Heart Tracks - Jesus Only?

"Once more He asked him, 'Simon son of John, do you love Me?' Peter was grieved that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, 'Lord, You know everything. You know I love You.' Jesus said, "Then feed My sheep.' " John 21:17....."There is nothing easier than getting into a right relationship with God except when it is not God Whom you want, but only what He gives....When you draw near to God you cease asking for things." Oswald Chambers

The other day, I wrote in my prayer journal, "Are we 'Jesus and.....' or 'Jesus only.....' people?' By this I meant, is Jesus alone sufficient for our lives, or, do we need "add on's?" How we answer the question determines whether we are, at root, living Christ centered, or blessing based lives. Lives that center either on Christ, or the things He provides. Lives that are loyal and grounded in Him in all places, or lives that draw near in order to have the "good bread" He provides?

Jesus never had a problem drawing a crowd when He was giving out bread and fishes, healing the sick, making the lame walk, and giving sight to the blind. Most everyone was happy to sign up for that. But, as we see in John 6, when He told them that to follow Him meant the abandonment of everything that was not Him, the response of verse 66 is seen. "At this point many of His disciples turned away and abandoned Him." Jesus lived His life and carried out His ministry with the cross always before Him. He knew where He was going, and His expectation, His command, was that all who follow Him willingly move in that direction as well. He did so "for the joy set before Him." Not for the rewards of this life, but the wonder and joy of eternity. He knew that the "good bread" of this world is nothing more than moldy bread in comparison with His Bread of Life. "Jesus only" people know this, and willingly go to their own cross with and for Him. But it's at this point that "Jesus and" people will turn away. When the bread stops flowing, and all that remains is a cross to die on, they cannot see that it is the door to a life beyond description. They're too focused on the bread. They can no longer see Him. As these turn away, His question to us will always be, "Will you leave Me also?" Peter, speaking for them all, said, "Lord, where would we go. You alone have the words of eternal life." That's how they answered. How do you and I answer?

If you don't know Christ today, then it's not a question of Jesus and or Jesus only. It's a matter of "Jesus who?" Do you know, really know, in your heart, who He is? But if you've answered yes to that question, than how do you answer as to whether you believe and follow for the joy of His Presence, or for the good bread that comes along with that Presence? If it's the latter, then when the bread runs out, so will you. If it is Christ alone you want, you follow Him, go with Him, to the cross. Because you, like Him, can see the joy set before you. When this happens, you are used of Him to feed His lambs....you've become His bread, sourced in eternity.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Coping Or Rising?

"Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad-because these trials will make you partners with Christ in His suffering, and afterwards you will have the wonderful joy of sharing His glory when it is displayed to all the world." I Peter 4:12-13

Beside this verse, I have written, "Do we just cope with life, or rise above it?" That's a penetrating but fair question for everyone who takes the name of Christ as their Savior. If we have truly, in our hearts and lives, received Him as Lord and Savior, how then do we face life in a fallen, hostile world? One that will surely have more than its share of trouble, difficulty, and yes, suffering, in store for us? How do we deal with all of that? Do we just try to "cope with it," somehow survive it, and make it to heaven? Or, do we live lives that mark us as being, "more than conquerors?" A philosopher once said, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation." I think he was right, if he spoke only of those without Christ. But this can never be the state of those who are in Christ. Yet it seems so many who profess to be His are living lives that could be defined as being in quiet desperation. Why, how, can this be so when so much of His Life is made available to us through the cross and His resurrection?

Watchman Nee, writing on the verse, "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free," said, "The Greek word for Truth here is best translated as "reality." So many know the Truth intellectually, but it is not their reality. It's never been, and isn't now, their experience. It was said of the Israelites after they were overrun by their enemies, that they were now living as prisoners in their own land. I think this is the condition of so many in the Kingdom right now. The Israelites had entered into the land God had promised them, but now, through unbelief, lived in that land as prisoners, a conquered people. It was never to be so for them, and it is not to be so for us. But is it?

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life." All who come to Him enter into that life, that promise. The question for each is, have we entered into that life only by intellectual agreement or through heart experience? The first yields a life that copes, tries to survive, and seems always at the mercy of circumstance. The latter brings forth life that overcomes, lives in victory, and can never be held captive by circumstance. It's life that make one more than a conqueror. It's His resurrection life, a rising life. Is it our life?

What mode of life do we live in today? The coping, survival mode, or the rising, resurrection one? Do we just agree with His Truth, or do we live in it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Prison Ministry

"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." Hebrews 13:3....."Tell me how much you know of the suffering of your fellow men, and I will tell you how much you have loved them." Helmut Thielicke....."God's prisons are full of His loved ones." Chris Tiegreen

When I started out in ministry, I somehow had the naive belief that I would be pastoring lots of nice folks, living nice lives, serving a "nice" God. I saw myself as willingly being "where they were." I never foresaw myself as being with them "in prison." Both literally and figuratively. Even more, I never saw myself as being one "in prison." But I would be, and many times.

Through the years, the Father has placed me in the lives of people who were in literal "jailhouses." I have never been able to be comfortable in these places. The bars, the guards, the sense of real sorrow and suffering that is there. I have always felt like the very walls were closing in on me when in them. Yet I knew He would have me there, offering whatever kind of comfort and hope that I could to them. My distaste of these places is natural. No one would want to be there. A desire to avoid them is natural as well, but He didn't give me an option with it. He never does. He had given me my own type of "prison ministry," and along the way, I discovered that for those that are His, prison ministry extends far beyond concrete walls and iron bars. It goes to those confined in jail cells whose walls and bars are made up of circumstances, emotions, and desperate needs of every kind. I have also discovered that just as my flesh wished to avoid visiting those behind literal bars, so does our flesh tend to try and ignore those trapped in invisible prison cells that involve just as much suffering and more, as those held in literal ones.

Paul was a man well acquainted with prison cells. He spent a lot of time in them. Yet they never defeated him. He knew that his being there had been allowed, even ordained by Him. That's a hard place to be. How could a loving God allow any of His people to be in such a place? But He does, because He has something far greater in mind in all of it. Paul knew that cell could never imprison His spirit or His life in Christ. God knew that in that cell, He could so work in Paul's life as to make him a blessing to people like you and me two thousand years later.

I've a good friend whose life circumstances cause him to now refer to himself, as did Paul, as "the Lord's prisoner." After a long and fruitful public ministry, he finds himself with real limitations on himself, but none on the ability of His God to speak into and grow his life in that place. And many benefit from what he learns in his cell. It is always so, and if any of us who find ourselves in such a cell right now, know that the Father intends the same for us. To make us "fruitful in the land of our affliction." Paul knew his prison cell was not final, and neither is ours. In his cell, Paul was fully free. We can be as well. He will bring us out into that "broad place." For those who are His, no bars or walls of any kind can hold us. We are to be free in all places, even a jail cell.

So what is the part of we who are not in a prison today? Paul cherished the ministry of those who visited him in prison. That is to be our ministry as well. Our flesh will seek to avoid it, but the Father commands it. Someone, near you, right now, is in such a prison. How often, if at all, do you "visit" them? They have the Lord, do they also have you? Jesus said, "I was in prison and you visited Me." Are we doing so in the lives of those living in all kinds of prison cells? Or do we just stay away? Neglecting Him as we neglect them.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Total Disability

 And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.   

Luke 9:23

I heard speaker Ann Voskamp talk recently about living a life either focused on the cross or upon comfort. The question that arose for me, for all of us is, are we living cross shaped or comfort shaped lives?  Which most closely defines us? Do we most want to be in Him, or in circumstance that please and comfort our flesh. Which desire and path really directs our lives?

I've a good friend who, along with his wife, is walking through what might be the most challenging time of his long and fruitful life. He said to me recently that he had come to the place of declaring "total disability" in his journey with Christ. By this he meant that he admitted his complete inability to change or make things better, or to deal with the many challenges of their situation in his own strength. He was totally disabled, and therefore, totally dependent on His God. Few of us care to go to this place, but all of us who say we have taken up our cross to follow Christ can not end up anywhere else. We must all become "totally disabled" in ourselves that we may become totally dependent upon Him.

 Many of us say we have taken up our cross and followed Him, but few of us are really willing to be on "total disability" in Him. We always seem to have some part of ourselves that still believes it can "handle" things, figure a way through or out. There remains in us, in some degree, a stubborn self-reliance that we cling to. As long as it remains, we hold our cross very loosely, able to let it drop at any time. And those times can be frequent. 

There's a worship chorus that contains the words, "sweetly broken." It refers to a brokenness that yields a sweet fragrance from our lives to Him. Our flesh fears brokenness because it destroys its control over us. Voskamp says, "The degree to which we embrace brokenness is the degree to which we can embrace abundance and intimacy." My friend that I mention above, says that though the pain of this time is immense for he and his wife, the joy and wonder of what they are experiencing in Christ is beyond words. They've entered into an abundance and intimacy in and with Him beyond what they've ever known. It's the place that all true cross carrying will take us. We enter into the fellowship of His sufferings, but into His joy, peace, and wonder as well.

Who among us is really willing to embrace total disability in Christ? Would we have it, or, do we go on living in some measure of self-reliance? If we are to carry our cross, than not just some things of the flesh must die, but all things of the flesh must perish. That's total disability. That's complete brokenness. It's also the pathway to true and full abundance in and intimacy with Him. Do we have that? Will we have that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Are You Thirsty?

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink." John 7:37

Years ago there was a popular beer commercial from a company named Stroh's. In it, a man is crawling across a desert, dying of thirst. He comes upon a man, and asks him, "Would you happen to have any Stroh's?" The man answers that he doesn't, but that he does have a jug of cold, clear water that he'd be happy to give him his fill of. The dying man says, "No, thank you, but I really have a taste for some Stroh's," and he continues to crawl across the desert. That ad was meant to bring humor to its watchers, but as I think on it, it seems a perfect picture of all who are without Christ, and very sadly, too many who would profess to be His right now.

All of us are born with a spiritual thirst, and all of us, whether we want to admit it or not, are like the man crawling across the desert. We are dying for the water of life that only Jesus Christ can give, but also like him, we reject His Living Water for that which gives no life at all. We embrace what amounts to nothing more than the worlds' "soda pop," which will not only not satisfy our thirst, but increase it. Christ, in His sufficiency, stands before us in our spiritual desert and offers His water of life, but we say no, and crawl on, seeking what we will never find, but which is readily available to us right now. Our "taste for Stroh's" is killing us, but we continue to seek it nonetheless.

We humans are a thirsty people. We thirst for so many things; success, fulfillment, happiness. We try to satisfy this thirst through achievement, relationships, and comfort. We have a "taste" for these things, but our pursuit of them leads us to one place only; the desert. In that desert, as we crawl on towards our having them, we will encounter the One who knows and has what we most need, and what we must have; the Living Water of His Life. Then we're faced with a choice; will we receive His water, or will we crawl on, trying to satisfy a thirst that the desert we are in will never be able to do? The consequences of that choice will have, do have, eternal ramifications for us all. For you and for me.

It is an eternal tragedy to be offered the water of life and reject it, and so many will, but it is an equal one to have been offered that water, to receive it, and yet never drink it. This is the witness of so many who say they are His. The water has been given, yet they crawl on. At best, they take an occasional sip or two, but for the most part, never drink deeply. They still try to satisfy their "taste" in other things, and only grow more thirsty in the seeking.

In what way might any of us be crawling through a desert right now, indulging our tastes, and missing our Savior? He is there, right in the middle of our desert, offering His cold, pure, water of life. Will we have it, drink it, or, do we keep on crawling....ever deeper into the desert?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - His Word And His Spirit

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life. John 6:63....."I think the most awesome task in the world tonight is not to be the President of the United States or the king of an empire, but to be a man who stands between a living God and a dying people." Leonard Ravenhill

How many of us really desire to be the man, or woman, who fits Ravenhill's above description? Moses was such a man. Daniel was such a man. So was Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, John, and a host of others whose names we will never know this side of eternity. A dying world owes them, and the God they serve in Christ, a debt it can never repay. The need of that world for such men has always been desperate. It is desperate still. Are you and I really available to be such men and women?

James Robison said that when we speak the Word of God, we need to do so with and in the Spirit of God. There are many very willing to speak His Word, but in what spirit do they speak? Many take pleasure in "punishing" people with His Word. There is a kind of "I told them" attitude to it all. Paul did not hold back from confronting the Corinthians over their sin, but he did so with tears. Tears that stained the very pages of the letters he wrote. We decry the lack of those who will preach the full Word of God, and we should, but can we be equally burdened over the lack of grieving over wayward, backslid, lost, men and women, that can be found in the hearts of those who do?

I once heard a preacher described as one whose messages were so saturated with His Truth that they "peeled the paint" from the sanctuary's walls. Yet it was said of that same preacher that he did so with tears. One of the things I love to do is listen to recordings or watch old videos of men like Ravenhill, Tozer, and Havner preach. Such men were "wall peelers" for sure, but what also marked them were their breaking hearts for their listeners as they delivered His Word. They spoke His Word, but did so with His Spirit. Charles Spurgeon said that when he preached, he burned, and people came "to watch me burn," and in turn be burned by His fire themselves. Swept up in it. A dying world needs such today, just as they did in their day. Would you and I be such?

There was no "secret" to it other than this; the men above lived in that "secret place" in Him. That place where He reveals His heart to those who will dwell there, and give that heart to them as well. We need to be dwellers in, and not visitors to that place. Only then can we be among those who speak His Word with His Spirit. All of us are called to bear witness to His Truth. In word and in deed. If we do, do we do so with His Spirit or in our flesh? As John 6 says, "the flesh counts for nothing." A dying world needs to hear the Word that is full of Spirit and Life from men and women who will stand between it and the Father. Will we, you and I, be such to it, and to all those who dwell there?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Finished!

Finished!

"I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do." John 17:4.... The greatest note of triumph ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ— “It is finished!” (John 19:30). That is the final word in the redemption of humankind. Oswald Chambers

When Christ cried out on the cross, "It is finished," He was making a declaration of freedom to all who would hear His cry. As Chambers alludes, it shook the universe. It still does. Has it shaken you? Has it been heard by you? Do you realize, know, that the captivity of sin into which all are born, was broken, once for all by the sacrifice of His life on the cross. The power of the curse upon mankind was broken...for all who would receive it. Has it been received by you? When He cried "It is finished," He was saying that all that was needed to break the power of sin over the human race had been accomplished through His death on the cross and soon to follow resurrection. He needed to add nothing. It was complete. It was finished. Is it finished for, and in you and me? His victory went "far as the curse is found," and further still. Resurrection life has been released to all who will receive it. Resurrection life that permeates and fills every aspect of our lives. It is what He has given us. Is it being realized, lived out by us?

Ray Pritchard wrote, "When Jesus said it was finished, He meant it was finished in the past, it is still finished in the present, and it will remain finished in the future." There is nothing we can or need do to add to the work of Christ on the cross. It is finished, and as the old song goes, "The battle is over." Except for so many, the battle goes on. They still live as if everything depends upon them, not knowing and experiencing that all depends upon Him. So the past keeps them in chains, the present fills them with anxiety, and the future holds nothing but fear. For those trapped in such lives, it is never finished. It is an endless journey of weariness that just leaves us more weary, discouraged and defeated.

It's Easter time again. Maybe you'll find yourself in a church somewhere. Hopefully, if you do, you'll hear some form of this truth. If so, what will you do with this truth? Will you nod your head in agreement with what you hear, bask in some momentary feelings of hope, and then step back into your world, trying to hold on for another day....and then another day, and then....? Two thousand years ago, the One who holds the key, unlocked the chaining power of sin. It was finished on that cross. All that remains for you and me is to enter into that finished work and begin to live in the fruit of its victory. Finished? Yes! Finished in you? Only you can answer that.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Invader

"Death has no more dominion over Him... in that He lives, He lives unto God. Likewise, reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God." Romans 6:9-11....."The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a Guest in a house. He invades everything...He takes charge of everything; my part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals....The weakest saint can experience the power of the Deity of the Son of God if once he is willing to 'let go.' " Oswald Chambers

Henry Blackaby said that when once the Father has spoken to and revealed Himself, His will and His way to us, His immediate demand upon us is that we "reorient our lives to what He has just spoken." Two key words here; "immediate" and "reorient." Somehow, we find ways to avoid doing what those words require.

In my very early ministry, I had a man in the church who, when confronted about one or more of the areas of his life in which he was failing to obey the Lord, would say, "The Lord's been speakin' to me about that." His response is far from unknown in the rest of us. Somehow, we have come to the place of thinking that when the Father speaks His will for us, it's okay to enter into a "discussion" with Him about it. We don't call it disobedience. We've found other ways of denying that it's that. We're "talking to Him" about things, or we're "wrestling" with Him over something. When we do this, we give ourselves permission to continue on in our disobedience. We say it's just a matter of our not being ready to walk in that light, but if the Father has spoken it, we can be sure, He says we are ready, and His demand that we respond in obedience is immediate. And in our yielded response is the willingness to allow Him to fully reorient our lives in order to be obedient, regardless of the perceived cost to us. Jonah was a man to who could surely say, "The Lord's been speakin' to me about that," and he ended up in the belly of a fish. That's the kind of place disobedience will always take us to. Has it taken any of us there now?

When God sent the people of Israel into their promised land, they were to defeat the nations of that land as they claimed it. One nation and one battle at a time. They were to invade the land until every nation currently in it was defeated and removed. This is a wonderful illustration of what it is to grow in grace. Christ, through His Holy Spirit does indeed invade our hearts and lives and His will is to possess every part of us for Himself. He does so by defeating and removing every obstacle within us to His Lordship. He does so as we "let go" of each obstacle as He reveals them, and surrender them to Him. Israel's great downfall was that they never did fully remove the pagan nations of the land He had given them. As a result, the "invaders" were themselves invaded by the wickedness of the people and nations the Lord commanded them to eliminate. We can be sure that whatever "issue" we refuse to deal with, to let go of, will live to tempt us, to bring us down again and again and.....As I heard it said, what we don't deal with today will surely deal with us tomorrow.

Watchman Nee asked the question as to whether we are living in "rebellion, presumption, or submission?" Do we presume that our avoidance of obedience can be justified? If so, no matter how we seek to label it, it's rebellion. Our only option is submission, obedience. Jesus does indeed stand at our heart door, not as a Guest, but as an Invader. As Lord. Have we received Him as such? Or do we just let Him go on knocking, speakin' to us, at the door?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Other Options

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4
...."The biblical definition of rebellion is simply refusing God's counsel. It is drawing back from God's Word." Beth Moore...."The world will always be the world. The tragedy is when the Church is no longer the Church." Francis Chan

People from Missouri have the reputation for being stubborn. I've found, as has most every other pastor, that this trait is not limited to folks from Missouri. I remember a fellow pastor once saying that in his counseling times with his people, they would present to him a particular problem or situation they were facing, and he would share with them what the Father's direction in his Word was. Very often, the person would consider this for a moment, and then ask, "What are my other options?" God's guidance and counsel is readily available to any and all who would hear it. Our problem is that we are usually looking for "other options." The Bible describes such an attitude as being "stiff necked and rebellious." We would not. Our flesh can enable us to become highly skilled at not only denying His Word, but denying that we're "denying" it at all. How else may we explain the comfort level we seem to have with lawlessness within the Church today? We live in a lawless world. One look at the behavior of those we elect to political office verifies that. Yet we continue to elect them. The Church is to be salt and light, both of which purify, but they also inflict pain upon that which is impure and dark. We do so in love, His love, but, we do so! There is no other option for us....except disobedience....rebellion.

Chan's words pierce. We can decry the increasing depravity and darkness of the world, but if it is increasing, it can only be because the effect of the salt and light of the Church has decreased. The world will always be the world. To what degree are we truly being the Church? Yes, we minister in love, but as someone said, love not only wins, it warns. The Father has not been fearful in stating His heart and desire to a fallen world. Somehow, the Church has...and that is truly a tragedy. We may fill sanctuaries with people, but when they leave, are they truly salt and light to the world they go out to? Are we threats to the darkness, impurity, sin, that is all around us? Or are darkness and sin quite comfortable with us, because regardless of what we say, we've become quite comfortable with them? That darkness readily offers us "other options." Where and how have we accepted them?

I pray that even at this late stage in my life, He would raise me up to be salt and light in an impure and dark world. I pray for a Church that will be the same. A Church that doesn't just offer a social network, or a safe haven for our families, or surround us with like minded "nice" people, but a Church emanating powerful amounts of salt and light. A Church that does not draw back from the full counsel of the Father and His Word in Christ. A Church that offers no other option but "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." A Church that will not cease to be the Church.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Desperate God

Desperate God

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. Matthew 23:37

The other day I was listening to someone talk about their desperate situation. We humans seem to get into a lot of those. However, most of our ideas about what is a desperate place seem to revolve around money, relationships, jobs, even ministries. I don't minimize the seriousness of any of those, but what we so often miss is that all of us are born into the most desperate of situations. We are born into a sin drenched world, drenched in that very sin ourselves. And the desperation of it all is that we can't do anything about it. The bent towards sin is in our spiritual DNA because it was infused into the human race through Adam and Eve in the Garden. Some call that merely a "myth," but then, none of them can ever explain the intense evil and darkness that has been in this world since what the Bible records as "the fall of man." Humanists keep telling us that we can "evolve" from that evil and darkness, but tell me,as you look around you in our so called, "enlightened" 21st century, where do you see any evidence of that? Our need is desperate, but our hope is in this thought that came to me; in the midst of our most desperate need, we have a Desperate God who is desperate to meet it. Indeed, He has met it in Jesus Christ. He gave His Son to live, die, and be raised for us. He who said He is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," also said that "No one may come to the Father except through Me." There's an old hymn that goes something like, "What more can He do than He's already done?" At Calvary, it was "done." Christ Himself said, "It is finished." Has it been done in you? Is it finished in you?

That portrait of Christ looking down upon the city of Jerusalem is one of the most powerful in Scripture. He gazes upon a people desperate for a Savior, but rejects the very One the Father sent to them. Where and how have we done the same? If you have never recognized Him for who He is, than likely, you don't truly know how desperate your situation is. My prayer is that you would know Him, personally, as He is, not just know about who He is. Your need is desperate, and a Desperate God has already met it in Jesus Christ. Will you have Him? You may say that you have already received Him for your need of a Savior. Are you receiving Him in the midst of whatever your desperate place is today? Or, are you turning Him away and trying to handle and do everything in your own strength? Is He reaching out to you in order to fully lead your life, but He says to you there, " You wouldn't let Me?"

Desperate need(s) met in Jesus Christ. Is it so for you today? I forget the source of the quote, but you may be familiar with it. "Most men live their lives in quiet desperation." is that you? Are you living out your life in quiet, or perhaps not so quiet, desperation? Your need has been met, fully, in Christ. Have you received Him, or do you turn Him away....... because you will not let Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Surrendering The Dream

37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. Luke 7:37-38....."Then I threw the dream into the sea. Maybe it will rise again." Lyric from "What Is This Thing Called Love" by Delirious..."The greatest act of worship can be to put our dreams to death in order to embrace God's plan." Sheila Walsh

There is a great deal of discussion, sharing of ideas, definitions of, and yes, controversy over what constitutes worship in the Church. Most of it seems to be centered on style. I wonder how much of what we call worship looks anything like that of the woman at Christ's feet? What element of sacrifice goes into our "worship" of Him? Would we "pour out" unto Him even that which we hold most precious?

Tradition has it that it was Mary Magdalene, a prostitute, who poured out the perfume upon the head and feet of Jesus. That perfume was believed to have had worth to the point of being able to care for a number of people for a long time, not to mention the standard of life it could have provided Mary. The cost and value of the perfume meant nothing to her when compared to her desire to simply love and worship Him. The Bible tells us that He had cast numerous demons out of her previous to this, and her ministry to Him here is her act of worship in her gratitude and love for Him. She let what the world called precious go, in order to embrace the One who was, is Precious beyond words. To what degree are we willing to do the same?

It may be that there is nothing more precious to us than our dreams. Dreams for ourselves, our children and loved ones. Dreams even of what we want to do for Him in His Kingdom. Many of the dreams can be selfish, benefiting us more than anyone else, but many are not at all. They're sincere dreams with which we want to honor and glorify Him. They're truly acts of worship. Yet, can we come to a place in worship where we can surrender to Him even the most precious and pure dream, and leave it there, at His cross? As the lyric says, maybe it will rise again, but whether it does or does not, we leave it there, at His feet, in worship. In trust. We surrender our dream in order to embrace His dream, desire, and plan for us. This is worship, where all of our dreams are surrendered to Him, trusting that His dream for us is greater...even if the unfolding of it seems to be anything but that for us. Before His dream for us may live, every dream of ours must be yielded to Him. We have to be willing to let them die, trusting that all of them fall short of His desire, plan, dream, for us.

It's easy to fall into the trap of worshiping our dreams, even our most pure ones, instead of Him. To worship Him "in spirit and in truth," means we give them all to Him, even if it means the loss of them all, in order that we might have Him in all His fullness. The dreams may die, or He may raise them up, but whatever path He takes us on, it is His path, His dream, and His desire for us coming to pass. The less precious has been yielded for He who is most precious. That's true worship. Is it what marks our worship?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The New Thing

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19

I've a friend that I get with in prayer regularly. He's walking through a time in his life that is challenging him in every way. As he was sharing some of what the Lord is teaching him through this time, he referenced the above Scripture, and how we tend to understand it. He said that when we think of "new things" that the Father is doing in our lives, we think of "new and exciting" things. Things we enjoy and look forward to. He said that he knew that He was doing such a thing in his life, but that it was anything but exciting and enjoyable to his flesh. This new thing of the Lord was stretching him spiritually in ways he couldn't have known. He said it was painful, but at the same time, glorious, because the new thing He was doing in his life was resulting in a new and deeper understanding and knowledge of the Father. As I listened to him relate all this, a train of thought from His Spirit came to me. It simply said that the new thing He does in us is so often the last thing our flesh would desire, but if we will walk with Him through the process, we will find it to be the very best thing of all. If we can get away from our western mindset and examine the lives of those who lived most deeply in Him, isn't that exactly what took place in their lives as He revealed His "new thing" for them?

The Father's new thing for Paul led to a prison cell and a headsmen's axe. His new thing for Peter led to his being crucified upside down. For John, the new thing was a barren prison island, removed from all he knew and loved. For these heroes of the faith, and the countless unknown heroes that came after them, His new thing always included pain and suffering. It always stretched them beyond what they thought they could endure, took them further than they ever thought they could go. After his salvation experience on the Damascus Road, the Father's first words to Paul were that he would show him "How much he must suffer for My sake." For the sake and cause of Christ.

The new thing that He would do in these men and women of faith was certainly the last thing their flesh would have chosen, but the result for them, and for all those impacted by their lives, was His very best. For them, and for we who have been blessed by the journey they entered into. The new thing He did in their lives resulted in blessing, joy, and life for untold numbers whose lives were impacted by that new thing He revealed to them. And He continues to reveal through them.

I believe that He is always doing a new thing in the midst of His Church, of His people, but we will miss it if we insist on living within the comfort zone of the old things we know so well. The new thing He's doing will stretch us and take us further than we thought possible. It will certainly involve pain, but oh, the joys to be found and known in Him as He does it. None of the heroes of faith would exchange the best things He gave in the midst of the new things He was doing. They entered into a joy and glory in His presence that was worth it all. So will we if we will persevere to the end.

Are you longing for Him to do a new thing? That's a great desire, but know that the path lies through your own Gethsemane and to His cross. That's the last thing your, our, flesh will seek, but its end will be the best thing we could ever have....deep, wonderful, intimate fellowship with Him. He's doing a new thing. Will you allow Him to do a new thing in you....no matter where and how He leads you to it?

Blessings,
Pastor O