Heart Tracks - Sustained

       In John 4, Jesus is approached by a father whose son is at the point of death.  The father had traveled a distance to see Jesus, and upon arrival, asked Him to come with him to his son.  Christ simply said to him, "Go, your son will live."  Scripture says that , "The man believed the word that was spoken to him and started on his way.  As he was going down his slaves met him and told the child was alive.."  He asked them just when the recovery had taken place, and they told him that it was at one in the afternoon of the previous day.  The father realized that this was the exact moment that Jesus had told him that his son would live.  Commenting on this passage, Eugene Peterson wrote of the father that "He had nothing to sustain him on his trip homeward but the word of Jesus."  In the end, isn't that ultimately what is true for all who say they trust in Him?

    All who are His are on a journey to home.  In that journey there will be many places of "nothing" outwardly.  Nothing to encourage, nothing to support, nothing to trust in, nothing to sustain us.  Nothing but the life of Christ and the words of life He has spoken, and continues to speak even now.  When the disciples left Jesus alone at the well near the Samaritan village, they had gone into town to find sustenance, food, for the journey.  When they returned, they tried to get him to eat some of the food they'd found.  He refused, telling them He "had food to eat that they knew nothing about."  As a friend put it, while they were at the local McDonald's trying to satisfy their hunger, Christ was feasting on bread and meat of heaven itself.  Kingdom food.  I think one of the keys to the completing the journey home is to realize that all the while, we are at home in Him, partaking of His life, His truth, His "food."  All that the McDonald's of this world can offer cannot, will not sustain us.  If we look to them, we will have nothing, but if we look to and in Him, we will have all we need, and abundantly more, to sustain us for every part of the journey.  No matter how long or difficult it may be or become.
     Most of the believing church around the world has seen the "closing"of all their local "McDonald's."  They have nothing to sustain them but His life and word, and somehow, gloriously so, it is more than enough.  Not so for we who say we are His here in the west.  Our various McDonald's are sill going strong, yet I believe that will be changing, and soon.  When that happens, is the state of our walk, our journey such that though having nothing to sustain us but His life and word, it's enough to make it home.  If we are already living in and experiencing Him as home, it will be.  If we're not............

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Dissed

    To be "dissed" is not a good thing in the minds of many.  In popular use, it means to be shown disrespect, and of course, must be responded to, usually with some degree of violence, either physical or verbal.  However, I'd like to put forth the thought that in the spiritual realm, there is another kind of "dissed" that can lead to real life, if we'll allow for it, if we'll allow Him to break through to us in it, or more correctly, to draw us to Himself through it.

     Today, there are large numbers of people who are living in various forms of being "dissed."  They're disillusioned, disenchanted, or discontented.  You might very well be among them even now.  If not, you can be sure, you will be sooner or later.  Believe it or not, this can be a very good thing.  I've a friend who likes to say that being disillusioned can be a very great gift from the Father, because we are finally at the place where we are no longer willing to believe in what has been, is, an illusion.  We've been believing in something that's not real.  We can be disillusioned about what we have believed life, marriage, job satisfaction, ministry, and especially, what our walk with Him should be.  What He should be.  All the things that we've believed are turning out to be wrong.  What we thought was real, isn't.  The illusion has been exposed.  This makes us ripe to now discover the reality of who He really is, and what it is He has really promised and called us to, in every aspect of life. Becoming disillusioned can be the first step to entering into His reality.  A reality that brings us real freedom and real life.  His freedom and life.

     In I Samuel 22, David, on the run from Saul has taken up residence in the cave of Adullam.  At first only his family and relatives joined with him, but verse 2 reads, "But then others began coming - men who were in trouble, or in debt, or were just discontented.."  These were men and their families who could no longer live under the tyranny of Saul.  Disillusioned.  Disenchanted.  Discontented.  That's what they were.  Life under Saul only magnified it all.  They needed, longed for something more.  They would find it in David, God's man.  And in the most unlikely of places.  A cave. Not the palace of Saul, but in the cave of David.  We too may bring all of our discontent, frustration, disillusionment to the most unlikely of places as well; the cross of Christ.  It's there that illusions are dealt with and done away with.  It's there that contentment, true contentment is found.  It's there that all the disappointments are taken in, healed, and where we're given wholeness, His wholeness in return.  When all the places where we've been "dissed" are brought to Him, He, as only He can, turns them all to life.  Abundant life.  The illusions and their power over us die, and in return we receive His reality, which is always the quality of His Life that He calls us to.

     So where are you being "dissed" today?  He waits for you at His Adullam, His cross.  He calls you to Himself there.  Will you come?  Are you coming now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

      

Heart Tracks - Dollar Store Worship

    Some years ago I was on a plane going to be with family for Christmas.  Across the aisle from me was a young girl doing the same.  I so clearly remember something she said to her friend in the midst of their conversation.  She told the friend that she had done all of her Christmas shopping for her family at a dollar store.  She seemed quite pleased about that.  I remember wondering at the time just how pleased would she be if her family had done the same for her.  I doubt very much that her expectations of return were anywhere near so low as what it was she gave.  I think there is a great correlation here with the western church.  If worship of Him is to be our lifestyle, how much of it would qualify as "Dollar Store Worship?" When we come to Him, is what we offer Him on the altar of worship of the same kind of value as that young girls in relation to what it is we expect of Him in return?  Maybe it comes down to just what it is we define as "worship."

     Definitions, especially as constructed by us, really do shape everything.  Some years back, a President was asked a very direct question, part of which contained the word "it."  His response was that it all depended upon how one defined the word "it."  For you and I then, everything will depend upon just how we define worship.  Jesus said that those who worship Him must "worship Him in spirit and in truth."  He made clear in all of His teaching that worship is an offering of all of ourselves all of the time to all of the Father.  Most of us will not dispute His words on that, but I think we, like the president, would like to respond with "it depends on how we define all."  

     I think in so many ways we have reduced worship in the church to a process of negotiation.  We calculate just how much it is we're willing to give to Him in order to get the largest return on what He'll give back to us.  In other words, how little can we invest in Him in order to receive the maximum amount of His blessing.  The negotiation then becomes a matter of finding out how much time in His Word must we spend, how often should we be in church, how much must we give, of time, energy, money, in service.  We've already got in mind just what those amounts are, and we're hoping that somehow, He'll settle for even less.  Not only is this not worship, it's not even life.
    More and more, I am finding worship to be the giving of all of my life to Him, and the receiving of all of His Life in me.  It is the decrease of me, and the increase of Him in me.  It is less and less about being blessed, and more and more about discovering that it is He that is the blessing.  It is less and less about how it makes me feel, and more and more about how it please Him, and then discovering the true joy to be found in that.  It is about dying more and more to self, and living more and more in Him.  It is more and more about what the old chorus says, forgetting about me, and magnifying Him.  The thing is, none of these truths can be found in the Dollar Store of worship.  If we continue to shop there, we'll continue to live on "empty" spiritually.  Negotiations will go on, definitions will still be constructed, and we will miss the joy He sets before us.  Are you going to the Dollar Store today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Embrace

      I love the way The Message translation of the Bible renders Mark 11:22, as He speaks to His disciples; "Jesus was matter of fact, 'Embrace this God-life, really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you......That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large.  Include everything as you embrace this God-life and you'll get God's everything.' "  God's everything.  How do we understand that?  Is it everything we want Him to give us, or, is it everything that He wants to give, indeed, has already given?  Since we tend to desire so much less than He desires for us to have, which do you think is the right answer?

     When Christ exhorts us to embrace His God-life, He calls us to literally embrace Him, for He is the Word of Life, Life itself.  He calls us to embrace Him while He at the same time embraces us.  We then live in His embrace, held to Him, part of Him, in Him, with all the fullness of His life flowing into, through, and out of us.  We embrace Him with all of our being, and He embraces us with all of His.  He then gets our "everything," but the glory is that we then get all of His.  As we live in His embrace, everything that the Father has for us in Christ is now ours.  This is the "all things" that Jesus said we have in Him through faith.  In His life, death, and resurrection, He has given us, freely, all things.  We freely receive them as we live in His embrace.  We embrace His Life, and His Life embraces us.  This is abundant life as defined by Christ Himself.  This is what it is to "abide in Him."
     A friend recently shared his understanding of the instance where Jesus called Peter out of the storm swept boat as detailed in Matthew 14, and to come to Him, walking on the water.  Jesus, standing on the water simply said to Peter, "Come to Me."  My friend said he believed that it was not first and foremost a call to walk on water or to fulfill some great goal as the reason He called Peter to Himself, but simply that He come.  To Christ, to His embrace.  To His Life.  In the passage from Mark, Jesus spoke of being able to move mountains in our prayerlife, and certainly there is great power in the blood and life of Christ, but power in prayer, mountain moving faith, and miraculous works, are not what He first and foremost calls us to.  He calls us first and always to His embrace.  In truth, if we'll not live in that embrace, we'll have no power in prayer, see no mountains move, and witness few if any miracles.  Perhaps this is the reason we see so little of these in the church today.  We want to.  We want to walk on water, move mountains, be mighty men and women of God.  Living in the intimacy of His embrace?  Not so much.  That doesn't excite our flesh.  In fact, the flesh shuns it, for it can't survive His embrace.  Yet, it is the only way to the "everything" of His life.  He calls us to that, and no storm, wave, or wind, can keep us from it.  The only thing that can keep us from Him is ourselves.  What part of our "self" is keeping you and I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Stronger Than......?

     I remember back when I was 12 or 13, one of the famous laundry detergents had an ad and jingle out that proclaimed their product was "stronger than dirt."  Obviously it was a catchy ad seeing as I remember it all these years later.  In fact, it came to my mind just today after hearing Bible teacher Angela Thomas speak on a new study she's written entitled simply, "Stronger."  Her talking brought to me the memory of that ad, and then the thought of all the things out there, that can happen to us, that we may, indeed likely will have to walk through.  Will we do so alone?  Will we have the strength?  More, does He?

    We're skilled at talking about the strength of God, but very unskilled about living in it.  We are either overwhelmed by the mountains, floods, and earthquakes of life, or, we try to forge ahead through them in our own strength, wisdom, and understanding.  All the while, fear lurks both within and without.  Somehow, we doubt that we'll make it, doubt that He'll really be there for us, and if He is there, whether He'll show up on our behalf.  I expect that this a great part of our problem.  We have a picture of a God who hangs around until we need Him.  He doesn't interfere with most of our day to day living, but when the crisis comes, we break the glass on the "God Alarm," and look for Him to ride in and make all things better.  We define better by making the problem go away completely, or else completely removing us from the midst of the problem.  God on the other hand has a much different picture of it all.
     God's picture is not that we live around Him, but in Him.  Paul said of Christ that "in Him we live, move, and have our being."  This is a conscious way of life, a moment by moment life.  It is a life that doesn't look for His power, His strength, His wisdom, but lives within it and at all times receives it.  This way we need not ask for strength, we already have it in Christ.  His word says that He has freely given us all things, so our part is then to receive what He's given.  Live in what He's given.  Not what He will give, but what He has already given.  It's not rocket science, though we surely make it so.
     So many can quickly quote the scripture, "Greater is He that is you than he that is in the world."  What would happen if we really believed and lived that?  What if we were to take just the words, "Greater is He.....than......."  What is your "than?"  The past?  Woundedness?  Fear?  Failure?  Adversity?  Abandonment?  Hopelessness?  Is He greater than all those?  Is He stronger?  Is He stronger than all the "dirt" that can attack our lives?  If we truly live in Him, have received from Him, we know the answer to that.  If he remains "God behind the glass," called on in emergency,

I expect our doubts about it all are very real.  What's the "than" in your life?  Is He stronger, greater than.......that?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - The Kerygma

     Author and preacher Dudley Hall tells of a young man he's been ministering to.  As a boy, this man was abused by a very angry and wounded mother.  He was not permitted to sleep in the house with his sister's and mother, but made to go to the barn and spend his nights there.  He would awake each morning at dawn, and then wait till he saw a light go on in the kitchen, which would signal that breakfast was now being prepared for the rest of the family.  The boy would then go to the kitchen window, climb up and look in.  He would watch his sisters setting the table, and each time he would look to see if a place was set for him.  It never was.  He was always on the outside looking in.
     This is a heart rending story, for the world is filled with people who either are, or feel that they are in the same kind of position; on the outside looking in.  As Hall says, most if not all want to know how they may get in.  When it entails the spiritual realm and how one may come to God, most often, as Hall relates, people want to know what they must do to be found acceptable to God.  Hall says that when they are told of the right "way" or formula, or set of rules for doing so, this then becomes their religion, a religion that is all about works and deeds and proving one belongs, and acceptance is always based on what you've done, and always whether you've done enough or not.
     Hall has formed a ministry that he named Kerygma, which is a Greek word that means the message or proclamation that a King wishes to be delivered to his people.  It is a proclamation to be read and announced to all, and hopefully, to be heard and received by all.  Hall had the proclamation of Christ Himself in mind when he named the ministry, for this proclamation, the greatest ever made and found in Luke 4:18-19, was the Father's message in Christ to a world filled with people on the outside looking in, people, no matter their life station, or family background, who are born that way, separated from the Father, but with a way made open to Him through His proclamation of the coming and giving of His Son, Jesus.
    Have you ever heard that proclamation?  Have you ever received it?  Would you hear it now?  Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He has appointed Me to preach Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppression, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come."  Not will come, but has come.  Now, for you, for me, for all of us.  No one need live any longer on the outside.  No one need wonder anymore, long for anymore, to have a place at the table of the Father.  No one need live any longer as an orphan, but can now enter, through Christ, into the fullness of life as a son or daughter of the Father.  The proclamation has been given, have you received it?
     The great tragedy is that it is not only unbelievers who find themselves outside looking in, but so many who would profess faith and belief in Him.  Though called sons, they continue to live like orphans, always feeling his love and care must be earned.  They can't believe they actually have a place at the table.  They continue to live "in the barn," always at the window, always looking in.
     There's a beautiful communion song titled "Come To The Table."  Through His proclamation in Christ, that is what we're invited to do, what we must do.  No rulebook, no formula, just a free invitation to come to Him, based only on His blood and His grace.  No longer an orphan, but now a son or daughter of the Most High.  The kerygma has been announced.  Have you heard it?  Have you received it?

Blessings,Pastor O

Heart Tracks - False Props

      The other day a friend was sharing something from the life of Martin Luther.  It was a time of great political as well as spiritual upheaval in what is now Germany.  Many of the German princes were at odds, great odds, with the Pope in Rome, and desired to be free of his and the church's hold on them.  Seeing Luther as a vessel to be used against the Pope, they gave him their protection.  In the midst of this, a cynic asked Luther just where he would be without the shield of the princes?  His answer; "Right where I always am.  In the hand of my God."  

      This is a statement many professing believers would also make, but is it really our reality?  Luther enjoyed the blessing of their outward protection, but he didn't depend on it.  His dependence before, during, and at all times, was on and in His God.  The question that is raised for you and I is, are we dependent on the blessings of God, or on the God who blesses?  I think it takes some heart and motive searching in order for us to really answer that.

       In Luke 9:3, when Jesus sent out His disciples, He told them, "Take nothing for the journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic."  Sounds like foolishness to the flesh, but it's what He told them.  Maybe something hidden from us here is that they were sent, and didn't just go.  There's a great difference.  Oftentimes in our presumption, we just go, but going doesn't mean we've been sent.  The gospels tell us that the Father sent His Son Jesus into the world, and He didn't come to us until He'd been sent.  When He sends we must go, but to know just when that sending is and to where can only come from having hearts that are fully in tune with His.  When we know we've been sent by Him, we can be sure that we may also trust Him to provide all we need in the journey.  Accent is on ALL!
      I was struck by four words in 2 Corinthians 1 the other day.  I've read them many times before, but He spoke in new ways through those words.
They are, "He is the Source."  What would happen in our lives, families, fellowships, ministries, in everything, if we truly lived in the reality of those four words?  I've a friend who likes to say that we need to be Source and not goal oriented.  We abound with goals, but our lack is that we try to reach them most often in our own strength, and if we can reach them in that strength, we can be sure they are not given us by God.  Yet, if we are truly living with Him as the Source, we may find ourselves without staff, bag, bread, money or tunic, yet know that somehow, some way, He will provide, and bring us to the place He has sent us.  A place we can never reach without Him.  

     Chris Tiegreen in his devotional, At His Feet, writes, "We only function correctly when we come face to face with our insufficiency.  And we only accomplish our mission, living and communicating the Kingdom of God - when we're unencumbered by false props."  He goes on to ask whether we are journeying through life carrying sacks of provisions prepared by us, or trusting in our Source, whose very name is Provider?  Any sack we carry, no matter what it contains, is a burden.  If it is filled with what we think will sustain us, our focus will always be on the worry of whether it will be enough?  Will it last?  We will never have our hearts and minds set upon Him.
     If we journey today, is it His journey?  If it is, how do we walk?  Weighed down with a sack filled with what we think we must have, and all the burden that goes with that sack, or are we sent ones, called by Him, sent by Him, trusting that He knows our need(s) and will be faithful to not only provide for the journey, but take us to the end He has for us in it?  False props, or faithful Christ.  What marks our journey?

Blessings,
Pastor O
         

Heart Tracks - Beauty In The Ashes

      When I was a boy, and before the Township passed an ordinance against it, one of my jobs was to take the paper trash out to the ash can and burn it.  I remember that the bottom of the can was filled with ashes, and each burning just added to the pile.  Large, filled bags became nothing more than ashes, their contents gone, and only the ashes remained.  Life is very often much the same.  Who among us has not had their dreams, hopes, and desires turned to ashes?  Who has not seen what had been filled with joyful expectation, made, in an instant, into nothing more than a pile of ashes?  We live in a fallen world, and this world will bring us, more than once, to that pile of ash.  The key is what, and who we find there.

      Isaiah 61 contains the very words that Christ spoke as He began His earthly ministry.  Verse 3 reads, "To all who mourn in Israel, He will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair."  He speaks of something far more than having a good and positive outlook on things.  Having such is very hard when one finds themselves on the ash heap.  Neither is He speaking of suddenly making the circumstances around us instantly better, removing them from us, and us from them.  No, the beauty He speaks of is the giving of Himself in the midst of the ashes.  He is the Beauty.  The Beauty that shines brighter, further, and more deeply, and so much so that even the greatest pile of ash is unable to quench Him.  When we are captivated by that beauty, held in its grip, joy is exchanged for mourning.  Praise does replace despair.  Out of the ashes, we rise in and with Him.  The enemy always seeks to have us make our home among the ashes.  The Father calls us upward, in Christ, to make our home in Him.  He tells us in His word, "I am your Home."
     What has been burnt up in our lives today, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes? Where do the disappointments lie, the defeats and the failures?  Where and what are the lost dreams, the betrayals, the sorrows and the heartaches?  In what pile of ash might we find ourselves today?  Do we know that He is there, with us?  Can we sense His Presence?  Can our eyes be opened to see the beauty, His beauty, in the midst of those ashes?  Will we allow Him to give us that beauty, make it a part of us?  Will we allow Him to make real for us the exchange of all the ashes for the fullness of His beauty?  Bring to Him the ashes, and receive from Him His beauty.  Can there be a more beautiful exchange than that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Faith Heroes

     Hebrews 11 is a kind of Bible "Who's Who."  Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Issac and Jacob are all names that most anyone with an even passing knowledge of the word has heard of.  Yet after the writer of Hebrews finishes listing them, he speaks of "all those" who walked the same path as those faith heroes.  None of their names are known, and of them, it is written that they all "died without receiving what God had promised them."  What had been promised, and how could God let anyone die without receiving the fullness of all He had promised?

     In this age of instant gratification, an age where leaving legacies, and monuments to ourselves, living out a life of faith that doesn't necessarily receive the acclaim of the world or the church is not a particularly attractive path to the flesh.  More, praying and believing for something we feel sure He has promised, yet has not, indeed, may not come to pass in our lifetime, also seems an exercise in futility to our flesh.  Yet the writer of Hebrews includes just such people in his roll of heavenly honor.  Those nameless, faceless crowds of Kingdom servants were called faith heroes just as were those ones whose names we do know.  The world may not have given them equal renown, but the Father did and does.  Their faithfulness, trust and obedience, their insistence upon clinging to the precious promises He had given them, regardless of circumstance, were precious in His eyes and in His heart.  They knew, as we must, that the Father works always with eternity in mind and view.  Our place and role is not limited to the here and now, but is found in the "everafter" of His Kingdom.  It was to His Kingdom, His "better country" that they were always drawn to, always looking for and heading for.  It was what had been promised, and Hebrews says that "they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God."  Because of it, scripture says that "He was not ashamed to be called their God."  He put within their hearts a longing for that better country, and an ability to see it, indeed, to live in it even though its fullness had not yet come.  They did so in all the various roles of life in which He placed them.  Whether others noticed or not didn't matter.  Their eyes were on Him, and knowing that He saw, that His favor and blessing was theirs was enough.  They lived not in the world that is passing away, but in the one that can never pass away.
     So how does this fit with you and I today?  Whether in ministry, profession, family roles, life, we are all moving toward something.  For all of us it will be either death or life.  For those who have chosen life, His life, towards what are we moving in that life?  Are our eyes fixed on that better country, or have we become entangled in the worlds values, and now try to make that better country come to pass here, building churches, ministries, careers and professions that bring us notice and applause, that leave a legacy, a monument?  Even if that is not a desire, there are so many who have been praying for so long, and yet, the answer has not come.  Pastors and laypeople alike have long sought an outpouring of His Spirit, yet that outpouring has yet to come.  Dare we believe it will?  Perhaps it will not be in our lifetime to see, but it will come.  The prayers of all those faith heroes before us, join with ours, as well as those who come after us, because all have their eyes upon that better country, that Kingdom whose maker is God.  Nothing has been able to deter their vision of that country, and their lives are dedicated to seeing its fullness come, and it will.  This is what it is to be a faith hero.
     I've a friend who, speaking of these heroes said, "You only fail if you give up the vision.  If you die in faith, never letting go of it, you're a success."  This is what it is to be a true hero of the faith, those whose legacies are found in the Kingdom, in Him.  As written in Habakkuk, "though the vision tarry, wait for it, it will come and not be late."  He has placed eternity in our hearts, and the longing for it.  Despite what every appearance may be, we can't let go of it, or take our eyes off of it.  He has promised, and He has shown us that vision we move towards.  Whether its fullness comes in our time or not, it will come, and we, like all those before us, and after us, will be faith heroes too,  ones who never gave up on the vision, who never let go of it. Ones in whom He will never be ashamed.

Blessings,
Pastor O