all we have is the guarantee of His goodness and His love.  It must be enough.  Is it for you, for me?  Can we lay down our Isaac?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - Against The Wind

     In 1971 a Scotsman named Chay Blyth did something never done before.  He sailed around the world going against the prevailing winds and currents.  He completed his journey in 292 days and upon his return to England, 6000 people, including much of the royal family was on hand to welcome him.  This may have been a nautical first, but it's not a spiritual one.  Each of us, no matter what we think of spiritual things, of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, lives out our lives walking against one type of wind and current or the other.  For  some, the end of it will be victory and celebration.  For so many others, it will be destruction and sorrow.  We will live either against the wind and currents of the kingdom of this world, or against that of the Kingdom of heaven.  Both will involve much trouble, but the trouble of the first will only bring us low, whereas the trouble of the latter will continue to lift us ever upward to and with Him.  We will live as Jonah did, always running and hiding from God, or as Paul did, always moving deeper and deeper into Him.  Both journeyed against the wind, the grain of a kingdom.  Jonah against the Kingdom of God, and Paul against the kingdom of this world.

    We see in Jonah where the Father gave a message to Jonah for the city of Nineveh.  He was to go there and bring the message of repentance and the offer of God's forgiveness to them.  Instead, he fled in the opposite direction, towards Spain, seeking to escape the Father's will and desire for him, and for all that He wished to do through him.  What he encountered was a storm that threatened to tear his vessel of escape apart, being cast adrift into deep waters, and eventually, life in the darkness of the belly of a fish.  Eventually he agreed to obey His call, though without a whole heart.  As far as we can tell, the end of his story leaves him joyless.  Lack of joy and lack of life, these are the end for everyone who chooses Jonah's way, the way that goes against the wind, the grain, of the Kingdom of God.
    Paul, on the other hand, embraced the call and life of the Father in Christ.  That way took him on a path that walked against the raging winds and currents of this world.  He had constant opposition, even hatred.  He too suffered shipwreck and being adrift at sea.  He knew the prison cell, the pain of being beaten, ridiculed, misunderstood, even stoned and left for dead, and perhaps he was dead. If so, the Spirit of God raised him up to continue on his journey against the wind.  For him, there was no great celebration, no throngs to greet him.  Not in this world anyway.  Yet, his journey against the wind only served to lift him higher, as it does the eagle, into and ever deepening, greater relationship with Christ.  Chinese church leader Brother Yun wrote, "We shouldn't pray for a lighter load to carry, but for a stronger back to endure.  Then this world will see that God is with us, empowering us to live in a way that reflects His love and power.  This is true freedom."  This is a life lived against the wind.
   Which wind and current do you walk against today?  The current of the world, or the Kingdom?  Which grain are you living against?  To go "against the grain," means that a piece of wood is being planed in the wrong direction.  The result will be that the surface will tear, rather than lie smoothly.  Living against the grain of the Kingdom of God will only result in the tearing apart of your life and all that involves that life.  To live against the grain of this world will bring trouble, likely lots of it.  It did for Paul and even moreso for Christ.  Yet the result will be a smoothness of His Spirit and life that will empower us on the journey, bringing healing and wonder through our lives.  The applause of the world will never be ours, but the applause of heaven, of the nail scarred hands of Christ, will be.  Is the current you walk against today taking you there?

Blessings,
Pastor O
          

Heart Tracks - Two Ways

    In John 1, two former followers of John the Baptist, who had been told that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, asked Him "Where are you staying."  In reply Jesus said to them, "Come and see."  Note something in that reply.  He didn't say "Come and do."  In effect, He was telling them, "Come and be."  They thought that following Him would involve the usual role of a disciple in that day; imitation of the life of the teacher.  Christ was not calling them to an imitation of His life, but of a partaking of it.

     A friend said not long ago that there are two ways in which a believer may live.  The first is to seek to conform outwardly to His word and life.  That is, trying to mold our actions and behavior according to the actions and behavior of Christ that we see in His Word.  In effect, we try to live His life, the life we see in His Word in our own strength rather than in His power.  We have words, language, but we don't have life.  The second way, His way, is for His Word to be literal life within us, inwardly transforming us, not by our conscious effort to "do better," but by His active life and power within.  As T. Austin-Sparks puts it, "He doesn't give us a standard to be lived up to, but a Person to be lived with.  The first is rooted in self-effort and results in eventual defeat.  The other brings the enjoyment and joy of knowing the reality of 'Christ, the power of God.' "   As I heard someone put it, He is not looking for followers alone, but for living sanctuaries of His life.  A life that transforms not from the outside in, but the inside out.  We don't conform to His way, but are transformed by it. 

    Everywhere in the church today are people who are miserable in their walk with Him, mainly because it doesn't seem to be a walk in Him.  We live more as orphans than as sons and daughters of the King and His Kingdom.  We may "go boldly to the throne of grace," but we go most often with the mindset that when there, we need to plead, cajole, manipulate, and persuade the Father that He must give us what we need, all the while oblivious that in so many instances, He has already given it.  We see this so clearly in the scripture, "My grace is sufficient for you."  He does not say "has been," or "will be."  He uses the simple word "is."  So often we ask for what in the end is simply grace, missing completely that He has already given it in Christ.  We don't need to ask for it, we need only receive it.  His word tells us that He has given us "all things in Christ," yet we spend so much time pleading for Him to give us something He has already given.  Amidst all the pleading, we live in defeat, discouragement, and despair.  So many lose hope and just give up, but perhaps that's the key for us all.  To stop "trying" in our own strength to live His life, and yield to the power of His life, and experience that life to flow into us, through us, and out of us on a moment by moment basis.  This is the life Paul speaks of in Romans 8, a life "led of the Spirit."  The life he also writes of in Romans 12, a transformed life that renews both mind and spirit.  We no longer live always trying to do or become like Him.  He makes us like Himself by the power of His risen life, from the inside out.
   Each day, the two ways of life lie before us.  Which will you choose today?  The exhausting way of self effort, and eventual and sure defeat, or the true way of life, His life.  No longer seeking to "get" from Him, and instead "receiving" all that He has given us, in Christ, now, today, and everyday.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The View From Here

    You may remember the statement reportedly made by former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin back in 2008, that she could see Russia from her kitchen window.  I've no idea if she actually said that, or her words were simply twisted, as today's media is so prone to do, but the result for her was to receive wave after wave of ridicule and mockery.  This response is an apt illustration of what many, even in the church, may receive when we seek to "see" beyond our horizontal line of vision, and look up and see, past all the circumstances and difficulties, feelings and emotions, and lies and deceptions.  When we, as I heard a brother pray recently, begin to see the Kingdom of God from here, when we begin to see past the kingdom of this world, which is passing, and see into the Kingdom of the Father, which is steadfastly eternal, so that we both see, and know the truth.  The church, let alone the world, is desperate for those who have such vision, but I think we need to be prepared for the mockery and ridicule that will come, even from some in the church, who don't really believe we can have such a view from here.

    As I was praying with my brother the other day and heard him pray that prayer, a picture came to me.  It was that of a sailing ship of old, one that had what was known as the "crows nest," where a lookout was dispatched so as to have a clearer view of the horizon.  So often when at sea, the ship would be encased in thick fog, and those below, on the deck, could see little or nothing before them.  It was the one in the crows nest who would be the first to see the shoreline on the distant horizon, as well as every danger and obstruction that they might be blindly heading into.  There has never been a time in the church when such "lookouts" were not needed, but it seems that today, our need may be greater than ever.  As the fog about us grows thicker, the dangers greater, the need for men and women who can "see the Kingdom from here," increases tenfold.
We need such people in the pulpit, but in the congregation as well.  Those on "the deck," mired in the fog of this world, need someone, like the watchman Habakkuk, who will "Stand on my guardpost, and station myself on my rampart, and keep watch to see what He will speak to me."  What He will show, reveal, and lead to.  I think there are few such watchmen in the church today, fewer still standing on the ramparts, looking for and seeing Him, listening for, and hearing Him. 
    During the great depression of the 1930's, President Roosevelt would broadcast via the radio what he called "fireside chats."  They were designed to quell people's fears and encourage them.  History is divided on how effective they were, no matter how well meaning, but something I see from that is that the church today needs from its pulpits, its voices, something much greater than "chats" meant to encourage and calm fears.  It needs to hear the voice of the Father, through the fire of the Holy Spirit.  It needs people who are like those in John 1:14 who have "seen His glory, the glory as of a Father's only Son, full of grace and truth."  Such glory, grace and truth, will do more than just encourage or calm fears, it will wrought great transformation and behold the reality of the Kingdom.  It will pierce the thick fog of this world, and bring sight to those who've been blinded by it.  But first it will need those willing to climb to the crows nest, even amidst the ridicule of those around them, and dare to see beyond the fog into the Kingdom that is there on the horizon, but also alive within them.  Jesus lived with the clearness and reality of the Kingdom always before Him and within Him.  I want to be such a person.  How about you?

 

Blessings,

Pastor O