Heart Tracks - Everlasting Dominion

"His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His Kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." Daniel 7:14....."Faith in the Kingdom of God...is what Christian joy is all about." John Main

We're about to embark upon another new year and if our previous years have taught us anything, the only thing we can know for sure are that first, we don't know what lies ahead, and second, that He reigns over all of it. I think most of us know the truth of the first, too few of us that second. That sets us up to be victims in the midst of our circumstances instead of victors, conquerors, over them.

His Word says that rain falls upon the just and the unjust. This means that the people of God will not be immune from troubles, heartaches, floods and fires. Likely we will know sorrow. Surely we will know pain. Knowing and living out the reality of Daniel 7:14 will determine whether we actually do experience this coming year as victims or victors.

In the disciples experience of being swamped by the raging waves as they sought to make it across the sea of Galilee, they were sure they were going to perish. In the midst of that, Jesus came to them walking on the top of the very waves they were sure would drown them. This year, in every year, we must live in the faith and assurance that He does the same with us. The storms and "waves," almost all of them unexpected, that will threaten us, must yield to the One who walks on the surface of all of them. He does not promise that the waves won't touch us. He does promise that they will not destroy us. They cannot touch or overwhelm the Christ life that is found in the hearts of His people. They cannot take our peace, our joy, our hope, our strength, and our life in Him. He not only comes to us in the midst of it, He's already there with us. His Kingdom, of which we are citizens and heirs of, really is an everlasting one, and our joy comes from our steadfast faith in that. We are not orphans, facing life alone. We are sons and daughters of the King. Heirs of His Kingdom.

This year, know that whatever lies ahead, He already reigns over it. There will be waves we think will drown us. Know that He walks upon their surface. They cannot affect Him, and when we know that, we can know that they cannot affect His Life within us.They can touch our emotions, our minds, but they cannot touch the presence of His life within us. He reigns over all, and in Him, so do we. Let us live in both that hope and that reality. His dominion is an everlasting dominion.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Where's Jesus?

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

I've a devotional that tells many stories of missionaries around the world. One recent entry told of a Christmas play being staged in their little church in South America. The players took their places as the pastor began to tell the Christmas story. All of a sudden, someone in the audience exclaimed, "Where's baby Jesus?" The manger was empty. In response, someone called out that the mother of the infant who'd been "playing" baby Jesus, "didn't come today." A substitute was found in the congregation, and the play was finished, but the missionary remembered the cry, "Where's baby Jesus?" thinking of all those around the world who have no answer to that question.

All of that makes me think back to my first Christmas in my first pastorate. Things had been very hard, and nothing seemed to be going well. Very near to Christmas day, I sat one night in our living room, thinking of all that was wrong. I just stared at the lights on our tree, feeling devoid of joy and hope. What I didn't realize then was that I was asking the question, "Where's baby Jesus?" My pain, and yes, my self-pity, kept me from seeing Him. For me, the manger was empty. Yes, I believed He had come, and I believed He was the Savior, and yes, I was following Him, but that night, at that time, I was living like He never had. I was living like His manger was empty. I was living like He hadn't come today. Like He hadn't come at all. As a result, my heart was empty.

The rest of that story is that, in His faithfulness, He showed up, lifted my heart and my spirit. He led me away from all the distractions and focused me back upon Himself. His manger wasn't empty. Only His tomb was. He was risen. He was alive. And nothing, not the distractions, circumstances, and conflicting emotions changed that. Baby Jesus the Lamb was also Jesus Christ the Lion and the King. Hope restored, joy made full. I didn't need to look at Christmas tree lights when the One who is Light was right there.

At Christmas in particular, we can focus on all that we feel is missing and miss the One who never goes missing. The manger might look and feel empty, but it isn't. He came. He lives. He is Christ the Lord....Lord of all, most especially of all those things, people, and feelings that try to convince us He's not there. This Christmas, every Christmas, don't believe the lie that His manger is empty, that Jesus is missing. He's not. He's the Good News that even the most grievous bad news cannot banish. Believe that and allow Him to be Christ the Lord to you, and against all that is coming against you. Where's Jesus? He's here....with us.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Wilderness Worship

"And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me (worship Me) in the wilderness.' " Exodus 5:1

While looking at the Charisma magazine website, I saw an announcement about the death from breast cancer of an Alaskan missionary named Yolanda Pratt. Wanting to know more, I visited her Facebook page, which was filled with inspiring videos she had recently recorded. The latest was done two months ago. In it she referenced the above Scripture, and spoke of what was gained when we actually worship Him in the wilderness, and what was lost when we refused to. She said our willingness to worship Him even in the depths of the wilderness will always result in a drawing nearer, deeper into Him. That in our worship, we will experience assurance, hope, peace, joy, and life. She said our refusal to do so always leads us to repeat the failure of the Israelite people there. In the wilderness, she said, the people's trait was to "wonder where God was." She said that tendency to wonder caused their hearts, minds and lives to "wander," and to completely miss what the Father wanted them to know and experience in their wilderness time. Pratt was in the midst of her own personal wilderness. In it, she chose to worship, and in the worship, minister to others walking through their own.

The wilderness awaits all those who truly follow Him. The Lord Jesus walked into it, and there He worshiped His Father. We who follow Him will go into it as well. What will we do there? Will we, like the Israelites, "wonder" and then "wander?" Or, will we worship Him there? Will we, despite the desert landscape, the lack of all things visible, choose to worship He who may be invisible in the natural, but fully seen in the supernatural exercise of faith? Will we wonder and wander, or will we enter into a deeper understanding and experience of Him than we have ever known?

Yolanda Pratt died less than two months after this video. We can be sure she died in the act of worship. No, she didn't get the response, the healing she surely desired, but she did get the Father her heart so desired, and a "healing" that transcends the temporal and enters into the eternal. Wilderness worship is not first about getting out of the wilderness, or getting what we want there. It is about getting Him, laying hold of Him. It is about experiencing He who is the Anchor of our souls and lives. Yolanda Pratt, living in a fallen world, was led out into the wilderness that is cancer. There, she worshiped Him. Cancer did not own her, He did. Cancer, as the Scripture promises, could not separate her from the love of her Father. A love that saw her fully reach her home in Him. The wilderness, if we will trust Him there, will always lead us to His Promised Land.

Whatever your or my wilderness might be today, will we worship Him there? Will we refuse to wonder and wander? Will we discover in our wilderness, a God greater than that wilderness? Will we worship Him and be free...even in the midst of the wilderness?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Overwhelmed

"When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I....Let me live forever in Your sanctuary, safe beneath your wings." Psalm 61:2,4

There have been times in all of our lives when we have felt like Job did when he was assaulted, overwhelmed by waves of terrible happenings and news. The death of loved ones, loss of property, failing health. I remember one such time for me. It happened in the course of my separation and eventual divorce. An already painful and deeply wounding situation was made steadily worse. I had gone home for Christmas, where in the midst of the coldest winter in years, my car's engine seized. I was able to have a replacement put in, and I returned home. However, I soon learned that the shop had cheated me, and installed one that was spraying oil and obviously ready to die. The shop told me I could bring it back, a trip of over 300 miles, and one I knew the car couldn't make. I was in the 4th month of the journey, and this felt like something that was just one more "stone" on an already too heavy load. I was overwhelmed, crushed. I felt like just giving up, lying down, asking God to end it all and just take me home. That was not His response.

He led me to seek out my cousin, a strong believer in the power of our God. He listened to my frustration, anger, and loss of hope. He didn't lecture or rebuke, he just prayed with me, and in the prayer, I was led to His strength. In that prayer, Psalm 61 came alive, became my reality. I was led to the Rock, Jesus Christ, that was higher than me, and higher than all that could come against me. What overwhelmed me could not overwhelm Him. In fact, He overwhelmed the overwhelming. It was a truth that I learned that day, and it's a truth I have leaned anew many times since.

We live in an overwhelming world. A world that stresses us out, frustrates us, frightens us, wearies us, seeks to kill us. And kill our hope in Him. It, and the devil who works through it, seeks to bring a Tsunami of hardship and affliction upon us, or, simply bombard us with so much "stuff" that we are smothered by all that is before, above, beneath, and around us. In those places we have but one recourse....allow His Holy Spirit to lead us to the Rock that is higher than all. There we find sanctuary, life, rest, and renewed hope. At the Rock, on the Rock, we can live in peace, and in victory.

God didn't leave me in that place of hopelessness. He made a way through, and He made a way out. He made provision for my need, and He made a way for my restoration, my full restoration. He has done so many times since. He will do so for you. As you face your own Tsunami's, allow His Spirit to lead you to the Rock that is Jesus Christ. The overwhelming things of life will seek to blind us to Him, but let Him compose your heart and all your emotions, and then lead you to Rock that is Himself. The Rock that is higher than all. That place where the mightiest tsunami the enemy may throw against you cannot reach. Experience that He really is "higher than all."

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Horeb

"So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night." I Kings 19:8-9

Horeb. The closest meaning for this word is "place of desolation." Places of desolation happen to us in life. Sometimes in part, oftentimes in whole. Here's something else about that place....it's where we can truly come face to face with God.

Moses knew this place. It's where he saw the burning bush and received the fullness of the call of His God. Elijah knew it too. It was here that he sought refuge in the darkness of a cave yet came to see the glorious presence of His God. God uses our place of desolation to reveal our hearts to ourselves, as well as His heart for us. At Horeb, our hearts can be laid bare. We can be laid bare. At Horeb, we think we'll be destroyed. The Father wants us to know it can be the place where we're re-made.

At Horeb, at the place of desolation, our weakness can be turned into His strength. At Horeb, our helplessness can be exchanged for His might. At Horeb, the God we've known only by hearsay can become our reality. At Horeb, the God we thought of in terms of yesterday, becomes our God of today, of this very moment. The One we've only heard about becomes the One we now experience. Dutch Sheets said that He can be "a Healer, Savior, and a thousand other things, yet be none of these to you."

Moses believed he was trapped on the backside of the desert. Elijah cowered alone in a cave. They were both in a desolate place but that place was made holy because their God showed up. That place was transformed, they were transformed because when He showed up, they were willing to show up as well. The place they thought they would never emerge from became the place that led them into a deeper knowledge, experience and relationship with Him. In the place they thought would swallow them up, He instead raised them up. At Horeb, the place of desolation, God showed Himself mighty. Can you dare to believe that He will do so for you?

If you're at your own Horeb, don't try to escape it or make your own way out. Wait upon Him there. One of the works He will do is to allow that place to reveal who it is, what it is you really trust in. Let God do His work and fulfill His purpose at your Horeb. If you've come to Horeb, to Desolation Mountain, stand still there and meet your God. He will be there. He is there. He'll make the place of your desolation the place of your salvation...if you'll just trust Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Unshakable Kingdom

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Matthew 23:37

Sheila Walsh tells a story from her childhood about a neighboring farmer who suffered a devastating fire on his property. The fire consumed all he owned, barns, sheds, land, and all his lifestock. All that was left standing was the stone house he lived in. Walsh tells of how, after the fire, she walked to the farmer's land to survey the devastation. As she did so, she saw the farmer come out of his home and walk up to a hen, burned, scarred, dead. He gently nudged the hen aside, and underneath were six live chicks. Her child's heart was deeply moved as she saw the above Scripture come to life before her eyes. Such is the love of Christ, who went to a cross, suffered, was scarred, and died that you and I might live. As the old hymn says, "Such love, such wondrous love."

James Robison speaks of the unshakable Kingdom that Jesus Christ invites us to. I see that Kingdom as being just like that farmer's stone house, that mother hen's sacrificial life. In it, we are protected. Yes, we too suffer loss, pain, affliction. Christ never promised that we would not. What He did promise is that we would be able to say with Paul that, "None of these things move me." He meant that the fires, storms, and losses in life would not be able to move us from the foundation that is Jesus Christ. That while they may affect our body, our emotions and feelings, they could never affect, move our souls from Him. We, like the stone house, like the six chicks, would still be there after the worst of the world's afflictions.

Jesus spoke the words of Matthew 23 as He stood on the hill overlooking Jerusalem. He knew the devastation that would befall the city and nation in little more than 25 years; that the city would fall to Rome, it's people enslaved. More, He knew that these people, those He'd been sent to, had almost all of them rejected Him. More than the physical fate of the city and people, He knew the spiritual and eternal cost of their rejection: death. Spiritual, eternal death. They rejected the unshakable Kingdom and chose one that offered no protection and no foundation. They would be exposed to and consumed by the fires of this world and those of eternity.

Jesus calls us to His unshakable Kingdom. He calls us to build our "house," our lives, lives that stretch into eternity, upon the Rock that is His life. He said all other ground was sand, "sinking sand." Two kingdoms call us; the unshakable One that is built upon Christ, and that which is built upon the sand of this world and the enemy who rules it. One built upon His Light and Life, the other upon darkness and death. In His is safety for eternity. The other, only eternal lostness. To the One, Christ seeks to gather you to. The other seeks to scatter you from. Rock or sand. In which is your life rooted today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - In His Presence

"In Your presence there is fullness of joy." Psalm 16:11....."Choosing to hope is the first step to healing." Dutch Sheets

Pain. Deep, unhealed inner pain, is a great affliction in the midst of the church today. So much of that pain finds its way out in our lives through anger, acting out, and all types of destructive behavior. Broken relationships, divorce, abuse, can be, and are by-products of unresolved and unhealed pain. How can a people who profess belief in the One who is the Healer live in such brokenness? The answer is so simple, yet we never seem to see it. We don't take our pain, our wounds, to Him. The results are many, but the foremost may be our loss of hope.

I heard Sheila Walsh make a suggestion to her listeners. She asked them to take a chair and place it in the center of a room, simply sit there, and invite His Presence, and then enter into His Presence. In doing this, we need to understand some things. In His Presence darkness cannot exist. In His Presence, emotional and spiritual wounds cannot thrive. In His Presence, our brokenness cannot remain broken. In His Presence, our pain cannot remain in its hiding places. All of these are rooted out by His Holy Spirit when we abide, sit in His Presence.

Walsh noted that when we do this, when we abide in His Presence, He leads us to the place of "processing our pain." He will bring to the surface those things that we may have spent a lifetime keeping hidden while all the while they caused destruction to ourselves and others. Our flesh despises this process. When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden, their first response was to hide from Him. Some of us have been hiding from Him all our lives. We've hidden in plain sight, in church worship services, in church ministries, even in church pulpits. Not only have we hidden in plain sight, we've remained hidden even in His Light. We've never processed our brokenness.

In Isaiah 1:18, the Father called to His people Israel, "Come, let us reason together....No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow." What do you need to "reason together" with Him about? What do you need to process in His Presence? Haven't the wounds and brokenness festered, lay hidden long enough? In His Presence there is fullness of joy...hope....healing...wholeness. No more running. No more hiding. No more denying. In His Presence there is Life. Death in all of its forms cannot be found there. Come into His Presence today. Let the healing begin.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Shape Of Love

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....." John 3:16...."If love isn't shaped like a cross; it isn't really love." Ann Voskamp

In the fallen world we live in, we're conditioned to think that when life goes wrong, oftentimes terribly wrong, there must be something wrong with us. This seems to be especially so as it pertains to those who say we are His. We profess believe in a Father God who is love itself....until our circumstances seem to point to Him as a very unloving God indeed. The world often asks, "If God is so loving then "Why?" Why sickness, disease, war, hate, bigotry, injustice, divorce, abuse, and on an on. The presence of any of these in our lives always brings us to the place of having to reconcile His love with that which seems to contradict it.

Before anything else, we have to come to terms with something. We live in a fallen world infected by the spiritual disease of sin. Evil, and all it's accompanying forms exists not because He chose for it to, but we did, through our human and spiritual ancestors, Adam and Eve, when they believed the devil's lies and rebelled against God. The human race has suffered the consequence ever since. God, in His love, immediately unfolded His plan of redemption and rescue through His Son, Jesus Christ. Even so, we would live, even as redeemed souls, in a world that continues to be fallen, and continues to be saturated with the effects of that fallen state. We are not exempt from those effects on this side of eternity. His love doesn't mean a pain free life. It means a Christ filled life in the midst of the pain. This is what we too often fail to understand.

When life hurts, terribly hurts, we think He has abandoned us, or that somehow, we must have failed Him somewhere, and He is punishing us for it. We think we've done something wrong. Or worse, that we are something wrong. If this were not so, the disease would not have come, the divorce would not have happened, the abuse would never have taken place. That's where we must hear the above words of Ann Voskamp; "If love (His love) isn't shaped like a cross; it isn't really love." The Father gave His only Son....He didn't spare Him the ordeal of the cross. It was the only way to bring redemption to a human race under the curse of sin. It is the only path for those who would be free of that curse. Our hearts and souls are made free, but our lives will continue to grapple with the effects of that sin while we yet live and breathe. When we do, we have to look to the cross, to the Lord who endured it, conquered it, and gave us life through it. His love is perfectly shown in that cross, and if we will trust in Him, He will show His love perfectly to us as we endure as well. And we will do more than survive, we will thrive. We will overcome. We will understand the unconditional nature of His love, and we'll know it isn't based on feelings or circumstances, but upon who He is, and what He gives.

I don't know how you've been defining the shape of His love, but have you come to the place of realizing that is indeed, "shaped like a cross?" His love will always include His cross. It would not be perfect love if it didn't. In this fallen world, do not flee from the effects of that fallen state, but run to Him, to His cross and His love that it portrays. His love flows down to the cross and rises back up to Him. Embrace it, and know His love, His real and true love today.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Called

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28...."Success is doing what we're called to do and having peace there." Anthony Evans

It's amazing how much discontent, frustration, and even anger, we who call ourselves His children experience in life. We don't like what we are, what we're doing and where we're doing it. We spend large amounts of time wishing we were somewhere else, doing other things, and enjoying much more tangible results than we are right now. This can be true in our jobs, our marriages, and yes, our ministries.

Being "successful" is ingrained into our western thinking. It has always been so in the culture of the world, and that culture has deeply penetrated the culture of the church. We want our best life, best marriage and family, and best ministry now. When we don't, especially after we've expended so much energy is seeing that we do, we fall back into depression, discouragement, frustration, and a desire to escape it all. Someone said that comparison is the thief of joy. The proof of this is found in how little joy we have because we spend so much time measuring our lives and what is happening in them with others. The natural outflow of this is going to be resentment. Resentment towards those who we deem "ahead" of us, and worse, resentment towards Him who we believe could make it all different if He really wanted to. Personally, I know this is true, because I spent a large portion of my life and ministry living in that place.

There is a lot of teaching and preaching in the church about our being called. Romans 8:28 tells us we are, that we're called according to His purpose. Our flaw is in thinking we get to decide what His purpose is. We almost always think it's a quick journey "to the top." We're blind to the reality that in God's style of measurement, we rise up by first bowing down. By yielding, surrendering to His purpose. And His purpose will always lead to the cross. And His cross will always lead to a place that our flesh will despise.

Someone said that we're obsessed with having followers rather than being obsessed with the One we're to follow. This can be seen in so much of the literature that is popular in the church today. It majors on all we can have and get in Him, or how we can add on to what we already have. We adopt corporate models instead of Calvary ones. We never ask whether or not we're feeding our flesh or our spirits with all of it.

Some years back I remember talking of all of this with a brother pastor who was not only a great pastor, but a gifted one. His fellowship was small, but one that ceaselessly ministered to it's community. When speaking of "success," especially as we usually view it in the church, he told me he'd died out to that urge to have it. He would just serve and minister with all His heart, and rejoice in the honor God allowed him in doing so. He defined Anthony Evans' above definition of success. Can we?

We who are His are all called according to His purpose. Can we surrender to the reality that His purpose may differ vastly from ours? Can we have and live in peace there when it does? Can we let the culture of the Kingdom construct and define our lives and not the world's? Can we see the honor in the call, no matter where that call places us? Or, do we go on living in comparisons, and all the frustrations and resentments they bring? What's our choice? What's yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Much More

"Amaziah asked the man of God, 'But what should I do about the silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?' The man of God replied, 'The Lord is able to give you much more than this.' " 2 Chronicles 25:9

Not long after the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split into two, with the southern part becoming the kingdom of Judah, and the northern the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Israel was led by its kings into darkness and rebellion against God. Amaziah had become king of Judah, and set about bringing spiritual and governmental reform to the kingdom. One of the tasks he set himself to was reorganizing the army, to which he spent a large sum in hiring soldiers from the northern kingdom. God sent a prophet to order him to not do this as the Father had set Himself against that kingdom in response to their sin and rebellion. Amaziah saw only what the personal cost of this would be to him. All the silver paid out would be lost. God wanted him to see all that he would gain by his act of obedience and sacrifice. The Father wanted him to see the "much more" that we receive in the face of sacrificial obedience to the will and call of God. Amaziah obeyed the order, but eventually, his heart was led away from his God, and to his destruction. He didn't trust or abide in the promise of the Father's "much more." Can we? Do we?

Here is a truth that seems to be losing its place in the teaching of the church. Following Him will require great cost to us. Following Him will involve sacrifice, loss, hardship.....a cross. Jesus told those who would follow Him to first "count the cost." Too many don't, and when His leading brings them to their own kind of "Amaziah moment," they either shrink back, or, like Amaziah, at first obey, but with a reluctant, even bitter heart. A heart that will eventually turn away from Him. They either never hear His promise of "much more," or have refused to believe it. All they can see is the cost, the loss, the "silver" that they must give up in order to fully follow Him.

Maybe the great problem here is that we tend to measure His much more in terms of what can be counted, accumulated, and measured. God's economy, the economy of the Kingdom doesn't operate in that fleshly mode. The much more of His Kingdom yield themselves in eternal riches that flow forth in the form of His joy, peace, wisdom, understanding, strength, and abundance. That is the economy of the Kingdom. It's an eternal economy and lasts while all those things we deemed so precious have long passed away.

A good brother asked me the other day if, when I was walking through my divorce and loss of ministry, I had a crisis of faith. I well remember that time of darkness, pain and loss. I wrestled with Him over many things, and in the wrestling, asked questions, sometimes angry ones. I wondered where He was, even questioned His goodness. Yet the one thing I knew was that I could not turn back, could not go back to the life that was death without Him. I would follow, I would obey, even in the midst of the loss. And in that, I, in time, discovered the "much more" of what He gives when we follow Him despite the cost. What I gained in Him through that dark valley far outweighed what was lost. I would never choose to return to such pain, but neither would I ever choose to do anything but what I did in spite of it.

Whatever costs you may be experiencing in following and obeying Him today, I, and so many others urge you to trust Him for His "much more" in the following. He won't fail or disappoint you. He is faithful.....now and into eternity. Believe for His much more.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Take A Breath

"On the seventh day, having finished His task, God rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and called it holy, because it was the day when He rested from His work of creation." Genesis 2:2-3

I recently heard pastor and writer Robert Morris speak on this passage of Scripture, and he said that the Hebrew meaning for God's resting was, "He took a breath." Think on just what that means. We often say, concerning work, a task, even a ministry, "I need a breather." In a more lighthearted view, we often say, or at least think, concerning one who seemingly talks non-stop, "Take a breath." The reason in both is that a great deal is going out. Energy, effort, self. When God spoke, breathed creation into being, He was exhaling the essence of Himself. When He rested He refreshed Himself, breathed in that same essence. If God, who is infinite, saw the need to step back, to take a breath, shouldn't we? Do we?

God lives in the atmosphere of eternity. He is that atmosphere. He calls us to live in it as well. Our problem is that we too often live our lives, our work, our efforts, our ministries, outside of the atmosphere, or, if we do, fail to replenish it when we've "exhaled" it all. Someone said that we need, constantly, a fresh inhale of the exhale of the Holy Spirit. This requires a stoppage. Sometimes for just a moment, but often, for something longer. God marked a day for rest. He called it holy. He called it the Sabbath, and He commanded us to have it as day of rest. I know that in response, many have legalized the meaning of His Sabbath rest, made it a rule, but His intention for it remains, yet so few of us realize it. So few live it out. We simply don't know how to rest, and don't show a great deal of interest in learning to.

Burnout is a major problem in our culture, especially in the culture of the church. Pastors are suffering it at an alarming rate, as are so many who work in the ministries of the church. They constantly give out, but know little or nothing of that breathing in of His Spirit, of just doing nothing but living in His "atmosphere," breathing Him in, so that they are able to breath His Life out. I know this. A large portion of my ministry life was spent in "breathing out" while neglecting to make time to breathe His Life in. I didn't know how to "take a breath." Do you?

Busyness is a plague upon our culture and upon the church. To what degree does the plague affect you? Where in your life, your "schedule," is there a day of Sabbath rest? Where have you made the time to catch your breath? Where and how often are you getting that fresh inhale of the exhale of His Holy Spirit? Do you know and experience the meaning and reality of His Sabbath rest? If you don't, please, lay down the busyness, the tyranny of the urgent, as one writer put it, and find your rest in Him. Lay down those things, those pressing needs that demand you give your all to, and trust Him with them as you breath in the essence of His Life. If you don't, you may go on "doing" but you will lose the wonder of "being." Being in Him, filled with His Life. We find His fullness when we rest in Him. So, take a breath.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Furnace

"I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure, just as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'These are My people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.' " Zechariah 13:9..."I now know my suffering wasn't proof of God's punishment or absence. Instead, each impossibility provided a backdrop against which I could experience a new depth of God's reality. Although I still don't understand all the whys, His love for me cannot be denied." Michelle Cushatt

There is so much talk about the love of God these days, but so little is based on reality. I think we expect Him to love us with our definition of love and not His. I think the reality of this is shown when we walk through suffering. The first thing we tend to question is His love. Certainly the world looks at it that way. How many unbelievers ask, "If God is a God of love, how could He allow that?" Those are deeper theological questions than can be spoken of here. Suffice to say that they leave out the most important element; we live in a fallen world where sin has entered the equation and in full force. Evil and the suffering that always accompanies it will not be removed until Christ's return. His love is shown not in the absence of suffering, but His presence with us in it.

Zechariah 13:9 tells of the Father's dealing with His people Israel. The impurity of their sin and disobedience filled them. God, in His love, took them through fire in order to cleanse them of the impurity. Fire burns. Pain comes. He had no delight in any of it, but in His love and desire for their ultimate good, He took them through it because He had for them a life grander and deeper than they could ever have imagined. In this dark, sin stained world, He does the same with us. Look at the lives of His people, through Old Testament and New. He led them to and through fiery furnaces, prisons, caves, and all manner of affliction. Moses, Joseph, David, the prophets, Peter, Paul, John, all of the disciples. For each awaited a jail cell, a headsmen's axe, a prison island, a cross. In His greatest act of love, He gave His Son and the offer of eternal life through the pain and suffering of His cross. A cross that led to a tomb, and then to His resurrection. This is the way of God, the way of the cross. This is love. His love looks beyond the present and into eternity.

Someone said that we need to first stop asking Him to help us and realize something more; He first wants to kill us. Kill that which is killing us, sin in all of its forms. Addictions, impulses, attitudes, behaviors. All of them gross impurities that can only be made pure in the furnace, at the altar of His cross. And all taking place out of the heart of His love. All because He is leading us beyond just the events of this passing world and into that world which will never pass away. In the furnace, we encounter Him, and when He brings us out, we can minister to others in their time in the flames.

Michelle Cushatt is a woman who has suffered physically, emotionally and spiritually. She knows well the heat of the furnace. In that furnace she has discovered not only the heat of the flames, but the depths of His love in them. May we as well. His love is perfectly shown in Christ's cross. May we not fear it, but embrace it. It's His portrait of love.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Alabaster Jar

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:36-38

It is believed that the woman who made this act of sacrificial worship was Mary Magdalene, the former prostitute. The perfume within that jar was expensive. It would likely have been the entire sum of what she owned. It was certainly the most precious of her possessions. She had already believed upon Jesus as the Messiah, and there is no indication that she had any expectation of a return from Him. She simply gave all she had as an act of devotion and worship. And that act filled the house with the scent of the perfume. Jesus said that what she had done would be remembered forever; not just upon the earth, but throughout eternity. It makes me wonder, what acts of worship that we offer are worth His remembering.....or anyone's remembering for that matter?

Most professing believers are willing to give....usually out of their surplus. What they think they can afford, or what they think is found acceptable. Up to a tithe, and maybe a bit beyond. Rarely do we "break" our alabaster jar of what we believe precious and pour it all out to Him. Someone asked if we shrewdly calculate what we can afford to give Him without actually giving up anything of ourselves? Do we, as Oswald Chambers stated, "shuffle our feet" in the light of that question?

Everyone's concept of what they deem to be precious can be different. Whatever is contained in our "alabaster jar," can we freely offer it up to Him? I have in my prayer journal this question, written long ago. I don't remember the source, but it asks, "When was the last time we did something we'd never done before, or would do for no one else, but did for Him, simply as an act of worship?"

What do you carry in your alabaster jar that is precious beyond anything else? It can be anything. Dreams, desires, wounds, betrayals, hopes, plans, relationships, goals, and most of all, ourselves. Can we break the jars we hold these in, release them to Him, and pour them out upon His feet.....in trust, and in worship? The offering of that which we have always held as most precious, to Him who has become precious beyond what words can describe.

Whatever is your "alabaster jar," do you offer it, all of it, to Him? Or, do you hold it all back, and give to Him something less valued, something more "affordable?" Are your, our, offerings of worship unforgettable to His heart, or tainted by the reality that we hold to something else believed to be more precious to us than Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Chain Gang

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13....."Joy is being able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and have the peaceful assurance that Jesus walks with us." Thelma Wells

In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, as Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli Gloin approach the hall of the King of Rohan, a land slowly being overtaken by the darkness emanating from the evil realm of Mordor, Gimli remarks, "You'll find more joy in a graveyard." I wonder, when unbelievers encounter we who say we believe in the Lord of Life, are their thoughts similar? Should it happen that someone not acquainted at all with our particular fellowship entered in for our weekly worship, might they think the same? Evangelist James Robison said that too many Christians live and look like they're members of a chain gang. To what degree do we fit that description on most given days?

Jesus promised that in Him our joy would be full. The Old Testament abounds with references to the joy of the Lord. The book of Nehemiah declares that "the joy of the Lord is your strength." Joy is one of the beautiful fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is His will and desire, even command, that we live in and experience His joy. So why do so few of us have that experience?

Perhaps it's because we confuse happiness with joy. Wells says that "Happiness is natural. Joy is supernatural." Happiness is dependent on circumstances and emotions. Joy is the fruit of abiding in Christ. In my prayer journal I have written, "Do we just cope with life, or in Christ, rise above it." The joy of the Lord gives us the strength to rise above the sorrows of life. I don't say that we will not be touched by them. We will, but the sorrow, if we are truly abiding in Him, cannot touch our joy. Even in the tears, in the valley of the shadow of death, the joy of His Presence is with us, and in us. We are touched by sorrow, but we are not held by it.

There are few things more tragic, or more grieving to His Spirit, than a joyless child of the King. Such a state should be unheard of in a believer, but it is not. Too often we do look like members of a chain gang. I know because I have lived in that state myself. Whenever I have allowed circumstances, sorrows, distractions, anything, to lure me from my abiding in Him, my joy recedes, and worry, fear, anxiety, hopelessness, despair, take it's place. I've allowed myself to be made a member of the enemy's chain gang. Yet, if I will turn to Him, abide in Him, His joy and peace becomes my joy and peace, and the chains are soaked from my ankles and wrists.

Is the joy and peace of Christ yours today? Or, do you labor through life manacled to the enemy's chain gang? You have but to turn to Him, renounce the chains, be they of sin, circumstances, or the attacks of hell, and behold Him to cause them to fall at His feet and yours. And know, anew, or for the first time, that the joy of the Lord is indeed your strength.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Skull

"They came to a place called Golgotha (which means 'the place of the skull). Matthew 27:33

Many have said that the great battlefield every believer faces is that found in the mind. The battle is between whether we receive His Truth or the enemy's lies. One or the other reigns in our minds. Which one reigns in yours?

Jesus said that from the beginning, Satan was a liar, that he is the father of lies. In his first encounter with our human ancestors, he weaved lies in with half-truths. He has been doing so down through the ages. He does so today. Those who have been ensnared by those lies are also captive to them. Many have been set free in their hearts, but remain in bondage in their minds. Some fully, others partially, but really, all of us on some point or matter. The enemy's lie is always rooted in the character of the God we say we trust in. He has seemingly endless angles from which to attack us in this. They can range from the trustworthiness of His promises, to His ability to bring them to pass, to His desire to really want to help us. We are born into this world as a fallen race. Christ the Redeemer was sent by His Father to break the curse of sin and its power, and to dispel all the lies we have believed to be true. He did this at the cross, and the key to understanding this can be found at that cross.

Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, "the place of the skull." At the top of that skull shaped hill, with His cross driven squarely into it. Think on that picture for a moment. The skull encases the brain. It is in the brain where our perception of what is true and what is a lie is found. The cross of Christ literally penetrated that skull like hill. His cross, and all that it signifies also penetrates our own "skulls" and the brain within if we will but receive the fullness of that work. In His crucifixion and resurrection Christ brought the promise of freedom and victory. Truth triumphs over every lie, even the deepest and most destructive that we have believed. The work of the cross not only captures our hearts, but our brains as well....if we'll but receive it.

It is recorded that at the cross, a soldier pierced his side with a spear, and that water and blood flowed from the wound. Someone said of this that "the water of His Word washes our mind and His blood breaks all the power of sin over our minds." For so many, His blood has covered their sin, but they have never allowed the water of His Word to wash and cleanse their minds. Someone said that we cannot take a destructive (lying) thought out of our mind. It can only be replaced by a more powerful (truthful) one. This happens when we allow our minds to be washed, cleansed, of all the lies we have received and believed. Scripture says that He speaks words of "Spirit and life." At the cross, the Truth, His Truth, penetrated the domain of the Father of lies. In His resurrection, the pathway into the fullness of His Truth was laid open to us. Isn't it time for each of us to enter into that fullness, to exchange every lie we have believed for the Truth that He has spoken? 2000 years ago, at the place of the skull, Truth broke all the power of the lie. Have you entered into that Truth in all it's fullness? Where are the lies still lurking, sending out their poison? The power of the lie, all of it was broken at the cross. His Truth now reigns. Receive it that it may now reign in you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Sacred Wounds

"From now on, don't let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body that scars that show I belong to Jesus." Galatians 6:17...."Wounds become sacred when we give them to God." Ruth Graham

There are many certainties in life, and one of the most daunting is that we will not escape it without wounds. Oftentimes deep wounds, agonizing wounds, wounds that change the very course of our life. What that course turns out to be will be determined by what it is we do with our wounds.

I don't want to diminish the pain of anyone's wounding or loss. I certainly know the extent of my own. However, something I have observed, and fallen prey to myself, is our holding onto that pain and the wounding that accompanies it. It becomes something we don't want to let go. Someone said that we can get past that which we can't get over. That means that there is always a memory of the pain, but that we don't "live" there. It doesn't hold us captive. More, we can make a kind of idol of that wound, staying in that place emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes, even physically. I've always felt that Abraham's father, Terah, did this concerning the death of his son Haran. Terah had intended to take his family to the land of Canaan, but stopped at a village with the same name as his son, Haran. He never left. He never arrived to where it was he was supposed to go. That village became an idol to his loss. Where might we have done the same...over a lost loved one, marriage, relationship, ministry?

Paul bore on his body the scars of a life lived out in Christ. Many were his losses and wounds. He saw all of them as testimony that he belonged completely to his Lord and Savior. Beth Moore said something to the effect that if we give them to Him, Jesus will write His name upon our wounds and scars. His signature not only marks us as His, but is a testimony to His healing. As Ruth Graham says, when we surrender our wounds to Him, they become sacred. Sacred wounds. They become so because they are signed, in love, in His blood, with His name. But only when we give them freely, willingly, to Him.

It is said that the only wounds and scars that will be seen in heaven will be Christ's, the mark of both His crucifixion and resurrection. And by the power of His wounds, all trace of our wounds will be gone. Yet on this side of eternity, we still bear them. How will we bear them? As captives or conquerors? Do we live in them, make idols of them? Or do we surrender them to Him and see them made sacred? Sacred wounds. Is that what ours are?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Two Voices

"I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God." I Corinthians 1:18.....'The enemies tactics are limitless, but his intention is plain; Get the Christian off track. He wants us to mistrust Jesus and start making decisions based on fear and anxiety." Christ Tiegreen

In my prayer journal, I've written down a question that cannot be avoided by any professing believer; "Who's louder; The Truth of the cross, or the lies of the enemy?" I believe this is a question that needs to be answered definitively by a once for all choice, but also daily as that choice will be tested by the incessant attacks of the kingdom of darkness and death.

The Word says that "All the promises of God are 'Yes and Amen.' " Satan's ploy will always be to "get us off track," to, as Tiegreen says, "get us to mistrust Jesus." When this happens, we do base our choices, decisions and direction on emotions and feelings. He will apply such pressure as to make what we're feeling to be more real than what He is saying. It's a simple but effective plan, and it is working in the lives of so many who confess a faith in Him, but give witness to deep seated unbelief in Him. Today, any day, is that plan working in you and me?

It's been said that Satan shouts in the darkness while God whispers. Ears that are not attuned to the heart of the Father will never hear the whisper. Only the shouts will register, and the actions and choices that follow will be rooted in the lies within the shouting. The shouting will tell us that we have to do something, that we must act now, before it's too late. The shouts will speak every kind of lie, and all of them based in the ultimate lie that Christ cannot be trusted, that His words aren't true, at least in the particular situation we face. We only hear the shouting because we've never learned to discern His voice, His whisper, in the secret place of intimacy with Him, with His heart.

Tiegreen writes this, "If we let circumstances constrain us, Satan will manipulate them indefinitely, stringing us along our whole lives in uncertain, fear induced steps...Do not negotiate with the terrorist when he threatens." The terrorist of our souls will threaten us all the day long. The giant Goliath stood before the Israelites shouting threats day after day while they cowered in their tents. David, a young shepherd armed with only a sling, shouting at the giant, who'd been speaking in the voice of the devil, "You come to me armed with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel." The army of Israel had forgotten that. The giant's shouting was louder than their God's truth. It was not so for David, who not only knew that "secret place," he lived there. He slew the giant and he won the victory. So shall we if reject the shouts and lies of the darkness, and embrace the Truth of the Lifegiver, the Truthgiver. Two voices come before you today. That of the author of lies, and the voice of the Author of Truth and Life. Which do you hear? Which do you live by?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Plate

"The churches of Macedonia...first gave their own selves to the Lord." 2 Corinthians 8:1,5....."Modern Macedonians give money, but the early Macedonians first gave God the Macedonians." Vance Havner

The above Scripture and quote make me think of two stories that greatly impacted me. The first was told by Sheila Walsh about a young man in the Scottish village she grew up in. He was known as "Wee Jimmy." Wee Jimmy was known throughout the village as a thief and troublemaker. One night he slipped into a church with the intent to rob it of the night's offering. As he waited on the back row, the Word being preached pierced his heart, and at the end of the service, responded to the invitation and gave his heart to Christ. He then faithfully began attending all worship services. A few weeks later, as the offering plate came to him, he asked the usher to place it on the floor beside his seat. The older gentleman softly told him that it was fine if he had nothing to give, but Wee Jimmy persisted, and finally, the usher placed the plate right beside his seat. Jimmy then stood up, and placed his feet in the plate. This was his witness to all that he was offering to God, not part of his money, goods, or himself. He would be the offering. He was the offering. Like the Macedonians, Wee Jimmy gave God the offering of himself; all of himself.

The second story is one I heard of taking place in a worship service in a poor Chinese village. It was customary during the worship to pass around a large sack, into which the villagers would place whatever they could, chickens, farm goods, and so on. When it came to one woman, she had absolutely nothing countable to give; so she gave to Him all that she could. She stepped into the sack, and by doing so gave witness, just as Wee Jimmy had, just as had the early Macedonians, that she gave to Him herself....all of herself.

How do we fit into these stories? Do we find it easy to write a check, make a pledge, to give a portion, while holding back the rest? Do we ever, as the "plate" comes to us, step into it? When the "sack" comes before us, do we pull it over ourselves? Just how far, how deep, does our offering to Him really go?

In Jesus Christ, the Father gave us His all. What do we offer in return? In Jesus Christ, the Father gave to us according to His riches, which are infinite. Why do we tend to always give to Him out of our own. I remember an older pastor once telling this young pastor to not fear asking too much of my people, "They'll never give too much." Cynical? Perhaps, but the Wee Jimmy's and the Chinese villager are too rarely found in our churches. We'll give up to a tithe, sometimes even more. Rarely will we give all of ourselves, our time, resources, talents, lives, to Him. His plate and sack will come before us today; what will we put into it....a portion.....or all that we are? We may avoid them today, but they'll come again tomorrow, and the next day after, and beyond. What will we put into them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The First Question

"I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me." Acts 20:23-24...."What would you do if the Holy Spirit told you your future would be full of prisons and hardships?" Chris Tiegreen...."The first question we must answer is, have we determined beforehand, that no matter what He requires or asks, our answer is 'Yes?' " Francis Chan

The questions that Tiegreen and Chan ask pierce our hearts with an inescapable reality. They cut to the core of our being. They ask us if even should He reveal to us that following Him would involve sacrifice beyond anything we thought possible, even the loss of everything, would we still follow Him? Even if the following meant severe hardship, prison, even death? In short, if in the call, He placed the cross, His cross, and the death it calls us to before us, would we still come? Would we still follow?

These questions clash with the usual picture given of what it is to "come to Christ." We like to emphasize all the great things that go with entering into the saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We're told that He has a "wonderful plan for our lives." Good things, abundance, provision, relief, all these lie ahead of us. We just need to enter in and the desires of our heart will be ours. Prisons, hardships, a cross, these are not usually mentioned as being part of the package.

To Peter, Paul, and others in the Bible, Jesus clearly told them much of what lie in their future. Death and hardship would be the cost of following Him. He told them that to follow Him wholly would mean they would share in His suffering. He was clear on that with them. He is clear on that with us. He's told us it would be so. So why are we so shocked when hardship and suffering do come upon us? Didn't He tell us it would be so? He did. It's just that we who are to be His voice, are His voice, have chosen to leave most, if not all of that part of His invitation out. Prisons, hardships, suffering, and a cross do not have mass appeal, and we want to appeal to the masses. The cross has always offended, and though we may fully display it in our churches, we rarely do so in our message and witness. So we are ill-prepared for what it is to truly follow Christ. When they come, too often, we go....as far from them as we can get.

To Paul and Peter and others, Jesus gave some details on what lie before them. For most though, He doesn't. He just tells us that to follow Him fully will require the losing of our lives, sometimes literally, but always spiritually. He tells us that there will be suffering, and if we have not settled that first question as to whether we will go with Him anyway, we can be sure that when suffering comes, we won't continue on with Him. In John 6, we're told that most of His followers turned away from Him when He made this very demand. He asked the remaining disciples if they too would leave Him? Peter spoke for all; "Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life."

How do we answer Chan's first question? It cannot be taken lightly or avoided, and it is asked of each of us. Have you already settled on the answer, or, as Oswald Chambers puts it, "Do you shuffle your feet?" The old hymn goes, "Though none go with You, still I will follow." If everyone, simply everyone turns back, will you, will we, still follow?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Lost And Found

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10

In no way do I wish to come across as some kind of "martyr," yet I think I can say with some knowledge that I know a bit about loss. I've suffered a lot of it through my life, even in that great part where I have walked with Him. In those losses, the reality and depth of meaning in Luke 19:10 have held deep impact, and deep blessing. I have learned that what Jesus speaks here, is so much more than we think. This verse is a portrait of who He is, what He does, and how He ministers. This life, for all of us, will contain loss....a lot of it. Loss through death, divorce, tragedies of all kinds. It will involve the inevitable losses for all of us, as well as the unexpected for all of us. Pain and sorrow will almost always be the companions of our losses. It is here that He who came to seek and save that which has been lost ministers most effectively.

If we think the meaning here is that Jesus Christ will bring back to us everything in this life that has been lost, we misunderstand His words. In most cases, those lost through death will not be returned to us....this side of eternity. Sadly, though He can restore the most broken of relationships, personal sin prevents that from happening. Ugly divorces happen. Once rich relationships are broken and never heal. Our sense of loss in all of these and many more is intense. Seemingly beyond our ability to bear, and they are, were it not for His gracious love which offers to bear the pain of those losses with and for us. So how, if this is so, is Christ the One who seeks and saves that which has been lost? I think I can speak, at least a bit, to that.

It is not so much the tangible things and people we've lost that Christ seeks, saves, and restores, though He has done, and continues to do so. No, it is the deeper, even greater things that can be lost alongside those with which He does do so. Lost hope. Lost future. Lost past and lost present. Lost desire to go on, and lost belief that life can ever be good again. Indeed, lost life itself. We can slip into an existence mode, living like robots, feeling little, experiencing little, and living even less. It is here where the greatness of His ministry takes place....if we'll have it.

I know what it is to live in the presence of loss, with the belief that all those above hopes, desires, and life were gone. I also know what it is to have Him enter into all that has been lost and begin His work of restoration, from the inside out. I know what it is for Him to come and "restore all the years which the locusts have eaten." I know what it is to be living in the midst of hopelessness and despair and yet have Him restore to me His hope. A hope that will not disappoint. I know this not because of anything superior in me, but that which is infinitely good and mighty in Him. He sought and saved one who thought all was lost, but wasn't. In Him, if we'll trust, believe, and obey, we will see Him, and experience Him to be true to His words.....every time. He seeks, saves, and restores, and His ways of doing so are infinite.

We read Luke 19:10 and think He speaks only of saving lost souls. He does, but He does so not only for and in eternity, but here today, right now. If you're living in the midst of the suffering of your losses, can you, will you believe this? May that which has been lost to you....be found and restored. This is what He came to do. Allow Him to do so with you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Awesome God?

"The church was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord." Acts 9:31....."When God's awesome power is unleashed, we feel the urge both to jump up and down with joy and to tremble in our shoes with fear." Chris Tiegreen....."More spiritual progress can be made in one short moment of speechless silence in the awesome presence of God than in ten years of mere study." A.W. Tozer

Rich Mullins' "Our God Is An Awesome God" has been a popular chorus for more than 25 years now. It's been sung a lot, likely by the majority of us, but, how "awesome" do we really believe Him to be? How far removed are our individual and corporate worship lives from the reality of a God whose glory and presence really should elicit heart jumping joy, and at the same time, feet trembling fear and awe?

Tiegreen writes, "We have hints of the power of God in the modern church, but we have two millennia's worth of corruption and stagnation as well. Awe is hard to come by." In short, we know of God's reputation, His power, glory, and majesty, yet how many of us have ever truly witnessed the reality of that reputation. How jaded have we become? We may still sing "I Stand Amazed In the Presence..." but how much nearer to being bored or distracted are we than to the experience of amazement? Too often we enter our sanctuaries mostly with expectations of what the worship team will be singing, and the preacher preaching. We hope for those "hints" God's power, but our expectation of anything more is very low. How could it not be? The sad truth is that too many have little or no interaction with this awesome God in our day to day lives, so how could we hope to experience so much more when we gather together?We hope the worship leader and preacher will come through, and tragically, we're more often than not satisfied with some warm spiritual fuzzies, and hope the good feelings will last at least till Monday. Tiegreen is painfully right; awe is hard to come by.

The first century church knew and worshiped an Almighty God whose presence was before them and flowing out of them daily. They lived in a spirit of amazement. They both leaped with joy and trembled with fear. How much of either do we ever see in that which we call worship? I'm not saying any of this with a critical spirit, but a hungry one, one that I realize needs to be hungrier still. I want to not only call Him awesome, but experience Him as such in the depths of my spirit.

I think we're nearer to being dry bones before Him, than Holy Spirit breath filled worshipers. We can't correct this by hyping up our services. We need the fresh breath of a move of His Holy Spirit, not just when we come together, but when we come before Him each day. "Breathe on me, breath of God" needs to be our heart prayer. "Show me Your glory," needs to be the overwhelming desire within us. He's an awesome God. When's the last time our hearts and bodies leaped for joy and our feet trembled with fear because of that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Living Sacraments

"And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them, and said, 'Take; this is My Body.' And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And He said to them, 'This My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.' "

I've a pastor friend who once met a member of a fellowship he'd pastored who reminded him that he'd been the minister who'd baptized him. My friend, surely led of the Spirit, said to him, "Friend, you've been baptized, now live baptized." I think on those words often as I contemplate Jesus' above words to His disciples, and us. Baptism and Holy Communion. Two of the great sacraments of the Church. They are much celebrated in our fellowships; but are they lived out?

To be baptized is a public profession of an inward work of His Holy Spirit. It is a confession and profession before the world and the church that we are no longer held captive by sin, that we have left the kingdom of darkness and death and been transformed by His Kingdom of Life and Light. Communion is sacrament that celebrates our oneness and intimacy with Him. It is a spiritual partaking of Him, of who He is, and of what He has done. It is not for the unbeliever, but for those who have entered into a living relationship with Him. It too is a testimony of who we are in Him. If we have been participants, partakers of these sacraments, then we have to be asked the question as to whether we are living out their reality in our lives?

There's a beautiful song, much sung in the church today titled "No Longer Slaves." Baptism, Communion, both are meant to be testimonies of the reality that sin and it's tentacles no longer hold us in chains. God's grace, through the blood of Christ has, as the old hymn says, reached, and freed, "far as the curse is found." Our lives should reflect that. Yes, there remain things in our lives where we need His freeing grace, but the journey for the believer should be one of ongoing victory. We are overcomers by the blood of Jesus, and that is what marks our lives. We have been baptized, and by His grace we can live baptized. We receive communion, and by His blood and broken body, we receive His Life, and the intimacy He offers us. We become partakers of these sacraments, and not just observers of them. They become real to us. He becomes real to us. And we become real to the world. They may reject the work He's done in us, but they cannot deny it.

If we've been baptized, how do we respond to my pastor friend's exhortation? Are we living baptized lives? Most have received communion, and many times over. Have we truly received, and are living out, the Life we celebrate in the receiving? Living sacraments; living testimonies, that's what we're to be. Are we? That's a question we'll not be able to avoid answering. For sure, an unbelieving and watching world will give an answer for us.

Blessings,
Pastor O