Heart Tracks - Tasteless? Wasted?

"You are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and tramped underfoot as worthless." Matthew 5:13....."One reason why men pay so little attention to the gospel today is the tasteless living of Christians." Vance Havner...."How much of our prayer is wasted conversation because of our failure to live out His life in ours?" Tony Evans

Two strong and descriptive words; Tasteless. Wasted. To what degree might they be applied to our lives right now? Do we dare to stand in His Presence long enough to get a real answer? Do we fear what the answer might be if we did? I am not trying to lay down condemnation in these questions, but I think Havner's and Evans quotes do hit the mark to some degree in all of us. In you, and in me.

The enemy and the culture through which he works have done a very good job of intimidating His followers into silence, through compromise, appeasement, and fear. We don't want to offend. Christ came to bring peace we say, but we somehow forget that He also brings a sword. He said that the very act of standing with Him will certainly bring about conflict and division with and from the surrounding world culture. Not because those who are His go about looking for a fight, but because living and walking in His light will most certainly bring the fight to those who do so. Salt, rubbed into a wound stings and burns...deeply. We live in a terribly wounded, fallen, and darkness encased world. Those who live and abide in Him will be salt and light in that darkness, in that open wound. Salt brings healing. Light brings wholeness. Is the witness of your life and mine that of bringing healing and wholeness in Christ....or have we lost, are we losing our flavor.

Then there is the matter of the quote from pastor Evans. Paul said that the prayer of the righteous will have powerful effect. What are the effects of yours and mine? Jesus said that we ask for much but don't receive it because we ask with wrong, selfish motives. Or we ask while all the while living lives that cripple our witness and testimony for Him. Lives that exhibit little if any love, mercy, compassion, or boldness. To live in such a way really will give rise to prayers that are nothing more than wasted conversation with God. Empty words, empty prayers, being offered up by empty lives. Lives that are empty of Him but very full of self.

The need, in the world and in the Church for His salt and light is beyond desperate. There is only one road that leads to such a life and witness. It goes to and through the cross. Such lives will never be tasteless, and always offer and bring healing to the deepest, seemingly incurable woundedness. Such lives will be so filled with His light that no prayer could ever be a wasted conversation, but will lay hold of the God who has taken hold of them. Releasing Kingdom power that this world and enemy that fills it can never withstand. Resulting in lives, in a Church, that is no longer tasteless. No longer wasted. May we walk in such a life. May we be such a Church.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Extravagant!

"When He ascended to the heights, He led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to His people." Ephesians 4:8

I recently read a great article by Dudley Hall concerning the extravagant life God offers to everyone through the most extravagant of all of His gifts, Jesus Christ. The entire Bible is filled from beginning to end with proof of that extravagant love and life. Why then do so many have such difficulty believing that? Worse, why do so many, most, reject the offer of that extravagant love? In the Garden, the devil deceived Eve into believing that love was anything but extravagant, that God was holding out on she and Adam. Adam, for his part, was not deceived, he simply rejected that love. Both states continue on today in the reaction of men and women everywhere to His extravagant love. For some real proof in this, we need look no further than the average believers prayer life.

Here's a probing question for each of us; when we pray, do we do so with the attitude that we have to somehow convince Him to help us? Do we believe that we have to wear Him out and down before He will answer? Do we approach Him as a reluctant Father, and like Eve, feel that He is holding back on us? That He could do so much more for us, but that He doesn't really care to. These may not be conscious attitudes, but I think they lurk within the hearts of many. I know they have lurked within mine. In both the Old and New Testaments He said that He had "much more for you (us) than this." That much more is so rarely realized because we are willing to settle for so much less. We grab the bread crumbs but miss the loaf. Jesus said "Freely I have given, freely receive." Our great problem is that we never seem to even begin to receive the fullness of all He has given. If He has already given all, why do we have so little? If the windows of heaven are open, it must be that the doors of our hearts are mostly or completely closed.

I think a great part of our problem is that we don't understand what it is that He offers and gives. We focus everything on the material and physical, on what is passing away. He centers on the eternal, that which can never be removed or taken away. We also misunderstand what He means by "good things." We think it is in what can be counted or accumulated, and always wrapped up in beautiful packaging. That's so often not how He works at all. Look at His greatest gift, Jesus Christ. His destination was always going to be Calvary. Calvary is Latin for the word "skull." A skull is the symbol of death, yet out of that death came His extravagant gift of life. His life. The eyes of flesh will always miss His gifts. They can only be seen and taken in with the eyes of His Spirit. Until that happens, we will always approach Him as beggars and orphans, instead of heirs and sons and daughters.

So how do you and I describe our love and relationship with Him today? Do we know and experience His extravagance, or see only a miser, reluctant to part with anything of value? The one with eyes to see will see. Unless he is blind to it all. Are you blind to it all?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - A Supplement?

"My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9....."He gives strength to the weak." Isaiah 4:29

It's difficult to go into any grocery or drug store and not see an aisle filled with vitamin supplements and energy bars. Many of the bars are advertised as "power bars." The vitamins are presented as sure additions to our strength and health. They are supplements to our own natural power, and if legitimate, will certainly boost our own strength to some degree. I've no problem with this, but I think in so many ways, we have come to view the Father as being a supplement to our own ability. A heavenly "power bar" that boosts that ability and enables us to get through tough situations, pressing circumstances, and varying times of need. On the surface, that may sound fine, but God is not interested in being an add-on to our own abilities. He does not work like a vitamin supplement. He will not accept the role of being a supplement to our lives. He desires us to realize that our own strength is no strength at all, and that it is only in our recognition of our total weakness that we can ever hope to experience His unending strength.

In Ephesians 3:16, Paul prayed that the church would receive "His glorious, unlimited resources, He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit." As 2 Corinthians 12 shows, Paul discovered that the key to having such strength is in realizing his own total weakness apart from it. He didn't seek for God to come and add on to his own strength, but to totally replace it with His. That is what it is to live a Holy Spirit powered life. Is such a life being lived out by you and me today?

Beth Moore, talking about viewing Him as a supplement to our own strength said that when we take a supplement, or make use of an energy bar, we can tell that there is, at least in some degree, an awareness that we feel a little stronger, a little better. There's a degree of improvement. She said she could never be satisfied with a portion of His life and strength. Can we? She wanted all the fullness of His strength and life. She did not want to live a life that got a temporary energy boost when times were tough, and then lived in its own power the rest of the time. She wanted to walk and live at all times in the fullness of His power. She wanted to live in the recognition of her own weakness and powerlessness that she might then live in the fullness of His strength and "unlimited resources." Do we?

To what degree has He been to you and I a supplement? Has He been Someone that we visit in much the same way that we do the vitamin aisle at the drug store? Is His life, strength, and power been an add on, or a be all? In Paul's realization of his own poverty of strength and ability he was then able to be absorbed into the limitless power and strength to be found in Christ. He works best in our weakness. Not giving a boost, but a life. Is He working that way now in yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Dwelling Place

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need." Hebrews 4:16....."The first call of God is never to go, it is always to come." Wade Taylor

I think to most who would call themselves followers of Christ, Hebrews 4:16 is a familiar verse. We tend to quote it a lot. I wonder though as to how we are living it out. How often do we tend to treat this promise in much the same manner as we do shopping at a convenience store? Over the years, I have come across two such store chains with the names "Stop and Go," and "In and Out." Both would be good descriptions of how we tend to "treat" the throne room of the God of all creation. The slogan for one of the stores was, "You're in, you're out, that's what it's all about." How close is that to being the reality of how we relate to Him? We have no problem coming boldly to the throne of grace in order to get what we see as the needs of our day. We just don't have any great desire to linger there. We want to get in and get out, because living out our life agendas is too often really what it's all about. The Father is little more than a clerk who takes care of our order, then sends us on our way. Beth Moore said that we leave the throne room far too quickly. She's right, but I think it best that we never leave it at all.

Is such a life possible? After all, we do have jobs, families, ministries, obligations. Those can't be ignored while we just live in some heavenly, other world hanging out with Him can they? If we think that this is what living in Him is, than it's small wonder that we so often live on only a portion of the power and life He makes available to us in Christ.

Paul said in Ephesians that "He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us." Most of us are on board with the first part of the promise. We want the results, but we have little taste for the process. The power at work through us is the fullness of His Holy Spirit at work in us. This power can only be ours to the degree we dwell and soak in His presence. Jesus Christ walked and ministered in this power because He lived in all the fullness of His Father's life. He was always about His Father's business because He was never out of the Father's presence. This is why He could say that "I and the Father are One." It is a oneness that He calls us to come into. We are always very anxious to go out in His name, but too often we go out for Him without having really come to Him. Jesus made mention that He really had no earthly living quarters, but He was never troubled by this because He was fully at home in His Father. That was His dwelling place. It wasn't just a spiritual position, but a day by day reality. It can be ours as well. Like Jesus, we can dwell at all times in His presence, and yet carry on our day to day lives on earth. With Kingdom power. Is such a lifestyle really yours and mine?

No one would choose to live at a convenience store. Everyone would rather have a home. Yet which more resembles our relationship with Him? Is He our clerk, or our King? A Person to visit, or a Life to dwell in? How we answer these questions determines the amount of power at work within us. What amount of power is at work within us?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Thoughts - Torn Hearts

"That is why the Lord says, 'Turn to Me now while there is time! Give Me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don't tear your clothing in your grief. Instead tear your hearts.' "Joel 2:12-13...."The Lord says, 'I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts.' " Joel 2:25......"There can not be repentance without the realization of the gravity of sin. Regret for sin's consequences is not the same as sorrow for sinning against holy God. Confession of sin is not necessarily an indication of repentance. Repentance comes only when we acknowledge that our transgression has come from a heart that is far from God, and we are brokenhearted over our grievous offenses against holy God." Henry Blackaby

I wonder today if we are not living in the midst of a nation that has lost it's strength because of a Church that has lost it's salt?....Many decry the state of our culture, but the Church is meant to be an unending light in the darkness. Savory salt in an unsavory world. Are we really that? Joel spoke to a people who had abandoned their God and were paying a heavy price in the consequences. Please note that he spoke to a people who were still very religious, who still "went to church" regularly. They were close to religious practices but very far from the heart of God. They were grieved over what had happened to the nation, and went through the ritual of showing repentance, the tearing of their garments. Yet it was only ritual. Their hearts remained unchanged. This is why what Blackaby says concerning true repentance desperately needs to be heard, and followed in the Church today. Oh that our prayers would turn to pleas for Him to, as His Word says, "grant us repentance," which is always a response to His great grace.

Some years back I heard a church leader say about a fellowship that had just experienced and practiced a very large amount of sinful behavior, resulting in their mistreating and driving off their pastor. He said it was his hope that by getting a new leader in the church, a new start could then be made. No mention was made of addressing the sin. I am reminded of what Jesus asked Martha and Mary concerning the burial of their brother Lazarus; "Where did you put the body?" That is a question that needs to be put to so many fellowships, families, and individuals concerning their failure to deal with their sin and the devastation that has come about as result of it. Where have we put the bodies?

May it be that on every level and by everyone, pastor, leaders, laypeople, all of us, that we would cease tearing our garments over consequences, and tear our hearts in our grief over what those consequences have wrought. Not only in others, but more, in the heart of a holy God. I believe if we will do so, we will see a restoration of all that the "locusts" of our lives have stripped and cut away. Over all aspects of our lives that have been swarmed by those locusts. It starts in our hearts and not with our "clothes." We know how torn our lives are in this day. What actions and behaviors have torn the heart of the Father? Let us come, and tear our hearts open before Him. He will restore, and the locusts will die..... If will we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Holy Fear

"You must be holy in everything you do." I Peter 1:15......"Two statements of command are found frequently in Scripture: should be and must be. We are wise to adhere to the should bes. We are fools if we don't adhere to the must bes! Peter's statement was a must be." John Bevere

Bevere relates in his book Good Or God? that he is more and more receiving invitations to preach with the understanding that he not say anything that might make the people feel guilty or uncomfortable. He's told that it's the leadership's desire that the people be built up and encouraged, and not be exposed to "negative things." This is an attitude that seems to be growing ever stronger in the western Church. It also explains the diminishing of two deeply needed aspects of true worship in the Church; holiness and a real fear of the Lord. I think it's hard to be experience or walk in either when the Father is presented as our good friend who just wants to make our lives better, and who exists to serve us and bring about the fulfillment of our agendas and wishes. I think we get this picture of Him through our creation of what Bevere calls, a fictitious Jesus.

To make his point, Bevere relates the story of his visiting in prison a famous televangelist who was there because he had defrauded both the government and his followers. In their talking, Bevere asked how a man who had begun so committed to the Lord could end up where he was? Had he fallen out of love with Jesus? His answer shook Bevere. He said he had "loved Jesus" all through his immoral and impure behavior. He told Bevere, "I loved Him, but I didn't fear Him." Then he added these chilling words; "John, there are millions of Americans just like me. They love Jesus but they don't fear God."

I Peter 1:17 reads, "So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time as 'foreigners in the land.' Philippians 2:12 exhorts us to "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." This is not a works based calling, but a Holy Spirit filled life walk. It's not a should be but a must be. The word used for trembling in the Greek is "quaking with fear." There are not many in the Church who would be comfortable with this image, yet it is there even so. Paul is not speaking of living in a carnal fear, of being afraid of God. It is a fear that dreads the consequence of a life lived apart from a holy, mighty, and deeply loving God. Bevere says that the first definition of the fear of the Lord must be "to be terrified of being away from God." It must follow then that we would fear any behavior, attitude, lifestyle practice, sin, to have a grip on our lives and so puts a barrier between ourselves and Him. The barrier does not keep His love from us, but it certainly will keep the power of His life and presence from us. More, it will deaden us to that presence, allowing self-deception to grow to the point that we think all is well with Him when in fact, we journey ever deeper into darkness and sin. It was the experience of the 80's televangelist. To what degree might it be ours today? Yours today?

The acceptance of immorality within the Church today is growing at an ever faster pace. In the name of being loving and accepting, we downplay the effects of sin on both individuals and the body. Holiness of life has been relegated to a topic prevalent in the old, legalistic church we don't wish to be identified with. In our wish to be free of that, we have in so many ways, taken on the chains of captivity to sin and called it freedom and grace. And we're blind to the fact that living in Spirit empowered holiness and fear of the Lord is the only true freedom we can know and were created for. It must be! Does it be so in your life and mine?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Treasures

"And since we are His children, we will share His treasures - for everything God gives to His Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will give us later." Romans 8:17-18...."No despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved (and loves) us." Romans 8:37

I heard Beth Moore teach recently on John 10:10 and Jesus' well known words concerning His coming to us that we "might have life in abundance." That is a much beloved Scripture for me, and has been most of my walk with Him. Yet it's meaning has changed radically since His Spirit first spoke it to my heart. So much of my idea of abundance had to do with it being defined in earthly, fleshly terms. It once meant having a good, blessing filled life, and it does. But the Father has realigned my thinking as to what a good, blessing filled life really is. His idea and my flesh's are very, very far apart.

In the wonderful movie, "The Fellowship of the Ring," Bilbo tells his nephew Frodo something on the order of, "It's a dangerous thing to step out of your door." Hobbits loved their homes and filled them with every kind of comfort. Almost all of them had no desire to leave either their homes or the shire in which they were found. We who say we follow Him are far too much like them. For to follow Him is to embark, as did Frodo, on a journey that will be filled with danger, challenges, and no small amount of suffering. We look for vacations and holidays. Christ leads us to places that look a lot like Tolkien's Mordor, a place of darkness, warfare, and yes, suffering. He leads us to the cross. His cross, and now, ours as well.

We all believe there are treasures in Christ, but we never think of suffering as being one of them. Our chief response in any suffering is for us to beg God to get us out, to end it, make it go away. We're not much interested in anything He may speak to us there. To have the treasures in Christ that He wishes to reveal to us in that place. Anyone who has clung to Him in those places knows that it was there that they came to know more of Him than they could ever have discovered in the bright sunshine. God approached Moses covered in deep darkness, and though the Israelites fled at the sight of it, Moses entered in.....and found it was exactly where God was. In the blackest darkness, He is still the greatest light. And the deepest darkness is powerless to put out that light. It will be in the darkness that we discover that "all these things," all the things that the enemy can assault us with, cannot keep us from the overwhelming victory that is ours in Christ. When we walk through hell we must never stop, but keep on walking through it all with Him. He has conquered it. In and with Him, we do, we have as well.

Jesus said that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be. Where and what is your true treasure? In the gifts, or in the Giver? Do we love most that which glitters and draws our flesh to itself, or, do we love Him whose light shines in the deepest darkness, and we will brave that darkness just to be with Him? And so find that its there that the true Treasure dwells, that real life in abundance is found. In one way or another, we're all treasure hunters. Where is your hunt leading you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Scandal

"Therefore Hagar referred to the Lord who had spoken to her as. 'the God who sees me, for she said, 'I have seen the One who sees me.' " Genesis 16:13......"Whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God. Without this, religion is but a shadow, a reflection of reality, a cheap copy of an original once enjoyed by someone else of whom we have heard." A.W. Tozer

Someone once said something to the effect that in light of the resurrection of Christ and all that is provided for those who are His in that resurrection, that it is "a great scandal that we live as we do." How can we not agree, and why do we live as we do? What's the cause of the scandal? To me, it seems that the reason must be that far too many who profess to follow Him have never really seen Him. We've seen preachers and teachers who talk of Him and worship leaders who sing about Him. They may have seen Him, and may be telling us of what they've seen, but we seem content to let it end there. We like to listen to these "stories," but we're not eyewitnesses to what took place in them. In the early days of the exploration of the American west, men who had been among the first to see the wonders of that west would return to the east and speak to large crowds about what they'd beheld. The crowds were enthralled, captivated. Yet they never left the east. The speakers skillfully painted a picture of what they'd seen, but that was all their hearers ever had...a picture. A picture is not the reality, and countless numbers who sit in church services every week leave those services in the same way. With a picture, but not the reality. They've heard about what another may have seen, but they have yet to "see" for themselves. Not with physical eyesight, but with the "inner sight" of the Spirit.

In 2 Kings 6, Elisha and his servant are surrounded by a large force of Arameans. The servant saw only the army of foes around them. Elisha saw the forces of God that surrounded the Arameans. The servant looked at everything with the eyes of the flesh, while Elisha saw all things through the eyes of the Spirit. The servant saw what the flesh said was there. Elisha saw what the Father said was there. In the facing of life and every possible event, and yes, tragedy that can take place in it, which is our view? Do we see what circumstances say is reality, or do we see what the Father says, through His promises, witness, and speaking in the Spirit is real?

After the resurrection, when Peter heard the witness of Mary and the other women of having seen the risen Christ, he was not satisfied to hear about it. He had to see for himself. This is the key for you and I. Have we a determined, will not be denied desire to see the risen Christ? He is there, always before us in every place, even the darkest. But He can only be discerned when we look at all aspects of life in this fallen world through the eyes of the Spirit. The flesh can never "see" Him. With spiritual eyes, we can see the unseen. We no longer rely on someone else's story. We have our own, and we can tell it with a passion that hopefully will ignite a deep desire for our listeners to want to see Him as well.....And we enter into a realm of living that is no longer a scandal, but a testimony of Him. We have seen the God who always sees us. Jesus said we will find Him, see Him, when we seek for Him with all our hearts. Such seeking will never be satisfied with pictures painted by another. They must have the reality. Do you, we, seek that reality? Have we seen Him? Do we see Him now? Elisha prayed for his servant, saying, "Lord, open his eyes that he may see." Someone, somewhere and sometime has likely prayed that for us. Has it, is it, being answered now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Offbeat

"My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as You and I are one, Father - that just as You are in Me, and I in You, so they will be in Us, and the world will believe You sent Me." John 17:21......"Are our lives in Him made up of minor course corrections, or of radical life transformation?" Lisa Bevere

Whether we're aware of it or not, our "hearts" will resonate with something or someone in this life. To what does your heart and mine beat along with? If it is anything other than what Jesus prayed for in John 21, than we can be sure that our hearts are "offbeat." We're out of tune with the Father's heart. An orchestra made up of accomplished musicians can be ruined in their sound if only one of them is even slightly out of tune with the rest. To what degree might our hearts be out of tune with His? Where in our lives are we offbeat? Put another way, to what degree, if any, do our hearts beat with the same passion and intensity as His? Do we have hearts that enable us to see what He sees, hear what He hears, and above all, love as He loves? And all of this not from a human perspective, but a Kingdom one. Do we share in what are the deep joys of the heart of the Father as well as what grieves that heart? Or, do we only have anguish over the things we feel are missing from our lives?

Oswald Chambers said something to effect that we need to get into God's "stride." That is, we must walk in life according to His pace, and not our own. Yes, I know that He leads us each in His own way, but He does not permit a lagging behind. His expectation is that we walk with Him, in His stride, and at His pace, and all by His grace. When this happens, our hearts beat, respond, and our moved by the very things that move the heart of God. Likely most of us have seen the prayer that asks that our hearts be moved by the very things that move the heart of God, but this is a very dangerous prayer to pray. Dangerous to our flesh, for the flesh will never pray or ask for it. To have such a heart will require that we go to His cross, and die to all that is not Him so that it we live to all that is. Anything less will result in an offbeat life.

Juan Carlos Ortiz said that in the west, we present a gospel that appeals to man's interest. "Jesus is the Savior, the Healer, the King, coming for ME. Me is the center of our gospel." Such a gospel will guarantee a life made up of minor course corrections, because we never see ourselves as we really are, or Him as He truly is. We live offbeat lives. But when, by His grace, our eyes are opened to see Him, we not only see what we are without Him, totally lost, but also who we can be in and with Him. Then begins the journey of walking in His stride, hearts beating with His.

In the late 1960's, South African surgeon Christian Barnard became famous for doing the first heart transplant. Yet the Father has been doing them in Christ for over 2000 years. Have you received yours? Is your heart beating with His.....or do you go on being out of sync.......offbeat?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - For The Glory

"As the priests came out of the inner sanctuary, a cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their work because the glory of the Lord filled the Temple." I Kings 8:10-11...."We pray for Him to come in His glory, but we need for His glory to come upon the Church." James Robison

Two questions arise in my heart as I ponder the words of I Kings 8. First, what would be the response of the 21st century western Church to such a happening as recorded here? Second, do we who are a part of that Church have an expectation of such a thing happening among us at all?

Robison's words hit far closer to home than any of us would like. As the surrounding culture darkens and the Light that is the Church in many ways grows dimmer, what is it we truly long for? A Christ who comes back in His glory to take us all out of this mess? Or, a Jesus Christ that comes upon His Church with glory and power, bestowing upon it a witness of fire that the world cannot deny....or escape? Which is it that you and I most desire? Which is it that we look for? Do we look for anything at all?

If we say that it's the latter, His glory coming upon His Church that we most want, what is there about our lives and the life of the Church we're part of that gives it proof? I saw somewhere that it is those who are prepared to worship His glory that will actually behold it. When we gather together, how prepared are we? To what extent have we soaked in His Presence in our day to day living? What degree of intimacy has there been? If such is lacking, I think we can expect little more than bread crumbs in our organized gatherings. We become a people hoping that something will fall off His table for our starving souls. Then, still starving, we walk out, unchanged, unsatisfied, unknowing.

Then there comes the question for those of us who are tasked with being leaders of what we call worship. Whatever the priests of the Lord had planned for that day didn't happen. The Lord took over completely. How many preachers and worship leaders would welcome that? How much would our stubborn determination to say what we thought we had to say take precedence over what He would say? How many worship leaders would allow anyone, let alone His Holy Spirit, interrupt the song list so carefully put together? T. Austin-Sparks once said that the modern church doesn't understand anything that isn't fully organized by men, no matter how well meaning. Where does our meticulously crafted organization keep Him from entering in?

Then there's the matter of those who come to our gatherings. There are lots of expectations. How many of them involve a falling of His glory upon the fellowship? Most of what we call worship is so finely tuned that most everyone knows exactly what to expect. Different messages and songs perhaps, but we're locked in a comfortable sameness that is easy on the flesh, but so hard on the spirit. We love to have an emotional lift in these times, but they must only go on for a pre-determined time. After all, we've got other affairs to attend to.

Lots of questions here. I make no pretense of having the answers. His glory cannot be manufactured. But it must come. It has to come. We are desperate for His glory to fall upon us whether we know it or not. I believe in these days that it will....for those who are prepared. Will you be among them? Will the fellowship of which you're part? I believe His glory is always falling upon the prepared. Are you, we, prepared?

Blessings,
Pastor

Heart Tracks - Unauthorized

"You Levites form a bodyguard for the king and keep your weapons in hand. Any unauthorized person who enters the Temple must be killed. Stay right beside the king at all times." 2 Chronicles 23:7

This is the context of the above Scripture; Ahazia, the king of Judah is dead. His mother, Athalia, has seized power and put to death all other members of the royal family....except Ahazia's son Joash, the rightful king. For six years he is hidden in the Temple until Jehoida the priest led a revolt against Athalia, saying to his followers, "The time has come for the king's son to reign." The child king was then surrounded by and guarded by other priests, who were instructed to stay near the king, and kill anyone who sought to come near him with the intent to harm him. The revolt succeeded, and in this passage of Scripture I see teaching for how those who are His may live a truly holy, sanctified life. It's simple really. Like the priests, we stay near the King, Jesus Christ. Indeed, not just near Him, we live in Him. It's where we abide....at all times.

The number of "unauthorized" things that seek to invade our minds and hearts is beyond counting. Impure thoughts and desires. Anger, fear, attitudes of bitterness and unforgiveness. Pride, self-centeredness, and a million and one idols ready and willing to take the place of Him in our lives. We can be sure of something in all of it; in ourselves we have no power to overcome them. They will always, in the end, overcome us. The fact that they are "unauthorized" means they have no real authority over us, yet convince us that they do. All of our fleshly defenses will, sooner or later, fail us. One way or another, they will destroy us.
Our only hope, our only victory, is to stay near Him. To stay, abide, in Him. We cannot "kill" these threats that seek to steal and kill our life in Him. He can. He will. They cannot penetrate a heart and mind that makes Him their dwelling place. All the might of hell and darkness fail to enter into a heart and life that abides at all times in Him.

How does this "work" in our day to day living? To abide in Him will yield a moment by moment consciousness of Him. When those darts of fire launched by the enemy seek to pierce our minds and hearts, they are quickly extinguished as we yield them to Him. They are taken captive to His presence, which is not hard because we are living in His presence. Attitudes, desires, temptations, all crafted by an enemy of our souls to bring about spiritual failure and destruction, are "killed" before they reach us with their intent because we are living in the King. And they are all powerless before Him. This is a lifestyle. A lifestyle that discovers the mystery of what Christ meant when He said we must abide in Him as He abides in us. He is the "Temple" we live within, our Sanctuary. In this place His promise comes true; no wicked plan formed against us will succeed. They are all unauthorized. They have no authority. He who is the final Authority gives us victory over them all.

To whose authority have we yielded to in our lives? To that which has no real authority over those who are His, yet defeat us just the same? Or to Him who is the One and only Authority; Christ the King? The time has come for the King to reign. Does He? We have only one hope; stay near the King. Stay IN the King. Abide.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Afterthought

"Oh, how can I give you up Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah Zeboim? My heart is turned over within Me, and My compassion overflows." Hosea 11:8

I recently heard a missionary to Namibia give a wonderful illustration of the love, compassion, and heart of God. She and her husband minister in a nation where starvation is common. One of the places she goes to is a local garbage dump where many children can be found sorting through the trash for food, or discarded items that they can sell. Feeding them is one part of her ministry, and many of the children show the obvious signs of hunger. As she related all this, she said she was reminded of how we in America can so often view those pictures we see of starving, skeletal children in places of great need. Children whose ribs show through, whose faces resemble skulls with skin on. These pictures often move the hearts of those watching. The connection she made spiritually with all this should pierce our hearts and minds. She said that spiritually, that is exactly how the Father sees those who are lost and living apart from Him. To that thought, I add, it is also how He sees those of His children who do not live as His children, but as orphans. As those who don't realize their inheritance in Him. Skeletal, starving children. In the spiritual realm, that is exactly how we look to Him. Our proud, self-sufficient hearts have a very hard time accepting that. The Lord Himself said that we think ourselves rich, and in need of nothing. To His eyes and heart of compassion, we are anything but.

Hosea spoke for the Father to a people much like we in the west. God's people Israel had wandered very far from the heart of the God they said they followed. They no longer saw their need of Him. Neither could they see Him. He had become an afterthought. How much of an afterthought is He to you and I? Yes, we may go to church, give money, even have our daily "time" with Him. But in our moment by moment lives, is He a present reality, or an afterthought? We give attention to Him only after we've given our attention to everything else. He has given us the Bread of Life in Jesus Christ, but we prefer sorting through the garbage dumps of the world and the counterfeit "foods" to be found there. We are skeletal, spiritual beings in the eyes of heaven, but not to our own.

So, where do you and I actually fit in all of this? What do we really look like to Him? Are we children of the King, partaking of the food of His Kingdom, the abundance of His Life? Or orphans, picking through the trash of this world, hoping to find some kind of life giving nourishment there, but failing every time? Does His heart turn over within Him as He views our degree of life, of our total lack of real Life? Does He see a spiritual life that is literal skin and bones, starving to death by inches? Like the good lady, He has come to our garbage dump offering the food of His Kingdom, the Bread of the Life of Christ. Orphans no more to Him, and He no longer an afterthought to us. How can He give us up? How can He give you up? He can't. Yet we can give Him up. Have we? Have you?

Blessings,
Pastor O