Heart Tracks - The Lamb

       "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 12:11......."Every ministry that is a true ministry of revelation will be surrounded by conflict before, during, and after."  T. Austin-Sparks

      We tend to think life, especially ministry life, should go smoothly if we truly have the presence and favor of the Lord.  The fact that just about everything in His Word shows how erroneous this thought is, we continue to buy into it.  If problems do come about, our general reaction is that we either complain to Him, try to find a way to manipulate the circumstances so that we get past them, or pray and ask Him to remove the difficulty.  The reality that He intends to use the opposition to bring us more deeply into Himself is so often lost on us.
      A great part of our problem is that we are so locked into earthbound thinking, that we're unaware to a dangerous degree that if we are truly following, living, and ministering for the Living God, we will be opposed by a living devil.  If we are aware, too often we make the mistake of so emphasizing the enemy and his activity that we have enlarged him and minimized the Father.  We end up thinking that it is our purpose to take him on one on one, rebuking him, binding him, and so on.  Spending so much of our time and energy focused on him, and not on the One who is greater, infinitely greater than he could ever or will ever be.  Here's the best news; we have, in Christ, already defeated the enemy by His shed blood.  We have overcome.  We do overcome.  We will overcome......by the blood of the Lamb.
     His Word says that we'll not live by bread alone, "but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God."  These are not just words to be memorized, but they are words that are literally alive.  God breathed.  The enemy doesn't care how much of the word we have stored in our head.  He's not threatened by that.  When that word is lodged in our heart, than it has become part of our lives.  It is a part of who we are.  We then live and minister by way of revelation from and in Him.  We speak and live in His spirit and life.  This the enemy of our souls does care about, and he will oppose us with every step we take.  This was the meaning in His word when we're told to "count it all joy" when we meet opposition, persecution, for witnessing of the truth we live in.  We're living lives that really matter.  Participating in ministries that have eternal, not temporal worth.  Threatening the kingdom of darkness, advancing His Kingdom of light and life.  Our confidence lies in the truth that this opposition has already been met, and conquered by the blood of Christ.  How that works out in time is in His hands, but the battle has already been fought and won on the cross and in His resurrection.  We live in overcoming victory by His blood.
     Beth Moore had some wonderful insight into Luke 11, which tells of Jesus and his disciples sailing over to the other side of the lake.  Once there, Jesus would deliver a demon possessed man, heal a woman 12 years sick, and a girl 12 years old. But, before they arrive, a terrible storm comes and the disciples are sure they will drown.  Jesus, who'd been asleep, awakens and with a word, the storm ceases.  We usually see this as a lesson in faith, and the disciples lack of it, and in a way, it is.  Yet Moore gave it a twist I'd not thought of.  She said she believed the storm arose in the first place because the devil knew Jesus was coming and unleashed hell to stop Him.  He couldn't.  He never can.  Neither can he stop us when we are fully living, ministering in His Life and Spirit.  Yes, the enemy will unleash hell on us.  Expect such.  The One who put us "in the boat" means to and will get us to the other side, to complete what He has called us to and for.  Jesus is coming.  Jesus has come.  And we overcome by the blood of the Lamb.  Christ the sacrificial Lamb overcame by His shed blood all the power of hell.  If He does that in a form that appears to be weakness, a lamb, as Sparks says, what can He, will He not do for us as Almighty King and Savior?  Is this the reality you and I are living and ministering in?  Will it be now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Another Special Day?

        And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."  Luke 22:4....."We long for Pentecost in our lives and in our churches, but there is no Pentecost without Gethsemane and a cross."  Henry Blackaby

      All across the church this past Sunday it is likely that in some way, observance, commemoration, celebration was made concerning Pentecost, the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church detailed in Acts 2.  Sermons were preached, songs were sung, feelings were stirred. Then what?  Pentecost Sunday comes every year.  Didn't we preach sermons and sing songs last year?  Weren't our feelings stirred last year, and many other years as well?  What was the result?  Did the fire of heaven really fall upon the altars of our hearts, filling us with His holy energy and presence?  Or, was a "good time had by all," and then we just went back to our day to day routines, behaviors, ways?  When next we came together had anything in our lives, our walk with Him changed?  Or was it "business as usual?"  Was Pentecost Sunday another "special day" to be brought out, pointed to, made much of, and then quietly placed back in the closet we keep it in the rest of the year?
     I've been both preaching and hearing about revival, about spiritual awakening now for over 30 years.  As Blackaby says, we want it, even long for it.  In our hearts, we know the church and the culture we minister to is desperate for it.  Yet the question that continues to prick my heart and spirit is the one Blackaby's statement gives rise to.  Will I walk the path that Christ walked in order that Pentecost could truly come about?  The way that led through the Garden of Gethsemane and onto the cross?  Will I enter into an intercessory prayer life such as He did?  One that is literally marked by it's "blood, sweat, and tears?"  A prayer life that yields deep intimacy with Him, as well as "prevails with Him?"  Do I so want to see such an awakening come about that I am willing "to die" that others might truly live?  Do I long for a Pentecost that lasts more than a day?  And if I do, do I want one that will so affect my life that nothing remains as it has been?  When the Holy Spirit truly comes, that will be the result.  Do I, do we, really want such a result?  Can we abdicate the place of control, in our lives, homes, ministries and churches to the Holy Spirit? Do we really want to go where He wants to take us?  Or, will Pentecost just be an event we dust off and trot out every year, and then put back in the attic until the next Pentecost Sunday rolls around?
     We cannot make the Father do what we want in the Spirit, but He can only pour His Spirit out upon an empty person and an empty church.  At Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out, but has it been poured out upon us, upon you?  Upon His church, and upon my church and your church?  We have become so good at running the church, our homes, our lives, that, unspoken or not, we've come to believe we can do it without Him.  Indeed, even better than He can.    Such an attitude can only be "killed" at Gethsemane and at the cross.  I am weary of seeing what I, we, the flesh can do, which is nothing.  I long for the awakening we so desperately need.  Pentecost has come, but has it come for us?  Gethsemane and the cross call.  Will I go?  Will you?

Blessings,
Pastor O
     

Heart Tracks - Inclusive/Exclusive

        ".....and as many as touched Him were made whole."  Mark 6:56........."One of the great uses of Facebook and Twitter will be to prove on the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time."  John Piper

     A friend shared the other day how Mark 6:56 showed both the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of the gospel, and more particularly, of Jesus Christ.  He said that the phrase "and as many" showed how the invitation of Christ to the wholeness of His Life was for everyone, inclusive.  The phrase "as touched Him" showed at the same time the exclusiveness of that invitation. Everyone is invited to His fullness, but it is only those who lay hold of Him who receive wholeness of His life.  The question for you and me today is, which group do we currently find ourselves a part of?  Here's a hidden truth.  We may be "saved" today, but still find ourselves standing outside that exclusive group.  How?  By our never really laying hold of Him, entering into an intimacy, a fellowship with Him that is of the sort He has with His Father and the Holy Spirit.  It's in that place that we find the fullness, wholeness, the healing of His risen life.  We may have some degree of His life, but we are far short of the life He died and rose to give us.  That life is "exclusive" for those who wish to be, like Caleb, ones who walk in "another spirit."  It's a life always looking to take the next step to the higher, wider, deeper place in Him.  It doesn't wish to just "touch" the garment of Christ, but to be clothed in Him.  It is an exclusive place.  How desperate are we to live there?  And, if we're not living there, what is it that keeps us from it?
     I included John Piper's quote about prayerlessness simply because it is our obsession with the lesser that keeps us from the greater.  It is our satisfaction with the good, that robs us of the best.  Christ stands before us, life wide open, offering us His wide open life.  As I heard it put, He calls us to a narrow way, but a wide life.  More often than not, we're blinded to that life, and settle for at best, a middle way, and a mediocre life.  Or at worst, a wide way leading to no life at all.  Every day at every moment, He passes by, and calls us to Himself, but we're far too caught up in our pleasures, our other interests.  Knowing far more about what those we follow on Twitter are saying than what the One we claim to follow with our heart is saying right now.  We want everyone on Facebook to know what we're doing and thinking, yet have no idea of what it is He's saying this very minute.  How close is that to "truth" for us today?

     Jesus said that "Many are called, but few are chosen."  Do we ever ponder what He's saying in that?  His invitation is free and open, but I think the meaning of being chosen by Him is defined by the heart that desires not just a part of Him, but all.  They are chosen because they long for the fullness of His fellowship and life, and are drawn to His invitation to it.  There is no desire for a life on the fringe.  The desire is for a life immersed, saturated in Him.  So it is for the chosen, the exclusive.  So many of us want to be part of something exclusive here on earth, but so few desire to have an exclusiveness in our walk with Him.  Set apart. Called out.  Chosen.  Does this really mark us?  In His ministry, crowds thronged to hear and receive from Him.  Yet, in John 6, when He invited them into a deeper, fully committed walk with Him, it is related that "many turned away and followed Him no longer."  Jesus looked to His remaining disciples and asked if they too would leave Him, to which Peter replied, "Lord, where would we go?  You have the words of eternal life."  Where and to who do we, are we going today?  We've been invited.  Will we be found among the chosen, exclusive to Him alone?  Or, have we found something, someone else to choose, to go to?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - The Unseen Pathway

        "Your road led through the sea, Your pathway through the mighty waters - a pathway no one knew was there."  Psalm 77:19....He brought them to the border of His Holy Land."  Psalm 78:54...."The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you."  Matthew 13:11......"Those who want to meet God on His terms and not their own will have divine mysteries opened up before them.....The relevant question for us is this: What will we do with that knowledge?"  Christ Tiegreen

       A few weeks ago I heard a brother and missionary named Rolf Kleinfeld share some of his experiences of the mystery and miraculous workings of the Father through Christ on the mission field.  He shared experiences that so many of us here in America would find not just hard to believe, but in some ways we would call them outright weird.  Unspoken is the truth that while we would not openly call such workings false, there would be in many of us the lingering suspicion that what we heard wasn't true.  I believe this would be so because we in our American church culture, have lost a great degree of the mystery of the Kingdom, and the Father who rules over all of it.  We've exchanged His mystery for logical thought and human reason.  As I heard one person say, "We've reduced His mystery to what our rational minds can grasp."  What we end up with  is a God who is very much like ourselves, and just about as powerless.
     The other day I read once more the 77th Psalm and was struck by the 19th verse.  It speaks of the Red Sea experience where God parted the sea to enable His people Israel to escape the pursuing Egyptians.   They were blocked by what they saw as a immovable obstacle that was all any of them could see.  In His parting of the sea, He revealed to them a pathway none of them knew was there.  None but the Father and Moses.  Such is the result for all who live by their own understanding.  We can only see with our natural eyes, and understand with our own understanding.  We try to bring Him down to our level, while He consistently seeks to bring us up to Himself.  In 2 Kings 6, the prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by a hostile Aramean army.  The servant saw only the army, Elisha saw the chariots of fire from heaven that surrounded that army.  His cry to the Father for his servant was, "Lord, open his eyes that he might see!"  Is that our heart cry?  For those we love, lead, pastor? For ourselves?  Or, have we become so comfortable with our natural sight, understanding, wisdom, that we are among the first to call anything that is beyond our own reasoning and logic as not legitimate, not real, not even "scriptural?"  We revere the story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead, but how many of us truly believe that such a miracle could occur today in our family, our church, our lives?  When we come together in what we call "worship" do we really expect to experience anything out of what we feel is "the norm?"
     Matthew 13 says that the Father has entrusted us with the knowledge of His mystery.  He is a mystery that He longs for us to discover and know in ever greater and deeper ways.  He doesn't just want us to know truth, but to know the One who IS Truth. Gaining that knowledge will challenge our human reasoning, for He is greater than all of it.  Our natural minds cannot and will not grasp Him, but if His Spirit truly lives within us, He will lead us into ever more wondrous knowledge and understanding of Himself.  Then, Tiegreen's question to us becomes all too real.  What will we do with that knowledge?  Will we follow Him onto the pathway our natural sight didn't see?  If we do, He will take us to the border of the spiritual relationship and experience in Him we were created for.  Israel, constantly living in their own sight and understanding, refused to go beyond that border, and so dwelt instead in the wilderness.  Will we?  Or will we enter in to the wonder of knowing, discovering, the mystery of He who is our God?  Again and again in our lives, He will bring us to pathways we didn't know were there. Whether we see them, or miss them, depends upon what we know of Him.  If we're content with facts about Him, they'll remain hidden, but if we will step out into the depths of His mystery, a mystery He longs to reveal, we will see, follow, and walk upon them....with Him.  His pathway lies before us.  Do we see it?  Or, do we just keep stumbling along in our own understanding?

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

Heart Tracks - Everything

        "As we know Jesus better, His divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.....And by that same mighty power He has given us all of His rich and wonderful promises." 2 Peter 1:3-4....... "Everything is present when Jesus is present." T. Austin-Sparks....Just the other day, after I got into my car to drive about 50 miles down the road from my home, I, as I always do, prayed a prayer of covering and protection for the trip.  Immediately I sensed His voice whispering to me, asking me why I needed to do that?  Why did I constantly have to ask Him for protection?  Really, why was I always asking Him to do or give that which He has told us He has already done or given?  Why do I?  Why do you?

      I heard it said that we are consumed with having three things in life; provision, protection, and position.  Think on this for a few moments.  How many of our prayers, and how much of our "prayer life" is spent upon seeking these things from Him?  Lord, supply this need. Lord, keep us safe.  Lord, give me success.  Again and again we go to Him asking Him to do the same things. He said plainly, "Freely I have (already) given, freely now receive."  He has already given us all things.  His Word says so.  Yet we go on asking Him for what He has already given.  Why?  Why do we ask for protection, when He tells us that in Him we are already secure?  Why do we constantly ask to have our needs met, when He has told us that He already supplied all of them? Why are we constantly petitioning Him to do something about our place in life, when He has told us that if we are truly living in Him, we are right where He wants us to be?  What are we missing?  Why do we keep coming to Him with our tin plates and cups, asking for a little of His Water and Bread of Life, when He has already given us an unending supply of both?  I think the answer is in what I next heard Him whisper; that if I were truly abiding in Him, than all He has given is constantly flowing into my life.  I am abiding in Him, and He in me.  Wherever I go, whatever I face, He is there.  Not just a vague presence, but a manifest one. Protection, provision, these things are constants, and constantly supplied.  As for position, we are made aware of being in Him, and if we are really aware of that, we don't wish to be anywhere else.  Where we are physically matters little when we realize who and where we are in Him.  We enter into the life Paul spoke of.  One that is filled with peace, joy, and contentment regardless of where he physically was, or what he materially had.  He said that in each and all of those places, he was abundantly supplied by His Father, that he possessed "all things in Christ."
     This is not to say that there won't be times when we're prompted by His Spirit to pray for certain things, or certain needs or situations.  Or that we will never be in danger or lack.  We will, but in Him, we have victory and provision there. The key is that our prayers flow from His perspective of what the need is, and not our own.  We aren't presuming to have all things, but we are living freely in the assurance that we do have all things in Him.  Freed from our obsession about OUR protection, provision, and position, we are now free to see and intercede with Kingdom eyes and understanding.  This is how Paul, sitting in a small cell, chained to his guards, was able to pray prayers that could not be held by either.  Prayers that were not only filled with the infinite power of the Spirit and had eternal effect then, but continue to have such now.  Such prayers may be prayed by you and me today.  Are we praying them, or, will we go on focusing on our protection, provision, and position?  We have everything in Him. What does everything mean to you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Friendly Fire

       "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of a friend."  Proverbs 27:17......"Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."  Proverbs 27:6....."According to Scripture, a friend is one who challenges you to become all that God intends."  Henry Blackaby

      I saw a great cartoon on Facebook recently.  Two men are sitting at two different booths.  The first booth has a sign above it reading, "Uncomfortable Truths."  There is no one at this booth, and the man sits alone.  The second booth has a sign above it reading, "Comforting Lies."  There is a long line waiting to hear what the man sitting at this booth has to say.  It is a simple but very real picture of what our fallen human nature is like.  We will embrace lies that comfort but will ultimately destroy us, and reject truth that may hurt us but ultimately save and heal us.  We in the church have no problem saying that this is so of those who reject the claims of Christ, but we care little to admit to the truth that the same attitude can be found everywhere in the professing church.  We love to say that Christ is the truth that sets us free, but we like to reserve the right to decide just what truth it will be that we hear and receive.
     I think we fail to understand and discern the difference between human sympathy and true Christlike empathy and compassion.  So much of the sympathy we extend to others, especially in the church, only serves to help them remain in a state of some kind of bondage.  Emotional, physical, or spiritual, and oftentimes all three at once.  I don't mean to belittle the pain and heartache of someone else, but the truth of the matter is that our flesh loves sympathy, and the more we can get, the more likely are we to stay as we are.  Jesus meets us where we are in our pain, suffering, and loss, but this is not where He will leave us. Always, not some or most of the time, but always, He seeks to bring healing and wholeness.  In doing so, He can speak to us in ways and words that are seemingly very lacking in compassion and understanding.  We can come up with a very long list of why we are not well, and all He may reply is, "Do you want to get well?"  If we answer yes, but there is something lingering in us that causes us to stay in a comfort zone of misery (and misery can become very comfortable) than He won't hesitate to point that out. Here's a twist.  Oftentimes He will do so through the words of a friend.  A question for each of us is, do we have such "friends" in our lives? Do we even want one?  Or do we prefer to surround ourselves with those comforters who, well meaning though they may be, help us to stay in the place that He means to bring us out of? All the while developing ever deeper destructive attitudes and behaviors.  Some have called the church a spiritual hospital, but a hospital is meant to bring people to health and wholeness. Too many of our fellowships only enable their "patients" to stay as crippled and lame as when they first arrived.
      It was said of G.B. Williamson, a great man of God who was a leader in the group of which I fellowship with, that he was a man who spoke with a "holy bluntness."  Surely there were times he offended his listeners.  Times that he wounded their flesh.  Yet, for those who really heard the voice of the Holy Spirit through him, there could only have been healing and wholeness in those words as they were heard.  We need more, many more, such voices today.  Speaking the truth, no matter how uncomfortable, in love.  No one will line up to hear it, but the Father will honor it, and those with ears to hear, will hear.  In the Old Testament, it was said of the Father that "He wounds that He might heal."  He still does.  Can He do so today through your voice and mine.  Even more, can He do so through a friends voice to you and me?  Or will we just look for more sympathy?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - The Lord's

       "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead."  Revelation 1:17....."Along with John, every redeemed human being needs the humility of spirit that can only be brought about by the manifest presence of God."  A.W. Tozer......"Why does God require us to die to ourselves?  Dead people are easy to get along with."  Mark Gungor

     Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, we see a common response to people coming face to face with the Presence of God.  Many times, they could do nothing but fall on their face before Him.  They would be at a loss for words.  When Paul encountered Christ on the Damascus Road, he was struck blind.  When Peter's understanding of just who Jesus truly was struck at his heart, all he could do was ask the Lord to depart from him, for he was too unclean to be in the presence of such a Holy One as He.  Different responses.  Different results, but I think, the one common element in all of them was a humble spirit.  Jesus said that "blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God."  He meant that those who were aware of how desperately they were in need of life, His life, would receive that life, and abundantly.  It takes real humility of heart and spirit to recognize that need within ourselves.  Such a spirit is impossible for the human heart that has entered into this world fully believing it is sufficient in itself to handle and overcome all the needs of life.  That heart has little need of God so long as it believes that it itself is god.  Such a heart cannot "see" God, and surely can never know Him.  Yet, here is the great hope in all of it.  Jesus Christ specializes in transforming such proud and arrogant hearts.  He humbles the proud, as He did Paul, and lifts up the humble, as He did for the blind beggar, Bartimaeus.  Has He ever truly done such in the hearts and lives of you and I?  How much of how we live, work, and especially, minister, fall into the realm of pride, arrogance, and self-sufficiency?  Such a way was how Saul of Taursus walked. When he came face to face with Christ on that road, he then became the apostle Paul.  Has such an encounter ever fully happened for and in you and me?  He was broken, and then remade.  Has it been so with us?
     There are many things to see in the church today.  Polished worship services led by talented musicians and singers.  Power point sermons delivered by men and women who have learned how to "speak to the culture."  State of the art audio/visual helps

that "enhance" the "worship experience."  And an audience on hand to view it all.  In the movie "Sister Act," Whoopi Goldberg's character, a Las Vegas lounge singer pretending to be a nun and now leading the church choir, says to someone holding her back from taking the platform with the choir, "I've got a show to do."  Does any part of that enter into how so many of us may ascend our "platforms" each day of worship?  Not just publicly, but privately?  Really, can any of us expect to see Him in our midst when so much of what we're doing is centered on us, our needs and gratification, rather than on Him, His holiness and wonder?  On His worthiness to be praised and worshiped, and our unworthiness before Him?  Unworthy before Him, but welcome to come to Him, and into His embrace.  Coming poor in spirit, but beholding Him in our midst.  Empty, but made full. This is what should be taking place.  Is it?
     This is not a critique.  It's a call.  I've been reading an article by Nancy Leigh DeMoss as to what the true meaning of the word "church" is, and how we have added a very large amount of man made definition into that.  In His Word, two words used for what have been translated as "church" are kuriakos, which means "the Lord's" and ekklesia, which means "called out ones."  We are called out first and foremost to be His.  We've added so much to those meanings, and in so many ways have created a man-centered, "church."  He calls us to Himself, for Himself.  Yes, He does send us out, but not until we have first "come out" of ourselves and unto Him.  May it be that you and I, and the fellowships of which we're a part, be the "called out ones of the Lord's."  May what we believe church to be, be defined by Him, and not us.


Blessings,
Pastor O

     

Heart Tracks - The Redeemer

        One thing I know is that for those who are truly His, there will come times of severe trial and heartache.  What happens in those times determines everything for us, and what happens will be determined by what it is we believe about Him.  Unless we "know in whom we have believed," the result will very likely be spiritual ruin and wreckage.  We may survive the time in existence mode, but not in Life mode.  His Life mode.

      We see this in the book of Job.  Job is not a book we really care to spend much time in.  It's not like the 23rd Psalm, one of our more favorite dwelling places. There doesn't seem to be a lot of "still waters" and "green pastures" in the life of Job. Devastation. Ruin.  Pain.  Loss.  This is Job's lot.  We have no desire for it to be ours.  No one would.  Yet, it may be so for some of us, many of us right now.  Do we allow emotions and feelings to reign in us, and so react emotionally to it all?  Or, do we, in all of the unknown, respond to it by an abiding trust and place in Him?
      My first pastor often used a phrase for how he learned to walk in such places.  He said he came to "live in" various promises in His Word that spoke to what He was experiencing.  Living there, and so experiencing the truth and power of that Word, and the faithfulness of the God who spoke it.  There are three scriptures that come to mind today that may be such places for all who might be walking in the pain and heartache of the unknown and of loss.  Two are found in the book of Job itself, and the last in the book of Nehemiah.
     In Job 19:25, he responds to the "comfort" of one of his "friends" Bildad, who, along with his other friends of comfort, have been telling him that it is because of his failure and lack that all these things have come upon him.  Job had no answer for "Why", but He did know "Who."  His Father.  "I know that my Redeemer lives.....I will see Him for myself.  Yes, I will see Him with my own eyes."  Before the coming of his trial, need, and pain, Job had settled this question.  His God was alive.  He was his.  He would not fail him.  No matter what, he would see Him.  Job did not know why, but he did know Who.  Do we?

    The matter was settled, but this didn't mean there would not be times when Job questioned, wondered where God was.  But even so, he knew he could trust Him.  Knew his God was just that; his God, and more, that he was God's.  In 35:10, he says, "Where is God my Creator  the One who gives songs in the night?"  He had questions.  In our pain and suffering, there are always questions, but in them was the steadfast assurance that His God was the One who would, who will always give us "songs in the night."  Because he knew that his Redeemer lived, he also knew that he would receive those songs.
     In Nehemiah 12 the people are dedicating the rebuilt wall of the city of Jerusalem.  Nehemiah has led the people back to their homeland after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  The city is in ruins, but with God's help and protection, they are rebuilding it.  At this dedication, the people worship the Father and rejoice.  Verse 43 says, "And the joy of the people of Jerusalem could be heard far away."  In my prayer journal, I have written, "May the joy of we His people be heard far away.....even unto the depths of hell."  I believe that if we truly know that our Redeemer lives, if we have heard and are hearing His songs in the night, we will live in a joy that not only shakes the foundations of this world, but the very foundation of hell itself.  We will not have a pain free life, but we can, and will have a victorious one, overflowing with His joy, in the midst of it.  If we can really believe, trust, and know Him.  If we abide and live in His Word, and in Him. then Christ,  who is His Word made flesh, makes it our reality that, "in Him we move, live, and have our being."  Today, do we?  Our Redeemer lives, and gives us songs in the night, and a joy that crushes all the powers that can come against us.  Our Redeemer lives!  Do we know, have, and live this truth?  Do you?  Do I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

Heart Tracks - Bookkeeper's

      "Again the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it."  Matthew 13:46....."What, for you, is included in the all?........O God, I don't want to bring a bookkeeper's mind to the life of faith, anxiously adding up columns of what I must give, columns of what I might get.  I give all, and accept all.  Amen."  Eugene Peterson......" I have known some who were interested in the deeper life, but began asking questions: 'What will it cost me?....Will it be safe?.....Will it be convenient?'  We have stopped and pitched our tent halfway between the swamp and the peak.  We are mediocre Christians."  A.W. Tozer
      Peterson and Tozer put forth deeply penetrating questions that pierce our surface allegiance to Christ.  We sing hymns and choruses that proclaim our "all for Jesus," but really, what is included in our "all?"  What invisible boundary lines have we drawn in His presence that tell Him He has access to this place in our lives, but no further.  Where have we adopted a "bookkeeper" mentality when it comes to walking with Him?  Where has our relationship withered into a negotiation, asking what will be our "get" for what we give?  Where have cost, safety, and convenience become the measuring sticks of where we will go with Him?  Where, really, have we pitched our spiritual tent?  Can we see the peak, but still smell the swamp?  When did mediocrity become a very acceptable, even comfortable place of life in Him?  Indeed, can we even say that such a life is "in" Him at all?

     Jesus said that all who would follow Him must count the cost, and we must, but too many have not made this a one time decision, but a moment by moment one.  We've not settled that issue once and for all, but allow it to rise up with every new leading of His Spirit.  Much of the opening of the American west was accomplished by fur trappers, representing large companies, setting out into previously unknown, undiscovered country.  Blazing trails that none of their countrymen had ever before seen.  As they did so, bookkeepers, remained back in the east, keeping track of cost and so on.  All they ever knew of that wondrous country was what they saw in the account ledgers they kept.  Those who went into that country took little thought for that, and so their eyes continued to behold sights too wonderful for words.  In the realm of His Kingdom, which are you and I more likely to be?  Trailblazers or bookkeepers?
     So, what is our "all"when it comes to entering into the fullness of His life.  Are we confined by the four walls of our earthly "office," or, are we venturing out into the unknown with Him, seeing with His eyes, sights to wondrous for words?  Do we embrace the life of a bookkeeper, or a trailblazer?  What does our life witness say?

Blessings,
Pastor O
   

    

Heart Tracks - Radical

        Radical:  "Going to the root or origin....extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms."....."Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, 'Come out!  I am giving you your freedom."  Isaiah 49:9

      I don't remember who or what led me to do so, but several years ago I wrote down in my prayer journal these pleas; "Father, say through this fellowship, and through all your church to every prisoner of darkness, 'Come out, I give you your freedom,' and may they both hear, and come."  Just a page or two before that petition, I also wrote that He would transform both our fellowship, and all of His church into a Body that offered "radical welcome, radical forgiveness, radical healing, radical confrontation of sin, and radical worship."  I still long for these to be, but I wonder if I really understand how radical the transformation must be in me, our local fellowship, and in all of His Body for this to truly come to pass.  We make much of wanting to walk in the power and witness of the first century church, but I think it was Francis Chan who asked if we were really willing to pay the price to actually be such a church?  And an even more piercing question, would we be comfortable in such a church?  Would I?  Would you?
    There are lots of folks in the church who are willing to be "edgy" in how they "do church," and like to call such "radical," but I think to truly be radical in our faithwalk with Him, we can't live on the edge.  We've got to step off it.  This takes us far past methods, worship styles and presentations, which are all elements we can, and usually are in control of.  To experience the kind of radical worship and ministry of the Spirit we might pray for will require a willingness to be totally consumed by, controlled and led by, His Holy Spirit.  Radical welcome is far beyond being a friendly, welcoming church.  His radical welcome meets the lost sinner where He is, with love.  But make no mistake, along with the welcoming love will be a radical confrontation of their lostness and sin.  For those who can and will receive that, there will be radical forgiveness, healing and worship.  We don't just talk about the old passing away and all things being new, all the while still living in the old way without Him, and strangers to the new way in Him.  John Eldredge once prayed, "Jesus, that I would know You, the real You."  It's a huge risk to pray such a prayer, because the real Jesus, the One revealed in His Word, will bring about a radical encounter with Himself.  Such an encounter will either transform us radically, or send us running from Him.  We will either walk forward into His light, or run back into our familiar darkness.  It's a radical choice.  Have you, we, ever made it?  Will we make it now?
     Yes, I still want to be a part of such a radical church, but to be such will require a transformation in not only me, but in the fellowship I lead, and the greater Body of Christ of which I'm a part.  There is no comfort level for my flesh there, and that's scary, but I still want it.  How about you?  Will we reach towards Him as He brings us into such an experience and relationship with Him, or just go on living in wishful thinking? 

Blessings,
Pastor O
     

Heart Tracks - Devotional Mood

      "And what is the devotional mood?  It is nothing else than constant awareness of God's enfolding presence, the holding of inward conversations with Christ and private worship of God in spirit and in truth.......Every advance in the spiritual life must be made against the determined resistance of the world, the flesh and the devil."  A.W. Tozer........"Many people are willing to go wherever God wants them to, but are planning to stay right where they are."  Robert McQuilken from his book, The Great Omission....."Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might."  Ephesians 6:10......"Watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Matthew 26:41

      I've used a diverse group of quotes and scripture.  There's reason in my madness.  Much is made today of fulfilling The Great Commission of going and making disciples.  We like to call it being missional.  My problem is not in the commission, but to borrow from McQuilken, with what is the omission.  We are willing to go, but all the while, we plan to stay where we are.  Perhaps not in the phsyical sense, but certainly in the spiritual.  We will go out, but it is in the manner of our going out that brings about a great problem.  Ephesians 6:10 tells us that we're to be strong in His power and might, depending on it.  I think more often, we are far more dependent on our own.
     I am not aiming to be critical here, for I have been guilty of it myself, and far too many times, but we in the church have become adept at planning our strategies of outreach without ever having truly prayed them through with Him.  We are skilled at knowing what we think, but fully ignorant of knowing His thoughts.  We spend hours talking with one another, and minutes, if that, talking with Him.  We schedule three hour planning and strategy sessions, and precede them with 3 quick minutes of prayer.  He's welcome to hang around, just so long as He doesn't interrupt the agenda printout.  Ridiculous you say?  What took place in the last board, committee meeting or planning session that you may have been a part of?  Closer to home, when it comes to the real affairs of your family and life, how much of the thinking comes from your mind and heart and not His?  It is so easy to speak, teach and preach about living in His Spirit, but it is even easier to just live in the flesh, depending on our own understanding in all of it.  Just as Christ says, the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is surely, weak.
     So, how do we overcome it all?  By living in what Tozer called the devotional mood.  "Constant awareness of His enfolding presence."  This can only be realized by an ongoing lifestyle of cultivating His Presence, by abiding in Him consciously at all times.  The power of His Presence then saturates our lives, thinking, and behavior.  Those inward conversations he speaks of manifest themselves in our outward actions.  We live in the power and might of His life, and not ours.  How might such a life revolutionize our homes, relationships, and His church if we truly did live in that devotional mood?  All the resistance of the world, the flesh and the devil would be for nothing in the face of such lives, and such a church.
     McQuilken said that we are willing to go anywhere with Him, but plan on staying where we are.  I know he meant physically going first and foremost, but I see those words in the spiritual realm.  We talk much of growing in grace, of being transformed from glory to glory, but all the while, we plan on staying mostly where we are spiritually.  It's comfortable there, familiar, and low risk.  We can manage that place in our own strength.  Moving past it, not so much.  He does wish to send us out, but before that can really be, He calls us forth to Himself, to His cross. There, we find the power of His resurrected life.  There we enter into the devotional mood, which is only found by way of the cross.  We know what we're willing to do today, but what are we planning on?

Blessings,
Pastor O

     

Heart Tracks - Holy Outlaw

      "It does appear that too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of being right.....To accept Christ in anything like a saving relationship is to have an attachment to the Person of Christ that is revolutionary, complete, and exclusive.  It is more than joining some group that you like.  It is more than having enjoyable social fellowship with nice people.  You give your heart and life and soul to Jesus Christ - and he becomes the center of your transformed life."  A.W. Tozer......."Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city."  Acts 17:6......"A Christian and an outlaw are rebels to the world."  Lyric from a Jesus movement song of the 1970's.

     As I read the words of Acts 17:6, I have to ask myself if I live in Him in such a way that my life in Him disturbs the order and way of the world?  Does yours?  The words and witness of Paul and Silas so upset the people of Thessalonica, that a riot broke out.  But here is something we often overlook in this passage.  Before the witness and lives of these men upset the world, they upset the worldliness of the church.  As they always did, they went to the synagogue to share their message of life with their Jewish brethren.  These brethren had drifted so far from God that they no longer had a relationship with the Father, but had exchanged it for a religion about Him.  They trusted in their religion, found security in it.  To hear that it was powerless to save them, and that their only hope and way to the Father was to receive and know His Son, Jesus Christ, literally turned their world upside down.  Whenever and wherever Christ enters into a life, a home, a church, the result will be the same.  Earthquakes and upheaval. And the result will be new life, new hope, and a new way. He who is the Way.  I asked if we are living lives that really do turn the world upside down.  A greater question than that is, has He ever truly turned our world upside down?
     I love writers and preachers like Tozer, Oswald Chambers, T. Austin-Sparks, and Watchman Nee.  They speak words of life and truth that pierce my heart, and above all, the spiritual complacency I can so easily fall into.  As Tozer said, we can so smoothly embrace a life that feels right, not a life that is right.  The result is I look for voices that tell my flesh what it desires to hear and feel.  Once I've embraced that kind of message, it then becomes the message I speak to those I come into contact with.  As Larry Crabb put it, we enter into a life that can give us some warm spiritual feelings, but remains unchanged, untouched, by the power of His Spirit.  It then carries over into what we call "worship" where people can be made to feel good, right, but leave the time just as they came, unchanged.  Lots of good feelings, but no real transformation.
     I quoted the lyric of a song I remember from my first year of Bible College.  I have no memory of who sang it, and I surely don't know how many others may have ever heard it, but it impacted me as a young believer.  To truly be His would make me an outlaw in the eyes of the world, because what it stood for, valued, could never be shared by me.  Christ lived outside of, beyond, and fully above every "law" of this world, and He called me to the same.  More, He promised me all the power of His life to do so.  He is, was the First Rebel against the power of death, and He called me to join in that rebellion, a rebellion that has already succeeded.  He already has overcome and overthrown the world.  In Him, we have as well. This is why when we truly walk in the power of His risen life, the result will be a world, and yes, a church truly turned upside down.
    His revolution has succeeded, but has it succeeded in you and I?  Has it succeeded in our homes, marriages, professions and ministries?  Has it succeeded in the local body of believers of which we're a part?  Or have we been deceived into believing that so long as we feel right, we are right?  If so, know that the One who turns the world upside down will come calling on us.  The Holy Outlaw and Rebel brings His revolution to each of us.  Will we be "joining up?"

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Sips and Nibbles

   "He (the Father) doesn't seek to give us revelations of truth, but a revelation, new knowledge, of the Person who is truth.......All our progress for the future depends on what we're doing with what we know now." T. Austin-Sparks....."Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Hebrews 4:7

     We are living in a time of ever increasing, yet decreasing knowledge.  Our learning of the ways and systems of this world is growing by leaps and bounds, while our knowledge of Him recedes seemingly by the minute.  We know how "to do" so many things, but of the One who created us for Himself, we are more stranger than friend.  We make fantastic advances in our knowledge of technology, but our "theology," our knowledge of Him, seems to be in  state of continuous retreat.  Like the Jewish Pharisee's, we may know a lot about God, but are unable to see Him, as they could not in Christ, even when He is in our very midst.  The Father's deepest desire for us is not that we serve Him, but that we know Him.  It's the cry of His heart.  It was the cry of His heart as He spoke through the Old Testament prophets, through the preaching of John the Baptist, and in the coming, life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  In Him, it continues to be His cry.  Oh that it would be ours.
     A very commonplace saying in the church is that the Father, in Christ, meets us where we are.  This is true, but somehow, and far too often, we miss the fact that He wants to take us where He is.  We are meant to live with Him in the heavenly places.  Not in some dreamlike way, but in a real, conscious, in this world but not of it reality.  Living in the power of a life that the book of Hebrews tells us "cannot be destroyed."  The life that abides in Him.  Not just for a few hours per week, when we've got all our "props"working.  What we like to call worship, so we might have some sense of His Presence, but a moment by moment awareness of Him.  It's living day by day in an ongoing, life transforming encounter with Him. These encounters don't leave us knowing a lot of "stuff" about Him, but give us real knowledge of who Sparks says is the Person who is Truth. They satisfy our hunger and thirst for Him, yet at the same time, leave us hungry and thirsty for more of Him.

    Jesus repeatedly called Himself the Bread and Water of Life.  For too many years, I was satisfied with "sips and nibbles" of that Water and Bread.  Just enough to somehow get through the day, if not in victory over the day, at least not totally crushed by it.  Instead of sitting at His table as a son, I more often hovered around it like an orphan.  I thought sips and nibbles were the most I could have.  I didn't really realize that I could eat and drink my fill of His bounty and goodness.  That's how orphans think.  So many of us, made sons and daughters by Him, continue to think like orphans afterwards.  We do so because our knowledge of He who is Truth is flawed. Terribly flawed.
   The Father said through His prophet that "My people perish through lack of knowledge."  Knowledge of Him.  To what degree might you, we, be perishing today?  Will we go on with sips and nibbles, or will we drink deeply, eat heartily of the Bread and Water of His Life?  He will meet us right where we are in our lives.  Will we go with Him to where He wants to take us in His?

Blessings,
Pastor O