Heart Tracks - In His Presence

"When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, 'Oh Lord, please leave me - I'm too much of a sinner to be around You.' ....Jesus replied to Simon, 'Don't be afraid! From now on you'll be fishing for people." Luke 5:8,10....."It's never been about getting it all right. It's always been about the finished work of Jesus." Sheila Walsh

In my prayer journal, I've written down, "In Jesus presence we see ourselves as we are. In His face and heart, we see ourselves as we are meant to be." I don't believe that without both of these responses taking place in our lives, we can ever enter into the fullness of His life. Before He can save and transform us, we have to first know how desperately we need both. When we see Him, we need to see our deep need for Him, and the terrible cost to us of not having Him. When that need is met, we can then begin to see who we were created to be, who we truly are in Christ. In the holy presence of Christ, Peter saw his complete unworthiness before Him. Yet Jesus didn't leave him in that place. He gave Peter a picture of who He made him to be, and who he would become in Him. Has He been able to do the same with you and me?

In this exchange between Christ and Peter, we see something that is lacking in the western church. We're reluctant to tell people who they are without Him. Peter was right when he said that he was too sinful to be in the company of Jesus. Scripture says that He dwells in unapproachable light. The first thing that should happen to us when we encounter Him, is that we're not worthy to be there. In His pure holiness, we cannot but see our own uncleanness. His great gift is that when we see this, and our total inability to change that in any way by ourselves, He offers us His life, His purity, His light in exchange. Beauty for ashes. Darkness for Light. Death for Life. We see our sin, but He doesn't leave us in it. We see who we are in our fallen condition, but He shows us who we were made to be in His risen life. The tragedy here is that so many either never see themselves in this view, or never stop seeing themselves in it. And so spend their lives trying to become what He says they already are. When He looks at anyone who comes to Him in faith, who receives the truth of their need, He then sees His finished work in them, and the Father then proceeds to shape their life to that end, as the Master Potter. Jesus didn't leave Peter in the place of realizing who he was without Him. He called him into the life he was made for. If you have had such an encounter with Him, He's done the same with you. Have you heard and seen? Are you being shaped?

So many of us are trapped in the place of "not being enough." Not good enough, smart enough, gifted enough, successful enough, for Him, or for anyone else. So we run on the treadmill that goes nowhere, trying to win His favor, and the favor of others as well. We keep trying to get what we already have, to become what we already are. We strive to become what we think He wants, when He says yield to Me and let me shape you to what you were made for. We, like Peter, look to ourselves and all that we are not. He calls us to look into His face and heart that we might see who we really are....in Him.

What do you see in His Presence? Just the lack in your life, or the abundance of His? Your unworthiness without Him, or your reception as a son or daughter in Him? Jesus didn't leave Peter where he was. Neither will He leave you. Look into His face and heart. What do you see?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - But If Not....

"Our God is able to deliver us.....But if not...." Daniel 3:17-18....."And others were tortured." Hebrews 11:35..."If you're facing a furnace, make provision for the 'if not.' If you are not healed, if the dear one is taken, if that friend fails you, be faithful anyway." Vance Havner

There have been a lot of "but if not's" in my journey with Him. So many places where I believed completely that He would come through in the way and time that I desired and envisioned....but He did not. I expect that if you've truly been walking with Him, you've experienced the same. When you have come to the "if not's" in your life, how have you responded? How are you responding right now?

In my early years with Him, in the difficult places, He consistently came through for me in so many wonderful ways. He saw how easily shattered I would be if it were otherwise, but as I grew in Him, the testings and challenges of life became harder, more frightening. I had walked through some fires, I had never entered the furnace. When I did, I was faced with the same choice that the three young Hebrews were. Would they, in the face of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, bow down and worship him, or stay true to their God, and worship Him alone? For them, the choice was made before the furnace. For me, I had to do so in it. Maybe it's been the same for you. When the scorching flames of affliction, pain, and suffering hit the child of God, that's when we may be faced with the awful reality of the "but if not's." We have believed fully for His deliverance, but here we are in the furnace. Will we remain true and steadfast to Him, or will we bow down to all the circumstances and threats that come against us, and our trust in Him?

In Hebrews 11 there is a great listing of many of the Bible's heroes of the faith. The wondrous things God did on their behalf are listed. It's a magnificent victory parade, and those in it are named. Yet in that same chapter, there is a second "list." These are the ones who suffered torture, imprisonment, and death. No names are given, yet they, just as the ones who were recognized as faith heroes, were heroes as well. They too walked in that parade. They walked through the "but if not's." The furnace could not destroy their trust in Him. We don't know their names, but He does. No one may know ours in the midst of our own furnace, but He does, and I believe that to Him, the faith of such ones must be the most precious of all.

If you are truly a child of the King, given completely to Him, you will come to your own furnace of affliction. Will you trust Him whether He brings you out of it or not? If everything you have believed about Him seems to be a lie, will you still believe that He is true? Will you refuse to bow down to all that is against you, and dare to trust the One who is for you....even when He seems to have failed you? The furnace may seem to be the end, it is not.

I leave you with this truth that I've learned in the furnace, in the place of the "but if not." I learned to see not what He didn't do, but that which He did. In the end, and into eternity, what will matter most are not the works that He didn't do, but the greater ones that He did....and we'll likely not see their extent until we are fully living in eternity. Until then, while living in the "but if not," keep the eyes of your heart focused on the One who is the I Am.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Faithful One

"According to your faith be it unto you." Matthew 9:29....."Faith has no value of its own, it has value only as it connects with Him. It is a trick of Satan to get us occupied with examining our faith instead of resting in the Faithful One." Vance Havner

I have lost count of all the times I have fallen into the trap Havner speaks of; of constantly looking at my degree of faith instead of the Author of it. Faced with a crisis, I have sought every means possible to "work up" my faith, making sure it was enough, that it would be pleasing to Him. I expect you have fallen into this trap as well, and all the while we don't see how we have drifted into a kind of works belief system, one of trying to get His approval. One of "proving" to Him that our faith is strong enough to move His hand on our behalf.

None of this is helped by so much of the present day teaching on faith. I once had a well meaning brother tell me that when we fail to exhibit the kind of faith God desires, we "give Him an out" in His moving on our behalf. Think of what this means. It says that the Father, rather than seeking every way to help us, instead looks for reasons not to. You may read that and be appalled, but really, how often have your own beliefs mirrored that? How often have we felt like God stood back, examining and measuring our trust and belief in Him, placing a near impossible standard before us, and all so that He might find reason to turn His back on us? This kind of belief system causes us to come before Him as beggars and orphans, not as sons and daughters, inheritors of His Kingdom through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said that if we have faith "as a mustard seed," one of the smallest of seeds, the Father would take and bless it. He would do so if that mustard seed faith were focused not on its size, but its Source. We are always looking at the quantity of our faith. Havner calls it the devil's trick, and it is because it takes our eyes completely off of Him and puts them on ourselves. Anytime he can get us to do this, he wins. Where is he winning with you and me right now? Where are we trying to work up our faith, putting our faith in faith, rather than resting in and upon the One who is its object? Where are we looking to something other than He who is the Faithful One?

Nothing is more spiritually exhausting than living with "faith in our faith." There is no rest there, only a performance quota that is always trying to win His favor. He calls us, you and me, to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the "Author and Finisher of our faith," and rest in Him. You have not much faith today? Bring what you have to Him. Determine that you will look upon Him, and nothing else, and see what He works in you, in me, in return. Sometimes, we, like the father of the child near death in Scripture, can only say to Him, "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief." If we will bring that mustard seed faith to Him, focus it upon Him, we will experience wonders, and the greatest wonder of all will be seeing and experiencing Him......the Faithful One.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Prayer

2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. 3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. Deuteronomy 29:2-4...."Truth long heard and not acted upon means awful self-deception." Vance Havner

In over 35 years of ministry, I've come to believe that one of the greatest lacks within the Church is that of spiritual discernment and wisdom. We see, but don't see, hear but don't hear. Our understanding is clouded. We know much about Him, but like the Pharisees and Jesus Christ, we don't recognize Him or His ways even when He is before us. We have grown so used to depending upon our natural abilities that we are blind and deaf to a supernatural God who is everywhere around us. Is He truly also within us? If so, how have He and His ways become so alien and strange to us? The Israelites wanted Moses to be the one who lived face to face with Him. They would be content to receive His words from him. There was no longing to know and experience God in such intimacy. How like them has the average church-goer become, depending on their preachers and teachers to tell them what it is they hear the Father saying?

I want to share with you another prayer that I lift up for all that He's given me to minister to in some way. It comes from the above Scripture. It comes from Moses words to the people, a people who had observed the things of God yet were not experiencing Him at all. Moses declared what they did not have. My prayer simply asks that we would. That you would. I ask Him that in His mercy, He would give us minds that understand, eyes that see, and hearts that hear. The reality is that for all who have truly entered into life in Christ, these things have already been given. So why do so many not experience their reality? Could it be that we have fallen into the trap that Havner speaks of? Have we so long heard His voice yet not acted upon His Words that our spiritual eyes and ears no longer see, hear, or understand?

I heard Francis Chan speaking on what the life of a believer should be as opposed to what it too often is. He spoke of how every week, preachers plead with their people to dig more deeply into His Word, spend more time in intimate prayer, live lives that naturally yield true spiritual fruit. He said that all should be the natural outflow of a life lived in Him. That such life should never be begged for in the people, but flows from a deep, ever growing hunger for Him. The people of Moses day didn't live that way. Neither do far too many in ours. Do you and I?

I keep praying the prayer I shared above. Is it being answered in your life? In mine? We pray for so many things. For our loved ones, ourselves, our churches. Could there be anything greater to be asked for then eyes that see, hearts that hear, and minds that understand...Him? As a pastor, teacher, parent or friend, do you pray it? Will you now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Crackers And Cheese

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32....."Our salvation includes more than pardon from sin, deliverance from hell, and a ticket to heaven. It includes all that we shall need on our journey." Vance Havner

So many professing Christians live just like the passenger on an ocean liner, who for the entire voyage across the sea, subsisted on crackers and cheese, only to learn upon arrival at his destination, that all meals were included in his fare.
In Christ, the Father has given all of His riches, extravagantly, abundantly, and freely. Yet we end up living on "crackers and cheese." And the effects of this are seen in every area of our lives. We live with a poverty and orphan mentality. We are rich in Him, but we live as spiritual paupers. Like orphans, we try to earn our way to a place at His table, when that place, and the partaking of its wonders, have already been secured for us in Christ. A spiritual feast has been prepared for us, laid out for us, but we choose instead "crackers and cheese."

That poverty/orphan mentality that so many live in is a great curse upon the church. So many of us believe we are saved by His grace, yet we live our lives out under the law. We think we have to earn what He's already given. We think prayer is all about trying to convince a reluctant God to give us something, when in reality, He already has. Jesus said that "freely you have been given, freely receive." Our great stumbling comes because we think we have to twist His arm to get something when He has already given it to us. If you doubt this, examine how often you have prayed for Him to give you more peace, joy, strength, and grace. We seem blind to the reality that He has already given us all of these in Christ. We simply have to, in faith, receive them all. His peace is ours. So is His joy and strength. Receive them.

There's an old hymn with the lyric, "What more could He do than He has already done?" On the cross. His last words were, "It is finished!" The work, the price, the victory, was accomplished, finished, at Calvary. They were all sealed with His resurrection. The riches of eternal life weren't just placed before us as some future hope, but a present reality now. In Matthew 11:28, He invites us into His rest.....now. It's an invite that calls all of ourselves to enter into all of Him. It is an invitation to abide in Him, and when we abide in Him, we partake of Him. And the riches that are His are now ours as well. In such a life, there is no place for spiritual poverty. There is no such thing as an orphan. There are only sons and daughters of the king.

How weary are we of our diet of crackers and cheese? In Christ, every longing of our heart has been met. At the cross, every price has been paid. In the resurrection, all of His bounty and abundance is given us. We can step out of our poverty, come out of our orphanage, and take up our inheritance in Him. Release the dry crackers and cheese we have believed to be our lot, and receive the heavenly manna our hearts and souls were made for. They are ours, if we'll but receive them.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Do This

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

From time to time in my preaching, I'll share with our fellowship some of the things I pray for them, and for all He's moved on me to intercede for. I thought I might do something of the same today, as, if you are receiving these writings, you too are counted among those.

It's a simple prayer really, but one with powerful consequences if we allow Him to work it out in our lives. I ask Him that we would, in all aspects of our being, fully live out all it is we say we believe about Him. That we would live life to Life, heart to Heart, and mind to Mind with and in Him. To experience the reality of what it is to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength, the reality of this prayer has to come to be in us. It is impossible to love Him in this way when our hearts, our souls, and our strength are given to anyone or anything else. So the question arises for each of us, is this prayer being answered in your life and mine? If it isn't, why is that so?

The teacher of the law that asked the question knew exactly what the answer was, that's why he was an expert. Yet his motive was anything but pure. He sought a means to try and expose Christ as a false teacher and prophet. The fact that he was blind to who Christ actually was mirrored the blindness of his heart and how far he was from God. The "expert" in God's law could not recognize God as He stood before Him. He had given himself to many things, but he had never given himself to the Father. He had the right answer, but he didn't have the right life. Do we?

Let me share with you the last part of my prayer; "Father, walk with us today. Fill our lives with Your heart. Fill our hearts with Your Life." Most of us would say we desire this. How many of us can say we are living and experiencing it? Divided hearts that give their strength and soul to other things will never know such life. Jesus told the teacher of the law that if he would live out what he said he believed, he would have true life. He hasn't changed that statement concerning you and me. If we will live out what it is we say we believe about Him, we will have such life as well. We will live. We will move from just knowing what the definition of true life is to actually experiencing it to the full right now.

The Father calls us, in Christ, to literally walk life to Life, heart to Heart, mind to Mind with Him. It will never happen unless we give as our offering of worship, all of our hearts, minds, and life to Him. Whether we do or not will mark us either as ones who only know the definition of what real life is, or ones who actually live that life. What marks you and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Restoration

"He must remain in heaven until the time of the final restoration of all things." Acts 3:21...."When your focus is a restoration of all things, you align yourself with the heart of God." Chris Tiegreen

In one of his devotional writings, Chris Tiegreen asks that we consider all the "broken walls" in our lives and relationships. That's quite a challenge, especially so when that question is broadened and brought into the corporate life of the church. I think every true pastor with a shepherd's heart will agree that nothing so grieves us as when a member of the fellowship leaves in disagreement, anger, or pride. I say this without trying to place all the responsibility upon the one leaving. Churches and pastors can bear just as much, sometimes more, responsibility than the one, ones, leaving. Yet the bottom line regardless of who is most responsible is that a "wall" has been broken down. Not a wall that was meant to divide, but one meant to protect, nurture, and grow those who lived within it. A breach has occurred, and what comes through that breach is rarely something good. One of the greatest tragedies within the Body of Christ is that what is meant to be a living example of restoration and reconciliation is more often an example of division, separation, and isolation. The enemy and the world strike at the reputation of the Father through the failures of His people. Nowhere more so than in our failure to love, forgive, and be reconciled.

It's to our shame that the people of God seem no more able to to live in peace with one another than does the world. The proof is in our divorce rates, our church splits, and the trail of broken relationships that we leave behind. Most often, what is at root are pride and a determination to have our way, to be in control, even at the greatest of costs. And we wonder why a watching world has little interest in becoming a part of it all.

What would happen if we really began to align our hearts with that of the Great Restorer? What if restoration and reconciliation actually became our deepest desire. We say we want people to come to Christ, but there are so many that we're not interested in coming to Him with. Something I like to do from time to time is visit another pastor's fellowship on Sunday morning, since ours meets on Saturday nights. On one such visit I saw a brother who'd recently left a church he'd been a central part of for many years. What I saw in his eyes was a deep sadness, and a great sense of loss. The question is not who was at fault. The question is, how could such a place be reached when the healing power of the King is so available to us all? There are times when the Father leads both pastors and people out of a fellowship for a new post and place in the Kingdom. Sadly, more often, they leave in anger, or are pushed out in anger. And little if any attempt is made for, or are they open to, restoration and reconciliation. And His heart grieves over all of it.

Acts 3:21 says He will, in the end, restore all things. I rejoice as I look forward to that day. Yet, can it not be that He would restore so many things right now.....if we would have it? If we'd lay down our pride, surrender our bitterness and unforgiveness, and come to Him....together...and be restored and healed. That's what He is about. Isn't it time for us to be about it as well?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Whose Story?

"From now on, don't let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus." Galatians 6:17...."He tells His story through our scars." Sheila Walsh

I don't think anyone would consider scars, be they physical, emotional, or spiritual, to be attractive on any level. We tend to think of them as something that leaves us disfigured, less appealing, even ugly. We can have a whole range of emotions and thoughts about them, from embarrassment to outright shame. We can try to hide them, even deny them, but they're there, in every life. As believers, how should we see and experience them?

The Apostle Paul knew suffering. A great deal of suffering, and in every level of his life. Yet they were not scars that caused him shame or that he sought to deny. For Paul, the scars that the enemy sought to use to wreak havoc in his life and ministry, were instead proof of the reality that he belonged to Christ and Christ alone. And the power of his ministry and witness was sealed by those very scars. He knew the truth of Walsh's above words. He knew that His Lord and Savior told His story through his scars. It was a story of His triumph and victory. A story of His power to overcome in Paul's life, the very worst that all the might of the devil and the world could bring against him. Jesus Christ told His story of strength in the midst of weakness, hope in the midst of despair, light in the midst of darkness, and life in the midst of death. As a man, Paul walked through all of these places, and all of these places scarred him. Yet Jesus Christ used these scars and events to tell the story of His redeeming, healing, and transforming life in all of it. He told His story through the scars in Paul's life. Can He also tell His story through your scars and mine?

A great part of our problem is that many of our wounds never do become scars. They just remain open, bleeding, and unhealed. They cripple us in the emotional and spiritual realm. We live in perpetual mourning, or anger, or bitterness and unforgiveness. And because of this, it's the enemy's story and not His that gets told in our lives. The story of our enemy is that in this fallen world we can never live a risen life. That in this world of chaos we can never know His rest and peace. That in the midst of the darkness His light cannot reach us. It is a story that is nothing but a lie, but it is a lie that we allow to be constantly repeated through us because we won't allow Him to heal the wounds, and minister to and through the scars. Christ bears the scars of the cross. They are the proof of His victory. Bring your wounds, all of them, to Him in surrender. Allow Him to make them marks of His victory in you.

As I said, we all have scars. A story will be told through yours and through mine. It will be the story of the King, or that of the usurper, satan. Whose story is being told through yours today, and tomorrow, and the days after? Who do your scars show you to belong to?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Your Kingdom Come?

"Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10

Numbers beyond counting have prayed what is known as "the Lord's prayer" over many centuries. I believe He is, and has been answering that prayer, but a very direct question remains; is He answering it in you and me? One of our great shortcomings in prayer is that we tend to be a lot more vague than we are specific. This is certainly true of the 10th verse of the sixth chapter of Matthew. We may pray for His kingdom to come, but how passionately do we seek for His kingdom to come in us and through us?

In one of his devotionals, Chris Tiegreen suggests a prayer that each of us can shape to our own life situations, and make it very personal to ourselves. He writes, "Try praying this prayer with specifics. 'Your Kingdom come in my heart.' 'Your Kingdom come in my family.' 'Your Kingdom come at the office.' 'May Your Kingdom invade my Monday.' 'Let Your Kingdom rearrange my assumptions, my relationships, my world.' However you can think to apply it, pray it fervently. It's a prayer that is always according to God's will."

If we start to view the prayer, speak the prayer, with the desire to see the fullness of His Kingdom come into every aspect of our lives, than that changes everything. It's very easy to "offer" up some blurry, even shallow prayer about His Kingdom coming while leaving out our desire for it to come and reign in every part of our lives. We do this because there are parts of our lives where we don't really wish for His Kingdom to rule at all. When His Kingdom comes, our kingdoms fall. That's a very scary proposition for our flesh. The kingdoms of the flesh can be very deeply rooted in our hearts and minds, and they don't ever leave willingly. They can only be rooted out when the irresistable power of His Kingdom is invited in. When these false kingdoms are overthrown, His Kingdom advances....in all parts of our being. And we are more and more transformed and changed into His image. As His Kingdom forms more deeply in us, His will is done more fully in and through us. It reigns in all parts of our lives, and touches all who are part of our lives.

So if you tend to pray this prayer, how will you pray it now? Does it continue to be a vague, non-specific request, or a fervent, passionate desire of your heart and life. Of my heart and life? His Kingdom has come, and continues to come. Where has it come, and continues to come, in you and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Interruption

"Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who had heard the message." Acts 10:44

Peter had been charged with a momentous task. The Father had shown him a vision of all kinds of animals, previously declared unclean for all Jews to eat, as now acceptable for their diet. It was a prelude to His telling Peter that he was to now take the message of life in Christ to the Gentiles, those outside of the Jewish nation, and heretofore considered "unclean" by the Jews. Directly after this vision, a messenger came to him from Cornelius, a Roman centurion, who was "a devout man who fears the God of Israel." Cornelius begged him to come to his home and minister to his household. Peter discerned that the vision and this visit were connected, and that he was to take Christ's message of life to these Gentiles, which he did. Upon his arrival, he began sharing with them the gospel good news of the life to be found in Christ. As he spoke, the Holy Spirit fell upon them all, Jew and Gentile alike. All who were present were amazed at the goodness and working of God.

This is a wonderful account, but how does it speak to us? For me, it brings about this question; can God "interrupt" us in the midst of our lives, even lives being lived out for Him, and take over our "vision," our dream, our hope and desire, and yes, our agenda? Can He come into the midst of our painstakingly planned "worship services," our song lists, our sermons? Can he come into the midst of our strategic planning sessions and vision casting? Can He move upon our prayer gatherings and prepared prayer lists? In short can He interrupt us not only corporately, but personally? Will we stand for His interruptions, and humbly allow Him to be all that He is, or, are we so stubbornly committed to all of these that we leave no room for Him in any of it? Think on that, and allow Him to search our hearts as we do.

I once read a man's account of how he was invited to preach at a large, growing fellowship. Before he took to the pulpit, he was presented with an order of service, and was told how much time would be given to each part, including his message. Everything was planned out to the second. The "worship" gathering would proceed like a well oiled machine, which was what it was. There was no room for anything else. There was also no room for a sovereign God. I know most fellowships are not so robotic as this, but how like them are we in so much of what we call "free worship?" How much like them are we in our own individual worship? Someone said that we cannot have freedom in our worship services when we ourselves are not free. The only path to true freedom is found in a full yielding of all of ourselves to Him. We fall captive to all that we don't surrender to Him. Captive to our own agendas, plans, and yes, even what we believe to be our visions from Him. Peter brought a world changing message to the household of Cornelius, yet he didn't insist on being the center of the message. His God was, and His God moved. Are we surrendered enough that He can do the same in the midst of our gatherings, and in the midst of our own lives?

I believe He seeks to interrupt our lives on every level, every day. He interrupts our schedules, our plans, and our relationships. He sends human interruptions with a divine purpose. Do we allow any of it, or are we so bought into our own plans and agendas that we miss, even reject them all? Can He interrupt us to the point that we dare to stop, hit the "pause button" and let Him open our eyes to our reality and His. Can He interrupt us, or, do we just press on with our dreams, desires, goals, and visions, and miss Him in all of it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Onlookers?

" Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, 'How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!' But the people answered him not a word." I Kings 18:21..."Elijah's audience was noncommittal. They did not declare themselves. They were spectators, onlookers." Vance Havner

This passage of Scripture and what follows it in I Kings should give us great pause, for it is repeated weekly across our fellowships. Elijah had boldly declared the power and supremacy of the one true God, Jehovah, over and against that of one who is no god at all, Baal. He confronted the people with a choice, one that required an answer...."but they answered him not a word." I believe the crowd had gathered here in anticipation of watching a good "show," a contest between Elijah, God's man, and Baal's priests, 400 of them. They came to be entertained. If you read further, you see that God did indeed move with great power in the midst of it all, and the people most certainly had a wondrous "show" before them, but nowhere do we see them worship the Father. Can we dare to ask if much of the same is happening in what we call worship today? Are a great number of our people coming for "the show" rather than to come humbly before Him, to behold Him, to choose Him with all of their being, and simply worship Him? In I Corinthians, Paul writes of knowing and experiencing "the simplicity that is in Christ." Have we become so dependent on appealing to the senses that we have lost the simplicity of knowing Him in the Spirit?

I do understand that we live in a time when people are more "sense" oriented to sights and sounds than ever before, yet I have to ask, have we gone too far in all of it? Have we tried so hard to bring about a "mood" of worship that we're missing the One we're to worship in the midst of it all? Have we so made our sanctuaries to resemble movie houses and arenas that we've made it very easy for the people to be anonymous onlookers, spectators in the midst of it? They may love the effects, and greatly enjoy the show, but when it comes to the purpose of all worship, giving all of themselves to Him, are they too, "answering not a word?" Do they exit the sanctuary no differently than they exit the movie theater? In all the glitz, have we lost the simplicity....and wonder and beauty, that is Jesus Christ?

I ask these things not with harsh criticism but with a desire to really allow Him to search us out in all of this. Are we ruled more by cultural trends, or the One who is unchanging, and who needs no supporting props? Are we raising up a generation of onlookers, or worshipers? I leave with this; back when I first came to Christ, I was hungry beyond words for Him. I'm of the generation that fully embraced what could be visually experienced, and embraced it myself. Yet the church that drew me had nothing to offer in this realm. What it did have was a preacher devoted to His Word and life, and who could make Christ real to me. I knew little or nothing of the Bible, and I was a stranger to what a church worship service was, but I knew He was in the midst of it.....and I wanted all of Him that I could lay hold of. That was enough, He was enough. I believe He's still enough. Is He enough for you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Resolutions?

"When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" John 21:15...."Jesus does not need your resolutions, your recommitments, or your promises to try harder this year....Jesus asks for your love. If you truly love Him, your service for Him in the new year will be of the quality He desires."

Someone said that we constantly make resolutions but never resolve anything. We can be aware of our failings, at least vaguely, and we can resolve to do better, and even do so for a time. But it isn't very long before we fall back into the old patterns and habits. Where we fall captive to the same taskmasters, idols, and gods. We turn over a new leaf, only to have it soon join all the other turned over leaves in our "backyard." We make some surface "changes" but remain the same, unchanged, in our inner lives. We settle for spiritual mediocrity. Jesus called this being "lukewarm." Francis Chan said that a lukewarm Christian is an "oxymoron." How can one be a "little Christ" and yet be indifferent to the very life that is Christ? Somehow, we find this acceptable, and we continue on this road year after year. We make resolutions that make us feel like we are committed to victory, to transformation, and then deceive ourselves into thinking change has come, when nothing has changed at all. We may identify and admit to our need, but unless we surrender it all to Him and His transforming grace, nothing changes, and we continue of the road of spiritual sloth.

We live in a culture obsessed with the self life. We spend huge amounts of time concerned about what is going on with us. At the same time, we know little of what would be called "soul searching," an introspection that comes from placing ourselves before Him and allowing Him to search out our hearts, and all the motives and ways that can lie hidden there. That can be a painful process. Healing and change always is. Yet it is the only way to true resolution of our need, to real change and transformation. Most of us don't want to go there, so instead, we vow to do better, work harder, try more this time around. And another year goes by, and faced with the lack of real transformation in our walk, do it all over again.

How much of what you "resolved" to address last year, remains to be addressed this year? Are all the stumbling blocks that were there then, still there now? Are you still falling prey to the same snares and traps now that you were then? What will you do with it? Will there be a new list of resolutions, or new you as a result of His transforming grace? We all have "stuff" that needs that grace. Will it once again be the same stuff as before, or, do we allow Him to take us deeper into Himself in this unending journey of transformation? Jesus' question to Simon cut to the very center of his need and problem. And as He ministered to him there, Simon was changed into Peter. He'll do the same with you and me. It will cut to the quick, but wholeness and victory will be the end of it. Or, we can just make a new list of resolutions.

Blessings,
Pastor O