Heart Tracks - No Greater Work

"And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." Ephesians 6:18...."Our weapons are hewn by the Word and the Spirit, and our fighting stance is prayer......When we open our hearts in prayerful abiding, what we first discover is that we have false beliefs residing there....We don't begin with prayer as a device for getting things done, but as a means of communing with God who transforms the heart and leads us in the way....We enter into the reality of our power in weakness, particularly when we 'cease to set the agenda,' and when we 'make space' for God to be God." Jamin Goggin....."Prayer does not equip us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work." Oswald Chambers

I recently followed a Facebook thread where there was a debate concerning the ministry of prayer and the ministry of social activism. It had begun with a pastor's response to others within the Church who had been criticizing, even attacking those who had been coming together in large gatherings for prayer. The criticism went along the lines that many use prayer as an excuse to not be on the front lines with those voicing concerns over social justice, making their voice heard on what they felt were the issues of the day. They didn't seem to overly value the ministry of prayer. Let me express that I know that saying, "I'll be in prayer about that," can be nothing more than an avoidance of our own involvement. More, I know, and have been a part of groups that wanted to use prayer as a means, as Goggin says, of setting our own agenda. Telling Him what we want, and then getting Him to come alongside and make it happen. Yet, I have a greater concern in all of this. I believe that we are steadily losing our sense of the supernatural and the miraculous power of our God, and replacing it with a reliance upon our own understanding, reasoning, wisdom, and power. We rely more on our intellects than upon His Person. We want the Kingdom to come, but we believe we're the agents for bringing it in. We're willing to go, but we lack the patience to abide in Him until we're sent. We're willing to work, but we aren't willing to soak in His Presence and receive the power of His Life...and the gifts He provides for the work that He chooses, and not us. We're willing to talk.....a lot...to one another. We're less and less willing soak in His Person, communing with Him, receiving the fullness of His mind and heart. So we go out to fight the battle on our own. With our own understanding, our own weapons, and our own strength...which is no strength at all. We're always looking for the greater work. We can't believe that, as Chambers says, prayer is the greater work.

I think the Church is well aware of the problems of our culture, as well as the problems within the Church itself and its culture. Conferences and seminars abound and endless speakers expound. We spend a lot of time listening to what we all think. Very little time goes into listening to what the heart and mind of the Father is saying. We leave with a lot of ideas, even good ideas, but we have not ventured out clothed in His Life and Presence. We know how to trust in plans. We don't know how to trust in the Person. We learn how powerless a plan is when it has not been placed before Him in surrender. He says His ways are not ours. Oftentimes, our plans have no relation to His. Chambers insisted that his missionaries would not go anywhere under their own impulse or be motivated by human need around them. They were to abide in Him, soak in His Life, and listen for His voice that would send them out. Exactly as Paul was sent out to Macedonia, when his desire was to go to Asia Minor. As a good friend likes to say, there is a difference between going out for Him and being sent out by Him. The first has much of the "self." The latter is all centered upon Him.

I read a piece recently that spoke of the Lord's words in the book of Revelation, of how He warned the Church that He would come and remove their lampstand, which represents the Light of His Life that they were to shine forth with. The writer asks that if He were to do so in our particular fellowship, would we even notice? Perhaps you've heard the story of the brother from another culture, one that lacked all the physical, material and educational resources that we in the west are blessed with. Upon observing the western Church, he said, in love, that he was amazed at how much we were able to do without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. May we never cease to work, but may the work flow out of the greatest work....surrendered lives that seek first His Kingdom and His Life...and long to be nothing more than vessels of that Life sent out into the midst of a dying world. Being His Living Bread and Water. Living supernatural lives in the natural world....and as did the first century church, turning it upside down.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Scandal In Heaven

"He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet upon the Rock, and steadied me as I walked along." Psalm 40:2....."On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand." Edward Mote...."How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word." John Rippon

As a young boy, I was blessed to grow up in a suburb of Pittsburgh that had once been farmland. There remained a great amount of wooded area that all of us used to play in. We used to run all through those fields and woods, but there was one place we had to be careful to avoid, and it was an area of swampy grass. You could be walking or running along, but if you stepped into it, you were immobilized, and would sink up past your ankles. I was put in mind of that with the recent words of a friend, who, commenting on Psalm 40:2, said that while we talk much of being lifted out of the miry clay and placed upon the Rock, we seem to do much of our praying (and living) from and in the miry clay. We may know that this is our "position" in Christ, but we too often fail to live as if it's our possession.

When we examine both our prayer life and our spiritual walk, how much of it comes from the place of the Solid Rock that is Christ? With what degree of confidence do we pray and live? So often, as we pray and as we walk in Him, we feel as I did all those years ago; immobilized and sinking. Christ has told us that we stand upon Him, but the enemy has deceived us into thinking we're still in the miry clay, and the only sensation we seem to feel is that of sinking...ever deeper and ever further from the power and reality of the Word and the Rock. We're spiritually immobilized by the miry clay of circumstances, fear, and lack of faith.

The enemy specializes in deception and delusion. If he cannot destroy our soul, he'll settle for destroying our lives and effectiveness for Him. He has victory if he can convince us that there is no way out of the mire of this life. That the promises and power of Christ are very limited on this side of eternity. That the circumstances we're in, and the fears and anxiety that come with them are more real than are the promise of His Presence and Life. If he can convince us that we're stuck in the mire, we'll never come to know the fullness, power, and abundance of the life He gives us on the Rock. The result is weakness; feeling like we are always sinking, never rising. We live like Christ is still in the grave. We live like we're in a grave.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something to the effect that, "It must be a great scandal in heaven that we live as we do." A scandal because He has already given us everything we need, "exceedingly, abundantly" more than we need to live His resurrection life here, right now. To live a life firmly grounded on the Rock that is Jesus Christ. Not a problem and trouble free life, but a life that responds to those problems, troubles and needs with and in the power of His Life. He has overcome all the power of the enemy and the fallen world system he works through. Living in and upon Him, we have as well. Should we not be living in that way too? Isn't it truly a scandal in heaven if we don't?

What's the ground you stand upon today? The Rock of His Life, His Promise, His Presence? Or, the sinking sand of self-reliance, deception, fear, worry, and victimhood? If you have truly come to Him through His saving grace, He has placed you upon the Rock of His Life. Do you live in that assurance? Or, has the enemy convinced you that the mire will always be your portion? If you've never entered into His Life, than all you know or will ever know is the sinking, shifting sand of this world. Come to Him, believe on Him, leave this sinking world for His rising life. Life upon the Rock. He offers it to us all. Will we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Voices Of Fire

"Since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:28-29...."Today's complacency is tomorrow's captivity."...."There is no such animal as 'comfortable Christianity.' "...."Truth must never be sacrificed on the altar of political, cultural, or sexual expediency." "Be holy, be one, be light. Whenever light stands next to darkness, light will always win." Samuel Rodriquez...."Will we rise up with a voice, or simply have conversation?" Tim Clinton

There's a lot of talk in the Church these days about having a willingness to "have a conversation," with an unbelieving world, to listen to their voice and be receptive to their criticism. Now, I believe we need to be aware of the legitimate criticisms of the world towards the Church. I also think we need to have conversations with them. My concern is with the voice we use when we do so. That's why I love Clinton's above quote. Are we, the Church, really rising up with a voice, His voice, in the midst of culture careening towards its own destruction? Do we have the prophetic attitude of "Thus says the Lord," in the midst of the conversation? I believe we can do so with a loving heart that speaks with a holy authority and leaves absolutely no room for compromise. I believe in many ways, too many ways, we have, as Rodriquez says, sacrificed Truth in order to be seen as "loving," with loving being defined by others and not Him. The result is a tolerance that will end with our own captivity. We don't want to be seen as judgemental, unloving, so we keep silent on so many things in the Body. We want to be seen as welcoming, but we don't understand that a God who is a consuming fire welcomes us to come to Him while at the same time seeking to burn up all the garbage that lurks within us. Jack Taylor said we need to stop asking God to help us and start realizing He wants to "kill us." That is, to kill all within us that is keeping us from the fullness and abundance of His Life. We keep asking, inviting people to come to Christ and get something. Christ bids us to come to Him and die to everything that is not Him. Which message is more prevalent in your fellowship and mine?

A few months ago, I got hold of a devotional book based on the writings of John Wesley. I thought there might be some excellent reading as well as good quotes to use in my own. There are, but I wasn't prepared to be as convicted as I have been. Wesley may have been, after Paul, the greatest proclaimer of Christ's message of perfect love. He writes with a heart of love, and a voice of fire. He leaves no room for sin, for compromise, for complacency. He proclaims His Light, and as Rodriquez states, when light stands next to darkness, light always wins...because darkness always flees. And the need of the world, the culture in this hour is for voices that rise up and speak the Truth, the whole Truth in love. Fire filled voices of love that illuminate the darkness and put it to flight. Voices that make a proclamation, not just a conversation. This voice needs to be heard in every aspect of the culture, but nowhere moreso than in the culture of the Church...from the pulpit. Voices that do not fear to address all the sexual confusion and behavior of this day, which is found in the very midst of every congregation. Voices that do not fear to speak to the social, and yes, political issues of this day. Not with the view of taking a side, but of proclaiming Biblical Truth that cuts through all the flesh agendas that are present in all of them. Voices that proclaim the whole truth of salvation; the place of confession, repentance, and whole life transformation. Voices that proclaim the ministry and Person of the Holy Spirit. Voices that are led of His Spirit, empowered by His Spirit, and breathe the fire of His Spirit. Wesley was such a voice, and was used of God to be a vessel of His that transformed the nation and empire of England. The people of God rose up with a voice....and an empire was shaken to its core. How willing are we to rise up with such a voice as well?

A wonderful brother ended a recent communication with me with, "Forgive the ramblings of an old man." I don't care to think of myself as old, but I expect I may have rambled here. I make no apology. Our culture and world is collapsing in upon itself, and there is no hope for it apart from the Light, Life, and yes, Fire of His Voice and Heart. I hope to be some small part of that until that time that He calls me home. How about you?

I leave with this quote from a favorite writer, Chris Tiegreen....."You and the believers around you are to march into the throne room of the world's enslaver with one primary conviction within you: 'I Am has sent us.' "

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Scars

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our inequities, the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5....."As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord." John 20:20...."The only scars in heaven will be on His hands...with our names written upon them." Anonymous...."Do we retreat into our pain, or take our wounds to Him?" Sheila Walsh

The first quote above was uttered by someone in a prayer time last week who wishes to remain anonymous. The power of it stuck with me. We know, at least in our heads, that there will be no tears, no pain or sorrow, and no wounds or scars in His great heaven. As my anonymous friend spoke, the only scars present will be those upon his hands and side. And upon those scars is written the name of every one of us who are His, bought by and kept by His precious blood. Along with our names go every one of our sorrows, every deep, scathing wound of this life....and all the scars that they have left upon us. All will be gone, along with our remembrance of the pain that went with them. It will happen fully there, but it can begin here. Has it begun for you? Are our names found on the scars upon His hands and side?

Does the question asked by Walsh pierce your heart as it does mine? What do we do with our pain, with our wounds? Do we retreat into them and live there? Or, do we take them to Him and find healing and wholeness? Time heals all wounds they say, but that's a lie. It doesn't. Life's landscape is filled with those who continue to live in the wounds and pain of their history. They never leave. They never become whole. This is a tragedy, and an even greater tragedy is that so many within His church live in exactly the same way. They withdraw, retreat, run into the bondage and darkness of their wounds, disappointments, defeats and failures. And they never emerge. They never become whole. And all the while, these hidden wounds will rise up in all aspects of their lives, most especially in relationships, and wreak havoc upon others and themselves. Wherever they go, their wounds come with them. Never healed, they become infected, and the infection spreads...not only in their lives, but upon all the lives they come into contact with. Wounds never healed become toxic...to everyone involved.

Jesus appeared to His disciples. Men who had utterly failed Him. The wounds they bore over their failures were deep. When He appeared among them, He showed them His wounds.....with their names written upon them. Their failure, their sin, was written there....as were all the effects of those sins and failures upon them. When He came into that room, it was to a group of broken, crippled people. He did not leave them that way. Neither will He leave us that way.....if we will but come to Him.

We live in a fallen world. Pain, sorrow, loss, sin...all are a part of it. None of us will walk through it unscathed. All will leave wounds and scars upon our lives. How do we respond? Do we retreat into, seek to hide in our pain...and so live as emotionally and spiritually toxic people....or do we bring it all to Him...who was wounded for us....and so brings healing to us? Do we allow Him to write our names upon His wounds, His scars? Satan, the enemy of our soul will seek to make his signature upon the sorrows of our life, and the result will be the festering of a wound that never heals, and leaves us with a living death. Christ bids us come, and bring those sorrows to Him...where He writes His name upon them, and in the doing, takes our name upon His. Names that He will carry on His hands and side into and through eternity.....Does He carry yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Restorer

"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives...." Job 19:25....."Restore me, and I will return, because You are the Lord my God." Jeremiah 31:18...."Your Father is a restorer. He gives back what you've lost. That's the message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation....the Savior came to save, the Redeemer to redeem, the Healer to heal - your world, your life, and your heart." Chris Tiegreen.....If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, I must conclude that I was made for another world." C.S. Lewis

Some time ago I wrote in my prayer journal, "Lord forgive me for having spent so much of my life looking for the better country here in this world." So many of us do the same. We're convinced that if we just find the right situation, relationship, job, ministry, environment, all will be well. We'll have deep satisfaction and fulfillment. Except that we don't. Like the smell of a new car, it all wears out in time. We drift into the day by day sameness we've always known. There's a yearning within that whispers, "There must be something more." So we keep looking, searching, hoping to find the better country here and always ending up with deeper frustration.

There are also those who have given up the search altogether. Encountering disappointment after disappointment, and failure after failure, they've resigned themselves to the shadowlands. They live in the gray of defeat. They still believe in the Redeemer and Restorer, they just don't believe He can be so, will be so for them. Hope has been replaced by cynicism. Faith is a thought in the mind, not a flame in the heart. Passion may be spoken of, but it's rarely felt. They live waiting to die, and have lost the determination to one day die while fully living.

Into all of this He comes, just as He did with Job and Jeremiah, two men who knew much about loss and suffering. Both were led by the Father through a "country" that they came to realize held no permanent life and fulfillment for them. Both suffered terrible loss in the midst of a world, a "country" that can take everything and give back nothing. Both came to know that there was something more, something greater than all that they had lost. Something, Someone, they could not lose. Someone who filled that emptiness within. Someone who invited them into His better country. Best of all, Someone who would show Himself as the Redeemer and Restorer of their lives.

All of us live with regrets, with sorrow over choices made, words spoken, actions carried out, and opportunities missed, or even ignored. Satan has a field day with so many of us over these. He whispers his accusations against us. The torment can be intense. Yet it's into these very things that the Redeemer comes....and He redeems them. All of them, by the blood of Christ. Our sins, our failures, our messes. Even those wrought by our own hands. He also restores us in the midst of it all. Life in this fallen world takes it toll. We can lose so much of ourselves in the midst of it. By His redeeming grace He restores us....into that which He created us to be. He gives back that which we thought lost forever. And only He knows how deep this redeeming, restoring work goes in us. Yet this one thing is sure, it begins now and carries over into the fullness of eternity....if we'll but receive it. Every longing fulfilled. Everything we believed gone forever restored. And in the midst of it, the discovery of the world for which we were truly made....the real "better country" that is His Life.

Our Redeemer lives and He restores our souls. May this come to be the testimony of we who are His. May this come to be the witness of we who are His Church. May it be that in every place we know this great Truth; our Redeemer LIVES!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Legacies

You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, [a]cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of [b]human hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

It was John Calvin's request that he be buried in an unmarked grave. He had no desire to leave any kind of personal memorial or remembrance behind. A legacy. Let me say that for the greater part of my ministry for Him, I haven't shared that desire. Most of us don't. We like personal memorials. The huge number of schools, hospitals, stadiums and so on that are named after people of note attest to this. Our human hearts desire to leave something of ourselves behind, remembrances that prove we mattered, that we achieved. Most of us don't, but it's not for lack of trying. We want to live lives that matter, and visible memorials are the best means of doing so, we think. It can be a real snare, and it has entrapped so many of us, especially we who are pastors.

I'm entering into my 25th year here in the church I serve. This was never my plan. When I came here all those years ago as a still young man, full of energy, dreams, and above all, plans, I expected to plant a church, grow it, and within 5-7 years, move on to a larger area of service. You can imagine my frustration when God didn't have the same plan for me that I did. I also came with a clear idea of the kind of church I wanted it to be; one that offered great ministries, a full range of ministries that would attract a wide range of people. I was sure this would guarantee the fulfillment of my "vision." It seemed that all was going according to plan when the Lord threw the proverbial "monkey wrench" into all of it. I wanted a kind of "consumer centered" church. He wanted one that looked a lot more like what a brother in our fellowship called a "MASH unit." MASH units, officially called Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals, hold little appeal for those who are seeking out fully staffed, state of the art "hospitals" that will see to the meeting of all their needs. MASH units offer on site surgery, and the goal is keeping lives from death, not making sure their hospital room holds all the amenities. MASH units see many come in, and intense care is given, but then they move on. And the unit keeps on working, moving on as well. It will never be a full service hospital, but it will make a difference. Set up in tents and temporary structures, they leave little physical mark that they've been there. The only "proof" is in the lives that have been saved, healed, and impacted by what they've done. In short, they "minister" in a mostly unnoticed way. This is tough on those of us looking for a legacy. It surely has been tough on me. At times it still is, but He's brought me to the place where I have (mostly) embraced that which He's called me to. And He's brought me to see that the true legacy of any pastor, of any true witness for Christ is found in Paul's words to the Corinthians. The lives, souls, that are impacted, changed, made whole and new for Him, are what the true legacy of a believer, pastor or no, is. It's not in the buildings we raise, or the ministries we establish, or the fellowship halls named after us. It's in the "letters" we leave behind, written on the hearts of those He's entrusted to us, whether we serve in a MASH unit, an emergency care outlet, or a state of the art facility. I hope there are many such letters resulting from what He's entrusted to me, but only He can pass judgement on that. That's surrendered to Him. My call, and yours, is to go on serving, seen or unseen. To go on seeking to write these letters on whatever lives He brings before us. Likely unseen by most everyone...but Him....the only Watcher who matters, and the only proof of a life that matters as well.

Some years ago I returned to the secular college I attended before I knew Him. I walked by two dorms that had both been named after previous Pennsylvania governors when I attended. The names had been changed to honor people more in time with the present generation. That's the way the legacies we seek always end up. As the Egyptians forgot who Joseph was, so will most forget who we are. Yet He won't. He'll save those "love letters" our hearts and ministries have written. Written as pastors, husbands, wives, parents, friends, people. And whether we're part of a MASH unit church, or a long established one, and both are so needed, our worth is not found in those trophies that bear our name, but those lives that bear our love. All of us are letters written on another's heart...on His heart. Who are the letters from yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - All Things

"Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in the world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under His feet....."....."My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." Charles Wesley...."The most important thing in life is becoming who you were made to be." Rich Mullins

I've a pastor friend that likes to say that He's placed all things under our feet so that there may be nothing over our heads. Think on what that means for a bit.....We're all familiar with the concept of someone "holding something over our heads." Some failure, some transgression, some secret sin or act. No one is more of a master in this than the enemy of our souls, satan, and he's succeeded in doing so with millions of sons and daughters of God. He has managed to shackle the spirits and souls of countless numbers of His people, always holding "something" as concerns their lives "over their heads." He's able to do so with his lie that though all things may be under His feet, they can never be under ours. He may grudgingly admit to the supreme authority of Christ, but he will deny at every turn that this same authority is ours in Christ. He's done well at getting so many to believe this lie. Has he succeeded in doing so with you? What is it that he is right now holding over your head?

We may know the truth of His Word that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," but the enemy is very gifted at convincing us that we have fallen much shorter than anyone else. Our failures and sins are of the sort that can't really be forgiven, or that our brokenness is such as to be beyond repair. He has put a label upon us, and we have accepted the label. We live out our lives under the power of his lie....and never experience the power of Christ's Truth. In Wesley's great hymn, he wrote of the dark dungeon he sat in, and of how the glorious Light of Christ caused that dungeon to flame with His Light. It was then that he rose, stepped out, and walked with His Lord, captive no more. Has such a thing ever really happened with you? What things from the past, or fears of the future does the devil continue to hold over your head? What has he convinced you of concerning your life that can't really be redeemed and forgiven, or that you can be free from? Where has he convinced you that the blood of Christ is not sufficient for that? Where are you being held captive under the feet of the enemy, when in Christ, it is he who's completely under the feet of the Lord? And if we are in Christ, than he is under our feet as well.

I think one of the least understood aspects of what it is to be in Christ is that of knowing what our real authority in Him is; the authority of the believer. We have ceded power over to the enemy that he has no legal right to. The Word tells us that all things are under His feet. How can this truth leave anything out of that equation? All things includes all of "our things." Your things. It is time, past time, for us to live out that truth. Are you and I ready to do so? Can we believe so?

What does the devil hold over your head today? Your past failures with the Lord Himself? As a husband, wife, father, mother? Have you believed the lie that what you've done or had done to you has eliminated you from living the life of an overcomer, of entering into the fullness of His Life? Reject the lie. Receive the Truth. All things are under His feet, and so under ours as well. Live the life we're called to...all things under our feet, nothing over our heads. It's the life you and I were made for.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Living In The Third Day

"Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man's sister said, 'Lord, by now the smell will be terrible because he has been dead for four days.' " John 11:39...."I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me - that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said. He was buried and He was raised from the dead on the third day." I Corinthians 15:4

I've a friend who remarked on the account from John 11, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, that Jesus always "lived in the third day." The deeper meaning being that most of us, like Martha, live in the fourth day. The day when all hope is passed away. That's not our spoken belief, but it is far most often our real life statement. Jesus Christ, in the face of everything, even in His ordeal on the cross, always lived in the third day realm of everything is possible with God, and even more deeply in the realm of nothing is impossible in Him. That was His steadfast assurance and life truth. Nothing could sway Him from it, not even all the unleashed power of hell against Him. It is to this life that He calls all who are His. A life provided for us by Him. Yet too often, as did Martha, Mary, and all who were present at Lazarus' tomb, we drift into a life lived out in the bleak gray of the fourth day.

Martha and Mary loved Jesus deeply. They'd beheld His ministry of miracles and had given over their lives to Him, surrendered to His Lordship. They were fully His. Yet here, in the loss of their beloved brother, the hope they had in Him for their brothers healing was gone. They were sure it would be otherwise if He had been there, but He wasn't. Lazarus had died, and he'd now been dead for four days. Jewish law and belief said that once that number was reached, death was final. There was no return from it. That was what "the system" said, but it was not what He said. It may have been the reality for everyone else. It was not the reality for Him. Martha, Mary, and everyone else were living captive to the darkness of the fourth day. Christ lived in the Light, Life, and Power of the third day, and into that darkness He came.....and broke its power completely. It was the fourth day, and they believed there was no coming back. They saw no place for Christ coming into that.....and bringing Lazarus back out of it. Yet in the midst of everything that said, "No! It's impossible and past hope," He came in the power of His resurrection life, and brought forth......resurrection life. The power of the fourth day was broken by the One who lived always and still, in the wonder, glory and power of the Third Day.

Where are you and I living in the bondage of the fourth day? Where have we lost hope? Where have our life dreams disappeared? What ,that once held the fragrant promise of life, now carries the stink of death? Where are we chained by the dark power of the fourth day? Can we dare to believe, hope against hope, that Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Resurrection, Lord of the Third Day, can come and raise up that which we believed lost to the hopelessness of the fourth day? The fourth day will always lay a tombstone on our deep hopes in Him, and tells us we are trapped there. To it all comes He who is the Lord of the Third Day. He invited us into His Life in that day. Do we come? Do we leave the captivity of the fourth day?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - No Greater Place

"As He was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. The put her in front of the crowd. 'Teacher,' they said to Jesus, 'this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?' " John 8:3-4 "There is no greater place to be thrown than at the feet of Jesus." Sheila Walsh

During her time as a host of the 700 Club, Sheila Walsh suffered a complete emotional breakdown. It was so severe that after it happened on the very set of the program, she went straight to a psychiatric hospital and checked herself in. So broken was she that on that first night, all she could do was lie on the floor crying out to the Lord. To that floor He came. On that floor He was. She later wrote in her journal, "Jesus, I never knew You lived so close to the floor."

The story of the woman caught in adultery is one that needs to be deeply comprehended by us all, especially we who are such sticklers to see justice done. By the law of Moses, this woman deserved nothing but death, and her death was what her accusers sought. Yet more than they wanted her death, the wanted to test the Lord Christ. They wanted to do away with the woman, but they also wished to do away with Christ. Whether mercy or death, they would use it against Him as a means to cripple His ministry. He did neither. He just turned His Light upon their own hearts and lives. She was guilty, and so were they. She deserved death, and so did they. They dropped their stones and they walked away. Jesus did not condemn her, but He did command her; "Go, and sin no more." He didn't bring her death, but the offer of life. She was thrown at the feet of Jesus, and she found, as Walsh says, there is no greater place to be. Yes, one day, at the end of it all, we will stand before Him...either in the hope of His resurrection Life...or completely bereft of it...lost. On that day, He stands as Judge. But before that day, He stands with His offer of mercy and forgiveness.

Life has a real way of bringing about circumstances that will throw us at the feet of Jesus. It will come about either as a result of our own actions, or those of another. I've experienced both. The path of my own sin, failure and rebellion brought about life circumstances that literally threw me at His feet. There was nowhere else to go. I was on the ground, "the floor." Like Walsh, I discovered that He lived there. I found His mercy, forgiveness...His Life.....I've also been thrown to His feet by the actions and choices of others. Both brokenhearted and broken. Visible hope and help gone. Nowhere and no place to go. Storm tossed and adrift.....and left at His feet. There too I found how close He lived to the floor. In the first instance, I found freedom from the penalty of my sin. In the second, I found relief, comfort, hope, and life in the midst of the sinful acts of others. No matter the manner of which I was thrown at His feet, I found in Him Life. On the ground or on the floor, I discovered and experienced how close He lived to it. He was there with me on it.

Walsh says that though He frees us from the penalty of our sin, it does not free us from the pain of life. Yet in that pain He will be found by us because He is already there with us....on the ground, the floor, even before we are. One way or another, life will throw you at His feet, and sin, your's or another's, will be the cause. Whether it is in deserving judgement for our sin, or in helplessness due to the sins of another, He offers mercy....hope....fullness of life. There is no greater place for us to be. What will we be at the end of it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Worship In The Darkness - Part 4

"I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart." Psalm 38:8....."How you handle your pain says a lot about what you think of God....David didn't necessarily know how God would help, just that He would. He worshiped God with his pain." Chris Tiegreen...."Our greatest life is on the other side of our pain and suffering." Erwin McManus......"Christ's Light guarantees that darkness need never have the final word." Sheila Walsh

Can the Father entrust you with suffering? You might think that a strange question, but it isn't. There are so many lives that can't be trusted with pain and sorrow. Not by Him. Heartache comes to us all, but our major response in it is to seek the quickest way out that we can. We pound the doors of heaven for relief. We are not looking for Him in the midst of it. We're looking for Him to get us out of it. Suffering and loss are a part of life due to this fallen world we live in, but it is His intent to use it to reveal to us a knowledge of Him that we could know in no other place. Not many of us want that. We look for relief and not Him. The things He would speak to us in the darkness cannot be spoken because they would not be heard. We seek to flee from pain, but we never really can. If we don't face it, it will, in some way, at some time, deal with us. When we discover His reality in the darkness, His Light and Life pierce that darkness.....and take away it's power over us.

Peter, James and John were with Jesus, in the Presence of the Father on the Mt. of Transfiguration, but it was not there that they truly learned the fullness of who He was and is. After the mount came the valley...and darkness. At times, seemingly endless darkness. It was in the deep darkness that each, that all of the disciples were led into, that they discovered the wonder, sufficiency, beauty, faithfulness and love that is Him. He knew, despite all their failings, their lack, that they were ones He could trust with pain, suffering, and darkness. They would not miss the riches to be found there. Do we?

For me, the lives that have impacted me most are those who knew the secret and joy of worshiping Him in the dark. Lives that could do more than just offer Bible promises, or tell me that they'd be praying for me. Lives that have themselves walked in the dark places where I was walking. Walked into and through....to a deeper, richer, more abundant life than they had believed possible. They offered more than their encouragement. They offered themselves, and in the offering, the Presence of Christ as well. Tiegreen says, "He pursues us in our pain not because He wants to explain it, or even because He wants to take it away. He wants to be with us in it." He comes alongside us in the darkness through the lives of those He's already come alongside. We learn a deeper worship that can't be learned in the bright sunshine. Somehow, if we will trust Him for it, we will receive our sight there. It's in the dark that we come to know Him, hear Him, see Him....and worship Him.

In the darkness we will come to know the truth of Walsh's statement, that darkness will never have the final word. It won't because even at its blackest, it cannot prevent His Light from bursting through and into its midst. It cannot stop His joy, His peace, or the fullness of His Life. Darkness is not darkness to Him. And it will not be so to us either. Not when we've learned to worship in the dark.

Jesus knew the darkness that Peter would soon be walking through, and that satan desired to "sift him like wheat," in the midst of it. But He also knew that he would emerge on its other side, and when he did, he would "strengthen his brothers." It's the devil's hope to break us in the dark, to get us to give up hope in Him. It's the Father's heart to draw us to Himself...in worship. And when we have emerged on the other side, it's to be His Light and Life to others walking through their own paths of night. That's what McManus means when he says our greatest life is found on the other side of pain and suffering. That kind of life is not found in ease, comfort, and lack of pain. Such lives have no power to speak into other lives that know nothing of that. Such ministry comes from those who know the joy and wonder of what it is to worship Him in the dark.....Can you and I be such a life? Can you and I offer such a ministry? Can He entrust us with pain, suffering...and darkness? Are we "Sunshine Christians," or are we believers, and worshipers, for all seasons.....even the darkest and coldest of them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - What Are The "Great Things?"

"I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13... Paul said this, and the things he referred to were mostly humiliating things." Oswald Chambers.... "Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14....When our blood pressure is rising and our palms are sweating, God's voice is always saying, 'Be still. Settle down. I am on My throne.' " Chris Tiegreen

The above Scriptures and quotes would not seem to have a real connection, but today, for me, they do. We usually take Philippians 4:13 as our exhortation to believe Him for the power and strength to do anything....especially anything that is not only impossible, but which will bring a reaction of awe and wonder to all who witness it. We see "all things" as "great things," with "great things" being defined by us. As for Psalm 27, well, we tend to see waiting as a required part of the faith life, something to be endured, gotten through, until we get that which we want from Him. We're willing to go through it, though we rarely see the value of it. For me, there's a common thread in this.

Chambers quote on Philippians 4 gives a twist that we usually miss, and really, don't care to look at. We love the idea of doing great things. Moving mountains, working miracles, and all with large crowds observing us in the midst of it. Chambers, takes Paul's words in a completely different direction, one in which our flesh is loathe to go. We're on board with great things as defined by us. Chamber's definition is another matter altogether. When all things begins to include bearing reproach in a Christlike manner, especially when the reproach is unfair and hateful, we balk at that kind of greatness. The same with receiving unfounded criticism, dislike, hatred. When all things includes laboring faithfully on in Him to the notice and applause of no one, that doesn't fit our description either. When humiliation, even scorn are our portion to bear, we stumble at seeing any of that as doing great things in Him. Yet, isn't that the way Christ walked? His greatest work was not found in all the miracles done before thousands, but upon the cross, in humiliation, before a small gathering of mockers, a few soldiers, and fewer still of His followers. Paul bore the humiliation of being chained in a cell, waiting for execution, and being seen as a failure in his ministry. Yet both the Lord Christ and Paul could do such things because Jesus was fully in His Father, and Paul was fully in Christ. His path will lead us into the experience of all things as He Himself experienced them....both victory and seeming defeat. Through the notice of some, and the apathy of most. In Him, we can do them all, and be like Him in all of it.

I think we get to this place as we learn the wonder and power of Psalm 27. The Father means to use our waiting as a tool of His ministry in us. He means for us to be His Bread to a starving world. In the ancient world, there were various types of bread. The cheapest contained a great deal of chaff and little pure grain. It lacked the quality of the finer baked breads. God has no desire that we be "cheap bread" offered to a starving world. He grinds us, ridding us of all chaff and impurity. He wants a fine grain, full of life saving nutrients. His most effective means of doing so is through His ministry of waiting. And we enter into such a ministry as well. In that waiting process, He shapes us, enriches us, and makes us His bread offering to both a Church and world that He loves. In that process, we learn who He is, and who we are as well. We learn that He's on the throne...and we are not. We become His food to a hungry Church and a starving world....all through the ministry of waiting.

As we wait upon Him, He grinds us to His purity...removing all that is impure, selfish, un-Christlike, and makes us fit to enter into the reality of being able to do all things, especially the hardest most painful things, in Christ. It's a narrow path....and it goes through the cross alone. Not many of us seem willing to walk it, but if we will, we will walk with Christ, with Paul, with those known and unknown, who have been His choice bread, His precious life to a Church and world in desperate need...... The pathway calls. Do we take that step into it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Looking For "Likes"

The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. "We're not defined by the 'likes' of many, but by the love of One." Samuel Rodriquez

It is human to want to be liked, and especially to be loved. Many of us spend our lives pursuing this. We find our fulfillment and identity in those who like and love us. When we feel that we have that, we're content, but if it's missing, it can be devastating. It is devastating. Many find their lives, especially their spiritual lives, shipwreck because of the absence of one, or both.

Facebook has been a real vessel in showing us the truth of this. We put up "posts" with the hope, often unspoken and not admitted to, that others, our "friends," will like them. We feel good when they do, and feel especially good if the number of "likes" is high. However, if they go unnoticed, or worse, draw a critical response, we can be hurt, even crushed. We hunger for the approval of others, for their validation. When that's present, all is well. If it's missing, than whether we can admit it or not, we feel something is missing in us.

I'm a pastor, and it may be that no one has a deeper longing to be liked, affirmed, loved, than a pastor. Called by the Father to lovingly serve and sacrifice for a people, a fellowship, it is very human to want that people to like, love, and esteem us as well. Here's the problem; very often, that doesn't happen, at least as concerns some of that fellowship. There are exceptions I know, but generally, a pastor's heart is a sensitive one. We know when someone has a problem with us. Sometimes those problems are legitimate, and when they are, they need to be addressed in love, and worked out in His grace. Yet there will be people, and they exist in every fellowship, who, no matter what, will "have a problem" with us. We can point to no visible reason why this is so. We know of no time when we've ever consciously mistreated them, or spoken harshly to them. Yet the dislike is there, and we are painfully aware of it. This can lead us to falling into one of two very dangerous traps. The first is to try and make them like us. The second is to become embittered and angry. Both of these will cause us real emotional and spiritual damage...and we miss what is actually going on, in that the real problem is rooted in the person's own spiritual and emotional makeup, and ours as well. We can do nothing as concerns the other person, but we can allow Him to open our hearts to fill what is missing in our own lives....the fulfillment of knowing that no matter how we may be viewed or measured by someone else, we are deeply loved, affirmed, and treasured by Him. When we can really enter into that knowledge, than the opinions and actions of others can't touch us. We are living in that "secret place" with Him. We're no longer defined by another person's actions, but by Him and His love. Not by what they say or think, but by what He says and thinks and will continue to say and think. This is a truth for all of us, pastors or no. We are not defined by the many, or any, who like and love us, but the One who always has and always will. Our identity is in Him. When that's the reality, we can live above the opinions of others no matter what they are.

I grew up with having a lot of friends. I was blessed, even in my days of not knowing Him, with having most people I came across like me. So, it was a considerable shock, emotionally and spiritually, when I entered the ministry and found that this was not always the case with the people I pastored, and I spent many painful years trying to come to grips with it. As I said, we all want to be liked and loved, and when people we have given the same to don't give it back, the pain can be deep. It is deep, and you don't have to pastor to know that.....In Jeremiah 31, the Father stood far off from Israel only because they had allowed their hearts to value other things more highly than Him. Yet all the while He reached out to them with His everlasting love. In these last years of my life and ministry, I have at last heard that call and responded to that reach. More and more, my life has come to be defined by the love of the One and not the likes of the many. I learn ever more deeply what it is to live in the secret place with Him. He calls you there as well. As long we look for "likes" from others, and seek our meaning and worth from them, we'll not know that place. But, "If today we hear His voice," than He calls us into the embrace of His love. Rejection, dislike, withheld love, all will still happen. In our humanity, it will still hurt. But we will be that people who know their God...and His love, and that's what defines us. We at last know who we are.....in Him. When we know that, others may withhold their love, approval and affirmation, but we live deeply secure in His love. We learn what it is to be more than conquerors even in that. We no longer need to be looking for "likes." We've discovered His love.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Has Salvation Come To Your Home?

"When Jesus came by He looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, 'Zacchaeus,' He said, 'Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today......Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham.' " Luke 19:5,9...."We prepare our household to serve the Lord by instructing them. We take care to see that every person under our roof has all such knowledge necessary to salvation. It is our responsibility to see that our spouse and children are taught those things which belong to their eternal peace. Plan especially for the Lord's Day, that all may attend the public services for instruction. And take care that they have time daily for reading, meditation, and prayer. Neither should any day pass without family prayer, seriously performed." John Wesley

I love the story of the conversion of the tax collector Zacchaeus, but this is not about Zacchaeus, but of the statement of Jesus. Two statements actually. The first is His declaring that He must be in Zacchaeus' home that day, and secondly, that as He entered that home, so did His salvation for all within. Along with those statements, I add a question; If you are a professing believer and follower of Christ, has salvation truly come to your home?

I included the lengthy above quote from Wesley because of it's convicting power. I have to confess how short I fell in living out his instructions, which are undeniably from the heart of the Lord. I recognize that we can make things like Bible study, prayer, and church attendance legalistic duties, and many have, but the heart and spirit of Christ cannot be missed in what he says, and the presence or absence of these are the true indicators of whether salvation has come to our homes or not.

I'm not judging as to whether or not you've come to know Christ in a saving knowledge. What I'm asking is, has that saving knowledge come to mark all that goes on in your home, in the lives of you and your mate, you and your children? What pains do we take to teach our children the ways of the King and His Kingdom? How diligently do we live out those ways ourselves? Where does prayer with our mate come in, or with our children? I came to Him at a time when a "family altar" was spoken of much in the Body. How many of us even know what that is anymore?We invest huge amounts of time in our jobs, our and our children's activities, our leisure, even in our "church work" and ministries. We are running in a thousand different directions from each other over the course of any day. What part of that day is spent coming together in Him? The enemy has wooed us away from Him in uncountable ways. Salvation may have come to us, but there is little, if any evidence that it has come to our homes....to our marriages and families.

We have taken the lazy and cowardly path of putting it upon the church to keep our family and marriage together. Or worse, we assume that because we are believers, all will be well. I was guilty of this. Maybe you are as well. The words of a father whose daughter walked away from the Lord during her college years ring in my mind and heart, "We raised her in church. We didn't raise her in Christ." We have set the lives of our families and of our marriages upon foundations of sand, and they cannot, will not stand amidst the storms of life. It will always be so where His Word is not lovingly shared, taught, and lived out. It will be so when prayerlessness marks our walk with our mates and children. It will always be so when salvation does not come to our home..... Here's another deeper, more biting question; What, if anything, sets our homes apart from those who would make no real profession of faith or enter through the doors of a church? What looks different in our homes from any of theirs? In our marriages, our family relationships, our spiritual lives? In how, where, and with what we spend our time?

Do Christ's words pierce your heart today? He says clearly that He must come to your home, not as guest only, but as Lord. He will bring His salvation with Him. Do you bid Him come? Or, does His salvation pass you, your marriage, family, and home, by?

Blessings,
Pastor O