Heart Tracks - Giants In The Land

"The land we explored will swallow up any who go to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that's what we looked like to them." Numbers 13:32-33...."The time for the giant to go down is now....Jesus had already slain all the giants." Louis Giglio

There is something I have learned, and keep learning in my life journey with Him. It's a learning experience that continues no matter how long I've gone on with Him, and no matter how old I get. It's really a two-fold lesson. First, He always seeks to lead me into a "new land." He is always leading us on. Sometimes the pace is slow, at times, almost imperceptible, but He leads us ever onward and upward. Secondly, in every place that He leads me, there are giants of some type waiting. They come in many forms under many names, and not all of them are fearsome, at least in appearance. Yet all of them have as their goal, stopping us dead in our tracks. Whether we fear them, as did the Israelites, or seek to make peace with them, the end result will always be the same; our defeat, and the thwarting of His purposes for us.

When Saul and his army encountered the Philistines and their giant, Goliath, they experienced both. They shook with fear, and Saul would not even leave his tent. Though they came to do battle, they avoided that and were in the moment, trying to co-exist with an enemy dedicated to their destruction. Then David arrived on the scene, and he would have no part in either. His mind and heartset was, as Giglio says, that the time for the giant to fall was now. And in that "now" moment, David slew him. Yet, what we miss is that Goliath was already defeated before David ever came on the scene. When he charged Goliath, David said he came at him in the "Name of the Lord." A Lord and God who had already won the victory. That was the confidence and truth David lived in. To what degree do we live in the same?

There have been, all along my way with Him, giants who have sought to make me see myself as a grasshopper. When this happens, my only recourse is to see not myself, or the giant. I have to see Him. Until then, the only running I will do is away from the giant, not towards him. When that happens, we tend to just keep running. What giants are we, you, running from today? What are their names? Fear? Anxiety? Bitterness? The Unknown? The Uncontrollable? Maybe it's the most fearsome giant of them all, even though he may look the least threatening. That's the giant called "Comfort." He keeps us in places not only of outer comfort, but inner as well. Comfort that keeps us from growing, stretching, gaining more and greater victories in Him. He's a false comfort and he will keep us from ever knowing or experiencing He who is all Comfort. Whatever form he takes, he will try to keep us out of the land the Lord has already given us, and living in the victory that Christ has already won. Where is he doing that to you and me? In what "tents" are we hiding?

On the cross, Christ slew forever every giant that will ever come against us, but we will not know that victory unless we dare to go with Him into the new lands He has both prepared for and given us. Giants of every name await. Giants of every kind who've already been crushed by Christ. Do we step out in the name of the Lord, or flee from the giant? The devil will always tell you that you're just a grasshopper. The Father tells you that you are His. Because of this, all that He has given you is yours, because the giants are already defeated trespassers in a land already owned by Him. Owned by Him, and by you and me...in Christ.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Living In His Dream

"So then, those who received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls....And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Acts 2:42,47....."Unless we have apostolic consecration, apostolic faith and apostolic power, we shall still fail to see apostolic results....We must not overlook...the greater need of apostolic spirituality, nor be dismayed if along the way we encounter apostolic trials." Watchman Nee

So often in my years in ministry, many, including myself, have pointed to the early, first century church, and how many souls were won to Christ through it's ministry. They were truly a people who "turned the world upside down." In doing that, the message was, "We can be that church as well. We can see great numbers of people coming to Christ too. We can turn the world upside down as well." So we exhort our people and one another to step out and do exploits, to turn the world upside down again. Yet too often, the result is weary, discouraged, frustrated, even cynical people. The world remains indifferent, and we become worn out. How can this be? What has changed? Certainly not God. Certainly not Christ. Certainly not the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. What's the missing element? Dare we say that it's us, that we may be present, but hardly accounted for?

We want to see, long to see, the apostolic power of the body of Christ unleashed in this severely broken world and culture we are in. We come together, we pray, we plan, we strategize, yet a dying world remains unchanged, and too often, unaware of us. We seem to ask, "Where is the God of Elijah?" We miss what I saw as one answer to that question, "He's waiting for 'Elijah' to appear." We ask, "Where is the power and fruit of the apostolic church?" Could it be that He seeks an apostolic people through which He may move?

Dwell upon what Nee writes; to have the fruit of what took place on Pentecost and the days, weeks, and even years afterwards, there must be a people who are fully consecrated, spirit-filled, God empowered vessels of His Life. We must walk in apostolic spirituality. Without this, all our planning, working, even praying, is in vain. Francis Chan once asked two penetrating questions. The first was, "Would we really want to be a part of the first century church?" Dwell on that....They were not a perfect people, but they were marked by one thing; they were His. Fully His. Their agenda's, plans, desires, resources, were all on His altar. They were not their own. Their time was not their own. Even what they "owned" was not their own. Do we really want to be that "sold out" to Him? Secondly he asked, "If we were to walk into a first century church gathering, what would we see? Everyone sitting down, facing forward, listening to one person speak, and then we all go home in our cars?" We have presentations more than we have worship. Onlookers far more than participants. They couldn't get enough of Him. We've had enough after an hour or so. The result is a world turned upside down, but not by us. It's being done by an already defeated enemy as a complacent church stands by. A church that looks for apostolic results without having to live apostolic lives. As Nee writes, "To simply adopt apostolic methods is not enough." We can imitate their methods, hold multiple prayer meetings, commission workers, but we can never imitate the power of the lives they walked in. They possessed a desperation not only for the manifestation of God around them, but even more, within them. When we lack that, there are not enough "methods" in all the world to make up for the lack.

I don't write this as a scathing review of the church in the west. I write it as one longing to move in and be a part of the kind of church Nee describes. I'm weary of seeing what people can do. What I can do, which is nothing apart from Him. I hunger more each day for the apostolic power Nee writes of and the world witnessed in that first century. I can't accept anything less anymore. Where is the God of Elijah? He is moving, but is He moving in us? May He move, with all His power and life, in and through you and me. Apostolic consecration, faith and power. This is His dream for us. Is His dream being realized in you, me, your fellowship, and mine? Are we living in His dream?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks = The Lord's Usher

"A bridegroom's friend rejoices with him. I am the bridegroom's friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less." John 3:29-30...."What God's given others to do takes nothing from the distinction He's given me." Cheryl Martin

Years ago I had a little booklet about the ministry of being an usher in the church. In today's church, it's not really that familiar of a word or ministry. It may be used when those who take the morning offering are called to the front of the church, but for the most part, it's not really seen as a "ministry." That wasn't the view of the brother who wrote the booklet. He saw it as a vital ministry in the Body. Ushers were generally the first people one encountered when entering the fellowship. They welcomed, assisted, and supplied information. They made an impression, but at the same time, were mostly anonymous. They weren't there to draw attention to themselves, but to the church and Lord they represented. It was and is a ministry, but a largely neglected one in these days of superstar preachers and worship leaders. Most of us want to be like them. Few of us seek the role of the usher. And it's not just within the Body that this is so. The drive to be recognized is a strong one that plays out in every facet of life. We seek the center stage, the spotlight. Few of us wish to be "stage hands." Even fewer care to be the one who sits in the dark pointing the spotlight at the one who is on stage. Many know the words of John the Baptist in John 3. Not many of us really care to live them. We're too caught up with trying to find our place on the platform.

I heard a lady named Cheryl Martin say that our role in the Body is to be "ushers of the bridegroom." If you've ever attended or been part of a wedding, you know some things. First, the bride and groom get all the attention. A few may notice some of the bridesmaids, but nobody ever pays attention to the ushers. Most anyone can perform the role of an usher for a ceremony lasting an hour. How many can perform that role/ministry as a way of life? Can we?

John the Baptist spoke the words in John 3 after his followers came and told him that everyone was going to listen to Jesus preach and to be baptized by Him. The large crowds that once came to hear John, now gathered to hear Christ. His followers were upset. John wasn't. He knew all along that his ministry and calling was to point the way to Jesus, the Messiah. It was Christ who was central, not John. The Father was revealing Himself through His Son in ways He could not do through John. John knew this, and rejoiced in it. How often do we rejoice in Him using someone else more effectively and with greater results than we ourselves experience? When pride gets in the way, we can't, and we won't. I heard it said that where pride shows up, so does an unteachable spirit. And both can show up a lot in the people of God.

Those who are His have one responsibility, no matter what their station in life or the ministry. That is that all they do points to Him, and not themselves. We can come up with endless, seemingly selfless ways to bring attention to ourselves. We may fool others, but it never fools Him. We may also spend a great deal of our lives envying those who are more effective in their place than we are in ours, at least as pertains to how men measure things. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit don't see it or measure it that way. That's what makes Martin's above words so strong. The success of Christ's ministry didn't diminish John's. The success of someone else's life and ministry in bringing glory to Him, doesn't diminish the glory our lives and ministries bring to Him. He doesn't reckon our success according to size, numbers, job titles or bank accounts, no matter how much we do. He measures it by our faithfulness in the role and place He's put us. We may never amount to more than the little toe of His Body, but if it is our determination to bring Him the fullest glory we can in that place, we may never be applauded in this life, but we will certainly have the notice of heaven.

In the end, as I saw it put, we will not be asked on that last day as to whether we were sufficiently applauded or recognized while living and ministering here. He will ask if we loved Him, and loved and pointed others to Him? Did we live for what He lived for and also for what He died for? Did we finish the race, whether anyone was watching us or not? Were we content to be ushers, spotlight operators, where the only One on center stage was, and is, Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Cesspool

"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord...Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God." Genesis 6:8-9...."No matter how ungodly the environment you may be in, God will always find you and walk with you." Henry Blackaby..."The only cure for addiction is an addiction to the cross." Unknown..."The world has lost it's power to blush over it's sin. The Church has lost it's power to weep over it." Leonard Ravenhill

We are living in the midst of a cultural cesspool. Our "eyes" are bombarded with an unending supply of sensual/sexual images, affecting not only men, but women as well. Lust in every form has been given free reign, and we see it through every type of popular media today. This is tragic. What is more tragic is that in too many ways, a portion of the Church have become captive to the cesspool.

There's always been a cesspool, and as horrid as it may be today, this is not the human race's low point. The time of Noah was. Not only did evil abound, it was embraced by all of mankind. The things of God were a total mockery. Hedonistic pleasure was the pastime of everyone. Noah, and through him, his family, were the only exceptions. Yet in the midst of a tidal wave of filth and depravity, Noah remained pure, dedicated and surrendered to His God. He was in a cesspool, but the cesspool was not in him. Men and women of his time had long ago lost the ability to "blush" over the depravity of their times. How close are you and I to doing the same? What secret sins, pleasures and decadence do we harbor in our hearts? Where do our thoughts and meditations draw us? Do we bring them captive to Christ, or do they bring us captive to the enemy, to the cesspool?

I was talking to a spiritual mentor the other night and we spoke on this very subject. He said he had talked with a professional counselor and asked the question of how, in a culture such as ours, can not only men, but women, remain pure in Christ? He said such could only be experienced by those who placed all of themselves into all that Christ is. There is safety, freedom, and life nowhere else. We have to know and experience this, and not only as concerns sexuality, but in every area of temptation. Lust takes many forms and the enemy will come against us in seemingly unlimited ways with it. The Psalmist said that our only refuge is found in "the shelter of the Most High." As we live in Him. That place where Paul said, "We live, move, and have our being." In that place, the cesspool cannot touch us. No matter how deep and wide it gets, or what form it takes.

The cesspool continues to shatter lives, marriages and families within His Church. Once godly people have turned aside from Him to pursue various desires of their flesh. They find places to hide from Him. Sometimes those places are called "church." Years ago I knew a wife who left her young pastor husband for another man. Not long after that, she called a preacher I know and asked if she and this new man could attend his church. He refused her. Held her accountable. Not in a spirit of harsh judgement, but a heart longing to see her restored. I don't know what happened to her beyond that, other than she never returned to her mate. I expect that she continued to seek a place that would not have a problem with them. I feel sure she found one. A religious spirit seeks for the appearance of godliness. The yielded spirit seeks Him.

I can tell you that I'm a man who has been bombarded with the very temptations I speak of. What has passed before your eyes and mind has passed before mine as well. They still do. I have learned, and continue to learn, that my only hope and deliverance is found in an addiction to Him. Only in Him do I find freedom from the cesspool. Only in Him will you find the same.

C.S. Lewis said that "The Christian's nostrils must always be attuned to the inner cesspool." We in the church can spend so much time decrying the presence of filth in the world. Dare we allow Him to reveal the filth that may well be inside us? We are walking through a cesspool, but as Blackaby says, He will find us there and walk through it with us. And it will not pollute us. Indeed, spiritually, He will make us to walk on top of it. Best of all, if you find yourself trapped in the cesspool right now, He can and will lead you out of it. From the miry clay of death, to the solid Rock of His Life. Noah lived not as a perfect man, but a man perfect in His devotion to His God. He did so apart from the fullness of His Holy Spirit. He lived above the cesspool. For we who have been given His Spirit, what limitations could there be? If you're trapped in the cesspool today, or any part of you has been polluted by it, look to Him. He reaches down in order to pull you up, and out. No longer immersed in the sludge of the pool, but washed in the water of Life.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Living In The Now

"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Isaiah 55:6...."What if all our running around is only our trying to run away from God - the great I AM, present in the present moment?" Ann Voskamp..."Now is being crucified between the thieves of yesterday and tomorrow." Unknown

Too often, maybe most often, we who are His are missing Him in the moment. Missing Him in most of our moments. We become obsessed with what needs to be done as concerns tomorrow, or, paralyzed over what has happened yesterday. We live under the tyranny of those times, and miss Him completely in the present. We cannot live in the moment, and so we tend to miss Him in most of our moments. The old song goes, "He was there all the time," and we know that, but the tyranny of yesterday and tomorrow keep us from experiencing that reality.

I like what Voskamp has to say about all of our running around, our "busyness," and how we can use it to escape Him. Escape having Him deal with the root of all our stress, anxiety, fear, and denial. Busyness and activity can do a fine job of masking all that, keeping us from ever having to deal with it, facing it, which we can only do when we're willing to face Him. It hasn't been lost on me that when Jesus' parents discovered Him missing upon their return to their home after the celebrations in Jerusalem, they discovered Him in the Temple. He told them He "must be about My Father's business." His Father's business was first and foremost, intimacy with Himself. He is so easily lost in our manic activity for Him that misses an intimacy with Him. We fear that because we fear being "found out," all the while not realizing that He has already found us out...yet calls us to Himself in total love.

Yet, we can have a complete absence of outward activity and still miss Him in the moment. Our minds and spirits churn with concerns over so many things. If we're not like Martha in our actions, we are certainly so in our minds....concerned, worked up, worn out, by "so many things." We miss the "one thing" that her sister Mary knew, living in His presence and life. Voskamp writes, "The present moment alone..holds the possibility of coming into the presence of God. Look around, breathe deep, enter into this one moment. Now could be an altar. This time could be a tabernacle.....wherever my feet are is where I can love Him."

If we truly live in His presence, with Him, then wherever we are is Holy ground. Do we treat it as such? Not just in our actions, or words, but in the meditations of our hearts and the thoughts of our minds? Are we living engaged with Him, or disengaged? Do we see our lives as being perpetually lived out upon His altar, tabernacling with Him in all places? No longer living in the bondage of what has been or what might be. Just the now, whatever and wherever that now is, with Him. In the moment, free, alive, victorious, whatever the circumstances might be...right now.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The New Name

"Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, 'You are Simon, the son of John - but you will be called Cephas,' (which means Peter, the rock)" John 1:42...."God writes the new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased the pride of self-sufficiency and self-interest. Some of us have the new name in spots only, like measles. In sections we look all right.....The disciple is one who has the new name written all over him." Oswald Chambers..."I've a new name written down in glory, and it's mine, oh yes it's mine."

In response to what Chambers said, I wrote on the page of his great devotional, "Where has He written my new name, and where am I still going by my old one?" It's a question to be considered by all of us. For those who truly come to Christ in saving faith, all things become new, but sadly, we oftentimes do not live as though they are.

Simon was given the name, Cephas, Peter, the rock. Yet his new name did not reach into every area of his life. He was anything but a "rock" after Christ's arrest and crucifixion. An incredible transformation took place after Pentecost to be sure, but even then, there were areas of his life not yet affected. His fear of what other Jewish believers might think were he to eat with non-Jewish Christians is but one proof of that. When Christ gives us His new name, it is His intent, indeed, command, that this new name mark every aspect of our lives and character. Has it done so in you and me? Chambers says His new name must be written all over us. Is it so with us? If not, where has it yet to reach?

Chambers points to pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest as being the main blockages to living in the fullness of our new names, and certainly, they play a powerful role. But I think there are others as well, more subtle, but exerting great power and influence, blocking the freedom and transformation found in Christ. Perhaps foremost among them would be the enemies lie that we will never escape the tyranny of our old name. The leopard can't change his spots says the world and the devil. He can't, but Christ can...and He does.

I believe in a Gospel that has the power to save to the uttermost, to reach and saturate every area of life. No matter what cesspool our lives have been immersed in, He can bring us out of it....and remove all the stench of that cesspool from us. Whatever we have been, whatever we have done, whatever we are doing, and whatever label the world, the enemy, and even the church has put on us, He can free us. He does set us free. Whatever the world has called us, no matter who has named us, it is His new name that marks us. And that new name is one He gives us according to who it is He has made us to be, and says we are. Jesus saw Simon as the rock upon which He would build His Church long before Simon or anyone else did. Peter's past sins and failures, even his complete denial of Christ, could not stop that. Simon who betrayed Him became Peter who would die for Him. Simon who was not, became Peter who was. Simon, who seemingly could do nothing for Him, found that He could now do all things in Him. Simon, whose life was shifting sand, was now Peter the immovable rock. Once my name would have been "Cheat....Liar...User...Manipulator," and many more. By His grace and power, they are no more. I've a new name "written down in glory." If you are truly His, so do you. Are you living in it right now?

In what way has the enemy convinced you that you have no place at the Father's Table? In what ways has he convinced you that the Father cringes at the sight of you, rather than opening His arms to you? Where have you accepted a life of defeat and perpetual sin, when He has invited you into a life of victory and freedom? Someone has said that Christ enters into the center of our being, our hearts, and then works His way into the most outer circumference of our lives with His saving Life. They called it the "conversion process." I think this is simply the working out of our new name into every part of our being. Under whose name, and what name do we live today? Do we live under the tyranny of the old name, or as sons and daughters of the inheritance? He has given us a new name in order that we might proclaim His name. As His. We are not who the enemy says we are. We are who He says we are. What say you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Mourners Or Moaners?

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4...."He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." 2 Corinthians 1:4

Do we go through this life as mourners or moaners? Here's the reality. Jesus said that in this world we will have tribulation. Sometimes, that can seem to be all that we have. Mark Batterson said that sometimes our lives seem to be nothing but a series of shipwrecks, one after another. Suffering, in some form, comes upon everyone. How we respond to it, how we live out our faith in it, determines whether we live lives of victory or defeat. Hope and assurance, or despair and resignation. In the midst of trouble, heartache and mourning, is our focus on how quickly we can convince the Lord to get us out of it and back into our deserved happiness, or, do we seek to have Him lead us deeper into His Life in order that we may glorify Him in the darkness and pain? Do we find ourselves among the "moaners," or with the blessed mourners?

Our flesh finds nothing in sorrow and suffering that could possibly produce blessing. Our flesh demands relief, usually accompanied by a great deal of complaining along the way. We "moan" about our lot, not only to everyone around us, but to the Father as well. "Where are You? Why aren't You doing anything? Why did You allow this?" We ask these questions over and over. Rarely, if ever, does He answer. We reject the mourning, we embrace the moaning. As a friend put it, the latter comes very naturally to us. The Father calls us to the former. It is the road less taken. It's the pathway of Christ and His cross.

Paul was a man intimately acquainted not only with His Lord, but with His sufferings as well. Yet what Paul found in the midst of them was a joy, peace, and comfort that can only be found in a surrender to Him in the midst of it all. A surrender that will yield a joy, peace, and comfort that the moaning flesh can never know. Will never know. Do we know it? Paul, in his lonely prison cell, experienced a comfort from Him that yielded a joy and peace that were beyond his ability to describe. And because of it, he was able to offer His comfort, not human sympathy, to others walking through their own paths of sorrow.

A friend related how he had heard of a conversation had with a group of believers who had just come out of intense persecution for their faith. Persecution that brought with it, great suffering. He said these ones related that they would never choose to walk through that path again, but also, that they would never forget the joy and intimacy they had with Christ through all that time,and that though they had now been delivered of it, they deeply missed the comfort and presence they had known in that time. They still had His fullness, but they had never known before the life He gives in the midst of suffering if we will but yield to Him in it.

I once understood Isaiah 35:1 in a much different way. "The wilderness and desert shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and bloom as the rose." I have always looked at that promise as His telling me He would bring an end to the desert, and replace all that may have been lost with even better things. That can often be a part of it all, but I've come to understand and see it in a different way. I don't think He necessarily promises that He will end the desert or bring us out of it, at least not right away. I believe what He promises is that He will make us to bloom and blossom, to bear fruit, even in the midst of the deepest and darkest desert. To know His blessing in the desert. To experience His blessing in our mourning.....This is His spiritual horizon for all those who mourn. Life, joy, peace, and comfort. The enemies spiritual horizon for those who moan is hopelessness, despair, anger, frustration, which are all part of the death he seeks to bring us in every place. Which horizon are we walking to? Do we live as mourners......or moaners?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Always A Well

"Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water." Genesis 21:19....."For out of His fullness we have all received." John 1:16...."Hagar and her boy were dying of thirst with a well of water less than a bowshot away....There is always a well - all is well." Ann Voskamp

Beth Moore commented on the above Scripture once, saying something on the order of our depending upon canteens, or skins of water that we carry along with us. We fill them and we carry them. The problem is, they will always run dry. Not so the well and the water of life that is Christ, and who is always there. Even in the deepest and driest of deserts. Our problem is that we, like Hagar, cannot see them. We won't see them, unless He opens our eyes to their presence, to His Presence. As long as we have our dependence on our canteens and skins of water, we'll continue to thirst though right before us is He who is Living Water of Life.

When Hagar was sent away by Abraham, he provided her with a skin of water, and she went of on her journey with her son Ishmael, looking to it for her well being. How often do we do the same? How often do we look to our own particular skins of water, whether they be our possessions, bank accounts, successes, ministries, or even past experiences of Him? None of them, not even our richest experiences of Him can be sufficient in the desert we face today. They will always run dry. He will let it be so. He doesn't wish for us to look to our canteens, but to His well of life that is His Son, Jesus Christ. In the midst of the most burning of deserts, that Well of Life will be there for us, but we won't see it as long as we're looking to our canteens. The full canteen that we carry gives us a sense of being in control. As long as we're depending on that sense, we'll never see the well. When the Father leads us into the desert, He makes a terrifying command; leave our skins and canteens behind. Depend on Him to lead us to His wells, for they will be all along the way. It will be so because He is with us all along the way. He is the Way. What's the skin, the canteen, that we can't let go of? What's keeping us blind to Him as our Source and our Source alone?

There's something else that keeps us blind to Him and depending on our canteens and skins. It's our forgetting that He has been our Source and Help before, and His promise to be so again. In Genesis 16, an angry and jealous Sarai drove a fearful Hagar into the desert. In despair, Hagar sat alongside a spring, waiting to die. The Lord appeared and told her to return to Sarai, promising to make a great nation of her. She exclaimed, "I have seen the God who sees me." Here, some years later, she forgot that, and so in her present desert, could not see that same God or His provision. How often have we done the same? How often have we been unable to see the same Father again that we once saw before? Where is that happening in us right now?

Do we live in dependence upon Him, or our canteens? The first yields a life lived with eyes wide open, seeing and discerning Him in all places. The latter makes us aware only of the canteen and its contents. We're conscious of the canteen only, not the Well of Life right before us. In the first, we see the One who always sees us. The second only sees the lack, not the Source. He bids us in the desert, to let go of our canteens. Dare we? Dare we walk in dependence on He who is the Source of Life itself? Or do we continue to cling to our empty canteens? To which do you look to sustain you on your journey?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Devastated But Not Destroyed

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost." Luke 19:10.....Translation of 'lost' - Ruined, devastated, broken beyond repair. "We can be devastated, but not destroyed." Kay Warren

The translation of the word lost from the original Greek, of being ruined, devastated, and broken beyond repair, speaks to me. All three are states that we can find ourselves in, and often from no wrongdoing of our own. What is our response in those places? How then do we see Jesus? When John the Baptist found himself in prison, he sent this question to Jesus; "Are you the One we have waited for, or do we look for someone else?"That is the question that must be faced by all of us when we run into the bitter, unexplainable, devastatingly unfair places of life. In those places where the worst we could imagine happening, happens, will He remain our Lord, our Savior, or, do we look somewhere else for someone else? In response to the question of John the Baptist, I heard another asked; Will you love Him even when He doesn't live up to your expectations? Will we? Will you?

The quote from Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren, came after her discussing the loss of her son, who several years ago committed suicide. Their son had struggled with deep, crushing depression, and nothing had helped him. Not Doctors, not medication, not counseling....not even their faith. The question that comes to all of us in the midst of sorrow and devastation is, "Where was God? Where is He now?" It brings to mind the words of a Jewish rabbi in a Nazi concentration camp who was asked this question by another as they witnessed a fellow inmate being hung on a gallows. He answered, "God is on the gallows." Christ's name is Immanuel, God with us. He is with us, in and through everything, even when He is not responding to our suffering as we want Him to. The Father may not give us the answers we want, but He will never cease to give us Himself as the Answer to all of our "Why's?" If we have expectations of Him, we will live lives filled with frustration and disappointment. If our expectations are in Him, we will enter into His peace, joy and life even in the midst of the deepest valley and darkness. The enemy's plan in every place of destruction and loss is to get us to look somewhere else for someone other than Christ. In the ruins, He calls us to look to Him. In the reality of our pain, He will be a greater reality. As Warren says, "When we walk in despair's shoes, He will give us the courage to walk through one more day." And He will walk with us, and within us. He will get us through. He will get us home. And in that journey we will learn what it is to share in the fellowship His suffering.

Many of us are living in the place of what has been lost....ruined, devastated, broken beyond repair. In response to the question of John Baptist, Jesus said in effect, look at what is happening, the fruit of My ministry and life. What I say is real. I am real. In the contradictions of life, He is real. He is true. He is the Savior. In this fallen, sin sick world we live in, He may not give back what has been lost, but He will redeem us in the midst of it. What is meant to destroy us, won't. The King Eternal will lead on. Along the way will be His miracles, if we're willing to see them.

I have come to see Luke 19:10 as a much deeper promise than I once did. Once I thought in terms of Him bringing back to me tangible things or people that had been lost or stolen from me. In His goodness, He often does just that, but we cannot place Him in our narrow confines and expectations. What I have seen Him do in any and all sorrow is bring back to me, and others, ruined hope, devastated faith, and broken beyond repair lives, most especially my life. In mine and so many others, things have appeared beyond repair. In Him, they are not. They never can be. Michael Card said, "Just when you think you will never know joy again, life comes back." His life. And His life never left. We're just dulled to it by our pain. You may be dulled to it right now. Don't let go of Him. Don't look somewhere else for someone else. He seeks, He saves, He restores. This fallen world will always fail us. The risen Christ never will. Paul said that he had been crushed by the sorrows of life, and many times, but they had never destroyed him. They will not destroy us. Jesus asked two piercing questions of His disciples. "Do you believe this," and "Will you leave me also?" Do we believe Him....in the midst of the unbelievable? Will we leave Him in the midst of devastation? Peter asked Him, "Lord where would we go? You have the words of life." He still has those words. Will we hear them and cling to Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Present But Missing

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?, he asked them. No he replied. We don't know what you mean. We haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." Acts 19:2......"We're a Church birthed in the Holy Spirit, afraid of the Holy Spirit." John Bevere

This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, and I was blessed to be able to share His Word not only in our own Saturday night worship, but in a sister church on Sunday morning, Pentecost Sunday. The question I asked in both places was whether Pentecost Sunday was just a day we paraded out once a year to memorialize an event that happened 2000 plus years ago, and then put away for another year until the next time it came around? It turns out, it may not even be that.

In my last writing, I wrote on the events of the upper room, the pouring out of His Holy Spirit, and the mighty power that came upon the Church as a result. I got quite a bit of positive response on that, which is always a blessing, but one in particular grieved me deeply. It came from a great friend and former roommate back when we both studied for the ministry at our Bible College. Before I share, let me tell you that he's not a reactionary kind of guy, doesn't sit in a church looking for things to point out as wrong, and has never been a "professional critic," but his words bear listening to. He's now a hospital chaplain in the Kansas area and shared with me that in the seven years since he has left the pastorate, he has not heard one sermon on the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church he presently attends, or in any that he's visited. He said in his own church this past Pentecost Sunday, no mention of the Holy Spirit was made in either the message or any of the songs sung. The fact that it was Pentecost Sunday was never mentioned. His wife contacted her two sisters, both attendees of Wesleyan holiness churches and asked if any such emphasis had been presented in their churches. Not only did they say no, they themselves didn't even know it was Pentecost Sunday. My friends final words bear repeating; "Until Christianity today seeks to be endued with Power from on High, I'm afraid we're in for a long period of Babylonian exile." Overreaction? I don't think so. Indeed, I know it is not so.

Francis Chan wrote a books several years ago titled "Forgotten God," detailing the lack of focus on His Holy Spirit and the neglect of a large part of the professing Church of His ministry and purpose in the Church. John Bevere and Francis Frangiapane and Dutch Sheets are other voices who have said the same. These are current voices, but A.W. Tozer was writing and speaking on this more than half a century ago. He called it a "tragedy in the Church." It is and remains so. The question is, why is this so? Why do we ignore,neglect, and fear His Holy Spirit so? Why is it that Paul's question in Acts 19 to the believers in Ephesus, whether they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed, can be asked of so many believers in so many churches and receive the same answer as Paul did? "We didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit." At least, not in personal experience.

I think part of the "problem," if I can use that word, is that we have so emphasized Jesus' words and actions in the gospels, to the point of disregarding all the rest of New Testament Scripture. The result is a Church that seeks to emulate the life and ministry of Christ while lacking the Holy Spirit power that Jesus Himself commanded His disciples to wait upon and seek from the Father. I do not take even a letter away from the words that Jesus spoke, but somehow, we seem to forget, or miss entirely, that He spoke as well to and through Paul, Peter, James, and more through the pages of His Word. Paul told us to rightly divide the "whole Word of God." We cannot render portions of it to a secondary status. The Holy Spirit spoke and speaks still. He ministered and ministers still. He endued with power, and He still endues with power. He is not a missing God, but I fear He is missing from the lives of far too many of His people, and far too much of His Church. Is He missing from your life, and your church? I saw one translation of "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed," as, "Have you entered into where Jesus is?" Have we, really, fully?

I used to hear a great many voices crying out for revival. I am not hearing many doing so now. In too many instances we have complacently accepted a comfortable sameness to our weekly gatherings. Maybe what we need now is reformation. A Holy Spirit led and empowered reformation of His Church. A fresh move of His Spirit bringing forth a new and mighty Body of Christ. He makes all things new. I am longing to see such newness of Life in His people and Church. In fact, more than a wishful longing. A heart cry. Do you long for this, cry out for it as well? Or will He continue to be the forgotten Member of the three in One God in our lives and His Church? Missing from both. Present, yet missing. What greater tragedy can there be?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Where Were The Rest?

2 On the day of Pentecost[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,[b] as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Acts 2:1-4....."Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved but we insist that Christ do all the dying." A.W. Tozer....."If there is anything we want more than being a Spirit-filled believer, we will never be a Spirit-filled believer." Unknown...."I plowed up until I struck fire and met God." Charles Finney

The Bible records that 500 or more people were eyewitnesses of His resurrection. They saw the One who had been crucified and died on the cross, alive, and filled with Life. They had fellowship with Him, heard His words. They touched and "handled" Him. Acts 1:4 tells us that Jesus told them, "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what He promised." Five hundred or more people saw Him, heard Him, but on the Day of Pentecost, there were one hundred and twenty in the upper room. The question that has to be asked is, where were the rest?

Yet before that question can be answered, there are some more to deal with. Those 120 were in that upper room for quite some time. What were they doing while they were there? Did they have a lot of potluck fellowships? Did they plan a lot of fun, exciting activities to keep everyone involved and engaged? Did they organize a lot of committees to meet, discuss, and plan on what they would do once the Father fulfilled His promise? Judging by much of what we see in the church today, it's what we would do. T. Austin-Sparks said that the modern church doesn't understand anything that isn't organized and planned out. Yet, none of this is what they were doing. They were doing exactly what Finney spoke of in his above quote. They were plowing up the ground of their hearts, hardness and all, until they "struck fire," His fire, "and met God." The unleashing of His Holy Spirit power upon His church. A literal Tsunami of His Holy Spirit. They would never be the same. One hundred and twenty previously timid, fearful people would now step from that room and spiritually turn the world upside down. There was nothing that they wanted more than the fulfillment of His promise of the fullness of His Spirit in their lives. Because of that, they received the fullness of His promise. They, the 120 did. The rest, at least at that time, didn't. Two groups. The first would let nothing keep them from Him. The second seemed willing to let anything keep them from Him. To which would we most likely belong?

We in the church decry the corruption of our modern culture, a corruption that is spreading ever faster. Yet we fail to see that it is so because we have failed to be His witness and presence to it. Whatever efforts we make to reform it fail because we seek to do so in our own strength and not His. Oswald Chambers wrote, "The cry today is, 'We must get some work to do, the heathen are dying without God, we must go and tell them of Him. We have to see first that God's needs in us personally are being met. 'Tarry ye until...' " We're often willing to work for Him, He calls us to work with and in Him. This cannot happen until we go to our own upper rooms, and tarry there until we strike fire....and meet Him.

Pentecost has come, but has it come for you and I? Where were the rest? Who knows. Likely they all had their reasons for not being in that room. Good ones as far as they were concerned. Whatever their reasons, they missed having the fullness of His promise come to pass in their lives and hearts. Maybe they entered into that life later on, but we'll never know this side of eternity. Meanwhile, He calls us anew to His upper room. Indeed, He bids us live there. Not away from the world but in the midst of it. In power, with a witness, a transforming witness that only comes when we are willing to let all things go for the receiving of the fullness of His salvation promised to all who will deny and die to themselves so that they might live unto and in Him. The upper room still calls to us. Will we join the 120 there, as well as all who have gone before us? Or, will we be found with all the rest? Engaged with other seemingly important things, that are in reality, empty things when they are empty of Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O