Heart Tracks - Anticipation

"They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for him and had called together his relatives and close friends to meet Peter." Acts 10:24..... "I just feel like something good is about to happen. I just feel like something good is on its way. He has promised that He'd open all of heaven, and brother it could happen any day." Bill and Gloria Gaither

I think that there's a subtle difference between anticipation and expectation. Our expectations tend to center on what we desire to happen, what we expect God to do in any given situation. Expectations can be easily disappointed. They usually spring from our own hearts. Anticipation, at least as we see it in the Word, is a response to something coming, promised, from the heart of God. We can see this clearly in what happens in Acts 24.

Cornelius, the Roman centurion had a vision where an angel appeared and told him to seek out the apostle Peter in the city of Joppa. Cornelius was responding to what God had told him to do. He neither knew or had met Peter. More, Rome had been centrally involved in the crucifixion of His Lord Christ. It would be very human for Peter to be wary of, even refusing an invitation from a Roman official and officer. Yet Cornelius gathered his entire household together in anticipation of Peter's coming. He anticipated that what God had directed would surely take place. His anticipation of God's faithfulness was greater than what seemed to be the factual realities. Are yours and mine?

We in the church have become jaded and cynical. It has been decades since I first heard the Gaither's "I Just Feel Like Something Good Is About To Happen." It was a very popular song when I first came to Christ, but I think it has faded into a just a nice "feel good" chorus for most, but its lyrics don't have any real place in our reality. We seem more sure of our hopes being dashed and disappointed than we are of them being fulfilled. In truth, we anticipate the former a lot more than the latter. Hope may be the hardest place for most of us to live in. We fear the pain of disappointment, so we don't dare to live in hope. We expect to be disappointed, and because our hope isn't lodged in His heart, we trust in our own sense of things. So we take the advice of our hearts and the world; "Don't get your hopes up," and we don't.

I know there is such a thing as false hope, but hope is never false when it is placed in Him, in His words and promises. Cornelius knew He had heard from God. When he obeyed by sending a messenger to invite Peter, he fully anticipated that Peter would come. So much so that he gathered all his friends and family to welcome him. He didn't fear being embarrassed before them. He saw Peter coming before he came. Simple faith springing out of pure hope. Hope centered on Him.

Alicia Britt Chole said that she too had found herself afraid to allow her hopes in His promises to bear fruit. Then she heard His voice whisper to her heart, "Refuse to let fear of disappointment edit your anticipation or silence your hope." His voice also speaks to us. We need to refuse the voice of fear that knocks on the door of our heart. We need to know that for those who hear, follow, and obey His voice, "something good" is indeed about to happen. Yes, its God who defines good, but we need to be firmly rooted in the belief that He means good for us, and that when He speaks a promise, gives us a clear sense of what He wants, or what He's doing, we can trust, anticipate, that it will come to pass. We, like Cornelius, can gather ourselves to wait in full hope that what He has promised is going to take place.

When was the last time that old Gaither song was being hummed from your heart? Do you live in hopeful anticipation of His displaying His faithfulness in your life? Or, do you so fear disappointment in Him that you live in a grey resignation to things just staying as they are, or indeed, getting worse? Anticipation. What's yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Living In Haran

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32...."The faith journey does not get easier. We get stronger." Erwin McManus

Somehow we hold to the idea that walking with Christ gets easier as we go along. That can be a subtle message in a great deal of our teaching and preaching. Things will go the way we want them to if we have enough faith and check enough of the right "boxes." We just have to learn the right formula, and life will become a lot more rewarding and certainly more comfortable. This may be the westernized gospel, but it's not the gospel. Jesus told Simon Peter that the devil had asked for permission to sift his life. When Christ added that He'd already prayed for Peter to come through it in victory, its clear that the Father had granted the permission. Jesus didn't say that the path would grow easier for Peter, but that he would grow stronger on the path, and in his growing strength, he was to minister that strength to his brothers.

Our flesh hates pain and adversity, and its natural response is to do anything to avoid it. We want Christ to make a way for us around it. Christ is committed to taking us through it, and in victory. And along the way, we're to live, we're to thrive. In the darkness, in the pain, in the loss, we show forth His resurrection life. We give witness and testimony to a life that has overcome death and the world. It doesn't mean that we're untouched by the pain and loss, it means that their chains cannot hold us. We continue to move onward and upward in Him.

In Genesis 11, Terah, the father of Abraham, has lost his son Haran. Afterwards he takes his family and moves away. He was intending to enter the land of Canaan, but only got as far as the village of Haran, and that was where he settled. I've often thought that Terah stayed there because the village carried the name of his beloved lost son. He couldn't go past it, couldn't get past the grief of his loss. The pain and sorrow kept him in their chains. So many of us have settled in our various "Harans." We can't get past the loss, the defeat, the failure. God calls us on to His fullness, but we live in our lack, in our loss. Terah stayed in Haran, living while waiting to die, yet not really living at all. How like him are we? McManus says that a great proof of life after death is life before death. That is, life that is really alive. Life that is abundant and full in Him. Death, and all that is attached to it could not keep Christ, and death and all its effects cannot keep us. We can live fully alive in the midst of our sorrows and losses. They are real, but He is more real.

Where in your life are you living in Haran? Don't die there while you still live. Press on in Him. The journey will not grow easier, but you will surely grow stronger, and as you do, He will open up a ministry for you to help all your fellow travelers on the way. Haran is the place of loss, Canaan, the promised land, the place of life. Have you settled in the first, or do you journey on with Him to the fulfillment of His promises to you? Where are you living?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Three Words

"Suddenly Jesus was standing there among them! 'Peace be with you,' He said." John 20:19...."Then He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' " John 20:22..."Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" John 20:27

In this post-resurrection encounter with His disciples, I see three words Jesus speaks to them that both they, and we desperately need to hear and receive. His resurrection was and is a transformational event and experience, and it is meant to be for all who are His as well. To fully receive these words will usher us into that experience, and our need for that experience is indeed.... desperate.

When first Christ appears, the disciples are in hiding, in fear of their lives. Think on this; the greatest happening in human history, the resurrection of the Savior of the world has taken place, but they didn't know it. They had likely heard about it, but its reality hadn't taken hold of their lives. They were in turmoil. Into the turmoil steps Jesus, and He speaks what their hearts and spirits most need to hear and receive.....Peace. His peace. Erwin McManus said that only two people can fight and win the inner battle within us all, Jesus Christ, and us. We "fight" by surrendering and granting Him entry. He "fights" by simply proclaiming His victory over everything that seeks to rob us of peace and keep us in that turmoil. He need only speak that peace to us, but our deep need is to receive it into our hearts and spirit. He has spoken it to you. Have you yet received it?

Next He gives what their weak and fearful flesh so desperately needs, His Spirit. He breathes upon them His Spirit. This is a precursor to the outpouring of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At that time, His Spirit would be poured out in its fullness. Here, in this room, He breathes His Spirit upon each of them. And His Spirit brings to them strength in place of weakness, hope in place of despair, joy in place of sorrow. He commanded them to receive His Spirit, and they did. He has commanded us to as well. Have we? Have you? Or do we, like the disciples, cower in the various "rooms" we retreat to, hide in? He gives His Spirit willingly. Do we receive Him willingly?

Last, He appears again to the disciples, and Thomas, who wasn't present in the previous encounter. Thomas doubted the reality of their report. He wanted to "handle" Christ himself. Jesus appeared in the very midst of his doubts, and did indeed allow Himself to be handled. He then spoke not only to Thomas and the others with this command, but to us as well; "Don't be faithless. Believe!" His peace, His Spirit, receiving them are contingent upon our believing Him. For that to happen, He'll allow us to approach Him, the Lord of glory, and "handle" Him, if that is what is needed for us to believe. But to us He'll speak that same command, "Believe!" And if we will, we'll receive His peace, His Spirit, His Life.

Three words; Peace. Spirit. Believe. All center upon Him. All are agents of transformation. All are meant to define our lives. The presence of His peace and His Spirit, and the steadfast faith and trust in Him to believe....in all that He's said, and all that He's done. Have you heard these words? Have you entered into this life? He's come to your room, and He speaks to you these words. Do you hear them? Do you receive them? Or do you stay in the room...hiding?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Coal Mine

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.' " John 11:25....."We were not created to exist and survive. We were created to live and thrive." Erwin McManus

What mode of life defines you today? That of existing and surviving, or living and thriving? To give a clear and honest answer demands that we allow the searching of our hearts and the ways of our lives. I think if we will yield to that searching, the majority will fall into the first category. Our flesh may be offended, but let's dare to examine what the fruit of our lives really is.

How much stress, anxiety, worry and fear exists in you? What amount of energy goes into your concerns about money, relationships, jobs, children, and ministry? Where has "the thief" entered in to destroy whatever inner peace you might know? How many mornings have you met with the attitude, often unspoken or unexpressed, that you just hope to make it through another day? How often do you feel like the hamster spinning on the wheel that goes nowhere?

Back in the 60's there was a great song called "Workin' In A Coal Mine," One of its lyrics went, "Workin' in a coal mine, going down, down, down." The song was about the futility of the singers life, and that lyric can describe the day to day living of so many; "goin' down, down, down." We are existing and surviving, and this is not what Christ came for, died for, and rose for. He came, died, and rose, that we might have life, resurrection life, and have it abundantly. He keeps the sheepfold, but we have allowed the thief, satan, to break into the fold. Christ stands at the gate of the fold, but we allow the enemy to come over the wall by way of his fiery darts aimed at our minds, hearts, and spirits. The power of His resurrection life is meant to extinguish every one of them, but we live too much in our own life, and not nearly enough in His. So he is able to steal from us that which Christ gives; peace, hope, joy, strength, and love. And we end up, each day, "workin' in the coal mine."

Christ is risen. The meaning and effect of this truth is infinite. Death and all its effects is conquered in His resurrection. He invited us into the very kind of life He Himself lives in. In the midst of a fallen world, He gives a risen life. Our residency in the coal mine is ended, and our citizenship in the Kingdom is given....if we'll receive it. If we'll believe that such a wonderful life is real. It is real. As real as He is. As real as is His resurrection. To enter into such life is to leave behind forever the survival mode, and enter into the abundant one. Have you ever entered into that life? The risen life is one that brings you ever higher and closer to Him. It's one of ascent, and it has no other direction. Will you come to it now? Will you cease to exist and survive and finally begin to live and thrive? Come out from the coal mine. Enter into the Kingdom. Put to flight the thief. Embrace the King.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Price

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it." John 3:16-17....."God's favorite word is 'Come!' " Robert L. Sterner

Any realtor, retailer, or person selling goods of any kind, will tell you that what they're selling is worth whatever the buyer is willing to pay. It doesn't matter what someone else sees as the value. It only matters what the one who wants the object sees as its worth. It's the central law of buying and selling. Scripture tells us that all who come to Christ have been "bought with a price." and that the price is the very life and blood of the Son of God. This world may tell you that you're worthless. People in your life may have told you, times without number, that you are worthless. Jesus Christ came into this world of darkness, death, and sin, and says to you, "So precious are you to the heart of My Father that He offered Me up for you in order that you might have life in Me."

We are born, all of us, with a death sentence upon us. We are born shackled by our sin nature, and we have no power in ourselves to free ourselves from that sentence. Sin demands the sacrifice of One who is perfect, sinless. None of us can meet that demand, and as a result, the human race is hopelessly lost. We desperately needed a Redeemer, and the heart of the Father responded to that need by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to be that sacrifice. He came to a world that most often seems not worth saving, to a human race that also appears so often to be the same. The One who is precious beyond words, came to we who have been labeled by the enemy of our souls as worthless, and took our sin, and its penalty upon Himself. Sin and its penalty had dominion, but He bought us at the price of His life, by His blood shed for us on the cross. The One who is priceless, gave Himself up for us, for you and me. Such was our worth, your worth, in His eyes and heart.

Now, if you've been exposed to the truth of His Word and Life, you know all this as factual. You've heard it many times before, especially at Easter. So here's a question for you, and for me; why, in our thoughts about ourselves, do we continue to see ourselves as worthless? How has the enemy been so successful in convincing us that we have no real value, that this God who so freely gave us His Son, still demands that we prove ourselves and our worth to Him, and on a daily basis? Why are we always telling ourselves how stupid we are, how not worth loving, how rejected? We are born with a desperate need to be loved, and spend our lives pursuing that, yet rarely, if ever finding its fulfillment. In the marketplace of the world, we are consistently told we're of no value. In the economy of the Kingdom, the Father tells us we have a value to Him that words can never express. And He didn't give us only His Words, He gave us His Son. That was the price He was willing to pay....for you, and for me.

Scripture tells of the one who was willing to sell and give away all that he had in order that he might lay hold of the "pearl of great price." No matter what others have said about you, no matter how deeply the world has planted the idea of your own worthlessness into your heart and spirit, you are the pearl of great price to Him. He was willing, is willing, to give all in order that you might be His. He already has. On the cross. And that is where He invites you to come. To the cross, His cross, and find there, forgiveness, healing, freedom, redemption. At the cross, sin, our sin, your sin, is dealt with. It's power is broken. It's chains struck off. At the cross, He speaks His favorite word to you, "Come." It is not an invitation to come to church, or a Bible study, but to Him, at His cross. He came down to us that He might raise us up to Himself. We are the pearl of great price, and He has given all to have us. All we, you need do is come....to the cross. Will you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - When Truth Sleeps

"They came and woke Him up saying, 'Master, Master, we're going to die!' Then He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, 'Where is your faith?' " Luke 8:24-25...."The disciples knew the sea and what their condition was. They had allowed their circumstances to convince them that the 'truth' was their imminent death. But they were wrong. Truth was asleep at the back of the boat." Henry Blackaby

What do we do when Truth, for us, as it was for the disicples, is "asleep in the back of the boat?" In our journey with Him, we will all come to that place. The place where everything that is against us will appear far more real than the One who has promised to always be with us. The place where the raging winds and waters scream that they are our reality, and that He has forgotten us. I have been in that place more than once, but there's one spot where the memory of those raging winds and waves is burned into my memory. The place where I thought that the truth was the winds and waves and the sure destruction that they held. In that place, their power seemed more real than the promise of His.

Our church was in the midst of seemingly impossible financial conditions. We had stepped out in what we felt was His leading, and signed a lease that doubled what we'd been paying for rent in our former location. A lot of prayer and conversation preceded this, and everyone professed to be on board with it....except that when we made the move, we found that professions often don't match realities. Several key families decided they weren't going to go with us. They left, and with them, their financial support. Our reserves quickly dwindled, and by our second year there, we were in desperate need. Each month the question before us was whether we could pay our rent. The pressures increased, especially upon me. The "winds" and the "waves" grew stronger and higher, and the harder I fought against them, the more intense they grew. Eventually, all I could see was what was against us. Nothing I did could stem the tide, and in all of it, I couldn't see Him. Like the disciples, I could only cry out, "Lord, we're being destroyed. Where are You?" I'd reached the end of my own abilities in the situation. And that was the key, for it was there that I finally entered into the beginning of His.

I had been trying to "save" the church. I lost sight of the truth that it wasn't mine to save. It was His. I had been looking to my resources, our resources, and was blind to His. I had been in control of the "boat," and because of that, Jesus, the Truth, appeared to be asleep. But it was appearance only. When I took my weak, exhausted hands off the rudder, I found He was never asleep at all. He immediately put His on. And His miracles began to unfold. Special gifts and offerings came from seemingly nowhere. In countless ways, He moved, delivered, made a path where there was none. Despair was replaced by hope. Seeming death by new life. If Truth had been asleep in the back of the boat, it was only because my, our desire to deliver ourselves had put Him there. When we yielded all to Him, we found He'd been aware all the time. The winds and the waves ceased their raging, and the Lord got us safely to the other side of all of it. And none who made that "voyage" were ever the same after it.

When Truth sleeps for you, how do you respond? Do you row harder, fighting the waves and wind in your own strength? Or do you allow yourself to see that He only sleeps because you've been unable to believe and trust Him? I had never faced such monetary pressure before. I never had to trust Him so deeply in the financial realm. When I did, I was broken by the strain, but in my brokenness, I discovered in a new and deeper way, His Truth. And in the midst of what seemed my and the fellowships approaching destruction, came the Truth of His Presence and deliverance. Before, I was more familiar with the threat than His Truth. On the other side, I had learned that no threat can hinder His Truth. I still learn that today. There are many "other sides" yet to get to. Truth will be in the boat with me, and with you. Do we let Him go on sleeping as we exhaust ourselves trying bring about our own deliverance, or do we simply yield to His hand, and find ourselves on the other side?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Altars

"Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness." Malachi 3:3...."We have no shortage of gifts to bring to our altars, because the world has no shortage of altars." Chris Tiegreen...."All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you will sacrifice yourself." Alexander MacLaren

I think the meaning of an altar is slowly being lost in the church. If we do think of them, it's usually as something from Old Testament times when the Priest offered sacrifices to Jehovah God, or more recently, as something that once was present in the church before we realized we needed to be more "seeker friendly." I never really got that concept, because what better place is there to seek Him than at His altar? In any event, I think we've lost the reality of what it is to bring an offering to His altar, and that was is placed on His altar is given over, completely, to Him. Add to that reality the truth that regardless of how we might view it, we make offerings, sacrifices, on seemingly countless altars throughout the course of our days. Indeed, every day.

Tiegreen says, correctly, that the world offers us no shortage of altars upon which to offer sacrifice. The altars of success, accumulation, applause, legacies, reputation, pleasure, and on an on. More, that everyone of those altars can be found in our churches, and in the ministries that compose them. We can offer the sacrifice of not only ourselves in the pursuit of them, but of our marriages and families as well. And as we do so, we can be deceived into believing it is all given up for Him, when in fact, we make sacrifice to all that is not Him. I know. I've made "offerings" on most of those same altars. Ministry success, the esteem of my peers, recognition in the church, the advancement of my agenda, the fulfillment of my desires. I thought it was for His glory, and a lot of it was, but I didn't see the mixture involved. I didn't see how much of my own glory was "mixed in." I was missing two great truths; God doesn't share His glory with anyone or anything, and that any offering made to Him must be pure, "without blemish." Too many of mine had more than a few blemishes. I'd wager that too many of yours do as well.

In the lives of the Old Testament Patriarchs, we see them at various stages of their journey, building an altar to Him and making sacrifice there. Nor more so than in the life of Abraham, when he built an altar to the Lord and was offering the very life of his cherished son Issac. He was willing to give to God the one he loved above all. Above all except his God. Such is the call to those who are His. As MacLaren says, all along the way of our walk with Him, we'll be called upon to make the sacrifice of ourselves; our hopes, dreams, desires, plans, all of ourselves to all that He is. What do you and I do when that call comes to us, and it will come? When it does, two altars will be before us. His, and that which is not Him, against Him, and seduces us into giving glory to that which is false while missing the One who is True and Truth.

Wherever you are on the course, those two altars lie before you. When you come to them, you'll be faced with the choice of upon which you'll offer sacrifice. Have you already made that choice that it will be upon His, or, does there remain a lingering question? Which one of the countless altars of the world seduces you? Fire always consumes the altars offering. Which fire will consume you? The Holy Fire of God, or, the unholy fire of the one the Word calls, The Destroyer? A terrifying question. How do you and I answer?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Supplement

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. I TImothy 1:15...."Jesus did not come into the world to improve us. He came to rescue those who are lost, broken, and helpless." Chris Tiegreen

Supplements. Our culture has a lot of them. We are always looking for new ways to supplement our lives, make them better, more fulfilling. Whether it be simple vitamins to supplement our diet, self-help books to supplement our overall well-being, or professional counselors to supplement our self-image, we're into finding something, anything, to improve the state of our life, something that we can add on to it. In many ways, I think we have made Jesus just such a supplement.

Though it may not have been the intent, I think we have reduced the King of Glory to someone who offers improvements to our flesh. He can help us be more patient, more stress-free, have a more positive attitude, and a host of other good things. He can make us a better person, and in the making, give us a more rewarding life. He offers a "wonderful plan" for us, and if we'll give Him a chance, He'll show us just how wonderful life can be. He can make a bad life good, and a good life better. Yet none of this is the reality, though the enemy is very satisfied with such a message. He doesn't care if our lives get better so long as we stay lost. Someone said that His wonderful plan for our lives is to make us holy. Our fallen flesh cannot be made holy. It can only be brought to the cross, crucified, and made new in Christ. His ultimate means of "helping" us is to bring our fallen flesh life to its death at the cross in order that we might enter into His risen life from the same place. He did not come to make people who were mostly good, better. He came to transform people who were hopelessly lost and separated from God by sin, into new creations in Him, reconciled to a Father who gave His only Son that they could be made so.

Every year around Easter, there comes a flood of programs asking "Who was Jesus?" I've never seen any that hit upon who He was, and more, who He is. He was not a good man with good ideas and philosophies. He was fully man and fully God, sinless, perfect, and the only acceptable offering for the penalty of sin which all of us, you, and me, are born under. He is no add on, or author of a great self improvement program. He's the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the conqueror of sin and death. He did not come to help flawed people become less flawed. He came to save and deliver those who have absolutely no means of saving or delivering themselves from sin's penalty...eternal death.

So here we are again this Easter. How do you see this Jesus? And how do you see yourself in His Light? As One who can give you a helping hand? Someone who had led an exceedingly wicked life once said to me, "I'm a good guy, I just do bad things." Their blindness to their soul's need was deep, and yet they had and have lots of company in their view. Contrast that with Paul. Was he truly the worst of sinners? In his own eyes, confronted with the beauty and holiness of Jesus Christ, he was. To truly see Jesus is to truly see ourselves; lost, broken, helpless. The worst of sinners. And then, if we'll have it, to truly see the spiritual transformation only He can bring about. He doesn't add on to fallen lives, He cleanses and removes our sin and the penalty of it. The old really does pass away, and the new really does come. Has it been so for you? The old hymn says that He brings us out of the miry clay. Have you been brought out? Are you ready to be? Or, do you just look for Him to make your conditions in the clay better? That same hymn says He sets our feet on His Solid Rock. Are your feet in the clay, or on the Rock?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - No Escape

"How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" Hebrews 2:3....."At Calvary, the naked truth is staring down at us, challenging us to drop the pose and own the truth." Roy Hession..."At the cross we see who we are, and we are humbled. We see the ugliness of our sin and we are speechless. We know we can make no claim of our own righteousness before God. But Jesus is our claim. We bow before Him. We know He's there for us." Chris Tiegreen

I'm going to ask a question that cannot ultimately be avoided; to what degree are you and I ignoring the infinitely great salvation offered us in Jesus Christ? Here's a second question; how can we think we will ever escape the consequence of the ignoring?

To truly come to Christ means that there will be no escaping the cross. He brings us on a collision course with it. We can try to bypass it, sneak around it, deny it is even there, but to be His, really His, means we will come to it, and what we do there sets not only the course of our lives here, but into eternity as well. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, this truth has been missing in much of the message of the western church. We offer Jesus, His blessings, His wonderful plans for us, and all the benefits that come in the "Jesus package." We don't make a lot of mention of His cross, not our carrying of it, and certainly not our dying upon it.

Many churches don't even display a cross anymore. "Experts" have told them that the unchurched find it offensive. It is offensive. The cross of Christ offends every aspect of our flesh. It exposes our sin and our complete inability to save ourselves or to have any degree of our own righteousness. As Hession says, it brings us face to face with the reality that we can't maintain our "pose" any longer. We can't escape the truth; we are lost, and our only hope of salvation, of life, healing, wholeness, comes by way of His cross. Our trust in all and anything outside of Him is shattered at the cross. Only He remains, and He bids us to come and die so that we might truly and finally live. The old rugged cross is harsh and rough. So too is the truth about ourselves, our condition and our need that we find there as well. Many have no qualms about coming to Gentle Jesus, the Savior who walks along doing good......especially to us. Coming to the Christ of the cross can be, is, another matter altogether. Many have come to Him, but not in eyes wide open understanding of their condition and need. They come as they are, and stay as they are. The piercing light of the cross has not laid bare their sin and their need. Jesus is an add-on to their life. He is not Life itself. Only at the cross do we really see the Light. Only at the cross is the burden of our sin rolled away. We ignore that to our own eternal destruction.

Yet it is not just the lost who cannot escape the consequences of ignoring this great salvation. Countless of His people have come to His cross, have seen His Light, have had their sins forgiven, yet they have never gone on to the fullness of His resurrection life that is offered beyond the cross and the grave. The enemy of their soul has deceived them into thinking that such life is not possible this side of heaven. Healing, wholeness, abundance, freedom, these things can never be realized here. So he holds them captive with his lies. They have not so much ignored His great salvation as they have failed to believe in it. So despair, discouragement, weariness, exhaustion, is their lot. Though total victory was won at Calvary, the lies of the enemy keep them defeated. All of this is the consequence of ignoring, not believing in such a great salvation.

So again, to what degree are you and I ignoring this salvation? It is to that degree that we won't escape the consequences of doing so. There is no escape but one; the cross. Run to it. Cling to it. Die upon it, and then live through it. The cross still leads to the crown. Have you been led to the cross?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Outlaws

"Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:27..."The life of discipleship is not about comfortable pews and golden crosses; it is about a clash of kingdoms." Chris Tiegreen...."Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the world." John Wesley

Mark Batterson said that following Christ will mean that He leads us out to the place(s) where Light and darkness clash. As Tiegreen says, a "kingdom clash." A clash between His Kingdom of Light and Life, and the devil's of death and darkness. Neutrality in the collision is not possible, though I think the majority who call themselves His attempt to live that way. Those who do are deceived into believing they are, but the reality is that they've been made casualties of the war. They've been made prisoners of a war that they sought to avoid.

Our hearts always seem to resonate with stories of rebels against tyranny and oppression. We love to hear tales of freedom fighters who battle against injustice and unholy dictatorships. We tend to see Jesus Christ in a lot of different ways. Do we ever view Him as the ultimate Rebel, Freedom Fighter, and Insurrectionist?

Think on this; Satan led a rebellion against God in heaven. He was defeated, expelled, yet laid claim to this fallen world and all within it. We are born into the yoke of his captivity. Into all of this came Jesus Christ, the Lord of Light and Life. When He began His earthly ministry, He immediately clashed with all the forces of this world; religious and political. He led a "rebellion" to throw off the yoke of slavery to sin that all are born into and offered a pathway to His Life and freedom. Satan recognized Him immediately and unleashed all the power of his kingdom with the purpose of stopping Christ's establishment of His. He unleashed hell. God unleashed His Son, the Author of Life. His unleashing led to a cross, which led to death, which in turn led to resurrection. At Calvary, the ultimate clash of kingdoms took place. It seemed at first that the enemy had won. That impression was shortlived, for the cross led to the tomb, and then to His resurrection, which sealed His victory. Christ the Rebel, the Freedom Fighter, had overthrown the kingdom of darkness by way of His cross and resurrection. He led the way in the rebellion which while it secured the victory, still plays out today, and will until His return. I've a friend who doesn't agree with the popular conception that the devil knows he is defeated. He thinks satan doesn't believe that at all, even though its true. So he fights on. Tyrannizing, oppressing, destroying. We who are His are called to live out the victory that is ours. Rebelling against his lie with the proclamation and living out of His Truth and Life. We too are rebels and freedom fighters. Neutrality isn't an option. We enter into the clash of kingdoms, and we already know the victory is ours. And all the while, we carry His cross into the battle. And that cross is the symbol and guarantee of our victory.

Are you involved in the clash of kingdoms today? Or, are you seeking neutrality? If you are, know that you're living in the enemy's prisoner of war camp. You may not see the fence and barbed wire he uses to keep you in, but it is all around you. Take up your cross. Step out in faith. Run to the battle. Join the rebellion. Will you be a Kingdom freedom fighter, or just keep looking for your comfortable pew each week, gazing at a golden cross on a wall, but never seeing the rugged cross He calls you to carry...and die upon? To truly be a Christian is to be an outlaw to this world. Jesus went to His cross as such. Will you and I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Desperate Places

"They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." Matthew 14:16...."We tend to see our need as either too large to even ask God to handle or too small for Him to be concerned with......He is the Provider, the God of deserted places." Chris Tiegreen

Too many times in my journey with Him, I've fit into what Tiegreen says about how we believers tend to look at our needs, and their relation to Him. Just as true, too many times I have not realized that He really is the God of deserted places. The God who is there when all else and everyone else is gone.

In Matthew 14, the disciples are faced with an overwhelming need. 5000 plus people who are hungry. They recognized a need but did not recognize the power of the One who was there in the midst of that need. They thought the need not only too great for them, but for the One who was in their midst. So they sought to have that need met through temporal means. They'd send them into the village where they could buy or trade for the food they lacked. Jesus gently rebuked them, telling them that in Him, they had the means to satisfy that hunger. They were overwhelmed. He was not.

Just as true can be our reaction to the small yet persistent needs and cares of life. We tend to think that He doesn't want to be bothered with these trifles. After all, "God helps those who help themselves," right? So we take these things that are mere pebbles singly, and try to wrestle them through to a solution. With each pebble, the load becomes greater until we carry a huge sack that eventually breaks our emotional, physical, and spiritual "back," and renders us unable to go on. In the end, we've become just as overwhelmed by the small things as we have been by the great. We know that one of His names is "Provider," and we've called Him that many times. Yet too often we end up in that "deserted place," where there is only our need and ourselves. We desperately need a fresh visitation from the One who is the God of the deserted place.

His Word says that He is not limited to saving us by either great or small means, for they are the same to Him. Nothing is too great for Him, and neither is anything too small. His Word also says that what touches us "touches the apple of His eye." Our need exposes our very real weakness, and our weakness unleashes His very real strength and power. The enemy of our soul convinces us that we are alone in facing it, that God has deserted us, abandoned us. The Father wants us to know by experience that this is just another of the devil's lies. It only feels deserted. He is there, and He is God Almighty. In the great and in the small, He is God.

I expect I've written of this before, but I never tire of relating the story. On a lonely church campground on a bitterly cold December night, I felt deserted by all, totally alone. Searching through the apostle Paul's writings, I came upon his words concerning his imprisonment and facing of Caesar himself. He said, "At my first defense, no one was with me, All had abandoned me....yet Christ stood with me." Call it what you will, but at that moment I saw with the eyes of my heart, Him coming to me, standing with me...in that deserted place....and putting to flight all the lies of the enemy. He was the God of that deserted place, and every deserted place yet to come. Do you know Him as yours as well? in whatever deserted place you might feel you're in today, He stands with you. Will you receive Him? All human and temporal help may be gone. There may be one overwhelming need, or many small but crushing ones. He comes to you there, in that deserted place, and stands with you. Can you see Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Road

10“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11“I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” 12And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” Mark 2:10-12......"There is a fresh urgency for elders and pastors and Sunday School teachers and worship team members to get up, every day, pick up their mats, and walk. always in the direction of home. That's church......A church will cease to be a church if the Word of Jesus is not preached. But a church will fail to become a church if the Word made flesh does not appear among us, and we touch Him, and see Him, and He us." Mark Buchanan

My heart and spirit are moved by this passage of Scripture and what Buchanan says about it. I think of all that can be seen in the modern church, and how much of what he speaks of is not seen at all. We are focused on so many things, presentation, atmosphere, appeal to the senses. Yet, is what Buchanan speaks of actually being lived out in the life of our fellowships? As I read his words, my mind was drawn to the book of Ruth. Naomi and her daughter-in-law are in Moab, far from their home in Judah. Their need was great, and there were many directions in which they could move, but Ruth 1:7 reads, "They took the road that would lead them back to Judah." Back to their home. For the true believer and follower of the King, there is only ever one road for us to take, one road upon which the travel. The one that leads to "home." The home, our home, that is His heart. We are, all of us, to get up, every day, pick up the mats of this world that have held us to it, and walk...in the direction of our home. To move always deeper into the presence and life of Jesus Christ. How would our fellowships be transformed if that, and not the other things were foremost in the minds of those He has called to lead, to teach, to worship? And we will find, as we stay to that road, that the Word made flesh will indeed appear among us. We will "see" Him, "touch" Him, and experience Him. He will manifest Himself in our midst, and in each other. We will no longer have to seek new ways to be appealing, because He will be appearing in and through us. All because our hearts are set upon traveling the road that leads us home....to Him.

What happens on this road is that the reality of sin in us is made clear, and the pathway to confession, repentance, and forgiveness is laid open. Healing of the heart, the mind, and the spirit takes place, and oftentimes, of the body as well. Christ is free, we are free, and the "mats" that have held us on the ground no longer control us. Christ, in us, has overcome them. They no longer define or confine us. The Word made flesh has set us free, and we are free now to manifest that truth to all who will hear it.

There are a lot of things going on in the church today, and we always seem to be looking for new ways to amaze, which oftentimes is just another form of entertainment. The show needs to be interrupted by the breaking through of His Holy Spirit. In a culture where our natural senses seem to have "seen it all," we need what few have ever truly experienced; the fullness of His glory upon His church. A glory that leaves our hearts burning for more, and a glory that no earthly prop can ever compare with.

Where is your "road" leading you to? To Him, or that which is not Him? To the Kingdom of Light, or the kingdom of darkness? To your home in Him, or a home that knows nothing of Him? Your mat will always keep you from that road that leads to Him, but He is before you, before us. He speaks His healing Word, and calls us to get up, leave the crippled life of being without Him, and in wholeness, walk His road with Him. Are you ready to do so, to take the road that leads home.... to Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Forerunner

"But after I have been resurrected, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." Mark 14:28...."There is nowhere you can go that you will not find Christ waiting to join you." Henry Blackaby

I'm retiring. These are two words that I never expected to utter, but I am. Yet even as I write them, I know that they don't mean what many may think. The word "retire" usually brings up thoughts of sitting back, taking it easy, relaxing, and even the sense of just accepting that the prime years are past, and what's left is a kind of waiting for my eventual departure from this realm. I don't see it in any of those ways. For me, it is the closing of the time for one aspect of my ministry in order to enter into a new one. A wide vista of the unknown lies before me, but really, that has been the description of my journey with Him since the very beginning. The details of His calling change, His presence in the midst of them all doesn't. He's proven the truth of that over and over again. The twists and turns of life are mostly unexpected for all of us. I think I've had more than my share of those, but in every twist, every turn, He's been there. He's seen me through. Even in the darkest and deadliest of them, He empowered me to overcome. I've learned to expect the unexpected, but to also expect the Author of Life to be my victory in all of it.

He's given me the testimony of this through every phase of the journey. From those first steps taken as a young man, following His call to step out and onto a college campus 1500 miles from the only home I'd ever known and where all was unknown, and with Him as my only resource and source. To and through the entering of a marriage, and the eventual destruction of that marriage. Into a pastoral calling, and the seeming end of that calling. And then into the resurrection of that calling when it seemed everyone else had pronounced it fully dead, completely gone. The Lord of the Resurrection showed forth His resurrection life to, in, and through me. He continued to do so when He called me to plant a church in one of the most challenging areas of this nation. An area that has been a graveyard for churches. And yet the calling and the work didn't just survive, it thrived. The Holy Spirit told Paul that a "wide door for effective service has been opened to you, but many are the adversaries." I found that to be so for all of the 27 years I have labored with Him here in Northern Virginia, but there was never an adversary that could stand against Him. In my own strength, I was easy to defeat. Yet the Lord I lived in and for was undefeatable. There were times, many, when the work and ministry seemed sure to fail. Where the visible resources were non-existent. Where hope seemed gone and despair the only thing present. Yet He was there in the midst, and the Lord of the Resurrection brought forth His Life anew, again, always.

Twenty seven years yields far too many stories to share in a single writing. Those years have come to an end....here. But they aren't over. He's leading me onto and into a new realm, a new calling. I've no doubt that the adversaries will still be many, the unknown just as unknown. And the stories of His faithfulness, His endless supply of Himself to me in them, will go on. My body has grown old. I don't possess the physical vitality that I once had, but I believe my spiritual vitality only burns brighter. I'm stepping back from one form of ministry, but I enter into a new one. No doubt the adversaries will be many, and they'll be empowered by one the who has been my adversary, and who's sought my destruction from the beginning. He doesn't fear me a bit, but he trembles, and flees at the name of the One who goes with me....Jesus Christ the King. Lord of the Resurrection. Lord over all darkness and death. Lord over the Adversary. My Lord, your Lord. Lord over all. He goes before me. The Forerunner. Who and what can stand before Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O