Heart Tracks - Who's Louder?

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. I Corinthians 1:18......"Be holy. Be one. Be light....Whenever light stands next to darkness, light will always win." Samuel Rodriquez

In response to the above Scripture, I Corinthians 1:18, I have written in my prayer journal, "Who's louder? The truth of the cross, or the lies of the enemy?" It's a question that everyone will have to come to grips with, to answer, if we are ever to know what it is to live a victorious life in Christ. At the cross, and beyond in His resurrection, the Father stated His ultimate Truth in His Son, Jesus Christ. Darkness and Death have been defeated, completely. This is Truth. That Truth will be under constant attack from the devil every moment of every day in our lives. God has made His statement of Truth and Life. Against that, the enemy, using every means and circumstance possible, will speak his lies. Who speaks louder in your life?

His Truth is not hard to believe when we walk in the sunshine. That's not the place of the devil's lie. He waits to speak to us while we travel through "the valley of the shadow of death." His lies come to us in the place of seeming hopelessness and despair. The place of pain that seems to have no end. In what seems like defeat, setback, or unmoving obstacles. It's in those places that His Voice of Truth and our trust in it is tested severely. In these places, whose voice is louder? The Father's, or the enemy's?

A lady named Ann Voskamp said, "Freedom can be found not only beyond grief and pain, but in it." Joseph and Paul found freedom in a prison cell. John found freedom in a cave on a prison island. Fanny Crosby found freedom in her blindness. These are just some of the names we know. The unknown names who have experienced the same stretch on into eternity. Are you and I to be found among them?

The Voice of Truth has spoken. Has the echo of His voice pierced your innermost being? Or, has the voice of the Deceiver somehow muffled that voice in your life? One or the other speaks loudest. Who speaks loudest to you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Living And Dying In Christ

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21....."Lord, don't let anything live in me that should die, and don't let anything die in me that should live." Leonard Ravenhill

The apostle Paul and Leonard Ravenhill; two men whose hearts beat along with the heart of God. Two men who, as Oswald Chambers put it, walked in step with the footsteps of God. Such men and women are desperately needed by the Church today. Do we aspire to be such people? Do our hearts beat along with the heartbeat of Christ? Do we walk in "the stride" of the Father? Where in our lives do we cry out as Paul does in Philippians? Where do we ask Him to literally "kill" anything within us that is not Him, and deepen the life of everything in us that is? Piercing questions. Dare we ask them? Dare we answer?

Ravenhill said that he felt the highest form of worship was "being speechless." In that place, we have nothing to say at all. All we can do is lie prostrate before Him. Folks, to be in such a place calls for an emptiness of self that few of us care to live in. Most of us have a great deal we feel we need to say to God, and we spend a lot of our time dong just that. What we want, what we don't want. Questions/complaints concerning how He's working, or not working in our lives. We think His greatest desire is to make us happy and prosperous. He says His great desire is to make us holy and pure. T. Austin-Sparks said that His "wonderful plan for our lives is to make us holy." There is only one path to that place; the path to His cross. At the cross and the cross alone do the words of Paul, of Ravenhill, make any sense. Only there can we know that to live really is Christ and Christ alone. Only at the cross can our hearts cry out for Him to replace every aspect of death in our lives and replace it with His life.

There's one other thing that Ravenhill said that has really stuck with me. He said that everyone wants to see a burning bush as did Moses. He asks if we are willing to wait 40 years, as Moses did, to see it? Forty years. Of waiting, of living and of dying. Forty years of seeking and crying out until Moses broke through to Him, and He was able to break through to Moses. Moses, the proud Prince of Egypt, was now a humble shepherd on the backside of the desert. And there, at the end of himself, He encountered the fullness of God. So will we. It's there alone that we discover that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He calls us to that place. Are we willing to go?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Forgotten Fire?

"And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability." Acts 2:2-4...."O I never shall forget how the fire fell, How the fire fell, how the fire fell. O I never shall forget how the fire fell when the Lord sanctified me."......."You never have to advertise a fire........If we really knew God, we'd set the world on fire." Leonard Ravenhill

As we stumble about in the church today, looking for "new" and "relevant" ways to reach a lost, mostly disinterested world who see us as very irrelevant to their lives, how can we miss what is most lacking in all of our attempts? The holy fire of God. The church is not lacking for money, methods, or even men (and women.) But I think we are lacking that holy fire. When I first came into the church, I remember often singing the above hymn. I wonder though; how many sitting (or standing and singing) in our churches have any memory of any fire falling upon them? If His holy fire has fallen, is it falling still?

I heard evangelist James Robison, now in his 70's speak of his call to preach, of how as a shy, unsure boy of 16 he came to an altar of God, and in the midst of all his unanswered questions, gave himself fully to His God, and how, in that moment, the fire fell, filling him with His anointing and presence, giving through him, a message that drew thousands to the heart and life of God. In talking of this, Robison said that today, if the church could move, minister and preach in this kind of holy power, then we wouldn't have to worry about what message we bring to millennials, Gen X's, or folks from the north, south, east, or west. His Word, proclaimed in such power and fire would, as it was to those many thousands in Jerusalem that day, be heard in a manner that could be understood by all. Such is the power of our God. A power that we have somehow become mostly, if not completely disconnected from. Disconnected because we are disconnected from Him. As Ravenhill said, a fire need never be advertised. People are drawn to it, and when His church is filled with such fire, it will get the attention of an unbelieving world. Oh that God would raise up a generation filled with such fire from above. In the Bible, a generation does not refer to any one age group. It defines all who are presently living at the moment. Old, young, and everyone between. Such a generation, filled with His knowledge, life, and yes, His fire, will, just as they did in Acts, turn the world upside down. His Word tells us He is a consuming fire. Has He consumed us? Has He consumed you and me?

Ravenhill also said that "The Church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God." That can happen at only one place. At the altar of God, which is found at the foot of the cross....where His fire falls. Has the fire of God fallen upon you? Or, has it become forgotten fire? Has it ever fallen at all.....on us?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Declaration Of War Prayer

"Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10....."When we say, 'Thy will be done, ' it is to be an assault on the gates of hell. It is an offensive march against the evil of this world.....It calls for God to make His Kingdom manifest in this enemy territory. It is a specific and assertive, a battle cry against everything that is not His will. It is war." Chris Tiegreen
Does Tiegreen's explanation of what it is to pray His will be done bear any resemblance to what's in our hearts when we do pray for His will? If indeed we actually do pray and desire that will. Or, do we tend to see it more as a plea for Him to align His will along with ours and so bring about results that in the main, make our lives better? Do we cry out for God and His world to show up in such a way in this one as to result in all hell breaking loose......literally? That will surely be the result of our really wanting to see His will done here on earth as He has purposed in His heaven. Mark Batterson said that the Father means to take us into the shadowlands, "where light and darkness clash." When we pray for His will we are certainly praying for far more than getting the right job, mate, or ministry. We are praying that what He has purposed to come to pass in, through, and around us, does. And with our complete involvement in it all.

Pastor and author Jim Hylton said that nowhere in His Word are we told to pray for revival. He said we have been instructed to pray "that His Kingdom come." That is, that the fullness of the Kingdom of God would come to pass here on earth. When this happens, awakening, great awakening takes place. He's not doing an old thing in a new way, He's doing a new thing in His way. In the church, I think we've been trying to make our own kingdoms with limited influence from His. When His Kingdom comes, every other kingdom must fall. It would seem then, in fact is, that to pray that seemingly simple prayer, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done," is the riskiest prayer of all, because everything within us that is not of His Kingdom and will must fall......completely.

To pray for His will and kingdom is not just asking for that over ours, but the enemy's as well. That's why it's war. Satan will employ every mean possible to see his plans and purposes be carried out. God employs the prayers of His Christ covered people, connected to an Almighty God. Light and darkness do clash. Hell does break loose, and in it all, His Kingdom comes and His will is done. It's risky prayer. It's a declaration of war prayer. Dare we pray it.....no matter the cost?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Corpse In The Stream

 "On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, 'If you are thirsty, come to Me! If you believe in Me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow out from within.' " John 7:37-38......'What comes out of us? Rivers of Living Water, or rivers of bitterness, anger, and hopelessness?" T. Austin-Sparks

I remember as a very young believer going to a missions service and listening to the missionary talk of his work in West Africa. I don't remember much of anything he said but this one thing. He spoke of one of his fellow missionaries who was known among the people he served as "Rev. Gunpowder." He was so named because of his angry and explosive outbursts. Very likely the man had a good heart and loved those he sought to reach, but what registered on these ones was none of that, but his seeming inability to control his temper. He who was to be a vessel of living water to others, was himself in deep need of that very water. How many of us find ourselves so much like him in our day to day lives?

Wherever we are, does the sweetness of His life flow out of us there? Especially in those difficult places filled with difficult people. Do the waters of our lives flow with His sweetness, or our bitterness? With His hope, or our despair? With His joy, or our anger and disappointment? With His sure expectation of victory, or our resigned attitude of defeat?

In times of warfare, particularly in arid lands, armies would often pollute the water sources, usually by throwing the body of a dead animal down a well or into a stream. The corruption would spread, and what may once have been a source of sweet refreshment was now a source of poisonous death. Where might that be happening in your heart right now? What is polluting the flowing of His living water in your life? Where has the enemy, though offense, disappointment, delay, managed to throw "a dead body" into the stream? Such a stream contains no life. Only death. If such a stream is flowing right now, would you have an end to it?

There is only one remedy. Remove the corpse, and bring it to Him. Lay it before Him, surrendering all of it to Him. Only by this will the rivers of living water begin to flow again to and through us. Let the river flow my friend. Let the river flow.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Unfixable Place

"When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved." Acts 27:20......"We can't really call God 'Abba, Father,' until we first cry 'Uncle!' " Steven Curtis Chapman

I heard singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman say that it was in the "unfixable" places of his life that he came to truly know the Father. Those places where, like Paul and Luke, all visible hope of deliverance, help, a way out, are gone. Places where we finally reach the point of knowing that there is absolutely nothing we can do to make or change the situation for the better. The place where our every plan, scheme, idea, and ability are for nothing. We are totally helpless in what surely seems to be that which will "bring us down." Until we come to such a place, I believe each of us holds on to the idea that there is still something we can do to turn it all around. Yes, we look to Him and His help, but as we look for the unveiling of His plan, we are also forming our own. Just in case of course. Just in case He doesn't come through as He has promised. We want to have all possibilities covered. We know He's God. We know He's "Father." But we've yet to really experience that as our reality.

Here are some questions to ponder: As concerns our greatest need(s), have we come yet to the place where we have given up all hope of our being able to manufacture our own deliverance? Or, are we still weighing all the possibilities of how we might do that? How we may yet turn it all around. As concerns the insurmountable challenges, threats, giants and mountains we face, and all the frustration, anxiety and fear that they bring, have we yet yielded them all to Him in surrender? As we wrestle with them, are we wrestling with Him? Are we now ready to cry "Uncle" and finally, at last, know Him as Father? A Father not only intimately aware of our every need, but One who has already put in place His "strategy" for bringing about His will for us in the midst of it.

Most likely you have heard that when Jesus cried out "Abba, Father," He was displaying His knowing the Father in the full aspect of His personality. He was His Father in the fullest sense of that word, but He was also His "Daddy" in the most intimate love and affection. As He came to His cross, He knew that. He came in surrender and it was His surrender that yielded such knowledge. It will be so for us as well.

In that storm tossed sea, there was no hope of them being saved. When they faced that, it was the opening of discovering the fullness of His power and personality. It is always at the end of self that we will find the beginning of Him. Have you found that in your "unfixable" place? Are you yet ready to cry "uncle?" Are you ready to cease your wrestling with Him, and simply cling to Him, refusing, as did Jacob, to let go? It was in that place that Jacob finally came to know His God. It was in that place that he received a limp that would mark the rest of his life as one that would depend upon Him alone. Scripture says that in that place he prevailed with God. He prevailed by His surrender. In the unfixable place, He discovered the unconquerable God. Have we? Have you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - At The Shack Or At The Cross?

"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked. 'My rabbi,' the blind man said, 'I want to see.' " Mark 10:51 ...."At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light" Issac Watts......"Beloved, the best place to meet God is not at the shack, but at the cross." Michael Youssef

There is a great deal of controversy right now concerning the movie, "The Shack." This writing is not going to enter into that controversy. While there can be no doubt about a lot of the questionable theology of it, I think it does allow for those who wish to have a greater view of His heart, especially concerning forgiveness and healing, the chance to do so. The Father can use anything to draw us to Himself, and if He is using this book and movie for that, it's a good thing. The danger here though is to think that this book/movie, or any book or movie in itself can bring us to know Him. They can be used of Him to point us to Himself, but only He can reveal who He is to us, and that can only happen at one place, the cross. The cross of Christ. It is there alone that we see Him in all His glory. We see His mercy, and we see His justice. We see His love of us, and we see His hatred of sin and all it consequences. Trying to understand Him in any way apart from the cross is an exercise in futility. It's at the cross we see the light. It's at the cross we receive our sight. It's at the cross that "the burden of our sin rolls away."

I came to Christ in 1979. What took place in my heart was real. Thereafter, I was in church every time the doors were open. I was richly blessed in having a pastor who not only knew Him intimately, but was able to present Him in such a way as to enlarge my desire to know Him as well. I faithfully read my Bible, as well as any book whose writing fed that appetite. I remember the devotional, "Streams In The Desert" being the first such book. I wanted to know more deeply, this God that my heart longed for and these men and women spoke and wrote of. Yet, despite the desire, something was missing. What was "missing" was His cross. It was a year almost to the day of my conversion that what I was missing, I discovered, and in the most mundane place.

By this time, following a "sense," and what I later knew to be His call on my life, I had moved out to Colorado to attend Bible College. When I had applied, I had signed an agreement that I would not use drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. The drugs and alcohol had been miraculously removed from my life upon conversion. Cigarettes, well they lingered on. This matter is not one of legalism, but integrity. I had signed and promised to not smoke, yet I was still smoking. With each one came my promise to Him that it would be the last one. The promise lasted until the next one. On an August evening, just a week before the beginning of classes, and after my latest promise to Him, I was leaving a convenience store, having just bought a fresh pack. I lit one up, and I heard His still, small voice whisper, "Is this the last one....again?" I melted. I was broken. I surrendered, fully, to Him. The One I had been pursuing so completely, now completely had me. I met Him there as He was that evening, as He was and is. At His cross. The cross of Christ. I would never be the same again. And at that place, a door opened for me to enter into a richness of knowledge of Him, and experience in Him. The place of the cross.

I still love to read His Word, as well as those who write from their own rich understanding of Him. Tozer, Nee, Sparks, Havner, Chambers, and Ravenhill. But they can only point me to Him. Only He can reveal Himself to me as He is, and He does so at His cross. If "The Shack" has served to point you to Him, be thankful. But you will not find Him there. He calls you to His cross, to Himself. To the cross of Christ.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Starving For Jesus

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God. Psalm 84:3....."I will seek a place at Your altar and humbly draw near to You." Lyric from Randy Rothwell song, "I Will Seek A Place At Your Altar"......"Are we observers, or pursuers of Him? People have learned to be satisfied without a hunger for the presence of God." John Bevere

Soda pop and junk food. These have become staples of our culture's diet. Indeed, that culture has become adept at placing an ever increasing desire for such in our appetites, in many ways, convincing us that they are good for us. We consume such "food" literally, and to our great harm, spiritually as well. In many ways, the Church has become skilled dispensers of the same. I say that not in harsh criticism, but with loving concern and burden.

Some months ago I was visiting the home church of a friend, and attended one of the pre-worship classes. Those in attendance were asked what it was that attracted them to this fellowship. Though the answers varied, the common theme seemed to be that they found love and acceptance from the fellowship, that they enjoyed the friendships they had formed there, and that they very much enjoyed all the wonderful ministries and activities offered there. Let me say that I didn't get any sense that these were the goals of the church itself. I sensed a real burden in the leadership and pastor that all would come to a saving, life giving relationship in and with Christ. But what I heard was that the great attraction for them was what He might give them through the fellowship, not that they might lay hold of the One the Psalmist called "Lord Almighty. My King and my God." The result of this, intentional or not, is to become a person, a people, a church, satisfied with "things" from Him, but lacking a hunger for Him.

Valuing the things listed above by the people is not wrong in itself. Churches should offer love and acceptance for the person, while never compromising on, or accepting the sin that may hold them captive. We have gradually drifted in many ways into offering the benefits and ends to be given by Jesus Christ, over and above the wonder of knowing and living in Him. Simply put, the joy and wonder of loving Him with all our heart and being, and in return experiencing His great love. A life of living for and in Him.

So much of our message today seems to offer a Jesus who will make our lives better and fuller....in the here and now. Better marriages. More contentment in our lives. More success in our endeavors. In short, how to have a great life right here, right now. It's not wrong to want to have healthy marriages, or to find contentment in our day to day living, but they should be by-products of a life spent in total, wholehearted pursuit of Him. Jesus said we're to "seek first His Kingdom," seek Christ Himself, and then "all these things shall be added to you." Our focus has been on "all these things," and not on Christ and His Kingdom. As I heard someone say, "We are the most blessed society on earth, and our greatest desire is for even more blessing." We have become centered on the blessing, not the blessing Giver. When this becomes the message of the Church, we have begun, well meaning or not, to dispense "junk food and soda pop," for this is what even the best and purest blessing is if having it means more to us than partaking of He who is the Bread and Living Water of Life.

It's my prayer that everywhere, and in every place, He would raise up a people who "seek a place at His altar and humbly draw near to Him." A people who come to Him for no other reason than to lay hold of Him. Not for gifts and blessing, but for the Gift of Himself. It has been said that one can grow obese by consuming huge amounts of junk food, and yet be literally starving to death. There is no life giving nourishment in the "food," though they may feel quite "full." Spiritually, where might the same be happening in you, your family, and in your fellowship? Where are we "starving" for Jesus? Starving to death.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Elbow Prints

4 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom [a]every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the [b]saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God....Ephesians 3:14-19

Francis Chan asked the question, "Has anyone ever remarked that you gave witness of being filled with all the fullness of God?" Then he asked another question. He wanted to know what would take place in the Church if, when we came together, everyone was filled with all the fullness of God? Then he asked a final question. He wanted to know what would happen if those given charge over the spiritual well being of the Church began to pray and intercede for their people with the kind of fervor and heart displayed by Paul in the above prayer from Ephesians? What would happen if we ceased calling together our strategy meetings, goal setting sessions, and vision casting times, and simply fell to our knees before Him and cried out that what Paul sought for his hearers would take place in the lives of those He has given us charge over? What would be the result of such a Church, such a people? Surely it would transform the Body, which would once again, "turn the world upside down."

Chan said that what he looked for in a leader of the home group movement he leads was not great preaching or administrative ability. He was not concerned with how great their vision for their group was. He wanted to know if they would intercede for their people with the kind of fervency and urgency that Paul did for the Ephesians? Would they pray that those spiritual traits and characteristics that Paul wanted to define the Ephesians, would be present in and mark the lives of those they were to shepherd? Would they pray that their people would be ones that others recognized as being "filled with all the fullness of God?" Would they be leaders who were literally on their knees before Him, crying out that these ones He had given them charge over, be a people overflowing with His life? Would they? Would we? Would you? Whether pastor, parent, friend, or neighbor, would we, do we, cry out for the souls and lives of those He has given us with the kind of fervency displayed by Paul? Do we passionately seek for them the kind of life Paul sought for the Ephesians? It's a piercing question. How do we answer it?

Beth Moore tells the story of one of her friends who struggled with the rebellious behavior of her son. His life was falling into ever deeper darkness. One night after he came in and went to his room, he angrily came back downstairs to confront his mother. In a rage, he wanted to know if she had once again been praying for him? He said that he knew that she had because he could see her elbow prints on the covers where she had knelt by his bed, crying out for him. Not long afterwards, he surrendered his life to the fullness of Christ's.

Here's a question for us all. For whom and what are we leaving elbow and knee prints? Have we left any at all? In what and for what have we directed our prayers? Spiritually, whose "bed" are we bowing our knees before Him at, crying out that they would be filled with all the fullness of Him? Paul was not praying that he might have a good church filled with good people at Ephesus. He was praying that they be a people filled to overflowing with the fullness of His life. Victorious, overcoming, world changing life. The prison cell Paul was kept in no longer exists, but were we able to observe it, I believe we would find his knee and elbow prints there. Prints that impact the Church even today. What prints are we leaving? Eternity will not likely remember our best sermons, plans, and strategies. I don't think they'll be seen there. I do believe that the knee and elbow prints we leave here will be seen there. Where are ours? Can anyone see them? Can He?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Footprints

"Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea." 2 Corinthians 11:25

When one signs up for a vacation cruise, there are generally different "packages" you can choose from. Usually, even the least expensive ones are meant to provide a good level of comfort and enjoyment......Life in Christ is generally described as a walk, a journey, or a voyage. Jesus doesn't offer us a choice of packages, though somehow many conclude that He does, and all of them are meant to provide for our comfort and well being. In the above Scripture, Paul gives us a glimpse of what his life journey involved. I call it the "Paul Package." It's not a way that our flesh would ever choose. It's the way of Christ. The way of the cross. That way will always include its share of stoning, shipwrecks, and times of being cast adrift. It's a life where He will lead us into the "perfect storm," and then ask us if we will trust Him to bring us through.

I heard Francis Chan say that those who sail the oceans can be sure that the sea will always be the sea. There will be mighty winds and waves, terrible storms, and impossible places. The purpose of the ship's captain is to sail on through them all, and get the ship home. I'm reminded of a pastor friend's story of his father, a seasoned sailor and fishermen, and how he and his family were out on the sea one day when a mighty storm arose. Everyone on board felt the danger of the moment, but up on the bridge, their father, the captain, steadily guided the ship to harbor, to home. The sea was the sea, but the skill of the captain was greater. The world, with all its power and danger, will always be the world. But the skill of the Captain of our souls will always get us home. It's why we can live in confidence, in the midst of the greatest threats and storms. He has overcome, conquered that world....and all its terror.

Many have found great comfort and strength in the well known poem, "Footprints," which tells of how in the journey of life, there are those places where only His footprints are seen. These are the places where He carried us, because we couldn't walk ourselves. I know there are times when this is so, but we have to realize that in our spiritual journey, we too leave footprints. Footprints meant to guide those who are coming behind us. Where are yours and my footprints leading to? Those places that feed our need for self satisfaction, or those places that give testimony to the glory and wonder of Christ? Do our footprints lead to the hill of self, or to the summit of His cross? For those coming behind us, where do they lead? As Beth Moore puts it, "Are we leaving footprints worth following?" Two thousand years later, through his life, we are able to follow the footprints of Paul, who himself followed the footprints of Christ. Do we? What "package" are you seeking in this life? Is there a cross, or just a couch? To where and to what do your footprints lead?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Hidden

"For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3....."There is a difference between following Jesus and being in Christ. There is no question about the need for us to see Jesus as a model and to seek to follow Him, to be like, to do what He would do.....Perhaps this is the real reason why...there are so many strained faces and weary hearts and captive, unreleased spirits....The great example has been a dead weight, beating them down......The uniqueness of the Christian faith is at another point. That point is in the experience of being in Christ, of having our lives hid with Christ in God. Jesus is not only the example we follow, He is the enabler of a new quality of life." Maxie Dunnam

Corrie Ten Boom the heroic Dutch woman and concentration camp survivor, told of an experience she had after one of her meetings, when she had emphasized the need for us to forgive. Right after the message, she was approached by a man who she immediately recognized as the SS guard who presided over the gas chamber at the camp. He came up to her and said, "How grateful I am for your message. To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away." He extended his hand in order to take hers. She could not take it. She realized that all she felt was anger and a desire for revenge against the man who played a role in the murder of her sister in the camp. She said, "I tried to smile. I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing. Not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. So..I breathed a silent prayer. 'Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.' As I took his hand, a most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. So I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness anymore than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."

How many have sought to live the Christ life without Christ? How many have sought to follow His leading, obey His commands, and wholeheartedly at that, but have only found themselves, as Dunnam says, with strained faces, weary hearts, and captive spirits? We try to live a life of power without the power of His life. We place the emphasis on ourselves and our effort, and not upon Him as our enabler, our resource. Ultimately, we fail, no matter how hard we've been trying. We've been living under Christian law instead of in Christ centered power. When we come to the place that Corrie Ten Boom did, when we must display the grace we say we live in, we can't. We can't forgive. We can't extend mercy. We can't walk through the fire. We can't overcome our giants. We can't live in the victory. We are overwhelmed by the impossibility of it all. Jesus would have us be overwhelmed by His life. So few of us are.

To truly come to Christ and be His is to be hidden in Him. This is our spiritual position, but it rarely seems to play out as our spiritual reality. To be hidden in Him is to live our lives out in the fullness of His power and life. Then, when we come up against what is impossible for our flesh to do, as it was for Ten Boom, it is His life, His love, forgiveness, mercy and power, that enables us to do, to live the impossible. Only then can we "walk and not grow weary, run and not grow faint."

If you have truly given your heart and life to Him, than you are hidden in Him. Is your life, my life, reflecting that? We are either crushed by the impossible, or living an impossible life. Which is ours? Which will be ours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Labels

"But now, this is what the LORD says - He who created you, Jacob, He who formed you, Israel: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are Mine.' " Isaiah 43:1

Speaker and writer Christine Caine tells of how she was born to an unwed mother, and that on her birth certificate, under the space for "Father", was typed, "Unknown." She said that was the beginning of a long period in her life where she lived under the bondage and captivity of labels that were placed upon her by others. In that case it was the shame of not having or knowing her father. But there would be more to come. The world, and the enemy who works through it will never be slow to seek to burden us with names and labels that it would have define us, oppress us, shame us. These labels are seemingly endless, and all of them are crushing. Many of us carry them throughout our lives, and the shame of them follow us everywhere. Through them, the devil has convinced us that the labels he's assigned are who we really are. That what has happened to us, or even been done by us, defines us. It follows us, haunts us. Holds us. Shames us.

As tragic as this is in the world, it is even more so when it takes place in the church. It may be shouted at us by the world and whispered at us by the church. Yet the whispers of the church can be far louder and more painful than the loudest cry of the world. Wounds in the house of our friends always are.

What label might you be living under today? The divorced one. The failure. The single mom. The weekend father. The unemployed husband. The struggling pastor. The son or daughter with the alcoholic parent. The perpetual screw-up. These and so many other labels can so easily lay hold us, and seek to define us. They become who we believe ourselves to be. We struggle to escape them, but even when we manage to change the outcomes around us, the labels keep their grip upon our hearts and minds. A death grip, and the only hope we have is to enter into the grip of His love. A love that has always been there, but that our labels have kept us from seeing and knowing.

Scripture indicates that the Father has given us a name over and above our earthly one. The things I look forward to in the fullness of eternity are endless, but one of the greatest is to know that name He gave me not only when He formed me, but that He knew before the beginning of time. Yet He has given me a name already, one that I can know right now. That I do know now. "Mine." Above all the labels of this world, and the enemy that attacks us through them, stands that glorious truth. I am His. He calls me His own. It's a Kingdom label that all the labels of hell cannot dispute, and that all must fall when confronted with. Christine Caine came to know this in her life, and its power was such that the power of every satanic label was broken, along with the shame that held her in chains. We must know it as well. We who have come to Him through the blood Christ, are His. With His eyes of love He looks upon us and simply says, "Mine."

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Container

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4........."The world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity. It's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity." Leonard Ravenhill

Francis Chan asked the question, "Would we really want to be a part of the Church depicted in Acts 2?" There is and has always been a lot of talk about wanting to see the power and life detailed in the first century church come to pass here in the 21st century. Really though, how much of that is little more than "nostalgia?", on par with our warm memories of simpler times in our culture. We like, even love those memories, but truly, would we want to go back to those days? Days that would lack so much of what we have come to depend upon, grown comfortable with, even couldn't do without? In a more probing question, how many of our fellowships, how many of us, would be comfortable and at ease if something akin to what takes place in Acts 2 were to happen in our church this coming "worship" day? T. Austin-Sparks, writing a generation ago, said that the church doesn't understand anything that isn't organized and structured. In other words, that isn't controlled. Who's really in control of what we define as modern worship?

There are a growing number of voices in the professing church that are openly questioning the reality of what has been commonly defined as revival. Voices that say that what we call revivals are most often just based in the emotions rather than the Spirit. They caution against our seeking such things. I have been present in such gatherings, where emotions, not His Spirit reigned, but I have also been present in places where His Holy Spirit did come upon all, and it was real. Our problem is that we are losing the ability to discern the difference, and since we can't, we reject all of it. Sparks also said that the church has sought to reduce the mystery of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit down to what we can understand rationally and intellectually. I think the fruit of this is seen everywhere in the church today. Someone has said that we are a Holy Spirit centered church afraid of the Holy Spirit. The symbol of the Holy Spirit, the dove, may be depicted on our logos, but how powerfully is He manifesting Himself in our midst? John Bevere said the biblical meaning of "manifest" is, "to bring the unseen to the seen, the unheard to the heard, and the unknown to the known." Oh, that this would take place in the church in the west. That it would take place in us, in me.

It has been said that we need another Pentecost, another outpouring of His Holy Spirit. We don't. Pentecost has already come. His Spirit has already been poured out. Our part is to receive what has already been given. For that to happen, we must first realize that we are empty. That must be confessed. We must confess that we are not only empty vessels, but unclean ones as well. Bevere said "The Father has a lack of clean containers into which He may pour His Spirit." We can't clean them, but He can, and does so through our confession and repentance of that spiritual condition. The result; revival, awakening, renewal, newness of life. In short, wholly transformed lives and fellowships. The manifestation of the Kingdom in the church. In you, and in me. I believe such a move of God is already upon us. We will either be a part of it all, or we will miss it. We must "bring the vessels, and not a few." The question for you and me is, will our container be a clean, or an unclean one?

Blessings,
Pastor O