Heart Tracks - Everlasting Dominion

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Where's Jesus?

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Wilderness Worship

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Overwhelmed

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Horeb

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Unshakable Kingdom

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - In His Presence

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Shape Of Love

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Pastor O