Heart Tracks - Living In Haran

     The Spirit brought to mind today a passage of scripture from Genesis 11. It's about Terah, the father of Abraham.  Terah had a son named Haran, but he had died while still a young man in Ur of the Chaldeans.  After this, perhaps in grief and seeking to forget, Terah took his family out with the intention of settling in the land of Canaan.  However, they came to a village named Haran, and stopped there.  What was likely meant to be just a stop became a dwelling place.  Terah died there.  He never got past the village of Haran, and I think it may also be true that he never got past the grief and pain of losing his son Haran.  He never stopped "living" in that place.

     We live in a fallen world, and as a result, none of us, whether we are believers or not, are immune from loss, failure, defeat, betrayal, and abandonment.  Events may come about that are truly devastating to our lives.  The death of loved ones.  The failure of a business, a ministry.  The betrayal of friends, the terrible attacks of adversaries, and the unavoidable losses that are a part of life.  We can't help but be affected by them, and on every level of our lives, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  We can be paralyzed in all of these areas, and very easily, we can end up "living" there, just as Terah did.
      It may be that when Terah came to that village with the same name as his son, all the memories and pain of his loss flooded in on him.  He had wanted to go on, but somehow, he couldn't.  He was trapped in Haran, and in Haran he would die.  I think so many of us are also trapped in our own "Haran's", crippled, paralyzed, by loss, failure, betrayal and disappointment.  What the Father would take us past, we have settled into.  No matter how much time has passed, we are still there, and the pain and wounds of the past are just as real in our present, and as a result, have stolen our future.  The Father calls us to Himself, but Haran holds us in its grip.
     We see this in relationships.  Men and women who have been betrayed by their spouses, or someone they loved, find themselves unable to form real relationships with the opposite sex.  Mistrust and suspicion rule.  They're trapped in Haran.  Those who have failed, sinned, find themselves unable to receive His forgiveness, and live under a condemnation that doesn't come from Him.  They're trapped in Haran.  Others who have been deeply disappointed in what their life has been.  Disappointed in others, themselves, even the Father, living in that disappointment. They too are trapped in Haran.  Yet all the power of these Haran's cannot keep out the voice of Christ, a voice that always calls us forth.  Like Lazarus from the tomb, we may come forth from Haran, if we'll but hear Him, listen to Him.
     Are you, likeTerah, living in Haran, trapped there?  You needn't like Terah, die there.  The chains and bars that keep you there can, will, with a word from Him, fall off, fall down.  Healing will come, and with it, freedom, strength, and the ability to move on, to the place He has called you to.
The pain of the loss, the wound, the failure and betrayal is real, but the joy of His hope is more real.  He calls you, me, us, forth into that hope.
He calls us now, out of Haran, into Himself.  Do we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Releasing Samuel

       One of the promises we love to cling to is that where the Father promises to give us "the desires of our heart."  We hear this, read this, and most often receive this as a kind of blank check that we can present at His throne and have a guarantee that what we ask for, He's duty bound to give us.  I'm not going to use this space to explore just how wrong that line of thinking is, but more, what our response is when He indeed does give us "the desire of our heart."  Case in point; Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet.

      Hannah was the beloved wife of Elkanah, but she was childless.  This to her, was a cause of deep and bitter grief.  More than anything, she desired a son.  Each year they traveled to Shiloh to worship the Lord.  Many trips had been made, and each time, Hannah pleaded with the Father to give her a son.  One such time, as she prayed, she was so deeply burdened with this desire, that Eli the priest believed her to be drunk, and rebuked her.  She then told him she wasn't drunk, but was crying out to the Lord in her desire for a son.  Eli then spoke words of encouragement to her, and she went away rejoicing that her prayer had been heard.  As scripture relates, "in due time," the Father gave her the son she longed for, and she named him Samuel.  In her prayers to the Father, she had promised Him that if He would give her a son, she would dedicate him, literally give him to Him.  Not just with words, but in fact.  At the proper time, she journeyed to Shiloh to do just that.  I Samuel 1:27 relates her words to Eli upon that return; "I asked the Lord to give me this child, and He has given me my request.  Now I am giving Him to the Lord and he will belong to the Lord his whole life."  The conclusion of verse 28 reads, "And they worshiped the Lord there."

     I'm sharing this story with you because I was impacted by something Watchman Nee said concerning the acts of Hannah.  Nee writes, "The sum total of her request was for this child.  Yet now, when she had received all she craved, she gave all back to the Giver. And as Samuel passed out of her hands, we are told, 'They worshiped the Lord there.' "  After reading this, I wrote in the margin, "We are so easily able to ask Him to give us the desires of our hearts, but can we give those very desires, every aspect of them, back into His hands?"  Can we release to Him, surrendering all claim to, the deepest desire, the greatest gift, the most yearned for answer to prayer?  Can we especially do this when He has answered that desire by giving it?  Nee writes, "When the day comes for me, as it came for Hannah, that my Samuel, in whom all my hopes are centered, passes out of my hands into God's, then I shall know what it really means to worship Him."
     Who, what, is yours and my "Samuel?"  What is that we have yearned for, pleaded for, treasured in our hearts, and rejoiced over in our lives That we know beyond any doubt was given us by Him?  Can we give, with nothing held back, that gift, that answer, that treasure, completely into His hands.  Not still clutching it, he, she, with our own, but letting go, giving up, surrendering that fully met desire, to Him?  Hannah could, and did.  Can we?  Will we?  Have we?  

     It comes to me as I close, that it may be that many of us still find ourselves in the place of crying out to Him for a desire that like Hannah's, has not yet been met.  It may be that it has not yet come to be the "due time" of God.  Dare we however  ask ourselves, could it possibly be because we have not been willing, as Hannah was, to give Him the ultimate act of worship and surrender that treasured desire, all of it, to Him?  Can we make that offering of worship?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Dark Streets Shining

       A friend and I were recently talking about how the season of Christmas can bring about so many different emotions.  He said, borrowing from the line of the classic Dickens novel, A Tale Of Two Cities, "It is both the best of times, and the worst of times."  It may be that a number of you know how true that really is.

     That, and something else he spoke set me to thinking on what I write today.  In response to my last Heart Thoughts, he used the verse from the carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem, changing the verse slightly, but powerfully, writing, "In our dark streets shineth an everlasting light.  The hopes and fears of all our years are met in Him tonight."  Thinking on that verse, it was brought to my mind all the dark streets that the woundings, betrayals, and disappointments of life had brought me down.  Some of them so dark that there could not be perceived any "light at the end of the tunnel."  All I could see was tunnel.  Some of the darkest of those streets had me as a traveler at this very time of the year, Christmastime.  Christmas, from my earliest memories, had always been a time of joy and happiness, even as an unbeliever.  It was not so on the dark street.  What had once been the best of times, was now the worst.  Yet on that street, the Father had something for me to learn, to know, and it was to realize that the joy, wonder, beauty of Christmas wasn't found in the tinsel and glitter that the world puts upon it.  The world knows how to "package" Christmas, it has no idea about how to "give" it.  Yet the Father did.  He knew over 2000 years ago when He gave us His only Son, Jesus.  Jesus who came to us, died for us, rose for us.  He came to the dark street of the world.  He has come to that street, and He continues to come to it.  He is the everlasting light that shines in and through the darkest street, place and heart.  As the carol says, every hope is met in Him, and every fear is overcome by Him.  The everlasting light that shines in the deepest darkness, the greatest despair, the most staggering impossibility. They are all met in Him.....right now.
     We are but a few days from the fullness of Christmas.  This may be the best of times, the worst of times, or maybe both at the same time.  Whatever the time, now is the time to come to Bethlehem.  The street you're on may be total darkness, but as you take that step of faith, His everlasting light will shine.  It may cover only one step at a time, but it will take you to Him.  Indeed, you'll be with Him before you even complete the first step.  Everything, and I mean everything, is met in Him.  Your "Bethlehem" calls to you.  Will you come?

Blessings, and a blessed Christmas to you,
Pastor O

     

Heart Tracks - A Fatherless World

    Watching the television program "Life Today" with James and Betty Robison, I heard a young woman named Lacey Sturm, the former lead singer of the rock group "Flyleaf" tell of how she came to know Christ.  Growing up as one of 6 children in a fatherless home, and witnessing acts of brutality from many of the men in her young life, she set upon a life of rebellion, sin, and hopelessness.  At age 16, no longer able to be controlled by her mother, she was sent to her grandparents to live, but her life continued on a steady downward spiral.  Finally, unable to bear it no longer, she planned to commit suicide that evening, but her grandmother, in desperation, insisted that she come to church with her.  Sullenly, with hate in her heart, towards her grandmother, the church people, and God, she went.  The pastor preached, and in the middle of the message, stopped, and weeping said, "There is someone here tonight who is planning to commit suicide and the Father wants you to know that He doesn't want you to do it, that He has life for you."  Though totally moved by what she heard, she didn't run towards, but away from Him.  As she went to the rear exit, an elderly, whitehaired gentleman spoke gently to her, telling her that he felt impressed of the Spirit to tell her that she needed to know that not all men were like those she had known.  What he said next melted her heart.  He told her that the Father didn't want her to cry herself to sleep anymore, that He longed to not only be the Father to her that she'd never known, but the Father to her that only He could be.  She was broken, because since the age of 10, she had cried herself to sleep each night, feeling unloved, unwanted, lost.  That night she came out of darkness into His light, out of hopelessness, into His hope.  At the conclusion of her story, Robison said, "We live in a fatherless world," and we need look not only out of our own windows, but within so many of our own hearts to know that this is true.  Yet standing at the door of every heart, is He who would be a Father to the fatherless, if we'll receive Him.  We need to know that this is true not only for all those who have never known Him, but for so many of us who may have received Him as Savior, yet have never known Him as our Father.  Who have never allowed Him to truly minister to us as His children.
     How fatherless might our lives, yours and mine, be today?  Whether we've lost a father, never had a father, or if we did, had one that never knew how, or worse, cared to be one to us, there is a Father, a Father of Kingdom Life available to us.  He knows where we are, what the pain is, the emptiness, hopelessness, despair, that may be there, and He bids us to let Him enter into those places with us.....as Father.  In a fatherless world, will we receive the surpassing joy of knowing Him, through Christ, as Father?  The old hymn sings, "This is my Father's world."  Will we enter into and know that world?
     As I close, I'm reminded of the Psalmist's writing, "Throughout the generations, You have been our home."  To our hurting hearts, our perhaps empty hearts, He speaks that truth, telling us, "I am your home."  A home found only in Him.....the Father.  Might you be in a place, emotionally, physically, spiritually, like Lacey Sturm?  As the Father knew where she was, so does He know where you are, we are.  He comes to us, and bids us come to Him.  Let us do so.  Let us know Him as Father........and be Fatherless no more.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Prayers & Incense

      A friend recently shared about a worship service he'd been at.  He said as the service started, machines began to fill the sanctuary with a kind of smokey mist.  He said the mist so affected his sinuses that he couldn't breathe, and had to leave the service.  I'm not sure what the intent of it all was.  Maybe they hoped to re-create the events of the Old Testament dedication of the Temple, where the glory of God was so intense that the priests were unable to minister, and could only fall before Him. Maybe it was meant to be a reflection of the incense offered up in Temple worship. Maybe it was just meant, like so much of today's "worship," to create a sensory effect in the people.  Whatever the intent, it was proof once more that only God, and not we, can bring forth His Presence.  In worship, in prayer, in all things.  His glory and presence will indeed take our breath away.  Our fleshly efforts to do so may well, as it did my friend, drive us away, but they will certainly drive Him away.  Yet this isn't the way of the Father.  This is not what He intends prayer and worship to be.

     I was impacted this past week by something said by two great men of God, Oswald Chambers and Watchman Nee.  Nee spoke on prayer and worship using Psalm 141:2, "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You."  Incense has little place in the evangelical church, but it was a central part of Old Testament worship.  The incense used was a product of the frankincense tree.  Frankincense was one of the gifts of the wise man to the baby Jesus.  Nee explained how frankincense was obtained by making "successive incisions on the bark of the tree."  A white resin would then come forth and from it was produced the incense.  He then equated true prayer, and I believe, worship with this deep cutting.  He said it is "the presenting of something drawn painfully out of the innermost heart. as though it seeped from our very wounds."  Machines and diligently planned services cannot produce this.  Neither can daily devotions done from a sense of duty, from an attitude of "I have to."  It can only come from a heart, a broken heart, that cries out for Him.  A heart that His Spirit cuts into more and more deeply.  Heartcries that seep out from our deepest wounds, needs, and above all, desire for Him.  This is worship.  This is prayer.  Is it our worship?  Is it our prayer?
    There was then something that Chambers said regarding intercessory prayer.  He said in effect, that true intercessory prayer doesn't come from a place of our sympathy for those lives and situations we pray for.  It comes from having the very heart that the Father has, that Christ and the Holy Spirit have, for those who are the ones we pray for.  Literally, we pray with His heart, His desire.  It doesn't come from our sympathy, which often depends on our feelings, but from His passion and love for those being prayed for.  Such prayer is powerful, mighty, and sees miracles unfold.  Is such prayer our prayer?  My prayer?  Your prayer?
    So, will we go on trying to use machines, lights, effects, in hopes of producing His Presence, and failing every time, or, will we cry out to Him with hearts that He has been able to cut deeply into, fully invade and inhabit, and so experience not only the visitation of His glory and presence, but His habitation as well?  Will our prayers, our worship, truly be incense before Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Ring Of Fire

       A friend recently shared a story he knew about a American Indian preacher.  The man was telling others about Jesus while seated at a campfire.  He took a number of twigs from the fire and arranged them in a circle, adding an already burning one to it.  Soon the circle of twigs was burning.  Into the center of the circle he placed a worm.  All watched as the worm sought escape, moving in one direction, and then another, trying to find a way out. Trying to find salvation, deliverance.  Finally, unable to do either, it retreated into the center of the circle, and curled into ball, it's striving to save itself ended.  At that moment, the preacher reached down, took hold of the worm, and lifted it out of the certain death that awaited it.  It had been saved.  This, he told his listeners was exactly how the Father saves.  It is when we come to the place of finally realizing that all of our self-effort, all of our striving to better ourselves, improve ourselves, save ourselves, cannot, will not work, and we surrender.  It's at that point that the loving hand of the Father is able to reach down, and lift us from the circle of fire that will surely bring death for all those without Christ.  

    Jesus said that "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light, and no one may come unto the Father except through Me."  Those who would call themselves His would agree, strongly, that this is true.  We are born into a "ring of fire," through the sin which entered the human race through Adam.  No amount of striving, self effort, religious activity and good works will enable us to escape it, and we will not escape it till we, like the worm, admit our inability to get out and surrender to the hand and heart that will, with unending love, lift us out.  The question that must first be asked is, has He lifted you out of that ring, or are you still seeking to bring about your own salvation, your own deliverance?  You cannot escape the ring, but He can lift you out....if you'll call on Him.  Have you?
    There's another question to be asked, and this would be to those of us who would testify that He has lifted us out.  Do we, as we walk through a fallen world, a world that will often encircle us with rings of burning, impossible circumstances and difficulties, still seek to find a way out, or through them by our own strength and ability?  Having admitted and yielded to His saving grace and power, do we now live in our own strength and power?  When confronted with the "rings of fire" of emotional wounds and scars, of crippling circumstances both physically and circumstantially, and even of spiritual attacks set against us, do we seek, like the worm, to find a way out by our own means? More, when it comes to the lives and situations of friends and loved ones who are trapped in those rings, do we seek to be their deliverer?  To be the ones who "save" them?  Paul, when addressing the Galatian church, called them foolish, for though they had been saved by grace and grace alone, they were now trying to live by the strength of their own ability, rather than by the power of His grace.  How like them are you and I?  How foolish do we continue to be?  How much longer will we continue to try and find the way out of the particular ring of fire confronting us in our lives right now.  How much longer will we go on trying to make things "better" instead of allowing Him to make all things new?

    We're born into a ring of fire, and though, through faith in Christ, the Father will lift us out of it, the fire will not cease to try and surround us through the pain, heartache, and impossibilities of life.  Our choice will be whether we will trust Him to every time, lift of us out of them, walk through them with Him, or, like the worm, exhaust ourselves trying to make our own way out?  If He's allowed a fire, may we trust Him deliver us, knowing that nothing will be burnt except that which hinders us, holds us back, from the fullness of life that He saved us for in the first place.
The rings of fire will come.  Will we trust Him there?

Blessings,
Pastor O
    

Heart Tracks - Doin' The Shuffle

     The Rolling Stones and Oswald Chambers.  I'm not sure those two have ever been used in conjunction with each other, but the Stones, or rather, one of their songs, came to mind by way of a couple of questions asked by Oswald Chambers.  Chambers questions were, in effect, can the Father help Himself to my life, all of my life, and, when standing in the light of His Word, can I stand, or do I have to shuffle?  The first question is deeply penetrating.  Can He help Himself to my life?  When guests join us for dinner, true hospitality invites them to help themselves to as much of the fare as they like.  The Father, in Christ, is not a mere guest in our lives, though we often treat Him as such.  He is our life.  When we experience Him as such, no part of our life is off limits.  There are no "secret rooms" we don't allow Him access to.  It all belongs to Him.  We love to think about helping ourselves to all the riches to be found in Christ, but we rarely entertain the thought that it is His right, His demand, that He be able to help Himself to all of our life, all of ourselves.  Can He?  Does He?  To my life?  To yours?

    As I said, it's a penetrating, convicting question, but the second is even more so, and it brought to mind the Stones song from the 80's, "The Harlem Shuffle."  One of the lyrics was "Doin' the Harlem Shuffle," which was a dance.  When it comes to the Lord and His Word to us, can we stand in it, receive it, be shaped by it, live it?  Or, do we do a dance before Him, trying to evade, trying not to get exposed, to keep parts of our hearts, minds, lives, "in the dark," and so "safe" from Him?  Do we do our own spiritual dance/shuffle when He seeks to shine His light on our attitudes, habits, pleasures, lifestyles, ministries, sins?  At the Red Sea, the Father told the people to "stand still and see."  When we carry out a nicely choreographed shuffle, we don't have to stand still, and we certainly won't have to "see," all those things that we don't want to see.  About us.  About others.  About Him.  We just dance away from them.  We just keep "doin' the shuffle."  

    Maybe the greatest tragedy in our attempts to dance the shuffle before Him, is that we deny ourselves the dance He calls us to with Himself. It's a dance of intimacy, of oneness with Him.  It's a dance where we're not looking to see what our feet are doing, but into His face, to see Him, to see His heart, as He looks into ours  There is nothing of beauty in the shuffle, but there is nothing but beauty in a dance of grace with the Father. That's the result of a life that welcomes Him to help Himself to it.  We don't shuffle before the light of His word and His eyes, we melt, hearts and all, into His heart, and His life.  Spiritually, we'll all do a dance.  Will we dance away from Him, or with Him?  Will we keep doing the shuffle, or will we melt in His embrace?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Voice Of Fire

      Not long ago, I wrote down this question in my prayer journal; "When we leave our 'worship services,' do we go talking about what a 'good sermon' we've just heard, or do we leave having truly heard and received His Word, His Voice?  Has His Truth really penetrated our being, and in so doing, transformed us?"  I think too often, we leave agreeing that we've heard a good word, but have been totally unaffected by it.  
    Exodus 5 relates how the Lord called Moses to Himself and spoke to him while the people lingered at a distance.  Twice we're told that the Father spoke with "a voice of fire," for His Presence was literally blazing before them all.  The people feared that voice and held back, while Moses alone came into His presence, into the power of His voice of fire.  Today, maybe more than ever before, we in the western church need to hear, receive, and be transformed by His voice of fire.  We've kept our distance long enough.  Like the people did with Moses, we've been satisfied to allow others, pastors, teachers, those who speak with prophetic voices, be the ones who hear what God has said and is saying now, and then bring to us His words.  Few of us truly know what it is to hear Him speak directly to us.  We've never developed such an intimacy with Him in our "devotional time," and so it's no surprise that when we come together in worship, we hear so little.  Our emotions may be moved, but too often, our hearts never are.  Our spiritual senses are dulled, and so, as Jesus said, "we hear, but don't hear."  We hear the words that the Father, that Jesus, that the Holy Spirit is saying, but we have little or no understanding of what He means in those words.  They touch our ears, but not our hearts, and so, we remain unchanged.
    We need today to hear and heed His voice of fire, and we need it at every level in the church.  We know well how to come together to plan, to talk, to come up with new methods and means, and to discuss the needs of the culture and how to meet them, but it's not more analysis that we need, it is the hearing and receiving of His voice of fire.  A voice that doesn't just resonate in our spirits, but literally takes hold of us in the center of our being.  As long as we seek to keep our distance from Him, fearing the fire, we will never have the life, individually or corporately that only the voice of fire can bring.
   Today, this week, as we come before Him, what do you want, expect to hear?  Good words?  A "nice" sermon?  Something that may strike a note, but transform nothing, or, do you, I, come yearning for the voice of fire?  A voice that will release the symphony of His Life to and into us?
Haven't we held back long enough?

Blessings,Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Tambourines

        I recently heard Beth Moore teach on Exodus 15, where, directly after God had destroyed the army of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, Miriam, the sister of Moses, in an outburst of praise, "took a tambourine and led all the women of Israel in rhythm and dance."  Moore said that since the Bible tells us that the people had left Egypt in haste, she thought it a bit strange that one of the things that would be brought would be a tambourine.  She thought that perhaps Miriam believed that at some point in the journey, a tambourine, an instrument of praise, would be needed. Moore said that "When faith goes on a journey, it takes a tambourine."  

    This is a beautiful statement, but I think it falls a little short of where the role of joy, thanksgiving and praise come in the journey of faith.  I don't think that Moore actually meant it, but her statement can leave one thinking that the role of praise and thanksgiving comes after God has done something, something we've been expecting, something we would call "good."  To live by faith is to live in expectation, but the question then arises as to what it is we are expecting?  Is our expectation in something we believe and expect that God is going to do, an expectation that is formed in and by us, or, is our expectation in Him alone?  Are our expectations and resulting praise and thanksgiving that come with them, dependent on God doing all that we want Him to do, on what He does, or are they in Him, in who He is?  If they're in what we believe He's going to do, then what happens if He doesn't do it?  Can we still praise Him?  Can we be thankful, joyous, trusting?  Can we still "play" our tambourines in the desert, even when the desert looks the same as it did yesterday, and gives every indication of looking the same tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and the day........?  Can we live in such a state even when it appears He's forgotten us, even forsaken us?  If we live a blessing, results oriented life, it's unlikely that we can.  Our faith and joy is based on what He does.  If we live a life based on Him as the source of all life, than what is happening or not happening can't touch our joy, thanksgiving and praise.  We can play our tambourines in the deepest darkness and the rockiest wilderness.
     Too many of us have spiritual lives that are dependent on what He is or is not doing.  Our spiritual strength is determined by how well life, relationships, jobs, ministries are going.  When they go well, "God is good," but how many of us say this with meaning when they aren't?  In the journey of faith, the Father calls us to a deeper place of joy, praise and thanksgiving.  A place that is determined not by what He is or isn't doing, but by who and what He is.  It brings a tambourine, and doesn't wait for something good to happen to use it, but uses it in every place.  It knows that God is good all the time, and trusts the Father to define just what good is.  The result is a life of praise and thanksgiving, and best of all, rest.  Faith brings a tambourine, but it's never packed away.  It's always in hand, heard in all places.  We're on a journey with Him.  Where's our tambourine?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Heart Eyes

    A great tragedy in the church is that the people of God, with all the wisdom, understanding and insight of the Father available to us, more often than not, live our lives in the power of our own understanding, wisdom and insight.  More often than not, we are ruled by what appears to be, by circumstances, by how we see things, in short, by our flesh.  It's a problem on every level of the Body of Christ, and I do not count myself an exception.  Too many times I've been fooled by what I thought I was "seeing," and though none of us is infallible, too many of us have this as the pattern in our lives, making decisions, choices, about lifestyle, professions, relationships, and ministry, based upon how we see things, and not by His perception and understanding of what is before us.  We need to decide that, in the words of the the classic song by The Who, that "we won't get fooled again," and the Father gives us the means by which that can be our reality.
    The start of this begins with our coming to grips with the knowledge that we are spiritual beings living in the spiritual realm, a realm composed of two kingdoms, the Kingdom of heaven and light, the Father's realm, and the kingdom of darkness and hell, the abode of the enemy, satan.  The two realms are engaged at all times in a cosmic war that will continue until the return of Christ, and though it's true that too many have made an unhealthy obsession of the concept of spiritual warfare, we ignore it to our own great peril.  We are not to walk around seeing demons on every corner, and rebuking the devil at every opportunity, but instead, we fight him simply by allowing the light of Christ to shine in and through us in ever greater ways in our day to day walk.  As we do this, the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1:18 becomes our reality as the "eyes of our hearts" are flooded with His light and understanding.  We don't see and process things any longer according to our own understanding and sight, but His. The Bible calls this discernment, and I fear we in the church are anything but a discerning people in a day when discernment is desperately needed in the church. 

    In I Corinthians 2, Paul wrote that the natural man did not receive the revelations of the Spirit, believing them to be nonsense.  but that "the spiritual man examines, investigates, inquires into, questions and discerns all things."  (Amplified Version)  Not in our own understanding, but His.  I recently saw a post that entered into debate over whether a believer should be involved in a controversial role playing board game, which some believe to contain at least some elements of the occult, while others see it as harmless.  I put forth no opinion here, but what I saw in the writers post, which was very much in favor of the latter, was that all his arguments and those of others that he pointed to, were out of his own understanding.  At no point did he say that he had brought it all before the Father to seek His view, His mind, His foresight on it all.  This is our great danger.  Ultimately, the question on such things need to be, "Just where does this lead to?  Who, in the end, is glorified?"  Solomon, in I Kings 3, asked the Father for the ability to discern between what is good and what is evil.  In a day where we truly are seeing evil called good,and good evil, our lack of discernment threatens the core of our spiritual lives.  In all things pertaining to our lives, through whose eyes are we seeing things, eyes of flesh, so easily deceived by the enemy, or the eyes of the Father, eyes that are wide open?
    Again, we needn't go looking for a demon in everything, only that we see everything through His eyes and with His understanding.  The prophet Amos said that his culture was "drunk on a spirit of deception," and I think it is even more true of our culture today.  The enemy rarely comes at us with a full frontal assault.  He prefers to infiltrate and secure territory, our minds and hearts, a bit at a time.  He cannot do this when we, with the Father's eyes, see his approach from far off.  He will approach us.  He approaches us now.  Do we see him coming?

Blessings,
Pastor O
 

Heart Tracks - The Pharisee Within

      We in the New Testament church have disdain for the Pharisee, seeing them as rigid and unforgiving.  Few of us see ourselves as being like them, of believing that there lurks a Pharisee within.  Yet there can be, and the scripture found in Luke 18 shows how.  Jesus observes two men praying in the Temple, one of them, a tax collector, despised by the Jews and most especially by the religious leaders of the day, simply lifted his eyes to God and prayed, "O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner."  But of the Pharisee, scripture says, "The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself, 'God I thank you that I'm not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector."  Jesus said that it was the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who went away justified before God.  Both felt grateful toward the Father, but which one had a thankfulness that would be considered righteous in the eyes of God?

     How does this speak to you and me?  Consider this day just what we are thankful for, and where does that thankfulness take us?  The Pharisee was thankful for the blessings of God on his life, and he was thankful that he was not counted among the "unblessed," or, unblessed as he would define them.  He was thankful for his good life, for the esteem in which others held him, for how well things went for him.  Yet all the blessings in his life did not soften his heart towards others, especially those who didn't seem to have his blessing.  His heart was not opened towards them, but closed off.  He viewed them with disdain, if he viewed them at all.  His heart was focused on himself, and he didn't see the blessings of God as something he received, he didn't deserve, but instead as what he very much did deserve.  He lived in a spirit of entitlement, he lived a blessing dependent life.  If he loved the Father, it was because He blessed him, not simply because He was the Father.  Since he had little real love for the Father, he had even less for those around him.  And, if the blessings were to cease, it's likely that his "love" for Him would as well.  Can we see any of ourselves in that as well?  Can we see where the Pharisee may be lurking within?
   The Pharisee never saw what were the true needs of his life and soul.  He fell into the deception of believing that the blessings of God mean the approval of God.  They don't.  Blessing, and the things that came along with it had become his idol.  That's where his eyes were fixed, and so, he was blind, unable to see the Father, and unable to see himself as he truly was.  The tax collector on the other hand, though likely, because of his occupation, wealthy, saw where true wealth and blessing lay, not in things that could be counted, but in a Father who loves, forgives, and gives, not because of his merit, but because of the Fathers heart.  The Pharisee's heart was closed, as were his eyes.  He knew nothing of true thanksgiving.  Do you and I?  What is our life really?  Dependent on His blessings, or dependent on Him?  Do the matchless blessings He has given us, and above all, the blessing of life in Christ, release within us a humble, broken, sense of gratitude for a gift we never deserved, or, a spirit of entitlement, glad for the blessings, seeing them, counting them, and all the while missing Him?  Where lurks the Pharisee within?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - Friend Of God

      Not long ago, I heard a song with the line, "I am a friend of God."  It's an excellent and lively song, but I have to wonder just how much we know of what it is to be a "friend of God."  Scripture tells us that God would speak to Moses "face to face, as to a friend."  It also tells us that the result of these encounters for Moses was face, a countenance, that literally glowed with His glory.  To be a friend of God, I think, is to be one whose very life and spirit glow with His Presence.  In the end, everything else is just words.

     In John 16:27, Jesus says, "The Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed I came from God."  The love of God is so deep that there is no possible way for us to ever fully understand it or explore the depth of its riches.  Sadly, too many of us never try to, and we end up taking it for granted, and never realizing the depth of power and blessing found in it.  This particular scripture would be case in point, and I came upon an explanation of it that I'd not thought on before, causing me to understand that love a little more deeply, value it a little more completely.
    Writer Chris Tiegreen, commenting on His love wrote, "God loves (agape') everyone in the world, but He has genuine, enthusiastic intimacy (phileo) with those who have affection for Jesus.  It is not unconditional (like agape').  It is a very human kind of love, and God took on a very human form to have it with us."  His love is so much more than emotion and feeling, but there is emotion and feeling involved, yet how many of us can truly say we feel any towards Him?  Could it be that we have so little "feeling" involved in our love for Him because we have so little intimacy with Him?  We're satisfied to know that He loves us unconditionally, and we're interested in all the benefits and blessings to be reaped because of it.  We'll gladly become His sons and daughters, but we seem to have very little interest in being His friends.  We're far more interested in finding out what He has in His hands for us, than we are in hearing what is in His heart towards us.  We look to His hands, when He would have look to His face and heart.  As Tiegreen points out, too often we love Him because "we ought to."  Pleasure and enjoyment in Him is missing.  We lack intimacy, and so, we lack vitality.

    I heard a friend say recently that the only response the people of God can have in the midst of an ever darkening world is to shine more and more brightly with the Light that is the Life of Christ.  This is the very same Light that shone on the face of Moses, the friend of God.  It was, and is, His glory.  This Light doesn't fight the darkness, it crushes it.  The need of our day, of every day, is that we be such people, friends of God, who live so deeply in Him that we shine with His radiance.  There will be those who shrink back, those who despise it, and some of "those" will be found in the church, but there will be none who will be able to extinguish it.  Jesus said for us to "let our light so shine," but that light will come only from lives lived deeply in Him, from those who are truly His friends.  The song line says, "I am a friend of God."  Are we? Do we find pleasure and joy in Him?  As we walk, do we walk in Him?  Do we shine?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - A Fair Share

      In the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Charlie's little sister Sally has asked him to write down her Christmas list.  She then proceeds to name a huge amount of things she wants.  Exasperated, Charlie throws up his hands over her greed, to which Sally, dumfounded says,"I just want what's coming to me.  I just want my fair share."  

     It is that attitude that has held captive the hearts of men and women since satan first enticed Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit in the garden.  All of us are born into this life wanting what we feel is coming to us, wanting our fair share, and we live in delusion as to just what that is.  We are born with a spirit of entitlement, and it's a spirit that lingers, even after coming to Christ in faith.  We believe we're "owed."  If you doubt that, then my challenge for you and me both is to ask ourselves how often we have thought, if not said, that what the Lord was doing, giving in our lives was far less than what we were expecting, what we believed we deserved?  We may not express it with Sally's open greed, but that grasping spirit is there, wanting what's coming to us, wanting our fair share.
    That spirit, that attitude, has visited me more than once in my walk with Him.  When that walk takes me through dark places, through times of want, pain, and suffering, it rises, questions, accuses.  This is not the way it should be.  My life, relationships, ministry, should be so much better than this.  I'm not getting my fair share.  Where are the blessings, at least as to how I define blessing?  I've given Him my all, at least as to how I define "all."  There should be a better return.  I've got more coming to me than this.....don't I?
     I've been walking with Him for some time now, so these times occur less frequently than they once did, but they can still sneak up on me. When they do, the Father brings to me anew His words to the Levites, His priests, in Numbers 18:20.  God is dividing up and assigning the portion of land to be give to each tribe of Israel.  All but the Levites have been given their share.  To them the Father says, "You priests will receive no inheritance of land or share of property among the people of Israel.  I am your inheritance and your share."  I've wondered how they received those words.  Did they feel cheated, or did they feel blessed?  Did they feel they were getting less, or did they know that they were receiving more than all the other tribes combined....Himself?
    With the giving of the new covenant in Christ, all who are His become members of the "royal priesthood of believers."  We are all priests of the Lord.  We are all, as Paul says, inheritors of the all the riches to be found in Christ.  All of them, and those riches are not affected in the least by the circumstances, good or bad, of our lives.  They are abundantly available to us in all places.  Our wealth is not measured in what we are accumulating outwardly, but in the relationship we have with Him in our hearts.  By His grace, we don't get what's coming to us, death, but instead, His life....abundant life.  Our share in Him is a share that no earthly vessel can contain, and no earthly means can measure or count.  This is true blessing, and to know so brings full understanding to Jesus' question as to what it would mean for a person to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul....if he be found without Him.
    I saw a simple question today that asked if the Lord were to remove all blessing from our lives, would we still love Him?  A blessing dependent life would not, seeing Him only as means to getting what we want, our fair share.  Those to whom He is their portion, are willing to lose all for the joy of having, knowing, and living in Him.  We all desire our share and inheritance.  Where does your desire lead you, me......to Christ and life...or to death?

Blessings,
Pastor O       

Heart Tracks - Holding A Lie

       I've been thinking of late of how much of my life and ministry has been dependent upon outward things giving me a sense of worth and fulfillment.  Like so many others, I thought happiness and fulfillment was found in being loved, in relationships.  Having this would fulfill and complete me, not having it would leave me empty, incomplete.  Likewise, in my field of labor, in my case, ministry, achieving, increasing, being seen and recognized as successful, would enhance my sense of self-worth, that I would be living a life that made a difference, a life that was recognized by others as one that mattered.  The great problem was and is, is that when these things are not happening, are missing from life, than life itself is just the opposite of what is so desired.  I end up being captive to my desires and definition of success and worth, and not only are those things missing from my life, but so is the joy, peace, and fulfillment that can come only from Him.  At root, I have bought into a lie, a lie that slowly eats away at the core of my being, and in doing so, miss the fullness of all that He is and means to be to me.

    In Isaiah 44:20, the Father speaks to the people saying of their trust in things that are not Him, "He is trusting in something that can give him no help at all.  Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, 'Is this thing, this idol that I'm holding in my hand, a lie' "  When we place our value, our worth and well being in anything that is not Him, whether it be a relationship, a profession, and especially I think, a ministry, we hold something in our hand that is a lie, and anything, no matter how worthy, how good, that takes us away from Him, is just that, a lie.  Yet, we can continue to go on in that lie.  Our emotions, our spirits, are tossed in every direction, enslaved to people, results, and the opinions and esteem of others, others who are not Him, yet control us while He does not.
   It is human to desire to be loved.  It is human to want to achieve and be fruitful.  The snare is in the fact that we can so easily allow these desires to become our masters.  Masters that are never satisfied, and like the taskmasters of Egypt towards the Hebrew slaves, constantly whip and beat us.  Therefore, the love of another is never enough because nothing they can do can satisfy that deep desire to be loved, so we end up frustrated and eventually, go looking elsewhere, thinking that in the next person, we'll find it.  Job or ministry achievement can bring temporary satisfaction, but we soon find out that the expectation is always for more of it.  "Fruit" is no longer measured and defined by Him, but by our and others flesh.    The Father said that He has loved us with "an everlasting love."  Until we truly enter into that, know it, and are sustained by it, we will only know emptiness, and constantly seek to satisfy our need for love in others who can never really supply it.  We must first know it and find it in Him.  In the same way, when we allow Him to define what success is, what fruitfulness is, we find a well being, a peace, joy, and fulfillment beyond words.  We are stewards of His life, and His word says of stewards that they are "required to be faithful."  If we have, wherever He has placed us, been faithful stewards of His life, than in that place, we are fruitful, regardless of what appearances may be, for He is always working with eternity in mind, not just today, or even tomorrow.
   I heard Beth Moore say to the effect that if there is anything in our lives that we feel we cannot be without, that we must have in order to go on, and if that "anything" is not Him, than it is in that "anything" that we will be most vulnerable.  In that place, we may expect the enemy to literally "unleash hell" against that vulnerability.....and we will fall.  Yet, if we have found our life, our meaning, the fulfillment of our deepest needs in Him, than we are living, as Isaiah said, "surrounded by the walls His salvation." ......So, to what and whom are we prisoner?  Our own and others expectations?  Our need to be accepted, recognized, loved?  Dare we believe that all of these, and all else, really can be satisfied in Christ?  Paul called himself the prisoner of Christ, and was free.  May we be his fellow prisoner as well, and so free of every other jailer.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Two Witnesses

      Writer Chris Tiegreen said, "We are habitual twisters, making dark things our surest truth and God's light our most uncertain refuge.  Such a distortion is a sure recipe for despair.  Instead, we are to believe what the Word and the Spirit tell us, regardless of the witness of the clouds."  Obviously we are presented with two witnesses, the witness of the Lie, and the witness of the Truth.  Which witness do we believe?  Maybe a better question is which witness, which voice, are we most familiar with?  Which one has the easiest access to our hearts?

    I've a friend who says that the Father has been steadily freeing him in his prayer life so that he may stop "praying the problem."  That is, focusing all of his prayer energy on the need, and as a result, only seeing his anxiety and unrest grow as he does so, and growing with them is the size and danger of the problem.  How much of what we transact with Him in our prayer lives is little more than praying the problem, rehearsing and reviewing how bad the situation is, how deep the need goes, how impossible His moving in response seems to be?  Instead of praying the problem, perhaps we ought to be praying the Answer.  Not the answer we think we should have, but the Answer that is Him.  We want answers, when our true need is for the AnswerGiver.
    I love Exodus 20:21 which reads, "As the people stood in the distance, Moses entered into the deep darkness where God was."  Who do you and I most resemble in our dealing with Him, Moses, or the people?  His Word tells us that the Father often approaches us "covered in darkness." Moses had eyes that could see through the darkness to the God who ruled it, who was there, in the center of it.  So many either flee when any type of darkness in the form of need or crisis comes near.  If we don't outright flee, we, like the people, stand off at a distance.  As a result, all we see is the darkness, we don't see Him.  Moses could enter into what struck fear into the hearts of all others because he saw not darkness, but light.  He saw Him.  He didn't believe the witness of the clouds, the darkness, the Lie, but the witness of the Light, the Truth.  He believed because it was not the clouds he saw, but God Himself.  He didn't pray the problem, he prayed the answer.

   I don't remember the source of the inspiration, but in my prayer journal I have written, "Lord, forgive me for all the years I have spent consumed by the low places of my life, and as a result, not steadily journeyed to the high places found only in You."  Consumed by needs, difficulties, clouds, problems, unbelief, but not consumed by and with Him.  May it not be so any longer for me, for you.  Two witnesses will confront us each day, the witness of the enemy's lie, and that of the Father's truth.  Which will we heed, follow, be consumed by?  Will we stand far off, or, will we enter in....where He is?

Blessings,
Pastor O
   

Heart Tracks - True Prayer

     In many parts of the church, prayer is making a "comeback."  There are 24 hours of prayer gatherings, prayer conferences, and growing exhortations to pray coming from all corners of the church.  It's not new.  About 15 years ago, I was very involved in various prayer gatherings and movements here in Northern Virginia.  I was part of several pastoral groups dedicated to prayer.  We would regularly gather together with our fellowships and plead for revival and renewal.  This all took place over a 2-3 year period.  Eventually, it all came to an end.  Why?  The reasons are varied, but I think the overwhelming one was that God didn't do what we were asking Him to do.  I think at root, we, and I include myself, were seeing prayer not really as a means of experiencing intimately His Presence, but more as a "plan" that would get God to do what we wanted, which was to make our churches what we wished them to be; bigger and more alive.  He was not the focus of our prayer.  Results were.  

    I saw a quote posted on Facebook that "If we wish to have Acts chapter 2, then we must first experience Acts chapter 1."  I agree, but again, what is our true focus in such praying?  Acts 1:14 reads, "These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer."  Yet, can we ask what their "one accord" was?  Was it a common desire for God to move and impact in a mighty and miraculous way, all of Jerusalem?  I've no doubt that this desire was present in their hearts, but I don't believe it was the focus.  I don't believe that they came to Him with any agenda of their own, but simply that they might see, hear, and know Him.  They were not looking for a "plan," for something that would "work."  They were looking for Him. All they wanted was Him.  Jesus in effect told them to stay in His Presence until they received the fullness of His Presence.  That was their one accord.  When we come together, is it really ours?
   I said that eventually, all of our prayer gatherings "dried up."  I believe it was because too many of us saw prayer as the latest "tool" we could use in growing the church.  We'd tried many other things but they hadn't worked.  Surely prayer would.  More, it was unified prayer, coming from many different streams of the church.  Surely this would move His heart and His hand.  When we saw that the results fell very short of our expectations, we lost heart, and the meetings and gatherings dwindled away.  His Word says that we ask yet don't receive because we ask in order to fulfill our own desires.  One version says so we might consume it upon our own lusts.  Much as we may not wish to hear it, we can lust after church growth and ministry success just as much as we can after less savory objects.  The Father isn't interested in satisfying such desires.
   Watchman Nee said, "God shows us what He wants, we stand and ask, and God acts from heaven:  this is true prayer and this is what we must see fully expressed in our prayer meeting."  Key phrase; God shows us what He wants.  Then in response, we pray for that desire which is now our desire.  Too often, we approach prayer as a matter of us showing God what we want, and then demand that He act to make it so.  He will not be manipulated and every "prayer movement" that is built upon such a motive will collapse.  
   I'm not saying that this latest move of prayer in the church is likewise tainted, but our hearts can so easily be deceived and so deceive us.  May we come into His Presence with our only desire to experience and know Him, and then out of that, to hear and obey Him.  We will see Him move, perhaps, likely, in ways we did not expect, but it will be His way, and not ours.  May such a movement of prayer take place in His church.  May such a movement of prayer take place in you and I.

Blessings,
Pastor O     

Heart Tracks - The Terrorist

     I so often see, and have so often myself made, prayer requests that ask for peace, strength, joy, rest, and victory.  Yet, in so many cases, that which is sought is not realized.  Why?  Is He unable, uncaring?  I don't think so.  I think the real problem lies with ourselves.  We are praying for something He has already given us in Christ.  He has given peace, victory, strength, rest and joy, and given them in abundance.  He's done so in the resurrection of His Son.  So, it's not a matter of asking, but receiving.  Jesus said "Freely I have given, freely begin to receive."  Too many of us never "begin" to receive what has already been given us.  Watchman Nee said that we are already "more than conquerors" in Christ.  We already have victory, and so we "court defeat" by throwing away what is the believers fundamental position.  Victory. 

     Paul wrote in Ephesians that we are "seated with Christ," and that He is "far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named."  If we are seated with Him, then aren't we also victorious in and with Him?  Most often, we see this as a future state, and not a present one, a lie that our enemy the devil has had great success in getting us to believe.  When he does, defeat, and not victory is what we most often live in.  Satan, as I saw him described somewhere, is a terrorist.  You don't negotiate with a terrorist, you crush him.  He has been crushed in Christ, under his feet.  If we are seated with Him, isn't he under our feet as well?
     One of the most quoted scriptures is Ephesians 6:11, "Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against all the schemes of the devil."  Of this scripture Nee writes, "Stand implies that the ground disputed by the enemy is really God's, and therefore ours.  It was the Lord Jesus who carried the offensive into Satan's kingdom to gain by death and resurrection a mighty victory.....the territory is His....We only need to fight to hold it against all challengers."  Somehow, the enemy has managed to convince us that we are orphans that must come begging at the door of the rich man, hoping to receive a crust, all the while not knowing that we are sons of the rich man, and our place is not outside the door, but seated at His table, as His child, His son, His daughter.
    Far too long, and far too often, I have been found pounding on His door, seeking to get Him to open to me what is already opened.  Seeking to get what has already been given.  More familiar with defeat than victory.  Negotiating with the terrorist, rather than living as a conqueror.  Might it be so with you as well?  It's not that there won't be challenges or needs.  Roaring lions will still show up, giants will still come at us, and mountains will still block our way, but when we fully realize that we are, as His children, seated with Him in the throne room of the Father, then we needn't beg Him for victory over them, but live in the victory already won.  It will not be costless, but the outcome will be priceless, and the outcome is assured already.....in Christ.  How will we live?  Negotiating each day with the terrorist of our souls, or as conquerors in Christ? 

Blessings,
Pastor O

     

Heart Tracks - In Enemy Country

    There can be no denying that we are living in a time of increasing darkness.  We are in the midst of days where, as scripture speaks of, "good is called evil, and evil good."  For the believer, we must decide as to how we will respond to the darkness.  Will we give in to a fatalistic, gloom and doom outlook, and simply try to last through it till the Lord comes back?  Worse, will we allow ourselves to become immersed in it, slowly taking on the value system and worldview of the culture we are in?  Will we seek to fight back with good intentions and good works, putting all of our effort in an attempt to "change the world?"  There are probably a number of other responses, but there is really only one that's an option, and that is to be His Living Presence, Light and Life, in a world ensnared in deep darkness, death, and sin.
     We are living in "enemy country," and we, the church, are to be, as one man put it, "a colony of heaven in the country of death."  That means that though we may find ourselves in a culture seemingly dominated by the prince of darkness, we are part of a Kingdom culture infinitely greater and more powerful than what the enemy, an already defeated enemy, could ever possess.  If we can grasp this truth, we'll find that no matter how deep we may find ourselves in hostile country, we can overcome it, be victorious in its midst by virtue of how deeply we live, are living, in Him.
     I read recently that more and more, it seems that preachers,teachers, and the church in general, are ignoring the Old Testament, feeling it only speaks of an Old Covenant that was done away with in Christ.  We do this to our great harm, for in the OT, we hear and see witness to Christ all the way along.  There is wonderful beauty, power and life to be found there, if we'll but have ears to hear and eyes to see.  One such place is found in Exodus, as the Father speaks to Moses, telling him how He intends to free the Israelites from their slavery to Egypt, the mightiest nation of that day.  He said to the Pharaoh of Egypt of His intended work to bring their freedom, " Then you will know that I am the Lord and that I have power even in the heart of enemy country."  What He said next cannot be missed, and must be remembered by all who take His name, "I will make a clear distinction between your people, and My people."  The Father has made that distinction.  Are you and I living in it?
    Yes, we are living in a day of deep darkness, but are we living as a people of distinction in its midst?  Not in harsh condemnation of the lives trapped in that darkness, but in the power of a life, His life, that this darkness cannot destroy, not in isolation, but in awesome power and presence, His presence.  Moses had such intimacy with Him that the glow of His glory was much upon his face.  How much more can we as we live in and with the fullness of His Holy Spirit in every place, even the darkest place?  Proving again and again, overcoming the world system again and again, that He is Lord, even in the midst of enemy country.
    In Exodus 7, God said to Pharaoh, "You are going to find out that I am the Lord."  He did find out.  Have we?  Are we, can we, live so deeply in Him that all the power arrayed against His people, His church, His Kingdom, shrinks back because of the power of His life, a life His word tells us can't be destroyed?  Yes, the darkness increases, but Paul said that where "sin (darkness) abounds, grace (His Life) abounds more."  Let us, you and me, live in His "more."  Let us find out that we, in Him, have power, even in the heart of the enemy's country.

Blessings,
Pastor O  

Heart Tracks - Let My People Go

         I've been reading the book of Exodus lately, and just the other day I came across a scripture I've read more times than I can remember.  It's 9:1, where God has directed Moses to go to Pharaoh and say, "Let My people go, so they can worship Me."  They'd been held in bondage for 400 years by Egypt, and the Father had now begun His movement to set them free.  It was to begin with His demand that Pharaoh allow the people to journey three days into the desert that they might offer sacrifice to, and worship Him, but Pharaoh stubbornly refused.  When I read that, I found myself thinking on all the ways we in the church might be hindering not only the worship of our fellowships, be we pastors, "worship" leaders, teachers, or elders and board members, but our own worship of Him as well?

     In his wonderful book, "Real Church - Does It Exist?  Where Can I Find It?", Larry Crabb writes of how many pastors and leaders are confiding in Him just how mundane, how bored they are with the spiritual life of their churches, and their own as well.  It was not that there was a lack of things going on, indeed, there was an abundance.  Many of these men and women were a part of fellowships that can be described as successful and thriving.  Yet the spiritual life, the worship, had become predictable, and somehow, the human element had come to the forefront of all that was going on, and not the spiritual.  Much was crafted to appeal to the senses, but so little seemed to truly reach the heart.  People came, people watched, then people went home.  Pastors preached, teachers taught, worship teams played and sang, but life transforming encounters were few and far between.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were much sung and talked about, but it seemed, so rarely "seen."  Physical senses were touched, but the spiritual senses seemed to grow ever duller.  A good show might be put on, but a face to face meeting with Him was not truly taking place.  I was convicted because it is easy to lay such things at the feet of large fellowships, but it's just as true for small ones.  And it carries over into our individual worship as well.  Somehow, our flesh cannot resist the desire to be in control, even as it comes to the worship of our God.  I can hear His voice whispering, "Let My people go (and yourself as well), so they (and you) can worship Me!"
     I expect it's easy to assume that I'm making a blanket statement here on all fellowships and people, but I'm only asking that we examine ourselves in this.  In what ways in our fellowships are we preventing the people from really encountering Him?  Structure is important and so is doctrine, and I'm not talking about a Holy Spirit free for all, but in our desire for both, have we put boundaries up in worship that we won't allow His Spirit to cross?  In our desire to "establish" a worshipful atmosphere, have we put forth the full definition of what that atmosphere is to be, and what must be done to achieve it?  We live in a "special effects" entertainment culture.  How deeply has that penetrated our corporate worship?  How has it carried over to our individual worship?  What do we know today of what it is to pray and meditate on His Word, on Him?
What do we know of hearing Him, listening to Him, relating to Him?  What holds us back from all of this?  What needs to be let go of, and what needs to let go of us that we might truly worship Him?  Can we take the time to ask those questions, and wait upon Him that we might hear His answer?
     To be in His Presence, is to be in the Holy of Holies.  I don't want to be a visitor to this place in Him, I want to be a dweller in there.  I want to see those that He has given me to minister to, be "Let go" that they may worship Him, even if it is me who has to let go.  I want to let go of all that keeps me from His presence, be it stress, anxiety, busyness, and yes, ambition.  To let go so that I, we, may worship Him.  How about you?  Or, will we, like Pharaoh, stubbornly refuse?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

   
   

Heart Tracks - Kingdom Maniacs

       Sometime ago, I heard a pastor describe how he met his wife.  He was a committed follower of Christ on a very secular college campus.  One of his friends, very much a non-believer, told him of a girl he needed to meet.  He told him, "You'll like her.  She's weird, like you."  The friend meant that she too was a follower of Christ, and, that she was, like him, "weird."  It put me in mind of a book collection of comic strips featuring one of my all time favorites, "Calvin and Hobbes," by Bill Watterson.  The collection was entitled, "Weirdos From Another Planet."  To be a full hearted disciple of Christ, is to be, truly, a "weirdo from another planet."  That "planet" being the Kingdom of God.
     There is much discussion, and much of it good, in the church today about understanding the culture we are in, and knowing how to engage it.  This can be very healthy, but I think in doing so, we, consciously or not, can slip into a mode of trying to look like them, talk like them, and to some degree, act like them, in order to win them.  But "win them" to what?  We're in the age of the hip and cool church and pastor.  I'm not trying to paint everyone with such strokes, but so often, it seems like we want to apologize for who we are and what we believe, in the hope that our approach will make them "like us."  I don't think Jesus was ever concerned with this.  In fact, scripture reveals that He went out of His way to discourage people from following Him unless it was to do so with a fully dedicated and surrendered heart.  More, He was very willing to appear very "weird" in their sight as He proclaimed to them who He was, and the Kingdom that He came from, and lived within.  Scripture abounds with such examples.  He spoke, acted, and ministered in ways never before seen.  He said things that dumfounded, amazed, and most of all, angered people.  People were drawn to Him, and also repelled by Him.  Sometimes they were both.  In John 6, many were following after Him, in large part because He had been supplying them with "good bread," but when He told them that to really be His, they had to partake of His life completely, and doing that meant partaking of His cross.  John 6:66 tells us that at that time, "many turned away and no longer followed Him."  Jesus then asked the disciples if they too would leave.  Peter answered for all, "Lord, to whom would we go.  You have the words of eternal life."  The disciples struggled with what they saw and heard from Him, but their hearts responded to Him, were drawn to Him, and couldn't turn away.  The strangeness to their flesh of what He said, was overwhelmed by the beauty of who He was, and is, and this hasn't changed.  Jesus had no problem with appearing to be a "weirdo from another planet."  Yes, He was willing to be found IN and at the places where the lost were, but never was He OF those places.  His holiness and purity shined just as brightly there as it did amongst those who fully believed, and hearts would "feel strangely warm" because of it.  It won't be any less so today.
     I've a friend who spoke of what it is to be a "manic-depressive," or, as commonly labeled, bi-polar.  This is a person who experiences wild mood swings.  Very high, highs, and very low, lows.  The definition of manic is "showing wild, and apparently deranged excitement and energy."  They appear to be out of their minds.  My friend said that more and more, he wanted to live a "manic Kingdom life in the midst of a fallen, depressed world and culture."  Jesus was accused often of being demon possessed, deranged.  So was Paul.  Why, because they lived with an energy, joy, and power the world could not comprehend.  Lives of Light that prevailed against all the power of the darkness of the culture that surrounded them.  It is what marked the early church, and it is what must mark us now.  Scripture says that believers were called a "peculiar people," and so must we always be.  Living in the fullness of the Spirit is always going to look weird to the world.  It will to much of the professing church as well.  Dare you and I seek to have and live such lives?  Lives so lived in Him that when all hell breaks loose, that life breaks through hell.  Fools for Christ, as Paul put it.  Kingdom maniacs might be another way to say it.  Weirdos from another planet to be sure.  Residents of His Kingdom.  We pray "Your Kingdom come," but its coming will make "weirdos" of all who are His, for His glory and the good of a world culture in desperate need of Him.  Your Kingdom come Lord.  Maranatha.  Come Lord Jesus.  Come quickly.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Shipwrecks And Snakebites

       I heard not long ago of a book entitled, "The Insanity Of God."  Now, before you pull back and label that a blasphemous statement, I challenge you as to whether there has ever been a time in His dealings with you where you thought that maybe, just maybe, God had lost His mind?  A time where nothing made any sense, where He seemed to not so much be absent, but to be literally working against His own interests, allowing things that seemed to be destroying the very foundation of His kingdom.  
      I've no doubt that if we were asked as to our belief in His sovereignty, infinite power, and many promises of victory, we would affirm that we believe them.  We would quote the scriptures that tell us that "all things hold together in Christ."  We would say that we believe Revelations 19:11, that He who sits on the throne is always faithful and true.  We would say we trust in I Peter 3:22, that all angels powers and authorities must and do bow before Him.  We believe that, but then, in one of those "sudden things" His Word speaks of so often, everything, and I mean everything, collapses, and life becomes, as Mark Batterson said, like that of Paul, "a pattern of shipwrecks and snakebites."  Shipwrecks and snakebites orchestrated by the Father, and which to those who were looking upon the events of Paul's life, must surely have indicated that the Father had indeed, "lost His mind."  It may have seemed so to them, but it didn't to Paul.  Was he perplexed, yes, and he wrote that he was.  Were there times that he was discouraged, again, yes.  Cast down?  Crushed?  He admitted as much.  But he was never beaten, and indeed, said that he was "more than a conqueror," through and in Christ.  He was so because though he may not have understood at all what His Father was doing, or know just where and to what He was leading, He knew His God.  He knew His heart, and that His heart towards Him was one of goodness, mercy, and love.
And so, even in the midst of the seeming insanity of His God, He lived at and in His rest and His peace.  Why?  How?
     The answer is seen in Ephesians 2:6, where Paul said that God has "raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realm." Amidst the pattern of shipwrecks and snakebites, the prison cells and the suffering, Paul lived in the heavenly realm with Christ, in His presence, partaking fully of His life, peace, joy, and strength.  The snakebites and shipwrecks were real, but life in Him was more real.  So much of what was happening to him made little or no sense, and to the flesh, it would certainly appear as if the Father really had lost His mind, butseated, not running about, in panic, composed, at peace in His presence, Paul knew that what appeared to be was not what mattered.  It was what was, and what is.  The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  This was his real "reality," and the chaos and insanity of life could not move him.  Neither, if we will live in that place that Paul did, will it move us.  
     Are you living the pattern of shipwrecks and snakebites?  Does it look like God has lost His mind, at least in His dealing with you?  If we wait for Him to explain Himself, we will wait for a very long time.  If we will choose, as Paul did, to live not at the mercy of our circumstances, but in the power of His presence, in the heavenly realm, we will, in Him, be raised above them.  Shipwrecks and snakebites may continue, but we live in victory in their midst.  They can only serve to take us more deeply into Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - The Lord's Prisoner

      Brother Yun, known as "the Heavenly Man," is a follower of Christ and has one of the most powerful testimonies of the life of Christ working within Him.  Having suffered for years in various prisons in China simply because he would not renounce His Lord, he eventually was freed and embarked upon a wider ministry outside of China.  During this time, he noted how he increasingly became wrapped up in the work of the Lord rather than the Lord Himself.  His heart had grown cold.  One day, while at an airport in Thailand, he was detained by customs, as they found problems with his passport.  He was arrested and once more, found himself imprisoned, and he would be in that "place" for 2 long years.  In relating the story, he said that as His life and heart had drifted from His Lord, the Fathers response was to "give him a holiday in prison."  A holiday.  Does that sound like madness?  Most certainly it does to our flesh, but beyond the cell, Yun saw what His Father was doing in his heart, a heart that had wandered from Him, and what He meant to do through his time in prison.  Equip and make him a man who could bear even more fruit for His God and His Kingdom.  For most of us, our response to such a condition would be to cry out for release, Yun's was to cry out to God, not for His release, but for His Fathers purpose in all of it to be made full.  He didn't see himself as a prisoner of the Thais, but of Christ.  In that, he found a common place with the heart of the apostle Paul.

     Twice, in Ephesians 3:1 and 4:1, Paul referred to himself as "the prisoner of Christ."  He said that it was for his testimony of His Lord that he was there, but he never saw himself as a prisoner of Caesar and of Rome, but of Christ, and because he was a prisoner of Christ, he knew that he was free from being a prisoner to anything or anyone else.  He lived so deeply in Him that his reality was always Christ.  The cell and the bars may have been real, but Christ was more real.  He didn't see himself as a victim, but a victor.  He knew that if the Lord had allowed him to come to this place, that He had a purpose in it, and so he didn't bemoan his circumstances or seek to enlist a prayer movement to get him out of that cell, but instead sought His God and His will and purpose for him in that place.  We see the beauty of that purpose in Ephesians and in the other letters known as the prison epistles.  Out of the seeming ashes of his prison cell came a beauty that continues to speak to and enrich lives and the life of the church 2000 years later.
     I've a friend that wonders if Paul could ever have written the rich, Holy Spirit filled words outside of that prison cell?  There is no doubt that his flesh suffered in that cell, but his spirit soared with Christ.  The result was an encounter with Him that he couldn't have had outside of it.  Yun called his experience a holiday.  The root meaning of holiday is holy day.  Could you and I dare to believe that our present circumstances, which may be hard, seemingly impossible to us, can be used by Him, indeed are purposed by Him, to be for us, and those we are to impact, holy days. Days of bringing forth fruit for the Kingdom?  Could we dare to believe and see ourselves as not being prisoner to our circumstances and conditions, or the opinions and esteem of others, but of Him, and Him alone?  Could we dare to have the courage to be "prisoners of Christ?"
What fruit will come forth from our lives if we are?  What will be the result of our own holiday in prison if we see ourselves not as prisoners of what is happening around us, and truly live in chains, but instead the prisoner of He who lives and reigns within us, and so, free of all chains? Can we embrace our holiday, our holy day in Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Beholder

       "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."  Likely you've heard that saying, and for sure it's a true one.  Everyone has their own definition of beauty, but I've been thinking of late as to just what the Father's definition would be, is?  We live in a culture obsessed with beauty, and the church has not been immune from the obsession, at least not here in the west.
       Our flesh is drawn to what we consider "beautiful," but is His?  His Word speaks a great deal about the relationship between Christ and His church, of His love for her, His bride.  That love is one that penetrates to the very depth of her being, to who she is, and the beauty of who she is moves His heart.  His eye doesn't stop at the surface of her being, but goes to her heart, and it is to her heart that He is drawn.  That "glorious church without spot or wrinkle."  There are depths to explore here beyond this short devotional, but I'm wondering today just how far our definition of her beauty may have drifted from His?  In the life of the church, wherever you or I are placed in it, who is it that we most long to attract, men, or Christ?  Is it our deepest desire to be beautiful in His eyes, or theirs?

      Writer and pastor Donald Rumble said, "The church has been impressed with has attracted men.  If our goal has been to attract men to the church, than what they think will govern our actions."  This is hugely convicting.  In the "planning" of our worship, our outreach, our "strategies," how much prayer and thought goes into what will please men and women, the flesh?  Do we hope to attract more people, or more Holy Spirit?  Do we want to make our fellowships a place where people want to be, or a holy place where He truly dwells?  Yes, we need to be a "welcoming" place, but it is a welcome that is extended from His heart, and not ours.  It is a welcome that says "Come to Me," and such a welcome brings with it the command that we come not just as we are, but with all that we are.  I think we worry so much that people might be "uncomfortable" in our fellowships that we do everything we can to see that they're not.  No, we cannot have a legalistic, judgemental, rules and behavior oriented church, but the simple fact is, that if Christ is truly present in a manifested way, our flesh will be decidedly uncomfortable.  It can't be otherwise.  Jesus told His disciples, "The world hates Me because I convict it of sin."  This will always be so, and I think if we try to lessen this reality in the desire to be more acceptable to the flesh, we may be "attractive" to it, but not to Him.  Whose favor do we really want?  In whose eyes do we really wish to be beautiful?
     In Acts 7:20, it is said of Moses at his birth that "he was beautiful in the Lord's sight."  Not because he would be perfect, without sin, or that he would do everything right and never fail, but it was because he, like David after him, had a heart and life that was set to pursue the Father with all its might.  This is what is beautiful in His sight.  Yes, this heart wants to reach people for Him, but the overwhelming, the all encompassing desire of that heart is to know and worship Him.  Nothing can take the place of that desire, nothing can get in its way.  There will be the desire that others come to Him, but the desire for Him will never be compromised by a desire to reach them.  When we become such a person, and our fellowships are comprised of such people, we will truly be beautiful in His sight, and He will truly dwell among us.  Others will be drawn to that beauty that only He can possess.  We no longer have to come up with plans to reach men because He is so powerfully in our midst that hearts are being drawn to Him through His beauty in us, and if they are not, then no plan is of any value anyway.  May it be our deepest desire that we be beautiful in His eyes as He beholds us, forsaking the favor of men, for the favor and glory of God.  Beautiful in the eyes of the Beholder.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Skylight Theology

      I heard a passionate young preacher speak of what he called "mirror theology," and "window theology."  He said the first was the theology that is most prevalent in the American church, a theology that sees itself before it sees anything or anyone else.  Everything is about "me" and all things, people, the church, and God, exist to make "my" life experience, and that of my loved ones, better, complete, and happy.  The second, window theology, was that which focused outwardly, to those in need of Christ, who are suffering, dying, and all without the life of Christ within them.  I liked his points, and don't disagree at all, but I think he missed the "theology" that is most lacking, as well as most needed in the western church today, and that is what I call a "skylight theology," that which looks first and foremost, to Him.  

     Oswald Chambers who established a training school for missionaries, said something that I think is lost on so many of we who sincerely wish to reach a world without Christ.  He said, "The central thing about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men."  Jesus said in John 18:36, "My kingdom is not of this world," and we say we know that, but I think we are seeking to bring His Kingdom to the world in our own strength and according to our own understanding.  We may reject the mirror "all about me" theology, that which looks inward, and embrace the window theology, one that gazes outward, but neglect the deepest, most needed, that which looks upward, that fixes its eyes upon Him, and then all that is seen, is seen through kingdom eyes and understanding.  Revelation 4 says that John "Saw a door standing open in heaven,"  and the Fathers voice saying, "Come up here and I will show you what must happen."  Before John could be truly used of Him outwardly, He had to first come up to Him and, as Chambers puts it, "soak in His presence."
     Chambers told his students that they had been placed in his school to "soak before God."  He said that to fail in this was to invite failure in their lives, that they would break under the strain, no matter how noble or good their desires.  So it is with you and I.  We must renounce our obsession with the mirror theology, and our eyes must be opened to the deep spiritual need that is all around us, but before any of that can happen, we too, like John, must "see" the door He has opened unto us of the very throne room of God.  We must hear and obey His voice as He call us upward, to Himself.  Only this will break the power that mirror theology has over us, over the church, and only this will empower us to take His life and ministry to all those we see outside the window.  The "skylight" is always above us, but we will only see through it to Him if we look up.  So.....look up, and soak in His Presence.

Blessings,
Pastor O