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

Heart Tracks - Rushing Wind

"On the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus' resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting." Acts 2:1-2

Evangelist James Robison has said that too many of today's preachers are "standing in their boats, blowing on the sail." He meant that they were trying to duplicate the wind of the Holy Spirit by their own efforts. They seek to "fill the sails" of their ministry with their own breath while being empty of the breath of His Spirit. The result is, and will always be, futility, powerlessness, stagnation. We are losing the consciousness of the Holy Spirit in our churches, even those who were grounded in the very ministry of His Spirit. Francis Chan wrote a book titled "Forgotten God," detailing this, and in many ways, the Person and work of His Spirit has been forgotten. We may mention Him from time to time, but the reality of His Presence is either taken for granted, or missed altogether. Someone remarked that it was remarkable how much the western church has accomplished without the Holy Spirit. This was not a compliment. They meant that we've built and filled buildings, raised money, established ministries, yet as regards spiritual transformation, have missed out on the real work and Person of the Holy Spirit. We rely on corporate models, church growth experts, marketing ideas, and superstar personalities. In short, we rely on everything and everyone except His Holy Spirit. The results of this are killing the church.

Someone said we are Holy Spirit centered fellowships afraid of His Holy Spirit. When His Holy Spirit comes, everything, agendas, plans, even how and when we come together, changes. He leads, completely, and we follow, completely. We are submissive to His Spirit, and quenching His Spirit is guarded against in every way. We seek to have biblical order, but at the same time, balance. When He moves, it can look strange, and even chaotic to our natural eyes. This is why it is so deeply important that we have those with real spiritual discernment and wisdom in our midst. The root of it all is that He must have free reign in His church. There must also be a corresponding hunger for His Spirit in the hearts of His people. Someone said that if there is anything you desire more than being filled with His Spirit, you'll never be filled with His Spirit. Those are sobering words if we take the time to think on them.

If you're a pastor/preacher today, who's wind fills your sails, your own, or His? Indeed, as to the heart of each today, what wind do you rely on, the weakness of your own breath, or the almighty power of His? Can we dare to ask ourselves if the "boats" we've so meticulously constructed are going anywhere at all? Can we cease exhausting ourselves in a journey to nowhere, and allow, no, plead and cry out for a fresh exhale of His Spirit? It is time. We all know what we can do....nothing, no matter how shiny it may appear. May we now behold, maybe for the first time, what only He can do, by the mighty wind of His Spirit in our lives, homes, and churches. Keith Green had a lyric that went, "Rushing wind come fill this temple, blowing out the dust within." Too much dust has gathered in our hearts, and in the heart of His church. May His rushing wind blow all of it out.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Secret

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5...."God's love meant more to Him (Jesus) than the bitterness of enemies, the failure of friends, the strength of popular opinion, or the matter of His own rights. When He came to rest in the glory of His Father's Presence, love had conquered every temptation." T. Austin-Sparks

Millions of struggling believers likely ask, "What is the key, the secret to Victory in Christ?" The answer is before them, before us, but we miss it. We're blind to it. It is simply, "being in Christ." Not just as to "position" as the result of His salvation, but in day to day experience. It is the secret to be found in abiding in Him. Living in Him. Swept up in His life. It is being "obsessed" if you will, in the Life and Kingdom of Christ instead of obsessed in the lives and kingdoms of ourselves. Too many live in the latter, and the result of that will always be defeat, not victory.

To abide in Him is a matter of our will and His grace. We choose to consciously live in Him at all times and in all situations. In response, He gives the grace, the power to do so. There is also a discipline involved. We learn to take our thoughts, including any and all temptations, into His Presence. All that is not of Him cannot live in His Presence. Destructive and impure thoughts cannot be in the same place that He is. Temptations that can grip the very heart of our soul, lose all power when they are confronted with His Presence. Most of all, our kingdoms and obsession with ourselves cannot live on when we live fully in Him. Scripture says that death could not hold Him in its grip. Neither can it hold us when we are abiding in Him. If we choose to abide anyplace else, then we're fair game for whatever the enemy would direct at our lives. So many do live their lives out abiding in their own strength and abilities that they are overcome...again and again. Jesus said this would be so. He said we could do nothing apart from Him. So, the great question is; why do we continue to try to?

It's been said that Christ does not "give" us the fruits of the Spirit, but that He cultivates them in us. This happens as we abide in, live in Him. As we do so, He brings to the surface those things that seek to extinguish His life in us. When His Spirit makes ours aware of all within us that is not Him, we can surrender these up to Him, and He replaces them with the fruit of His life and Kingdom. Joy, peace, love. Victory.

Where are you meeting with defeat today? Can it be that this is exactly the place where you are not abiding in Him? Bring that defeat into His Presence. Into His Life. He will, by the guarantee of the cross and His blood, transform it into your victory.....as you abide....in Him. In all our ways, may we abide in Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - An "Andrew Life"

"Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, 'Your name is Simon, son of John - but you will be called Cephas." (which means Peter) John 1:42

Andrew was not a "star" disciple. He's certainly not as prominent in the biblical narrative as Peter, John, and James. Yet there is something he consistently did; he brought people into the presence of Jesus. I don't think the church lacks for Peter, James, and John "wannabe's," those who want the prominent, visible places in ministry. Far fewer aspire to the ministry of Andrew, those who live in such a way as to constantly point to and bring lives and souls to Jesus Christ. The need for such is desperate.

Most churches seem to spend inordinate amounts of time discussing how to reach people who don't know Christ. A myriad of outreach strategies are discussed. None of this is bad, but so much of it involves trying to get people to come to what the church is doing, the ministries it offers. So much so that the church has adopted the marketing strategy of the corporate world....and we suffer greatly because of it. The need of the day is a raising up of a generation of "Andrew's," people who just bring others into the presence of Jesus. In my prayer journal I have written, "Father, give me an 'Andrew life,' one that brings other people into the presence of Christ."

I was not brought to Christ through any kind of slick outreach campaign, or attractive church ministry. It was through the lives of three different people. The first two were people I had known whose lives had been trapped in darkness, just as mine was, but who had come to know Jesus, and whose hearts, eyes, and countenance now shined with His joy. It was through them that I was eventually led to cry out for Him on a Sunday evening in the dining room of the home I grew up in. It was the third life that began for me the journey of an ever deepening walk with Him; the Pastor of the church I began attending in a suburb of Pittsburgh.

That church didn't really offer me much of what I outwardly thought I needed. I was young and single, and most of them were either young and married, or older and married with families. The church wasn't even nearby. I had to drive almost 20 miles through a myriad of traffic lights to reach it. What drew me was that when the Pastor preached, I saw Jesus. I saw Him in that man's life, in the words he preached, and how those words gripped my heart. Every time I came, I was ushered right into the presence of the King. In the midst of my life's deep need, I knew I needed Him. More of Him, and I was getting Him. These three were "Andrew's." Each brought me into His presence. A presence I never wanted to leave.

How deeply do you and I long for an "Andrew life?" Do we want to be so soaked in His presence that our very lives usher others into it? Do our lives shine with the joy, peace, and strength of Jesus Christ? Do we know how to tell others about Him, yet fail to have others see the One we speak of living in and through us? I want more of that Andrew life. I want to so live in His presence that others are drawn to Him because of it. Do you join me in that?

Jesus was the Living Word, His Word made Life. When He, the Living Word, is alive in our hearts, He flows out of our very being. Our lives become a testimony to His Presence, and consistently point to His Presence. That's what it means to have an Andrew life. May it be the life each of us lives and has.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Intimacy Of Silence

"Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazurus, He stayed where He was for the next two days and did not go to them." John 11:5-6...."If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give you the first sign of His intimacy; silence." Oswald Chambers

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Growing up, my family would sporadically try to be regular church goers. It never lasted long, but I remember some of the things that I was taught in the Sunday School I went to as a child. One of the foremost was the lyric from the above song. I can remember singing it when I was no more than 5 or 6 years old. I never realized then, or even in my first days of walking with Him, how I would need to trust in its truth...and many times over.

We tend to give the message in the western church that Jesus has dedicated Himself to making our lives "good." He brings about desired outcomes, comes running to our cries, and like so many of our favorite TV programs, clears up our deep crisis situations in a neat 1 hour package. A silent Jesus is not One we know of. A Jesus who seems to look on while our chaos spirals ever more out of control isn't either. A Jesus who sees our deep need, our pain, sorrow, and hurt, yet does nothing, or seemingly so, is not a Jesus we care to know. Yet it is Jesus as He really is. He will take us into periods of silence, sometimes long ones, saying nothing, while the pain, the need, only deepens. Chambers asks, can He trust us with His silence? Can He trust you?

When Jesus got word that Lazarus was desperately ill, a situation He already knew of before the message came, He did nothing...or seemingly so. He waited two days, and in those two days, Lazarus died. The sisters Mary and Martha believed He'd failed them. The disciples did too. Jesus said that in His silence was a pathway to behold the glory of God, and it was so. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He had given the sisters the intimacy of His silence, but they missed it. How often do we as well. Are we missing it now?

I heard someone say recently that His silence causes us to run into ourselves, who we really are. I know there is truth in that, but even more, His silence will cause us, if we go there, to run right into Him. His silence is an invitation to go deeper into His Life, deeper into knowing who He is. Deeper into discovering that the One who says He loves us, really does, and more deeply than we could have imagined. He has told us He loves us, promised us that He would never leave or forsake us. In His silence, we are faced with whether we will believe that, trust that. If we will, we'll run right into Him, and the result will be a deeper intimacy than we've ever had....and all of it for the glory of God. All the pain the sisters experienced vanished with the raising of Lazarus. The pain had been real. Jesus and His work and life was more real. It will be so for us as well....when we prove His trust in us in the time of His silence.

Where is He silent in your life right now? Where have you been crying out? How do you respond? Anger, accusation, rejection? I have learned, and continue to learn to trust Him in the silence. There is pain in that....and glory. He waits, sometimes for great lengths of time, but He is never late. Not by His reckoning of timing. He will bring life out of death. He will bring glory to the Father, and good to us. Likely nothing will take place as we had hoped for or expected, but we will, in the end, know anew that He is good. In the silence, trust Him, and discover in Him, a Jesus you never knew, but now do.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Send The Fire

"For our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29....."God of Elijah, hear our cry: Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire!" William Booth

There's a remarkable thing about fire; we love it, and we fear it. Most love to sit around a fire on a cold night. A burning fireplace brings great comfort. A fire burning in the darkness give us a sense of safety and well being. We're drawn to fires. At the same time, we're repelled by them. No one wants to perish in a fire. People flee for their lives from house fires, forest fires, raging fires of any kind. We love fire, and we hate it. We're like moths drawn to the flame, but never entering into it, for if we did, we'd be consumed.

On the West Texas church campground that I served on in the early days of my ministry, a constant presence were the mosquitoes. In the center of the grounds, where people would gather at night, there was an old, gigantic pecan tree. In its branches were hung "bug zappers," whose light drew the mosquitoes to it. The brightness drew them to it, but when they got too close, the hot light would incinerate them, burn them up. Does it offend you to know that this is exactly what He means to take place in us when we come to, cry out for, pray for, the fire of God to come?

Many believers and churches pray for revival, but what is it that they really want? Better, more lively services? Gatherings that generate excitement, draw bigger crowds, and really bring a sense of something new.....for a season. This is not revival. In the Old Testament and New, God's fires consumes....completely. It doesn't leave anything "half-baked." God's fire is the Holy Spirit, and His Spirit is not interested in just attracting us to His burning flame. He doesn't just desire we come near the fire. He calls us to enter into it....and be consumed....burned up. There is nothing half way about it. Revival happens when His people place themselves, all of themselves, on His altar, and His fire falls upon that offering and altar and consumes it. God isn't interested in having us come and watch fireworks displays. He wants His Holy fire to be at work in us....from the inside out.

Listen to the words of William Booth. No, listen to his heart. He doesn't desire that the fire of His Spirit comes near, but upon him, upon His church. He doesn't want a Spirit that puts on a pleasing, senses centered show. He wants the fire, the holy fire, that consumes...all of him, and all of the church. Do we want that as well? Or, will we content ourselves with being moths? Always coming near to the flame, but never flying into it...and being consumed in its fire.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Valley

"Jesus led them up the high mountain, apart by themselves." Mark 9:2....."The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend.....it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God." Oswald Chambers

When Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the mountaintop to be witnesses of His transfiguration, beholding His glory, they were not only awestruck, but surely must have felt that this was the height of all their spiritual experience. They must have felt that after beholding this, nothing was impossible. What glory was beheld on the mountaintop, glory that they wanted to remain before. Yet it was not where they were to stay. Jesus led them back down into the valley below, and they went directly from the mountaintop to the valley. From the height, to the depth. Waiting for them was a father with a demon possessed son. The other disciples could do nothing for the boy. Neither could the three who'd just been at the summit with God. All the wonder of the reality of the mountaintop disappeared in the reality of the valley. Jesus rebuked their lack of faith, and then set the boy free. The glory of God seen in Him on the mountaintop was present in Him in the valley. That valley could not affect it. Why do our valleys so often steal His glory for us?

Chambers said something to the effect that in the disagreeable places in life, we are to manifest His glory. We're to manifest the fruit of His life, of His Spirit. What we can "see" from the mountaintop cannot be seen in the valley. Not by our natural eyes, but He means that we should with our spiritual ones. The three who were with Him forgot what they saw on the mountaintop, and were rendered powerless because of it. How often do we do the same? When we leave the beauty of the spiritual mountaintop, and "descend" into the pressure filled realities of our valleys, what is it that we manifest? Fallen flesh or His resurrection life?

Chambers said that the spiritual mountaintop is not meant to teach us something, but to make us something. It's in the valley that He does the making. It's in the valley that the "grapes" of our lives are "crushed" that He might make those lives His sweet wine. What is being produced in our valleys? What is flowing out of our lives? Where, today, might we be experiencing the loving rebuke of Jesus?

Too often I have left the beauty of my times of prayer and focus on Him, only to lose sight of all of it in the valley. The pressure of the descent took my eyes and my heart away from Him and onto the difficulties, the needs, the realities, and what was manifested in and through my life was my lack of Him, not His presence. Through His resurrection, He gives us the power to live in the atmosphere of the Kingdom even when we walk and live in the atmosphere of the valley. In the toxic air of the valley, we can breathe in and breathe out the pure air of the Kingdom. Do we? Do you?

No matter how lofty your most recent mountaintop time with Him was, you will have to descend once more into the valley. What will happen there? What and who will you manifest there? The grapes will surely be squeezed. What will be produced? We beheld His glory on the mountaintop. Will we show forth His glory in the valley?

Blessings,
Pastor O