Heart Tracks - Taskmasters

     The book of Exodus relates much of God's work in the nation of Israel, and one of the great parts is their deliverance from their Egyptian "taskmasters."  The Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, who took delight in laying heavy burdens upon them, burdens beyond their ability to bear.  They needed a deliverer, and the Father God was that Deliverer.  Using Moses He led them out of Egypt, and eventually into their Promised Land, though it took 40 years to happen.  A great part of the reason for this was that though they were no longer held captive in the land of Egypt, they were still very much in captivity to the mindset and value system of that land.  God used those 40 years of desert to cleanse them of that mindset and those values.  Those old "taskmasters" needed to die.  The question then follows; what taskmasters need to die in your life and mine?

There are surely many, but two of the most common as well as oppressive, would be the taskmasters of "Performance," and "Appearance."  Each can exert terrible bondage upon its victims, and to some degree, reign in all of our lives.  To what extent do they reign in yours?
      I've a good pastor friend whose ministry would surely have been termed "successful."  Yet, he confesses that throughout it, he labored under the lash of performance.  In his preaching, teaching, leading and "building" the church, he was always under the pressure of that taskmaster.  With that being so, his evaluation always came down to how well he did, how well he was received, how much his ministry grew and prospered, and ultimately, what the opinion of those who were watching was.  This is a particular trap for those in ministry for no matter what we say, and no matter what our real intent, in the end, what is "seen" is what we either did or did not accomplish.  If we met certain expectations, expectations not so much stated as unspoken, we are considered "successful," and if not, well, we already know that answer don't we?  This is where the taskmaster of performance brings in its twin brother, appearance.  What we appear to be matters more, especially to us, than anything else.  We don't want to appear a failure, indeed, anything but, but what if God, in His quest to truly free us, allows for that appearance of failure?  

     T. Austin-Sparks said that the Father may well lead us through a journey of faithfulness "even though that faithfulness will involve us in appearances of utter failure."  Few want to believe He would lead in such a way.  Fewer still are willing to follow.  There is only one way we can and that is by way of the cross.  Paul wrote that he was "free to be Christ's slave."  Such a statement makes no sense to the flesh, and can only be understood in the light of the cross.  Because of this, Paul was able to say that not only did he not judge his own life and ministry, he didn't allow them to be judged by others either.  It was not that they wouldn't but that he was free from captivity to those judgements.  All that mattered to Him was what His Lord saw, and what His Lord thought.  That was his only standard of evaluation, and because of that, he was free....to be the slave of Christ.
    Performance and Appearance.  They're relentless in their seeking to take me, us, back to Egypt.  We can only live free from them by dying to them.  That can only happen at the cross.  For me, this sometimes comes to be a moment to moment thing.  I expect it must for you to, and you don't have to be a pastor to suffer from them.  In our jobs, parenting, marriages, really all of life, the taskmasters of Performance and Appearance come to us, carrying their chains.  The only way we will not succumb to their slavery, is to freely give ourselves to be the slaves of Christ.  Only then, will be free.  The taskmasters approach, while Jesus calls.  Who holds sway over you?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - Images

      Something that has been happening in my journey with Him over the past several years is His great desire to set me free from all the "images" I've set up in my life.  Images of what ministry should be and yield, what my life should look like, be, and most of all, who He is, as opposed to who I've wanted Him to be.  It's not an easy journey.  Images die hard.  They want to hold on to us even more than we want to hold onto them.

      This morning, the point was driven home more deeply by a short excerpt from a book by a woman named Kasey Van Norman, who battles against stage 4 cancer, but also, she honestly tells of the battle she fights with Him in the midst of it.  Her book is titled, Raw Faith - What Happens When God Picks A Fight.  God picking a fight with us?  How could this be?  Am I, are we, to believe that the Gentle Jesus we have looked to, believed in, the good Heavenly Father that we know always has our best interest at heart, especially as defined by us, would ever pick a fight with us, with me?  Yes, He would, and as often as He needs to, and for many of us, most of us, often is the key word.
      In my message the other night in the midst of our small but loving fellowship, and speaking just as much to myself as them, I said that when we find ourselves in situations, places where we don't want to be, that we so desperately want to get out of, it is likely the very place the Lord has led us to, and our oftentimes ugly responses to them are the proof.  There is something within us causing that response, hindering our walk with Him, hindering us.  He means to deal with it, bring it up, and cast it out, and He will keep us there until that happens.  In effect, He picks a fight with us there, and it's a fight He means to win.  The wonder is that when He "wins," we do as well, but our flesh never sees it that way.  All those created images get in the way; the fight is between what we think should be, and what He says is, and, no matter how that clashes with our image, it's what He calls "best" for us.
     For Van Norman, that place came when she stopped raging at the Lord over the circumstances of her life, of where she was at, and just surrendered, telling Him that she would trust that He would either deliver her out of this fire, or fully join her in it, but one way or another, she would cling to Him with all her might.  All the images were surrendered, her fight with God, one picked by Him, was over, and the miracle was, in that surrender was her victory.
     In her writing, she quoted Romans 8:26, "And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress.  For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray.  But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed."  When we come to that place of helplessness, where all our images have failed us, where nothing makes sense, we can be ready to surrender to Him as He is, and not as we demand He should be.  The place where the Holy Spirit can truly begin to help us, intercede for us.  The place where we can finally allow Him to join us.  Joining not in the form of the image we've created, but as He really is.  Nothing at all may have changed around us, but He's wrought a change within us.  That which has been killing us, has been killed, and life, His life, has entered in.  For such a victory, He is very ready to "pick a fight" with us.
     What images have we been clinging to?  What place are we at that we may be "raging" at Him over?  He will pick a fight with us there.  Who will define the winner?  Our flesh, or His Spirit?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Eyes On

    A friend remarked recently at how amazed he was that we could put total trust in an electronic GPS in its ability to guide us to a destination, yet find it so hard to trust in an infinitely wise and loving God to do the same.  I think we need to take some time to dwell upon just how true and real that may be in our lives today.  Throughout the church, much is made of coming together as leaders for monthly, quarterly, or yearly "planning" or "strategy" sessions.  We say that we do so under the guidance and leadership of His Spirit, yet, if we were to chronicle just how much seeking prayer, yielded prayer, preceded these gatherings, indeed, took place in the midst of them, we would have a much clearer and for sure, more honest estimation of them.  The Gospel tells us that before Jesus chose His disciples, He spent an entire night in prayer, seeking the leading of the Father.  Only then, by the Father's direction, did He choose them.  Even when we do pray, so often we have already determined what it is we want, and where it is we wish to go, and the Father is sought mainly as one who can now "bless our plan."  We go to conferences, seminars, hold vision casting meetings, and in short, listen much to what men have to say, yet know so little of what He is saying.
     In 2 Chronicles 20 tells of how the small army of Judah was surrounded by a much larger, stronger army of enemies.  Jehoshaphat the king and his people prepared for battle first by seeking the Father in surrendered brokenness, crying out, "We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us.  We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on You."  I think that most of us, when we get into such a crisis are willing to pray such a prayer, but in most of our day to day lives, I think we're quite sure that we already know what to do, have planned and decided what to do, and it just remains for us to go to Him and seek His blessing on it all, something we're very sure He's already given.  Backed into a corner, we're willing to surrender, for that time, in our daily living, not so much.
     I read somewhere that we in the west have reduced His Word and Life down to something our rational minds can understand.  Though we may have read countless times that "My ways are not your ways," somehow, we think they are.  We end up creating a God that fits our image, and then proceed in all things accordingly.  We don't live with our "eyes on" Him in all things at all times, but more, proceed according to what seems best, right, and rational, giving Him glances from time to time to make sure He's blessing and cheering us on.
     Something I've noticed about my own GPS, is that it is dependent on having constant updates, or else it will be confused when it comes to certain areas where it has no programming.  I end up lost.  This is the eventual destination of all of us who place our trust in anything other than the fullness of His Life and Word.  Jehoshaphat and the people, trusting completely in Him, obeying all of His direction, won a mighty victory that day.  They named the site of that victory, the Valley of Blessing.  Following Him may lead us through many a valley, but trusting Him, yielded in brokenness and surrender, will also make all those valleys places of blessing and victory for us.  What voice do we follow today, that of a limited, fallible, human GPS, or His, the One who will not fail us, or forsake us, but take us home.  All the way home.

Blessings,
Pastor O  

Heart Tracks - The Best Prayer

       In Matthew 16, Jesus asks His disciples who the people are saying He is, then He asks them who they themselves say He is.  Peter, always the first to speak answers, "Thou art the Messiah."  Now, I believe it is absolutely central that we know, and have settled in our hearts and minds as to who Christ is.  This is truth that will surely make us free, but if we have settled that question, it now remains for that truth to saturate every area of our lives, most especially our prayer lives, for Jesus said this knowledge could never be revealed by "flesh and blood," human means, but only by the Father in heaven."

     Watchman Nee, writing on this passage, said, "The best prayer of all is not 'I want,' but 'Thou art.' "  Oswald Chambers said, "The purpose of prayer is not to get hold of an answer but to get hold of God."  The question before me, before you is, which of these "kinds" of prayers are most familiar?  How much of our prayer life is about getting what we want, getting answers?  As a pastor, I have listened to so many prayer requests, and have made so many myself.  Far and away, the majority have been about receiving what was desired; healing, provision, safety, deliverance, and the salvation of friends and loved ones, are just a few.  Central in all of them was the desire that He do or give these things, that He answer these prayers, and in the way that was hoped and asked for.  Consciously or not, these types of prayers relegate Him to being a heavenly assistant, a facilitator, of and to our wishes.  We know what we want from Him in prayer, but how well and how much do we wish to know Him in prayer?
     Nee said that "Death is the power, the weapon, of the gates of hell."  This power is constantly arrayed against the people of God.  When our prayer life consists of trying to convince God to do what we want in the face of this power, we will be crushed if for whatever reason, He doesn't.  This is why so many of us can cry out in victory, "God is good!" when He acts in favorable ways, but maintain a kind of sullen silence, even resentment, when He doesn't.  Yet, when the deepest desire of our lives is not for the answer, not for the desired result, but for Him, then we can face all the power of darkness and death in the power, knowledge, and possession of His life.  In the face of all of it, we say as did Nee, "Thou art Victor, Thou art Lord, Thou art King."  We can say this because we know this.  Not in theory but in reality.  We can say it because more than the desire for an answer, we desire to get hold of Him, and when we do, we walk in the victory that overcomes the world, the darkness and the devil.  We've discovered and are living in the power of "the best prayer."  The prayer that wants nothing more, and will settle for nothing less, than laying hold of He who is, and who always is, Life, Light, and Victory.
     So, what really marks our prayer lives today?  A quest for answers, for the giving of "wants." or a determined, nothing but seeking of Him, who is, and will always be, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Messiah, the Answer, Jesus?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - Blind Spots

  I was speaking with a young pastor not long ago, and he was sharing with me his great frustration with trying to minister to people who just could not see their particular need, or the One who stands before them, fully able and willing to meet that need.  It's a frustration I understand very well, for it's one that I have felt through most of the ministry He's given me.  We want people to "see," and so desperately do we want that, that we try to use every means possible to make them see.  Such an approach is not only doomed to failure, but it is a sure formula for our own discouragement and sense of failure.  Only Christ can turn the water into wine, and only Christ can make a blind man see.
     I was recently reading anew the account of Paul's spiritual transformation on the Damascus Road.  Known then as Saul, he was on his way to Damascus to harass, and arrest any who were now following the risen Christ.  He'd recently been a very willing participant in the murder of Stephen, and he was completely willing to do the same to any who followed the Christ that Stephen had preached of.  Not only was he willing, but he was totally sure of the rightness of his position.  He believed he was doing the will of God.  Yet, in Acts  9, Christ Himself appeared to Paul, and the light of His Presence was so intensely bright that he was knocked to the ground.  Verse 8 reads, "As Paul picked himself up off the ground, he found that he was blind."  Saul, who thought he saw and knew everything so clearly, was so right about what he thought and believed, had to be struck blind before he could see.  A central and spiritual truth is that before we can see He who is Truth, we need to understand first that we are and have been blind.  When Saul found that he was blind, he was now ready to truly see.  This makes little sense to our rational minds, but the Lord has never made himself accountable to what we believe is rational.  Like so many others both before and after him, Paul could now say, "I was once blind, but now I see." 

     In the spiritual realm, blindness can take on so many different forms.  It can be total, as in the case of the unbelieving Saul, but it can also be partial, having the form of what we call, "blind spots."  We may see many things clearly, but in our walk, there are places, spots, where we remain blind, where we don't see things as they really are.  This can happen through disobedience, deception, self absorption, fear, or just a stubborn refusal to believe we're wrong.  Such a case appears in 2 Kings 6 where the prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by the soldiers of the kingdom of Aram.  In panic the servant cries out to Elisha, "Ah my Lord, what will we do now?"  To this Elisha replies, "Don't be afraid.  There are more on our side than on theirs.......O Lord, open his eyes and let him see."  The Father answered this prayer and the servant's eyes were opened, and he saw that the great army of enemy soldiers were themselves surrounded by an even greater army of "horses and chariots of fire."  Victory belonged not to the men of Aram, but to the two servants of God.
     I say this to make two points.  First, it is not our place or calling to make people "see."  It is our place to come before Him in broken intercession and pray that He, who alone has the power to give sight, gives sight to the blind, to open their eyes that they might see.  Whether they are in total blindness, or merely suffering from various spiritual blind spots in their own lives, we must realize that only He can make them see.  Last, we have to be willing to allow Him to make us aware of where we ourselves may be blind.  Places where we have been so sure we are right, whether in ministry, relationships, or our spiritual worldview.  Only when we realize the reality of that blindness will He "open our eyes that we might see."
Blindness in any form can only be healed by the supernatural transforming power of Christ.  All of our efforts, no matter how sincere, will come to nothing.  Only Jesus can make the water into wine.  Only Jesus can make the crippled man walk.  Only Jesus can make the blind person see.  Where might our blind spot be?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Considered

      I think when one considers the books of the Bible, Job doesn't rank very highly.  It's not an account our flesh will enjoy as it chronicles the intense tribulation undergone by Job at the hands of the enemy, satan, and it's even less appealing when we understand that the devil was first given permission by the Father Himself to attack Job's life before any of it took place.  If you know the story, satan came before God and claimed that the only reason anyone followed Him at all was because of the good things He gave them.  In the midst of this conversation, it was the Father who asked, in Job 1:8, "Have you considered my servant Job?"  And so began Job's journey of pain, heartache, loss, and sorrow, and none of it, as is so clear, was deserved.

    We are very big on justice, especially when it is justice for ourselves.  We do not sit still for injustice, again, especially when we are on the receiving end of it.  We demand justice, and if we are followers of Christ, we demand it of He and the Father.  If it is not instantly forthcoming, real trouble will be on our horizon, and our target, directly or indirectly, will almost always be God.  "Why?" will be the question on lips.  Why did this happen?  Why did You allow it?  Why aren't you ending it?  Why are you letting it go on?  Why"  An unending parade of "Why's?"  I think I know something of this.  Maybe you do too.
    My "why's?" first came in strength when divorce hit my life.  I never thought such a thing could happen to me.  I was a pastor, I was dedicated to Him, followed Him with all my heart, not perfectly for sure, but with a heart that was His.  I thought that should be protection enough.  As I walked through that time, what grew in me was anger, bitterness, resentment, and much of it directed towards Him.  I can remember, to my shame, accusing Him of failing me, forsaking me.  I can remember literally shouting at Him that I had given Him everything, followed Him with everything within me, and this was my reward.  I can remember closing one conversation with Him by saying "Well, it really pays to serve God."  Yet, in all of it, He gave back to me not wrath, or judgement, or His own anger, but mercy.  Abundant, rich, overwhelming mercy.  It took a long time to notice it, but in time, I began to embrace it.
    Chris Tiegreen said that so much of our problem with suffering is that we assume His salvation is "first and foremost about our well being," defining that as "comfort, prosperity, health and success," and though He is interested in our well being, it is He who defines what that is, and we need to understand that His highest purpose in all things is "His glory, for this is a God centered, not man centered universe."  Everything in my response to what had happened to me was centered on myself.  My pain was real, but in it, I saw nothing of Him, I saw only myself.  When that happens, we will not allow Him to be our Healer, our Comforter, and our Deliverer.  He can only be our adversary, we can only see Him as being against us.  We are blind to Him, and worst of all, the enemy's accusation that we only follow Him because He blesses us is chillingly true.  Yet, with all glory to Him, this is not the state He chooses to leave us in.  There is another place He will lead us to, though the great tragedy is that it can take us so long to get there.
     When the news of the devastation that had hit Job's life came to him, the loss of all his property, his position,and his family, 1:20 says that he "got up and tore his robe and shaved his head (signs of his deep grief).  Then he fell to the ground in worship."  I had not done this.  Very likely you did respond to suffering this way either.  It's so much easier to rant, accuse, and shake our fists at God.  Only in His Spirit, by His Spirit, may we worship Him, and we can only do so if we know, if we have settled two truths in our hearts and lives; that He is good, and that He is sovereign.  Job was able to worship Him because he knew, in all of his life chaos, that these two things were true about His God.  He was fully good, and He was fully in control.  More, God knew something about Job, that he would trust Him in everything, even the worst.  He did not get an explanation of the events, just assurance that this was true.  For Job, it was enough, is it enough for you and I?
     Jesus said that it would be through many tribulations that we would enter into the Kingdom of heaven.  This is not one of the promises we like to memorize, but it is so, and will always be so.  In our lives, can we cling to, as Job did, that in the midst of them all, the truth that no matter what our circumstances say, we know, He is good , and He is in control, and so, in their midst, we worship Him?  I am so thankful for this truth, and so thankful that when I have forgotten it, He has shown me, and will always show me, mercy.  In all things, good and bad, may we worship Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

Heart Tracks - The Cave

      I Kings 19 tells the story of the prophet Elijah when, at a very low point in his life, he sought to hide himself in a cave.  God, as He always will, came to him there and asked the question, not once, but twice, "What are you doing here Elijah?"  That question, and the recent testimony I heard from a young woman, made me think back to the first time I had sought to hide myself away in a cave.  Like Elijah, He came to me there.  
      In my 20's I had entered into a lifestyle of drug usage.  I spent most of my time high, and was always seeking better and longer lasting highs.  It started with marijuana, made stops with such things as mescaline, speed, downers, and so on, and I had now discovered the seduction of cocaine.  Yet these "highs" always left me the same way; disenchantment with my life, feelings of isolation, and a hopelessness as to what lay ahead.  Then, through the witness of a friend who'd once shared the same lifestyle, I heard about the life that could be had in Christ.  I disregarded it at first, but I could not get away from reality of the transformation I witnessed in that friend, and the Christ who had wrought it.  I ran from Him, hid from Him, but He pursued me, came to my "cave" and called to me.  One evening, in the dining room of my mother's home, I surrendered to Him, and where only darkness and death had been, life entered in.  I was free.
     The drug usage was completely gone, and I entered into life in Him with a whole heart.  All went well for several months, but one evening, feeling discouraged, weary, some friends came by with the bag of dope they'd just bought.  Joints were lit and began to be passed around.  Without really thinking about it, I took it when it was offered to me, and continued to take it as it made its way around the circle.  The effects were immediate, and yet, though I was affected, some part of me felt very removed from it all.  I then heard what could only be His voice whispering to me, "Is what you're experiencing now in any way comparable to what you received when you first met Me?"  I knew it was Him, and I could only answer, "No Lord, it doesn't at all.  There is nothing here for me at all."  With that thought, I was instantly sober, clear minded.  The dope had no effect on me at all.  I walked away from that "gathering," and never looked back.  Like Elijah, He had found me in my cave, hiding, and in response to His "What are you doing here Gary?", I could only respond, "Nothing of any value at all Lord."  I came out of that cave, and back into His life.
     There have been times since then that I've ended up back in the "cave" emotionally, spiritually, even physically.  Hiding from Him because of discouragement, disappointment, bitterness and unforgiveness, or feelings of failure.  In that cave there was only darkness and death, but into it each time He came.  Every time He's asked the same question, "What are you doing here?" and every time I've had the same answer, "Nothing that brings me life Lord."  And so once again, He calls me out of the darkness back into His life, because no cave, no matter how comfortable we seek to make it, can compare with what we have in Him.  With Him is light and life, and only darkness and death in the cave.
     What cave might you be hiding in today?  You may have been so long there that it's come to feel like home, and you're not at all anxious to leave, but be sure, into that cave He'll come, and the question will be asked, "What are you doing here?"  With that question, the reality of that cave being your prison will be shown, along with the choice to take His hand, and allow Him to lead you out into His light and life.  He calls you out.  Are you coming?

Blessings,Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Whole Heart

       What do you think it means to live life, especially life in Christ, with a whole heart?  Is it going to church regularly, reading the Bible each day, praying, giving, service?  Certainly all of these might be a part of that, but are they, even together, the whole?  How much of our "zest" for life is dictated by what is happening around us?  When our lives are going well, our energy, both physical and spiritual, seems on a high level, but when life is going less well, we tire easily, get distracted easily, lose heart......easily.  We can slip into a half-hearted lifestlyefor Him.  It can happen to anyone, and maybe it's happening to you right now.  If it is, could we ask ourselves if it may be because our hearts are not centered upon Him, but upon what is happening to us?  We are energized, or de-energized by circumstances, and the result is a spiritual roller coaster ride that too many of us are on.

      Jesus said that we are to "love the Lord our God with all our being."  One Bible translation says that we're to love Him with all of our might.  What does it mean to love Him with all of our might?  How is that worked out in our day to day lives?  Oswald Chambers prayed that it would be his great aim that wherever he was placed, he would "live in wholehearted devotion to You (the Father)...living, doing so with all of his might."  I think most believers desire to live in such a way, but the "cares of life" that Jesus spoke so much of easily seep into our consciousness.  We may continue to serve Him, but we find ourselves growing ever weaker, more exhausted, burnt out.  Might it be that we don't really understand what it is to "serve Him?"
      I was struck by a passage in Acts 13:2 which says that Paul and Barnabas, along with two others were "ministering" to the Lord.  It is translated as "worshiping" in other translations, but I love that word ministering, for that is what true worship of Him must be.  Does our worship, yours and mine, truly minister to the Lord?  We put such emphasis on service, and there is much talk in the church about the need to serve our neighbor, and that need is there, but as a good friend said, we are called first and foremost to serve Him, and we serve Him best when we first minister to Him with wholehearted worship.  Acts 13 tells us that as they ministered to Him, He spoke to them, and told them to anoint Paul and Barnabas for the special work, outreach, to the Greeks, that He had for them.  They heard from Him, were empowered by Him, after they had ministered to, worshiped Him, with all of their might.  Too often we go out armed with our good intentions, and then are overcome by all that is arrayed against us.  We're so like Martha, activity oriented, yet all the while missing the best part, sitting first at the feet of Christ, as did her sister Mary, ministering to Him, and in return, being filled to the full with His Spirit and Life.  That same friend said that we do not lack for those who "come to church," but that what is needed are those who "overcome to church."  We are overcomers  when we first come to Him, to His Presence, and this is where we live, so that when He does send us out, it is in His name, with His Life and His power.  We can then live for and love Him with all of our might, because we are filled with His might.  We will encounter the tribulations of life, Jesus promised it would be so, but He said that He had overcome all of them, and so too will we, when we walk in the fullness of His Life with all of our heart.
      Everything changes when this happens in us.  Rivers of Living Water flow out of us.  Our perspective changes, we change.  We're not crushed by circumstances, but overcome them as He raises us above them.  We go through them, but they don't overwhelm us because we have discovered that He who lives within us really is greater than all the power of he that is in the world.  We're able to live with all of our might for Him because we see past and through every obstacle with His eyes, and His understanding.  We're like the little boy who was taken to a stable, and said, "With all this manure, there must be a pony around here somewhere."  All the manure in the world cannot stop us from seeing Him in all things,  living for and loving Him with all of our hearts and being in every place.  It all flows from our simply sitting at His feet, ministering to Him, living wholeheartedly for Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - No Longer!

      I recently heard a teaching from Beth Moore on Romans 6, particularly verses 5 and 6 which read, "Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised as He was.  Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin."  To this Moore added, "Some things in our lives need to be told 'no longer' ".  She spoke of those things that hold us in captivity, what have often been referred to as "besetting sins," for truly, they set upon and hold us in a bondage we can never in our own strength break free from.  Freedom is found only in Christ, at His cross, in His death and in His resurrection.  What things, bondages, sins, in our lives, must we say "no longer" to?

     Romans 7 has often been pointed to by many in the church as an example of what the Christian life is to be.  In that chapter, Paul wrote of his own struggle with such bondage, saying, "I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it.  Instead I do the very thing I hate."  For many, this is what is accepted as "life in Him."  We have intentions of doing good, doing the "right thing," but because of the weakness of our flesh, we will often, very often, do what is wrong.  Paul writes of the constant inner struggle between the good desire, and the wrong action.  What so many miss is what Paul goes on to say in chapter 8, verse
3, "God destroyed sin's control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.....and for all who receive Him and the fullness of His life, the power of sin, and our bondage to it, is broken, and we "no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit."  In effect, Christ did not come to leave us in chapter 7, but to take us into the fullness of chapter 8.  Has He been able to take you and I?
     Watchman Nee wrote that Paul found his freedom in Christ because he came to "the condition of knowing what to hate as well as what to desire............the apostle was so unwilling to live a life in sin that he was determined to get out of it.  It was due to his hatred of it and his determination to find an escape that he found deliverance."  I know of few who don't hate what the fruit of their particular sin or bondage is doing to their lives, but just as few seem to possess the determination of Paul to be rid of it, replaced by a unquenchable desire not only for freedom, but for Christ Himself.  When Paul saw and encountered Christ on the Damascus Road, he saw that in Christ, his life needn't any longer be one of trying to keep and live up to a code of conduct, the keeping of laws that he would ultimately fail at, but one that would be in Him, "really free."  Are you and I living such a life today?
     What is it that you need to say "no longer" to today?  Moore said that we need an "outbreak of freeing grace."  Where do you need that in your life right now?  Where is your captivity?  What attitude, habit, addiction, emotion, abuse, fear, or worry hold you in darkness, bound and beaten?  In your own strength, you cannot and will not be free, but in Him, at the cross, in the power of His resurrection, you can, we can, say "no longer," desiring above all else to partake of the fullness of His life.  Against such, no chains can hold us, no prison bars can keep us.  We are free.  Really free.  Held in bondage no longer.

Blessings,
Pastor O