Heart Tracks - Deliberately

 "And there was a woman in the crowd who had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had spent everything she had on doctors and could still could find no cure. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His robe. Immediately the bleeding stopped. 'Who touched Me,' Jesus asked. Everyone denied it and Peter said, 'Master, the whole crowd is pressing up against You.' But Jesus told him, 'No, someone deliberately touched Me, for I felt healing power go out from Me.' "

I'm wondering; when it comes to my heart for Him this coming year, who will I most resemble? The crowd or the woman? It's a fair question. How will I answer? How have I been answering?

It's clear that there were a large number of people surrounding and pressing in on Christ. Surely some of them were curiosity seekers, wanting to get a glimpse of this man they'd heard so much about. But just as surely there had to be many more who truly wanted to receive something from Him. They were all touching Him in some way, so what was it that marked the touch of the woman, that made hers so different? I think the answer lies in what Jesus said. "No, someone deliberately touched Me." There were many seekers surrounding Christ, yet the woman's seeking differed from them all, and Christ immediately senses it. Could it be that though she, like so many around her, longed for healing, or deliverance, or some other deep need, she longed for something more? Something greater. Could it be that she longed not only for His help, but for His heart? For Christ Himself?
Could it be that all the others longed to lay hold of Him for themselves. She longed to lay hold of Him for Himself. Could it be that more than she longed for His blessing, she longed for His Life? Could it be that though she didn't want to leave this encounter without a healing, she also didn't want to leave it without Him? I think that this may well be what set her apart from the crowd. Does it set you and I apart as well.

Far too much of my life in Him has been spent in what a friend calls "results oriented" praying and seeking. I have a result, an end, a goal in mind that I wish for Him to bring about. I go after that end with all my heart. It is set on the result. It is not set on Him. I am content, though I may be unaware, to go away from Him with what I want, but without the fullness of His Life, which is the result He always desires for us. Even when it so often not ours. I want to touch Him, yes.  But it is not nearly so much to lay hold of Him as to lay hold of His blessing. I am far more like the crowd than I am the woman. Might you be as well?

Jesus told her that her faith had made her well. I believe He meant and gave something far more than a physical healing. He made her whole. I think her deliberate touch of Him caused Him to know that she sought something more than a result. She sought Him, and in the midst of a crowd filled with countless desires, He knew the difference, and He responded to it. Does He see and know that same difference in you and me? Will we go on just a part of the crowd that always wants everything from Him but Himself? Or, will we seek the wholeness and fullness that is found not just in His hand, but in His heart? All of us will be seeking in this coming year. Will we seek with the desire of the crowd or the woman? The result, or the Person? Will we just crowd in on Him, or seek Him.....deliberately?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - In The House?

 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

Is there a "thief" in your "house?" How long has he been there? How long will he remain there? Do you even know that he is there? If so, do you know that he can be thrown out of there?

The words of Christ in John 10 have spoken to my life almost from the beginning of my walk with Him. They do so because I have experienced the effect of both the presence of the thief, and the wonder of His abundance. The thief, satan, has found openings in my life in too many ways to count. He has found ways into my thought life, my attitudes, my words, and my actions. Likely he has done so with you as well. He's gotten into the "house" of our soul and wreaked his havoc. We know first hand of his ability to steal our joy, our hope, and our future. We have experienced his ability to kill our dreams, and destroy our marriages, families, relationships, even our ministries and fellowships. This has always happened because in some way, we have left the "door" to our lives, our relationships, ministries and fellowships open to him so that all he need do is simply walk in and create chaos. The solution then is to make sure that the open doors are shut, and shut tightly. The problem is, we don't seem to know how, or in some cases, really want to do that.

Two directives from His Word come to mind in this. First, Paul wrote that we are to "take very thought captive to (the presence of) Christ. We can only do this when we are consciously living in His Presence. Vague awareness will not suffice. That kind of "walk" is a literal devil's playground. We live in His Presence through conscious choices and a day by day abiding and cultivating of His Spirit and Presence in our lives. It is not difficult to bring every thought to His Lordship when we are conscious of His Lordship moment by moment because we are abiding in Him....moment by moment. This takes spiritual discipline, and in our spiritually lazy western church culture, discipline is an unpopular term.....Secondly, we need, as did David, to invite the Lord at all times to "search our hearts" for the presence of anything "evil" or "wicked." Our problem here is two-fold. What He deems evil and wicked is markedly different from how we define it. John Wesley said that anything that seduces our heart from Him, anything, for us, "that thing is sin." Evil and wicked. Such things can be so deeply rooted in our minds and hearts that only the searching of His Holy Spirit can uncover them, and expel them. As long as they remain, they are open doors for the enemy to enter in through. How many open doors remain in our lives and hearts today?

Beth Moore said that there are some things in our lives that need to be told, "No longer!" No longer will these things remain so that we continue to be oppressed, beaten down, and held captive. No longer will our lives be pillaged.....stolen from, destroyed, and killed, by an enemy who has no spiritual right to do so, but does do so simply because we allow it. Has the time come for us that we will no longer allow it? Will we today, say to the thief, "No longer?" Is the thief in your "house?" Are you ready to throw him out? Surrender, fully surrender the house that is your heart and life to Him. Yield to His full Lordship and abide in it and His Life that comes with it. The pillaging will end and the abundance will be full. And the devil is no longer, "in the house."

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Gift

  "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone. The Savior-yes the Messiah, the Lord-has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David." Luke 2:10-11....Thank God for His Son-a gift too wonderful for words." 2 Corinthians 9:15...."The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God." C.S.

Lewis

I often see bumper stickers and such that read, "Keep Christ In Christmas." I understand the meaning of these and the very good intentions within. I also know that we can easily lose focus on what Christmas is really all about, that we can lose sight of Him in all the glitter and glitz of the Christmas season. Still, I have come to realize this great truth; no matter what the enemy, the world, or even a lukewarm and apathetic Church may do or say, Christ cannot be kept out of Christmas, or anyplace else in this world or beyond it. He can be rejected, denied, defied and ignored, but He cannot be removed. We don't need to keep Him in because He never left. We can give Christmas a multitude of different names, but His Name and Person continue to reign supreme anyway. The bright Morning Star that is Christ continues to shine more brightly than all others no matter how much anyone might try to obscure Him. Christ is Christmas and Christ is everything, everywhere, every time.

Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians that He is a "gift too wonderful for words." He goes beyond every word we could ever use to describe His glory. All of them together fall infinitely short of describing His Beauty and Wonder. A beauty and wonder that can and will come to us in any and every place, no matter what is happening around or within us. Paul could write what he did because he had experienced the wonder and beauty of Christ in every place in life. In abundance and in need. On the mountaintop and in the valley of the shadow of death. In all places, he knew Him to always be the gift too wonderful for words. Do we?

This will be the 35th Christmas in which I have walked with Him. I have walked with Him through times when I felt such happiness and joy that I could not contain it. I also walked through this time with darkness surrounding me and assaulting my very soul. I have walked through these, and seemingly, through all the emotional and spiritual places in between. In them all, He was there. Not just reigning beside me, but within me. Rejoicing with me on the mountaintop and weeping with me in the valley. He could not be kept out and would not be kept out. Yes, I could have denied Him, rejected Him and tried to send Him away. But He would have remained. I may have refused His help, but I could not be rid of His Presence. I didn't have to keep Him there, He was there. He will remain there. I don't need a bumper sticker to know this. Neither do you. We just need to know Him. Do we?

The Gift of Christ has been given. Have you received Him? If you never have, what stops you from receiving Him now? He is here, right at your heart door. If you have once received Him, maybe you need to receive Him anew. Let the glitz and glitter of this world, as well as its darkness and shadow be removed from your line of vision. When you do, there He is. Receive Him.......anew and afresh. He who is the Gift too wonderful for words. Receive Him......and be speechless.

Blessings and a most joyous Christmas to you,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Whose Influence?

  "So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves." Galatians 5:16

Most of us know what the term "DUI" stands for; Driving Under the Influence," usually of alcohol or drugs. To be charged with this is a serious matter, and means that everything about the person was impaired, totally influenced, by the alcohol or drug they used. I recently heard pastor and writer Robert Morris make an interesting analogy for this in the spiritual realm. We are all living under the influence of something and someone. The question for us then is; under whose influence do we live?

We are all born into this world with a sinful nature. One that the Apostle Paul says, "loves to do evil." That nature which is rooted in our flesh, rebels against that very idea and truth. We refuse to believe that we have a bent towards wrongdoing, and more that we are powerless to do anything about it. The only hope and remedy for us is Jesus Christ and His Life imparted to us through His Holy Spirit. Whatever your particular "branch"of the Church may call it, entire sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, the fuller and deeper life, this experience alone will allow us to enter into a life marked by the fullness of His Spirit, and then to live and walk according to His Spirit, leading, and Life. We will live, make choices, follow impulses, and harbor thoughts and attitudes that are either under His influence and Spirit, or of the enemy and his spirit working through our flesh. Therefore our lives are marked by LUI's, "Living Under the Influence." What do our LUI's reveal about us and the influences we follow?

How important is all of this? Of late I've had several writings focusing on the extent that the western Church has come to depend upon our natural abilities and intellect. It is almost like we have relegated the supernatural life to a kind of spiritual "museum." It seems like we who say we are a Holy Spirit empowered Church, have become afraid of the power, fullness, and freedom that is ours through that very Spirit. This has made us not only dull to His voice, but ignorant of the workings of the enemy through his. The devil loves it this way, for as the scriptures say, "he prowls about (us) seeking whom he might devour." He looks for his openings, and he will exploit them every time. As James Robison put it, "The devil stalks us like a wolf, and when he sees a weakness or an entryway, he attacks us like a pack of wolves." He has us under his influence, and lures us away from Christ's. We can see the truth of this through the patterns of our lives. Where we have  victory, and where we do not.

We are living under the influence today and again, the only question for us is whose? The only pathway to a life lived in and under His is that which leads to His cross. To our full surrender to His Lordship and Life. And a day by day acknowledgement and yielding to the power of His Life that can be found nowhere else. Our refusal to do so fills us with doorways for the enemy to exercise his influence and control, over us.

We like to speak much of our freedom. The only real freedom for us is found in surrender to Him. It makes no sense to our flesh. And if it makes no sense to you, then you have answered the question as to who influences and controls your life. Aware of it or not, someone holds the reins of our being, and it is not us. Yes, we have free will, but either His Light, or the enemies darkness works its influence upon our will. Who works theirs upon you today?

Blessings,
Pastor 

Heart Tracks - Now Appearing!

  "In the future there is reserved for me the victor's crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that great day - and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved and longed for and welcomed His appearing." 2 Timothy 4:8

On movie marquees, it used to be common to see announcements proclaiming a certain movie as "Now Appearing." I've a friend who says that our lives should be so deeply fit into Him, and His to ours, that we should be living announcements of His appearing to the world around us, through us. James Robison said something to effect that not only do we look forward to His glorious appearing, but that He longs for His glory to appear in us. Is the longing of Christ's heart being realized in your and my life today? What's "Now showing" in and through us right now?

Much is made of the "carbon imprint" being made on the world's environment. Yet, what thought do we in the Church give to the "Kingdom Imprint" left upon this world by our lives and witness? Jesus said to those who were His that "The Kingdom of God is within you," meaning His very Life. A Life that held forth all the wonder and glory of His Kingdom. Having this Kingdom Life goes far beyond doing "Jesus things." It is infinitely more than imitating His Life. It is the very fullness of His Life. A fullness of His Life that shows up, appears, in and through us. A Life that draws people to itself. A Life that leaves an eternal imprint. A Kingdom Imprint. Are our lives, and the lives of our fellowships doing so today? It is a good thing to be known for our good works, but it is a glorious thing to be known as putting forth the manifest Presence of Christ in our midst. A Presence that is not only before us, but within us. A Presence so mighty that it seems near impossible to resist. A Presence and appearing we long for, and He longs to bring to us.

I'm not sure just how a great part of the Church views the coming of a Holy Spirit awakening today. Judging from much of what I see on a lot of social media, it does not seem to be in the forefront. It seems something relegated to another time. Yet I still vividly remember being a young believer and hearing the account of an upstate New York "revival" in the mid-19th century. Word came to a neighboring town of how it appeared that a great awakening had come to the next community. Indignant, a group of men banded together, mounted their horses, and rode out with the purpose of disrupting it all. I still remember clearly the preacher reading the account of how the closer they got to the community, the greater was the sense of His Presence. How men, so shortly before filled with anger and rage, were being overcome by His Spirit, weeping in brokenness and repentance, so that the end result was that when that group of "vigilantes" reached the town, they were all of them converted. Simply by His mighty Presence. Such is the glory and power of His appearing. Paul and the early Church longed for this. As I heard that account all those years ago, I longed for this as well. I still do. Do you?

For us, it really comes down to the matter of appearance. Who and what is appearing in our lives and fellowships today? Our flesh and life, or His Spirit and Life? One or the other will appear. By one or the other we will be known. Which will it be? The One.....or the other?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Avalanche

 "But Jesus told him, 'No! The Scriptures say, people need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every Word of God.' " Matthew 4:4...."Heaven and earth will disappear, but My words will remain forever." Matthew 24:35

I don't know which I'm more of; grieved or angry. I saw an online article and a following discussion dealing with things within a denomination that are dividing it's members and that the writer believed may possibly bring about a split. Both in the article, and in almost all the comments that followed, what stood out was that all the "solutions" were centered on what men and the flesh could do to solve the problem. It was clear that they were seeking intellectual answers for what is most definitely a spiritual issue. Nowhere was there reference to, as one friend pointed out, the immutable Word of God. Neither was there mention or recognition of the Sovereign power and will of the Father, or His supernatural and almighty working through His Word. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon who said that men give lip service to the sovereignty of God, but live in the full belief in the sovereignty of men. In short, we say we trust that all things hold together in Christ, but we live in the belief that they really hold together in us. More, we have lost the reality that the Church does not belong to us, it is His and I think He will once again powerfully show us that this is so. Someone said that Christ is being lost in the Church that bears His name. This is painfully true in the 21st century western, American Church. I think it was Larry Crabb who said that we have reduced the mystery and wonder of who He is and what He has spoken to what our rational minds can understand and accept. This is more true than most of want to admit.

I heard Beth Moore speaking on all of this and how she fears that the power and authority of His Word is slipping away in the western Church. How the attitude is "We just want to be loving." She said that when we begin to dilute, even do away with the full authority of Scripture, we do not just start down a slippery slope, but are caught up in an avalanche. As for being "loving," as she put it, "Without His Word and it's literal power in our lives, we don't even know how to love."

I see an increasing arrogance growing within the Church. Somehow, many of us are feeling that we're too enlightened to just believe Him and what He has said. Somehow, we of the 21st century western Church know more, see more, than the 2000 years of godly, Spirit filled and led brethren that have come before us. This is, at root, pride, and I believe that this will bring us face to face with a God who hates that pride, all the while loving us....and loving us enough to confront and deal with it. And He will deal with it.

In what we call third world, underdeveloped countries, the power of the Gospel is bringing forth the working of mighty miracles. Incurable diseases healed, lives literally being brought back from the dead. It takes place among those with little education, but a great belief in the Person and Word of God in Christ. When did we last see such in what we in the west call "worship." When did we last gather together even expecting that we might?

The Father, speaking I believe through Paul, called His people to "Come back to Me and live." It is time to come back to Him as He is, and not as we would wish Him to be. Will we? Are we willing to live by His every Word? Will that Word be our life? Or have we just gotten too sophisticated and wise to do something so childlike as that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - He's Real!

 "When they arrived they were greeted with the report, 'The Lord is really risen! He appeared to Peter!' " Luke 24:34...."The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes marks out of wounds." Beth Moore

Anyone who has truly been a follower of Christ has likely heard the statement that their "religion" or faith is just a crutch. That same person, if they truly know Him as their life source, will echo the words of the old song, "He's real, He's real, I know He's real." Why? Because as Moore also stated, no imaginary friend could have done, and continues to do in her life, what He had done for her. For her, for me, and I hope for you, no crutch could be so real, or do so much. This cannot be better seen than in the way He can turn tragedy and chaos into victory and peace. How beauty can come out of the ashes, and mourning turned into dancing. Pain and sorrow are real, but if we can trust and believe in the midst of it, we will discover that He is more real. In the midst of the greatest "realities" and sorrows of life, He is the greatest reality. Only those who have walked with Him through hell, darkness and death can know that He is the real joy, peace, and life that cannot be extinguished in any of those places, and indeed, triumphs over all of them.

Paul made the statement that he bore upon his body, "the brand-marks of Christ." This did more than mark him as belonging to Jesus. They were marks that went into the very core of his being, telling him, and all those around him, that the power and wonder of Christ were a reality. To him, and to all who would like him, trust and believe. 

You likely know the story of how, when Jesus appeared to the disciples the first time after His resurrection, Thomas, who was absent, doubted the report. He said that he would have to see and touch the wounds of Christ in order to believe. Teaching on this, Moore said that when He did again appear, He invited Thomas to do just that. When he did, Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God." Those marks were the proof to Thomas of the reality of the resurrection. That's what Moore meant when she said that the power of His resurrection can turn every wound in life, no matter how deep and devastating, into a mark that proves in that life the power of His Life. That Christ came into a life, hopelessly lost, wounded, and dead, and by His Life touching theirs, brought healing, wholeness, and oneness with Him. This is the proof of the reality of His Life. Does this proof exist in yours and in mine? Do we bear such proof marks in our lives of faith? 

A friend was talking the other day about how everyone wants to see Christ, but that few of us seem to understand that the only path to really seeing Him will come through His cross. Through our going to it as well, partaking, as His word says, of the fellowship of His sufferings. It's there that we will see Him, and there that our wounds will be made whole. There that we will receive His mark upon our bodies and souls. At the cross we will not find a crutch, or an imaginary friend. We will find, receive, and know Christ. Then our hearts too will sing; "He's real, He's real, I KNOW He's real!" Do they sing that now? How really real is He to you and I today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Rich Man, Beggar Man

 "Jesus felt genuine love for this man as He looked at him. 'You lack only one thing,' He told him,'Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.' At this time the man's face fell, and he went sadly away because he had many possessions." Mark 10:21-22....."When Bartimaeus was sitting beside the road as Jesus was nearby, he began to shout out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'....."When Jesus heard him, He stopped and said 'Tell him to come here........What do you want Me to do for you?' Jesus asked. 'Teacher,' the blind man said, 'I want to see!' And Jesus said to him, 'Go your way. Your faith has healed you.' And instantly the blind man could see! Then he followed Jesus down the road." Mark 10:47,49,51-52...."How much like the rich young ruler are you and I? Walking away from Jesus with full hands and an empty heart." Mark Batterson

I was struck today by the similarity and yet huge difference between the rich young man and the blind beggar Bartimaeus. I was also struck by how little we see of ourselves in these passages, especially as both rich man and beggar man. First off, few of us consider ourselves rich, even though here in America, we are stupendously so in comparison with the vast majority of the world. Yet one doesn't have to be rich in monetary things to have the same heart problem that afflicted the rich man. We can have little and yet cling to what we do have with all our strength. We may not have much, but our hands are full with what we do possess. And what we hold in our hands may not always be that which we can count and itemize. Our hands can be filled with our relationships, families, children, jobs, and especially, our ministries. Like the rich young man, we want to follow Him. We want the fullness of Kingdom life, but those things we consider to have greater value fill our lives while keeping our hearts empty. We walk away from Jesus still clutching those things. Saddened, knowing we are missing Him, but unable to release our treasures to Him. In response to the young man Jesus said, "It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." To lay hold of Kingdom life, we have to let go of that which is not life. That is hard on the flesh. Impossible really. Can we do that? Have we done that? Or, do we day by day walk away from Jesus with, as Batterson says, full hands and empty hearts?

Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, also wished for the fullness of His life. For him that meant receiving his sight. He desired sight with all of his heart, yet there had to be an equally and perhaps even greater desire for something more, for when Christ opened his eyes, he didn't just rejoice to be able to see, he rejoiced in that he could now see Christ....and he followed him down the road.....wherever that road was going to lead. We give lip service to admitting that we are blind beggars apart from Christ, but I don't think many of us really see ourselves as such. Rich or poor, we cling to our self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. We're carrying too much in our hands to admit we are nothing more than blind beggars in desperate need of Him. We want Jesus, but as I saw it put, we want lots of other 'thorny' things as well. As Christ said, those thorny things choke out His life in us. They blind us not only to Him, but of our deep need of Him. Do they choke and blind us even now?

Are you and I in our day to day lives really entering into the fullness of His Kingdom life? It's abundance, victory, and wholeness? Or, are the riches in our hands keeping our hearts empty as we strive to keep them full? Are we truly following Jesus down the road, or walking away, clinging to "stuff" instead of Him? The rich young man's riches caused his face to fall. The blind beggars lack brought to him real sight and the fullness of joy. In their faces could be seen either the lack or presence of His Life and Kingdom. When people behold our faces, what do they see?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - A Reputation

 "Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis......I know all the things you do and that you have a reputation for being alive - but you are dead. Now wake up! Strengthen what little remains for even what is left is at the point of death. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly and turn to Me again. Unless you do I will come upon you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief." Revelation 3:1-3

I realize that there is disagreement in the Church as to how we are to apply the book of Revelation to it's life today. Still, regardless of where your "theology" fits into it's message, to deny that His Spirit speaks to the Church now through it all is the height of foolishness. What the Spirit says to the church at Sardis scores a direct hit on me as a pastor, an individual, and as a part of the Body of Christ. We disregard it to our great peril.

The "angel" the Spirit of Christ speaks to is the pastor of the body of believers found in Sardis. What pierces my heart here is the use of the word "reputation." For most of us, our reputations mean everything. How we are viewed by those around us carries tremendous weight. What the Lord is saying to the fellowship at Sardis is that in the eyes of the culture around them and even in the sight of other believers, they have the reputation of being centers of His Life. It would also seem to be the opinion of those in that church as well. What should shake us to our very foundation is that it was not the view of Christ. He saw a tremendous amount of activity for Him, but He did not see a body of believers rooted and grounded in Him. Think on that for a moment.

What do we generally see as being a church filled with life? Top of the line worship with high quality skills in musicianship and voice. Skilled communicators in the pulpit. Many and varied ministries that care for children, youth, singles, as well as home and care groups geared towards those with special needs. A ministry pointed toward reaching out to the community and drawing them into the fellowship. An atmosphere where there is a sense of excitement, of something "happening." I think that these are just a few of the things we'd define as a church with a reputation for life. I think that much if not all of these were found in the congregation at Sardis. All of them are good things. Very good. Yet none of them seemed to enter into Christ's assessment of them as to their being a true Life giving fellowship. How could this be? What could be missing?

It's human to desire that all that is listed above be found in a church. They should be. But I think what Jesus saw in the midst of it was that they were doing all of it with hearts that had drifted far from Him. The church was a well oiled machine, but machines are not alive. They move and are active, but they have no soul. Without realizing it, a living body can become the same. Sardis had crowds. Sardis had ministries. Sardis had a name. Sardis did not have life. His Life.

The question we have to ask ourselves, whether we are the "angel" of our fellowship, a leader in it, or a member of it, is, are we, in the midst of all we do, really producing Spirit filled followers of Jesus Christ? Are we overcoming the world both within and without by the power of His resurrected life? Is real transformation taking place in the lives of the people, and are those lives marked by maturity, victory, and wholeness? Are we trying to take flesh, and by our efforts, make it better flesh, or are fallen, lost lives being laid hold of by the power of His Life and made new? Completely new. Have we drifted from the "first things" into just doing church things? Have we become so enamored with our reputation among men that we no longer really know, or care what our reputation with Him really is? Can He even speak to us about it? It starts with the "angel" but the speaking goes on throughout the entire body. He's speaking. Are we hearing?

He speaks today as to our reputations.  What does He say about ours? What is our reputation.....with Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O
 

Heart Tracks - Appearances

 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." John 16:7..........."Nevertheless" is an important Gospel word: it is a pivot from the way things appear to the way things are, in Christ. It is a transition from our partial understanding to the Spirit's complete revelation." Eugene Peterson

I am becoming more and more disturbed by comments and statements made by well meaning, and perhaps some not so well meaning brothers and sisters. Statements that are so dogmatic in their content that they will tolerate no disagreement from any quarter. As someone said, it is imperative that we belong to the "right club" within the church. We in that club are right, and everyone else is wrong. My sense of it all is we are depending far more upon our own intellectual understanding of His Word and teaching than we do upon the direct revelation of the Holy Spirit. We must have correct doctrine and theology on the essentials of the faith, and especially the final authority of scripture, but most of our conflict, even warfare, is a result of arguing about non-essentials. And we can be extremely unloving in our disagreements, resulting in labeling, and even name calling. All the while, I believe Jesus weeps, and, I think, feels no small amount of anger. I think it is time, past time, for the Church, you and me, to hear Him speak a new "nevertheless" to us.

When Jesus spoke the above scripture to His disciples, He was telling them that He was leaving them. They didn't understand any of His reasoning and were brokenhearted. They saw and sensed only the appearance of it all. He would be gone....they thought. They could not see or understand what He was following that statement with; that He would be sending them the Comforter, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who would not only be with them, but in them. He was promising them an even greater companion than His physical presence, but they couldn't see it. They lacked discernment and understanding. That would not come until they were baptized in the fullness of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It will not come to us until we experience it as well. When we do, we will no longer live by appearances and our own understanding. We will not live by the power of our intellect, but by the power of His Spirit. We will not live with information about Him, but revelation from Him. We'll discover that truth and reality are not based upon what appears to be, but on what He has spoken and revealed.....and continues to speak and reveal. We discover that His Word is alive and not static. Growing and unfolding within us in ever deeper ways. Never making itself void, but always taking us beyond our intellectual limits. It's a mystical and supernatural experience, and our staid, western intellects struggle with that. So we live by our senses and our natural reasoning. Knowing what He has said, in our minds if not our hearts, but not what He is saying now. We're leaning upon our own understanding, but we never seem to realize it.

Can it become less important for us to be "right" in all these debates, and most important that we know and hear Him? Can we believe that there may be areas of life, doctrine and theology, where we may be at least in part, wrong? Can we make the move from living in the natural, to moving in the supernatural, and know that this doesn't make us "weird?" Can we dare to live in a realm that depends upon really having the eyes, mind, and heart of Christ? This is frightening to the flesh, but very welcoming to Christ. Will we live in the place where our flesh is most at home, or where His Holy Spirit is? What's our answer as concerns our lives, homes, and fellowships? Do we live by appearances, or by His appearing and speaking to us through them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - So Much More

 "Amaziah asked the man of God,'But what should I do about the silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?' The man of God replied, 'The Lord is able to give you so much more than this.' " 2 Chronicles 25:9.............."We are very anxious to have Him work for us, much less so to have Him work in us. As He works for us, He wants us to awaken to what He wants to work into us." T. Austin-Sparks

The man of God spoke the above words to Amaziah the king after he had hired troops from the northern kingdom of Israel to fight against the Edomites. God directed him to do so because he was not with the rebellious people of the northern kingdom. Amaziah saw that doing so would mean the loss of a great sum of money. The prophets words to him were that the Father's compensation would be "much more" than the amount of sacrifice. As I read it all, the question that arises for me, for us is, what does "much more" mean? Did Amaziah think that the Father's "much more" would be a huge monetary sum that would more than make up for his loss? I don't think it's a stretch to believe he did. His mind and heart were likely set upon things that he could count and measure. More often than not, ours are too.

We are very interested in what God is doing or going to do for us. Most of our expectations with Him are connected to that. We are invested in getting to the places we want to reach, amounts we want to accumulate, and victories we want to count. We are not much invested in seeing and experiencing what He wishes to work into us during the process. We're very impatient to get to where we want to be and possessing what we want to have. We don't like to wait, but will grudgingly do so if we believe we will eventually have our desires met. What we miss in it all is that though we may have a long wait to reach what we want outwardly, we never have to wait to have what He wants to do in our hearts. When it comes to that, the One who waits is almost always God. How long has He been waiting upon us?

I confess that for a long time, I read the above scripture with Amaziah's heart. When I thought of sacrifices made for Him, the losses that would surely come from being with Him, I saw His promise of "much more" being an increase of earthly wealth and gain. Maybe not so much in money, but certainly in success, recognition, and applause. God's much more would be, in the end, comprised of things that would pass away, that were not eternal. His much more would improve my circumstances, but for the most part, leave my heart and spirit untouched. This is where the heart of flesh lives. It's why we respond so well to those who promise us financial, business, and ministry increase if we will come to Him. We seem to be blind to the fact that in doing this we are actually just bartering with Him. We come to Christ for the good bread and fish He offers. We don't come for the cross He calls us to, and level of spiritual life He invites us into. We're very willing to leave our encounters with Him with full hands and an empty heart. We want Him to improve our lives and leave our hearts unchanged. One of the questions asked of Christ as He ministered was, "What will You do for us?" Do we continue to ask the same of Him today?

Which is really our hearts desire? To have Him work for us, or in us? The first makes Him our servant, the latter receives and worships Him as our Lord. Who is more real to us today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Be Still....There Is!

  ".....for I am the Lord who heals you." Exodus 15:26

Pastor and author Louie Giglio, founder of the Passion worship gatherings, tells the story of his dark night of the soul, a "night" that went on for many months.
He said there came a time to him when he was consumed with fears for his health, ministry and life. Times that would come at the same hour of the early morning.....2 am. He said he would awake and feel a dark heaviness upon his heart and spirit. To such a degree that he believed he was having a literal heart attack. Doctors could find nothing wrong with him physically, yet those 2 am happenings continued for him, not lessening but increasing. He was incapacitated by it and very close to total despair. This went on until one night he awoke, and the same spiritual heaviness, fear and hopelessness came, when all of a sudden, into his mind came the lyrics from a Chris Tomlin song; 

                                                          Be still, there is a Healer

                                                             His love is deeper than the sea

                                                             His mercy, it is unfailing

                                                             His arms a fortress for the weak

He said those lyrics, repeated over and over in his mind, pushed back the darkness, and though he was to suffer these spiritual assaults again the next night, these words, this truth, came to his mind as well. Each time the fear, despair and heaviness was pushed back, and with every pushing back, the frequency of the attacks decreased. The truth that in the stillness there truly is a Healer, overcame the power of the enemy's lie that he was helpless against his assaults. In the stillness he found anew the rest, peace, and power of God. In answer to all the might of hell and darkness was found the truth that the Father was, is, and will always be, the God who heals. The God who heals us. Who heals you and me.

As I think today on all that could possibly come against you and I, all that we in ourselves are powerless to stand against, these four words ring out in my heart, "Be still....there is." This is the answer to all things. To every threat, every need, every enemy. Be still, in Him.
There is....a mighty, infinitely great an unlimited Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who stands with and in us, and comes against all the power of the dark night....and crushes it. In the dark time of our soul, we too need to hear His Spirit whisper to ours, "Be still.....there is.....Me....the great I AM."

If we will know this, believe it, it will then become our experience and reality. The dark nights will come. We will not be immune to them, but we will be victors over them no matter what form they may come against us in. In all of them, we can be still, because THERE IS.....GOD!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Signature

 "From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." Galatians 6:17......"Every 'signature' of wounding in our lives can be covered by the 'signature' of Christ....Our wounds can either mar us, or mark us as His." Beth Moore

Beth Moore tells the story of a young woman attending one of the gatherings where she was elaborating on her above quote. She asked if there was anyone in the audience who bore a scar upon their lives from some great tragedy. Sitting only a few feet away was a young woman, who Moore said was looking at her with wide open eyes, and who'd raised her hand. Moore called her to her side and asked her to tell her story. As a very young girl, she had been attacked and mauled by a dog, nearly severing her arm. So much damage was done that all were concerned that she might never gain full use of it again. Her parents asked the Doctors what could be done to bring it back to full strength, that they were willing to do anything. They said the most effective, as well as most difficult and painful way was violin lessons. It would be a tremendous challenge for her, but if undertaken, they felt it would restore her, but warned that in the beginning, it would seem impossible to her. Moore said the scar the young woman bore was the deepest she had ever seen, yet knew that in the midst of it, there was a great story. She asked her for what the late Paul Harvey always called "the rest of the story." Now, so many years after that terrible attack, the young lady was a concert violinist, as well as a sold out believer in Christ. Moore said that the Father had taken that deep scar and by putting His signature upon it, had brought forth a beautiful song in her life, the music of His Kingdom and eternity through that life. This will always be the result when we allow Him, in Christ, to write His name, His signature, upon the deepest, most painful wounds and scars of life. It is so because His signature is always written in the wondrous power and glory of His blood....shed, as the old hymn says, for you and me.

We are not going to escape the wounds and scars of life in a fallen world. What matters then is whose signature will we carry upon them? We can be sure that the enemy of our souls, the devil, will do all in his power to write his name upon them, making them an ongoing and open wound. A wound that never heals, that never releases us. What we must know and experience is the writing of His name, the applying of His signature upon them all. Something mystical and supernatural takes place when we allow Him to do this. The power of that wound, that scar, no matter how deep, is broken when He comes and writes His name on it. That which the enemy meant to bring ongoing shame, bitterness, anguish and sorrow, is turned, as it was in that young woman, into the music of heaven in and through us. The enemy means to mar us with his mark. Jesus Christ means to mark us as His through the writing of His name upon the very wounds and scars our enemy meant to use to destroy us.

Whose signature do we bear today? You may be saved by grace but deeply marred by life. The devil has used your wounds to write his name upon them, using them to cripple you. Into it all, if you, we, will believe and receive, comes Christ. Healing, wholeness, fullness of life is ours if we will allow Him to write His name, affix His signature to every wound. The scars, the marks will still be there, but they will be marks that bring Him glory as they show how His life gives victory, beautiful music, over the the deepest most terrible wound.....There is no other Name, and that name is written not only in our hearts, but over all of our lives. We, like Paul, bear on our bodies, the marks of Jesus.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Timekeeper

 "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son." Galatians 4:4....."His (Jesus) peaceful pace seems to imply that He measured Himself not by where He was going and how fast He could get there but by Whom He was following and how closely they walked together....deeply contented in the Company."

Alicia Britt Chole

"How long O Lord?" This is the cry from millions of hearts. Likely from our heart as well, and often. We spend so much of our life energy setting, focusing on, and striving to reach goals, accomplish agendas, and bring to pass the deep desires of our hearts, but all we have in the end is exhaustion. And more often than not, disappointment and frustration as well. We do seek Him in it all, but mostly as a means of reaching our desired end. He said He'd give us the desires of our hearts, and we mean to hold Him to His word. Even if we do get what we want, we miss what we truly need, Him. We can do this in every facet of life, and may well be most guilty of it in the area of ministry. We have good ends that we want to reach, and we're in a very great hurry to reach them. Jesus said that He "must be about the Father's business." Well, so are we. The problem is, we don't understand what His business is really all about. We have allowed working for Him to take the place of knowing and loving Him. We can have lives dedicated to Him, but I'm not so sure the same can be said of our hearts. This may be best seen when we're forced to deal with the delays that can come along in getting to the place we want to be. Achieving the end that we've been aiming for. Jesus didn't live this way. We ask what would Jesus do? Will we ask as to how Jesus really walked....thought.....lived?

Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity. In that time He had an ever growing picture of what He had been sent for, particularly by the age of 12. Yet He didn't deal with the delay with impatience or frustration. He knew what He was here for, but He was at total rest as to how and when the Father would bring it all about. Chole speaks beautiful words as to how He walked in this time. He did not just have His eyes on where He was going. He had His eyes on the One He was going with. He had zeal, but that zeal was first and foremost in His walk with and in the Father. All the energy of His ministry flowed out of that relationship. He didn't come to show us how to "do." He showed us what to be. What we can become in Him. That's why His Life, amidst all the delays, difficulties, trials and tears, was marked by the total rest and contentment He had in His Father. The One He trusted to bring about all things for Him in the fullness of HIS time. Can we?

Chole asked a question along the line of "Who will hold the clock as to the timing of His purposes in our life?" Who does hold that clock? As concerns His promises, our calling, our ministry, everything that concerns us, who holds the clock? The Father, or us? Whose timetable are we on? His, or ours? Yes, the seconds are ticking away. Will we trust Him fully as they do? Do we really believe that He's never late, that He's always on time? Can we surrender to Him who is "the Timekeeper?

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Carrying Canteens

  "So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a container of water to Hagar'sshoulders. He sent her away with her son, and she walked out into the wilderness of Beersheba, wandering aimlessly........When the water was gone.......she burst into tears....Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well." Genesis 21:14-16, 19..........."Do we want a canteen of water or a well of Living Water."

This is the third time that my writing seems to have a desert setting. It's not the direction I had any intention of going in, but it is the way He's leading. Maybe it's because for all who truly wish to live fully in Him, the desert will await....whether we desire it or not. The question then is, with what and how will we make the journey? In the barren wasteland, our needs will be many. Food. Rest. But above all, water. Lots of water. Like our physical life, our spiritual one will not last very long without constant fillings of the water of His Life. Moore's question confronts us. Will we try to make the journey carrying our water supply in a canteen? Or, will we walk in the constant presence and supply of Him who is the Well of Living Water and Life? Which will we look for? To which are we looking now?

I think most of try to make do with our canteens. We try to fill them up in the weekly worship service, the mid-week Bible study, and whatever "quiet time" we can get in between those. We're hoping the canteen doesn't run dry in the meantime, but too often it will. It does. Life is a constant process and journey of trying to keep the canteen filled, but more often than not, watching it become empty. When you carry your water in a canteen, it has to be taken in small doses. You always fear it running out before you can get to the next well. The result is your thirst is never really satisfied, and you're never really filled. Instead of a flow of water, we have drops. This is so in the spiritual realm as well. We live on drops, which is not the life He has for as at all. Like Hagar, we despair when the canteen is dry, and like Hagar, we are unable to see the well that He has right before us. The well of Living Water that is Christ. So many souls have fallen by the wayside in the desert because they were depending on a canteen to survive, and not He who is the Source of all Living Water, and does not promise survival, but abundance. 

How are walking today? Are we depending on our "canteen" and the next meeting, prayer group, bible study, or conference to fill it? Or, have our eyes been opened to the well of Life, His Life, that's there right now? That's always there. Will we carry a canteen of water, or will we be carried along by the River of His Life? A river that can never stop flowing, even in the deepest and driest desert place? When we truly know our Source, we can throw away all our canteens. They'll not be needed. We don't live from "oasis to oasis," In the most desolate place, He will be a perpetual oasis to us. The River of God will flow. Will it flow into and through us?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Of Another Spirit

"Phillip said, 'Lord show us the Father and we will be satisfied.' Jesus replied, 'Phillip, don't you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you?' " John 14:8-9....."But My servant Caleb is of another spirit from the others." Numbers 14:24....."What comes forth from our hidden times with Him is a more accurate knowledge of the Father." Alicia Britt Chole

I've a good friend who served as a missionary in South America, and he likes to tell of one of the differences between their culture and ours. When they are asked about a city or place, the question will come along the lines of "Do you know Buenos Aires?" Their answer, if they have never visited that city would be, "No, I don't know Buenos Aires." They may be well versed in facts about the city, and have seen countless pictures of it as well. But because they have never been there, walked its streets, seen with their own eyes its beauty, they did not know it, in spite of all their mental knowledge of it. I think this is a good illustration of far too many of us in the Church when it comes to describing to others the wonders and beauty of the Kingdom. Of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We've read the Book that tells of Him, listened to the stories others have told of Him, but we've never "been there" ourselves. We're like Thomas. We've been around Him, but we have yet to come to really see and know Him.

If you're familiar with the story of Caleb, you know that he, along with Joshua and ten others were sent out to explore the promised land that the Father had given Israel. When they came back, he and Joshua told of the wonders they had seen, of all the beauty and promise the land held for them. The other ten could speak only of the troubles and difficulties that lie there. They saw everything, even the smallest details, through their eyes of flesh and the filter of their own understanding. His Word tells us that Caleb, along with Joshua, walked and saw through the power of His Spirit. They saw everything, including the smallest details, with Kingdom eyes. The eyes of Christ. This is what Jesus is saying to Thomas, and it's what He continues to say to you and I today. Does He go on walking with us, ministering to us, and yet we don't see Him in everything? Don't know Him in everything?

In my last Heart Thoughts, I wrote of how the Father uses the desert places of life to reveal Himself to us in deeper, higher, and wider ways than we thought possible. He will use the barren, hidden places of life to reveal more of Himself than we thought it possible to know. We will enter into a knowledge of Him that can never  be found from the place of comfort and what we consider to be "the blessed life." Of this Beth Moore once said, "People with blessing centered lives have no power to speak into the lives of those who are not experiencing those same blessings." We speak without power when we speak from the place of entitlement. Yet words that have their birth in the wilderness place with Him are filled with His Life, eternal life. These words come from lives that walk "in another spirit." Not the spirit of the world and flesh, but of His Spirit. Of the Kingdom. His Kingdom.

Who are we really more like today? The ten, who saw everything from their own limited perspective? Or, as Caleb, who saw, as the old Amy Grant song goes, with his Father's eyes, with and in another, different spirit? Do we live in and seek the blessing centered life, that sees little, and knows and understands even less, or the Kingdom centered one? The one that sees everything through His eyes? How long must He be with us until we know and see Him as He is, fully in control, even of the smallest details? The world and Church cry out for those who live and walk in another spirit. Will we be among them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Friendly Desert

  "And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son and I am fully pleased with Him.' " Matthew 3:17....."Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the devil." Matthew 4:1......"Generally speaking this series of events makes us a little uncomfortable. Can following God's Spirit lead us straight into a desert? Would obedience deposit us in a wasteland? Could God's loving will direct us to wander about in barren places?....In His love God led His Son into a place that was a desert by every definition of the word: physically barren, emotionally lonely, and spiritually troubled." Alicia Britt Chole

I'm not sure who said it, but it was stated that in His life, Jesus learned to call the desert His friend. Friend? This makes no sense to our comfort loving, success oriented lives. God loves us. Jesus came to save us. Desert and wilderness places do NOT fit into the promise of His "wonderful plan" for us. Yet as someone else said, the main aspect of His wonderful plan for you and me is "to make us holy." This doesn't happen in the midst of comfort and ease, applause and recognition. These are not friends to us at all. They do not bring us more deeply into His life. The desert and the wilderness do. Our flesh knows this, and so does the enemy of our souls, the devil. As Chloe says, "He seems to find his way into most deserts." And he'll attack us relentlessly there. He did so with Jesus and he'll do no less with us. He attacks with lies. Lies that seem so easy to believe in the desert. Jesus defeated him with what will always defeat him. Truth. His Truth.

In the desert it's so easy to feel we've been forgotten, even that we're being punished. If He loved us, was pleased with us, we wouldn't be here. That's the voice and reasoning of the enemy. But what did the Father say of Christ just before He was led out into that place? That He loved Him and was fully pleased with Him. Deserts can be a sign of His favor if we'll but have "eyes to see." It was in the desert that Christ secured victory, demonstrated His power, not in spectacular workings but with words alone. The words of the Kingdom. In the desert those words became totally real to Him. He who is the Living Word demonstrated the power of that Word in the wasteland. It could not have happened at an oasis. It had to happen in the wilderness.

Our human response to every desert is to cry out to be delivered of it. Get us out Lord....now. Yet Christ willingly remained there for 40 days. He knew the Father was doing something supernatural and miraculous, though His only audience was His Father and His enemy. The victory won there preceded the ultimate victory at the cross and in His resurrection. The stage for it all was set in the desert. It will be so for all who obediently follow His leading in all places, even in the wasteland. In that place He'll shape us, empower us, and draw us more completely to Himself. There He will give us a victory that will prepare us for even greater victories to come. That's why if we have been led into a desert by Him, that place can be our friend. Are we yielded enough to see it as such?

There are deserts we end up in as a result of our bad choices, or of sinful disobedience. If we're in a desert, we need to humbly ask if such may be the reason. But if we know there are no such reasons for us, than our part is to  yield to the leading, and submit to all He would do in and for us there. It prepares us for what He will do through us when we leave it. When we come out of the wasteland in such a way, greatness will no longer be defined as how much recognition we've received, and how large the audience before our lives is. It will be in the witness of the power of lives filled completely with His Life. A life that overcomes all things. A life that was discovered in the desert. What we thought was a wasteland was not a waste at all.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Worthy

 "To know the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it." Ephesians 3:19......"The love of Jesus is so inclusive that it knows no boundaries. At the point where we stop loving and caring, Jesus is still there - loving and caring."......"During all of His ministry I do not think that Jesus ever helped a 'worthy' person. He only asked, 'What is your need? Do you need My help.' " A.W. Tozer

I'm not sure if there is anything in His Word that we preach, teach and proclaim more but understand and live in less than the love of God. Our ideas on it run the gamut from syrupy sweet, to distant and harsh. Permissive or oppressive. Soft or hard. Free or earned. One thing I believe is common for us all is that we allow ourselves to receive so little of it. We take it for granted, see it as our due, and so miss the great cost and passion with which He has given it and continues to give it. We can also so concentrate on that cost as to think we must measure up to that sacrifice before we can ever live in that love. I think the majority of us are somewhere in the middle of those two views. Paul surely realized this seeing as how so much of his writing was an exhortation for the Church to truly know and live in the fullness of His love. The letter to the Ephesians is a plea and invitation that they enter into all the wonder of His life and love. That exhortation continues to speak an invitation for you and I to do the same. Yes, as Paul writes, we can never know completely the unending vastness of His love, but we can know it, experience it, and live in it. And we can live in it now. Love as defined by Him and Him alone. Love that if we will trust Him in it, will never disappoint. But we will not find that out until we choose to fully receive and know that great love. Echoing what I wrote a few days ago; we behold that love in His Word, we believe the truth of that love, and then we become receptacles and vessels of it in every area of our lives.

I love what Tozer says in the above quote. Our love has boundaries, even in how we love Him. His does not. Our boundaries  not only keep us from giving to and receiving love from others, they keep us from giving to and receiving love from Him. That is why wherever we are, whatever we have done, wherever we have failed, sinned, or turned away, we will find Him there. Still loving, still giving, still willing to receive us to Himself. Yes, there need be at times confession, repentance, and if needed, an acceptance of consequences. But it is His very love that makes all these possible, and wraps and protects us from the full severity of those consequences. What the hatred of hell would wish to do to us through them.

To know His love is to know we aren't worthy. But in His Son, who is worthy beyond words, we can receive all His love to all of ourselves. This is the life of fullness. Do we know and have such life, such love today? The old hymn rings true, "Such love, such wondrous love. That God should love a sinner such as I - How wonderful is love like this." The heart of the Father cries out that we should know this love. Does our heart cry out to receive it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Eyewitness

 "Peter and his companions....saw His glory." Luke 9:32....."And this is the world's need today - people who have seen their Lord." Joseph Parker..."Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread." D.T. Niles

The apostles seemed to constantly speak of being an "eyewitness" to His glory and wonder. All of them, including Paul, could say this. Yet they were not the only ones. There were many in the early church and down through the ages who could say the same. Augustine, Bunyan, Wesley, Mueller, Moody, Graham, and so many more whose names we'll never know, were also eyewitnesses to the wonder and glory of Christ. They are the ones Parker speaks of, and they responded to the desperate emptiness of a world that needed and still needs to hear from those who have seen their Lord. Will they hear from us?

In the 21st century western church what marks our ministry? Information or impartation? We're said to be living in an information saturated culture. Do we really believe that what the church and the disinterested and apathetic world around us needs is more information? We are not in need of people who know about Christ. There is a desperate need everywhere to meet those who KNOW Him, and in their lives have SEEN Him. Seen Him with the eyes of the Spirit. Witnessed His work and wonder. Beheld Him in His Word as that Word becomes alive in their lives. Proclaiming to an unbelieving and skeptical world, and sadly, to much of the Church, the words spoken by Mary after the resurrection. "I have seen the Lord."

We seem to work very hard at making things in "the church" attractive to the eyes of flesh. We promote ourselves in every kind of way in order to be visible to the surrounding communities. The effect of it all, if it has any to begin with, will only last until someone else comes along and presents something even more pleasing to the eye. I remember clearly my first days in the Lord. After a few months, He led me to a congregation that was nearly 30 miles from where I lived, devoid of singles like myself, and singing music I had absolutely no familiarity with. Yet that very first Sunday, through the proclaimed word, the music played, and the atmosphere I sat in, was the undeniable presence of the King. I knew that I was listening to a man proclaim a truth that he knew firsthand. Someone who had seen the Lord. A beggar telling me, another beggar, where he had found bread, and where I could find it as well. Christ was appearing through that church. A church that could offer nothing to my flesh. But a church that made it possible for me to behold Christ, and that was all that mattered.

Many local news channels now present themselves as "Eyewitness News." There should be no greater bearer of the eyewitness news of the King, of Christ, than the Church. You and me. Are we? Are we the true eyewitness of His glory, or just proclaimers of information? We've had enough of that. A dying world has had enough of that. We need to behold His glory, and then we, beggars ourselves, need to go out to all the other beggars, and tell them what we have seen and heard. What have we seen, what have we heard, and what do we give? Information on Christ will never bring life. Revelation of Him yields an invitation from Him that will raise the dead. Only an eyewitness can share that. Will that be eyewitness be you...and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - A Greater Purpose

  "Three times I begged the Lord to take it (His thorn in the flesh) away. Each time He said, 'My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.' " 2 Corinthians 12:8-9...."Broken things in life find their greater purpose in His story of redemption." Laura Story......"God takes broken pieces and makes them masterpieces." James Robison

In the reading of Pauls words in 2 Corinthians 12, did you catch the fact that not only did Paul ask the Father to remove the terribly painful "thorn" in his life, but that after each request, God said the same thing. "My grace is sufficient for you." Apparently Paul had a very difficult time accepting and believing this the first two times He spoke it. We do as well. We feel and experience the pain, the need, and it blinds us to the truth of His promise.

Laura Story, a singer and author of the book "When God Doesn't Fix It," tells the story of her 10 year walk with the Father through the brain tumor that afflicts her husband. This tumor has not only robbed him of the sight in one eye, it has also caused him many mental and emotional problems as well. Much prayer has gone up for his healing. Yet he is not healed. At least in the manner that most of us understand healing. We expect when we pray that the Lord will answer and fix everything. But as Story writes, what happens when He doesn't? What happens when the thorn remains? What happens when He either doesn't remove the problem, or remove us from the problem? What happens then? What are we left with then? If someone tells us that we are left with Him, all that is Him, and nothing else; no change, no healing, no deliverance, can we accept that? Is He really enough?

Story said that "He doesn't have to 'fix it' in order to get us where He wants us to be." Can we accept that? Are we really willing to walk a road with Him that leads us through places we don't want to go or see? Are we willing to go to the place in His Life He calls us to be even when He allows all the mountains, giants, and needs to remain? Do we have a trust that goes that deep? Do we even want to?

When we think of the blessed life, our flesh is usually it's definer. We're comfortable, safe, provided for in all ways. Troubles come, but they don't touch us because He makes them disappear before they can. This is the usual western/American church view of the blessed life. Story, in a song she entitles "Blessings," sees this life not through eyes of flesh, but of His Spirit. She asks in song, "What if Your blessings come through raindrops, What if Your healing comes through tears, What if a 1000 sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?.......What if my greatest disappointment or the achings of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy." 

We are so rooted into this world and its ways that we can be staggered at the thought, the truth, that His ways with us have their end in eternity and not the here and now. Paul had a great desire to have that thorn, whatever it was, gone. He had an immeasurably greater desire to know Him in intimacy. If that meant that the thorn would be the Father's path to that intimacy, He would go there. Willingly, joyfully, completely. That path will meet all who seek to be His entirely. It is human to cry out to Him for the removal of life's painful thorns, but it is the truly God centered life that goes on with Him even if it's not. Trusting, believing, knowing, that there is a greater glory to be had when we do. Who do we really want? God the Fixer, or the God of Glory?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Behold, Believe, Become

"But Peter and John replied, 'Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him? We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we have seen and heard.' " Acts 4:19-20

I heard fellow pastor Kerry Willis say something to the effect that we in the church are living pre-Pentecost lives in a post-Pentecost world. Beth Moore said that the reason we speak so little of Him is that we have seen so little of, and heard so little from Him. The reasons for all of this are many, but I think they can be summed up in something Eugene Peterson said about the Church. "We are living on an I-land." Our lives, families, fellowships, even ministries, revolve not around Christ the King, but the self as king. Chew on that a bit. In our desires, prayers, even works, who, in the end, benefits most? Many churches are making prayer a priority, but what is it we pray for? Healings, financial help, resolution of family conflict and dysfunction. None of these is wrong or evil, but in the end, aren't they mainly pleas for the Lord to make things better for us here? Even our acts of service and ministry can be and so often are, soaked in self-interest. Jesus told us to take no thought for our flesh life, but our self seems to often/always find a way to work itself into the picture. We all want to live post-resurrection lives, but to do so will involve a cross, His, and a death, ours. This is not an attractive invitation to the self and the flesh. So we stay trapped on the I-land and continue to live the pre-Pentecost life. We're saved by grace but live by the law. We're called to a life in the Spirit, but we're comfortable with remaining in the flesh.

So how do we enter into this life? First of course is that we come to His cross. Not for a visit or look-see, but to die. To leave our I-land. Until that happens, we will never enter into His fullness. But after that there is a lifestyle to enter into and its a constant day by day one. Some years ago a friend shared it in a teaching, and I share it now with you. Basing it on the book of Hebrews he said, "Persevere until you behold Christ in Scripture. Continue to behold Him until you believe in your heart that what is promised in Him is for you also. Steadfastly believe until you belong to the promise as a son to a Father. Then as you continue 'steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, you will be made to become what you already are in essence in Christ!' " We behold Him, and as we see Him as He is, we believe what He has promised us. We then become what He has already said we are. Behold. Believe. Become. Ephesians 4:15 is worked out in our lives as we "become more and more in every way like Christ." We enter into the fullness of His resurrection life.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon His Church. He has come. He does not have to come again. The question for our lives, ministries, fellowships is, are we living in a "pre" or "post" Pentecost world? Who are we beholding, believing, and becoming? 

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Defining Hope

 "Against all hope, Abraham in hope, believed......" Romans 4:18......Abraham had faith in "So to say, God plus Abraham. Now at length he knew that the 'Abraham' contribution was at an end. Only God was left to believe in." Watchman Nee....."Can we tell the story not of hope, but of being held by Him in our hopelessness?" Laura Storey

I think for a very large part of my walk with Him, have misunderstood what it meant to hope in Him. At root, I think my hope was always grounded as much in what I wished the outcome to be as it was actually being rooted in Him alone. I set my eyes on what I was hoping for, always believing it was what He had promised. My sight was set on the end that I desired, not on Him. I wanted Him present, but present as my co-worker and supply. The One who would provide me the means to get to and achieve the result I wanted. I think by and large, most of us do this. I don't believe that this is real biblical hope, but we've convinced ourselves that it is.

The quotations from Nee and Storey would seem to contradict each other, but they don't. Abraham was given a promise by the Father that he and his wife Sarah would have a son. Abraham believed Him, but he also sought to assist the Lord in bringing it all about. This was the "faith plus Abraham" that Nee speaks of. It's where a lot of us are living. Yet all of his efforts to "help" God failed, just as ours will. It was when he was brought to the place of no hope, where both he and Sarah were beyond the ability to have a son, that they did. We don't particularly like to come to such a place in our walk with Him, but we do like the outcome. Abraham and Sarah desired a son, and they received on in Isaac. But what happens when we don't receive "Isaac"? What happens when that which we hope for doesn't come? What takes place when , like Storey says, our only hope is to be held by Him in the midst of our hopelessness? Abraham believed God and received the promise of Isaac. Storey believed God even when she received nothing. Both lived in hope. Can we?

God does keep His promises. All of them. The time and place of fulfillment is with Him, and we say we know this, but really, we expect Him to come through for us with a minimum of delay. Very often, He doesn't. We can give Him glory for all the times He has delivered us our Isaac. But what happens in those times when He doesn't? When all visible hope has disappeared. When our deepest desires and needs remain unmet and still present. Can we, against all hope, hope? Can we continue to hope and trust in the God who doesn't seem to be at all interested in helping us or in keeping His word? This is true hope in Him. When there is no visible reason that we should. This is hoping against hope. In the absence of any evidence, any result that says He is present and moving on our behalf, we believe He is. We don't focus and hope on the end desire, but upon Him. The One who says He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.....and our hope. In our hopelessness, He holds us.

I am thankful beyond words for all the times He has given me my Issac. But I think I have even more gratitude for how, by His grace, He has enabled me to hope on in Him even when Isaac did not come. John the Baptist, Paul, Peter, all the disciples. They surely had a hope that the prison cells, crosses, and executioner's sword that awaited them would not be their end. But they had an even greater hope, an incorruptible one, in He in Whom Colossians tells us, "all things hold together." May we live in this hope. Not in the effect we desire, but a desire for the One who is the fulfillment of all hope. May we live in the One who is perfect Hope.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Maze Runners

 "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives." Galatians 5:24-25

There's a popular book and movie series out called, I believe, "The Maze Runner." I know little or nothing of the book or movie, but I think I know a good bit about Mazes. I've been running them for a large part of my Christian life. I think it's a good bet that maybe you have as well.

I was with a friend recently and his words, soaked in the Spirit, gave me the leading for what I write today. He said that so much of the church is trapped in running a maze. We are constantly looking for something that "will work." We go up this aisle, hoping that we've found a route that will get us to the result, the goal that we have in our mind and heart. Almost always, we end up running into a dead end. When that happens, we go down a new aisle, also one that we think will get us to where we want to be. Bam! Another dead end. And then another aisle.... and then another aisle, and then......Even if the aisle does get us to where we want to be, the final result will still be a dead end. Why? Because as my friend put it, when we're results and goal oriented, we are not Source oriented. And when that is where we're living, even if we get what we want, we are not getting the fullness of Him. If we're getting Him at all. That is the ultimate dead end.

When we have locked our eyes on the results we want to achieve, the goal we want to reach, they are not set upon Him. So spiritually, we keep running in a maze, always trying to get out of it, but continually running into one dead end wall after another. There is a simple yet mighty solution, but with all of our focus on the result and the goal, we never see it. The solution is to get our eyes off what we foolishly believed is the prize, and upon Him who alone is the Prize above all else. Christ. We stop looking at the walls of the maze, and look up into the face of Him who is right there. Why is it that we find that so impossible to do? Could it be that we cannot, will not willingly nail all those "desires", good though they may be, to the cross? Leaving them there. Trusting Him with them. All of them. Then, and only then, will we fully hear His voice, sense His Spirit, and follow His lead. No more running into walls. No more slavish pursuit of results and goals, but a full hearted pursuit of Him. We no longer live for the reaching of the result, which is almost always tied up in what is really just appearance. We live for the Person and for the appearance of this Person and His purpose for our lives.

This is all foolishness to the flesh, and it's why the flesh will always be more comfortable chasing about in the maze. The heart and life that is crucified with Him will run after Him alone. And that life will never "hit the wall." It will just go on getting deeper, wider, higher in Him. We are no longer maze runners. We run with Christ. Where and with who do we run today? In a maze race we can never win? Or, racing with Him, knowing we will never lose? No one who runs with and in Him can ever lose.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Cracked Cisterns

 "For My people have done two evil things: They have forsaken Me - the fountain of Living Water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all." Jeremiah 2:13......"If we've believed and trusted Him for full healing and wholeness, the 'cracks' in our lives will always allow our strength and confidence to 'leak' out.' " Beth Moore

Have you ever noticed how a crack in a plate or cup collects dirt, and no matter how hard you try to get it out, there remains a darkness over and in that crack? All our efforts to make it clean and whole fail, and while we can do some cosmetic things to cover it up, the crack, and the dirt, remain. It's a good picture I believe, of how many in the church today, and many churches as well, are living out their lives.

I don't think a lot of us would feel we should be included in the harsh and cutting words of the Father in Jeremiah 2. We probably don't feel that we've forsaken Him, or that we are rejecting His Living Water. But are we willing to submit to the searching of His Spirit in order to discover to what degree we really might be doing so? What unhealed cracks continue to exist in our lives, our families, and our church fellowships that we have succeeded in "covering up" so they are not visible, at least on the surface? How much "dirt" continues to find a home there, affecting every aspect of those lives, families and fellowships? 

Pastor's think that moving to a new church will make everything better. But they take their wounds, their cracks there with them, and are dismayed when what happened before happens again. Churches rid themselves of one pastor, and then believe that all will be better when they get a new one. And it is, until the same problems they had with the last leader emerge with the new one. The cracks, and the dirt within remain. And the water of His strength and Life leak out. It's the same with relationships, marriages, jobs, and our walk with Him. The cracks remain, and they continue to allow His Life to steadily drain out, and a people and Church that is to be marked by His healing wholeness, isn't. We're cracked and broken cisterns and we can never hold the water of His Life for very long until we come face to face, our face to His, with this truth.

All our efforts to make it better are doomed to failure. There is only One who can take the cracked cup of our lives, our families, marriages, and fellowships, and make the cup anew and cleanse the dirt within. It starts and ends with face to face honesty with Him. We confess. We repent. We are forgiven and cleansed. There is no person, relationship or fellowship that will not find this to be true, or Him to be faithful. And when it happens, we are no longer cisterns, but deep wells of His Living Water. The woman who was marked as unclean by society by her ongoing bleeding, was willing to come out of the shadows and into the open in order to be whole. Are we?

Isn't it time that this were so in our lives, our families, and our fellowships? It surely can be. The question for us is, will it be? Remember the famous line from the movie "A Few Good Men?" Jack Nicholson's character stated flatly, "You can't handle the truth." Can we? Until we can, the cracks and the dirt remain.

Blessings,
Pastor O