The Look

 Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' He said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' " Mark 10:21..."Has Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes." Oswald Chambers

"The look." Children know of that in relation to their parents. Husbands with their wives. All of us with someone. We know that "the look" means that the one gazing at us is seeing something displeasing, questionable, or wrong. We recognize the look and most often, adjust our behavior so that we're no longer objects of "the look." We're familiar with the looks of these, yet we miss the gaze of Jesus upon us. And we miss what He wishes to do in relation to beholding us.

Chambers says that when Christ looks at us in such a way, it's because He is looking at some aspect of our character, our walk, that He seeks to bring to our attention. He looks at where our hearts are hard, or where we're prone to compromise. He looks upon that which is self-destructive or causes harm to another. In short, He looks upon all those things that we ourselves don't care to look at, because if we did, we'd do so with a great deal of self loathing. The difference is that He can look upon those ugly parts of our being and do so in love. As He looks He sees clearly what we are, but just as clearly, what we can become as a result of His transforming power. Hard hearts replaced by fleshly ones. A lack of love replaced by a fervent passion for Him and all those He loves. His look can hurt, indeed will hurt. Chambers says that where Christ's words and ways offend and hurt, we can be sure that He means to "hurt it to death." A death that results in life. His life.

This is what was happening in Mark 10. The rich young ruler had come to Him professing a desire to follow Him. Jesus looked at Him, in love, and then proceeded to point out all that would keep the young man from living out His desire. His riches, his attachments, his being held by what could be counted and accumulated. And it brought him deep pain. The Scripture tells us that the young ruler "went away grieved." Christ's gaze had exposed for him all that would prevent him from really being His and living for Him. In this gaze, the look of Jesus did not cause the young man to release his hold on his "stuff" that he might lay hold of Jesus. For you and me, as Christ fixes His gaze upon us, what might He be exposing in our hearts and lives that is preventing us from giving Him all of our heart and life? Where are we "turning away grieved" from Him after His look has revealed all? Where are we not allowing Him to transform and transfix us?

Some reading this may have never really experienced what I'm writing about. They've never been able to be still in His presence long enough to allow His gaze to fall upon and search them. It doesn't prevent Him from knowing what's present within. It prevents us from acknowledging it, or should I say, having to acknowledge it. Where in our lives might we be avoiding being still enough for His look to captivate and hold us? Where are we "dodging Jesus?"

He is constantly beholding us, but we so rarely behold Him. Someone said that to behold Him is to be changed, because we cannot "see" Him and ever remain the same. His eyes, His look, are always upon us. We need not fear it, for in it is the power to give us transformed lives. Let Him bring the impurities, the dross, yes, even the sewage out into the open air. In that is freedom if we will give it all, surrender it all, and as He urged the young ruler, the ability to follow Him, fully in all things. Someone said that our churches are filled with "rich young rulers." Those to anchored in this world to ever fully enter His. Is there some degree in which we are among them? His look will reveal it. Will we receive it?

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Dead Ends

 25And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse. 27When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up through the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.… Mark 5:25-27....."He takes us to the dead end in order to get us to the place of deliverance." Kerry Shook

Dead ends. They come about in life. Often for some of us. For many of us. If you believe that God is sovereign in all things, can you also believe that He may well have engineered circumstances in order to bring you to that dead end?

The woman in Mark 5 was at such a dead end. The full context of the passage tells us that she had a menstrual issue that made her unclean under Jewish law. This meant that she was denied a normal social and religious life. If someone came near to her, she was required to tell them that she was in such a state so that they might not be contaminated by contact with her. Further, she had desperately sought healing for the issue, spending all she had on medical treatments that had not helped her in the least. She'd tried everything and she'd received nothing. She was at a dead end, but at the dead end was Jesus Christ.

There is so much beauty in this story. She who is unclean and told to be apart from all, approaches He who is total purity, desperate that He might bring healing to her. No one wanted her there. Likely no one even noticed she was there. Even so, at her dead end, she reached out and touched the hem of the garment that the Savior, who was passing by, wore. With all who were pressing in on Him, He noticed, felt that touch, and in that touch, healing flowed out of Him, and into her. She was free. She was clean. She was whole. She was His. Would any of this have happened if she had not come to this dead end? I don't think so. As Shook says, He uses our dead ends to bring about our deliverance.....if we'll have it. If we'll choose it.

There will be dead ends in life for all of us. In them, we're faced with choosing the result that the enemy wished for us, deeper despair and defeat, or, in Christ, healing hope. Another dead end, or, His open door. We will either go on, "spending" all we have on that which can never make us whole, or simply yielding ourselves up to the One who makes all things new.

Are you at a dead end? In your marriage, your ministry, your dreams, desires, and goals? Can you believe that He has brought you to this place that you might reach out, laying hold of HIm, and discovering that He has already laid hold of you? I'm a "dead end survivor." I have come to a number of them, in my personal and ministerial life. In some of those places, it took me some time to realize it was He who'd brought me there, but when I finally did, I found Him in the midst of them. He made the dead end my place of deliverance. He always will. What will you do with yours? Dead ends are inevitable in life. So is His deliverance if we will trust Him for it. Will you trust Him? Lay hold of the One who is already laying hold of you. Be free. Be whole. Be His.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Do It Again!

 "Jesus wept." John 11:35....."The world has lost the ability to blush over its sin. The church has lost the ability to weep over it." Leonard Ravenhill...."Only when we begin to understand the hideous nature of sin can we begin to understand the depths of His mercy." Chris Tiegreen

I saw a video yesterday that in equal parts inspired and convicted me. It told the story of a professor of religion in the 1940's who took his class on a tour of places with great religious significance. One of those places was the home of John Wesley, a great reformer, and one who was used of God to bring nation changing revival to England in the mid 1700's. As they toured his home they saw his kitchen where he took his meals, his study, where he wrote, prepared sermons, and sent correspondence. The last place they went to was his bedroom, where he slept.....and prayed. Beside his bed, on the carpet, were two deep imprints. These were left by his knees as he spent hours there in the early time before dawn, crying out for that move of the Spirit to come upon a lost nation and people. In response to his prayers and so many others with him, God did move. He sent an awakening that spread not only throughout England, but to the American colonies as well. It was of such power that it broke the lucrative slave trade that many in England were involved in. After viewing this room, the professor and his class left and boarded the bus that had brought them there. He commenced a head count to make sure all were on board, and they were, except one. The professor went back into the house and searched room by room, At last he came to the bedroom, and there, beside the bed, with his knees in the very prints of Wesley, was a young man crying out to God with tears, "Lord, do it again. Do it in me." That young man was Billy Graham. The testimony of his life is that God did indeed "do it again." Can it be the testimony of us as well?

I said that this inspired me as well as convicted me. It inspires because I know in my heart that God does respond to such heartcries for the lost nations and peoples of this world. It inspires because I have read of the results of the Great Awakening that swept the American colonies in the 18th century. It inspires because I know that just such an awakening can happen in our midst today, no matter how dark the night. But it convicts because I wonder if I have the prayer zeal of Wesley and Graham? It convicts because I wonder if, like them, I can shed tears of sorrow over a lost world, and more, my lost neighbor? It convicts because I wonder if I'm not more concerned that sin and darkness just not come near me than I am in the multitudes that are held in their captivity? It convicts because I suspect that my prayer life is a shallow imitation of men like Wesley and Graham. I also suspect that it is the same with you. Do we leave it that way?

There is no doubt that the world has been desensitized to sin. The church has as well. We seem to have made an uneasy agreement with it. We don't overly focus on it except in a general way. We like to emphasize the love of Jesus, but we don't see that we have made His love a human fleshly one and not its actual reality. Ravenhill said that if Jesus preached the same message that ministers preached today, He would never have been crucified. Chris Tiegreen says that we tend to take our sin casually, but that God most assuredly doesn't. When this is the case, who really weeps over sin? The harsh truth is that we end up seeing it as not that big a problem. Imagine that; that which nailed Christ to the cross being viewed in such a way. How have we come to this place?

Many speak of revival and awakenings. How desperately do we really desire them? Whose knee prints upon a floor, elbow prints upon an altar do we follow? Have we left such prints ourselves? We may long to see Him "do it again" in the world around us, in His church. Do we long for Him to do it in us? Come Lord Jesus!

Blessings,

Pastor O

You Too?

"As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him any more. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, 'You do not want to go away also, do you?' " John 6:66-67

Previous to these verses, Jesus had been telling those who were following along after Him that to truly be His disciples, they must "eat His flesh and drink His blood." Many were offended by these words. Not, as some have said, because He invited them to some form of cannibalism, but because they knew that what He required was a total commitment and devotion to Him. Rabbi's of the day often required a similar devotion from their students. Those who followed Jesus, many because of the good "bread and fishes" He was giving out, some because of His miracles, but all who were present, knew that He called them to total surrender. They would not be their own. They would belong to Him. The bread and fish crowd were surely the first to turn back, followed closely by the miracle seekers. Jesus couldn't have been surprised. Scripture says that He knew what's in the heart of men, and the motives for following Him. Yet, tragically, actual disciples, to this point dedicated to Him, turned away as well. They were willing to follow Him with some or most of their heart, but all of it? No, they couldn't. Jesus spoke a word, words, that asked too much. Commanded too much. So here's the question for us; what word or words might Jesus speak to you that would cause you, in at least some part of your heart, to cease following Him? To turn away from Him? To have Him look into your eyes and with His say, "You too?"

Those who profess to be His disciples can easily read over this passage and think it doesn't speak to us. After all, we, as the old hymn goes, have decided to follow Jesus, and there'll be no turning back. We choose not to dwell upon those things, people, attitudes, habits, dreams, desires, goals, and so on, that He has commanded us to surrender to Him. To make His so that they're no longer ours. These we choose to hold onto, to not give to Him. We see ourselves as still following Him, that we have not turned away. Yet, in one area, and likely more, we have. In that thing or things, we are going our own way. He has spoken a word to us that we've deemed too hard to accept. So we turn back on that point, while convincing ourselves that we're still in step with Him. We tend to look down upon those who turned from Him in John 6, but in truth, they were more honest than us.

We have come into days where lines really are being drawn. Choices must be made as to where we actually stand. The choices will involve sacrifice, a lot of sacrifice. He demands of us everything, everywhere, every time. If we're with Him because of the good bread, we'll turn back. If we're there for the blessings and great works on our behalf, we'll turn back. We'll come face to face with the choice made by Peter and the rest; to whom will we go if we won't go with Him? To whom will you go?

May my choice, your choice, be that of knowing there is no other place of life but with Him, regardless of the cost, and so, we go on with Him. May none of us have to bear the look of sadness in His eyes should we shrink back, turn back, that silently says, "You too?"

Blessings,

Pastor O 

The Lonely Place

 "And in the morning, a great while before day, He rose and went to a lonely place, and there He prayed." Mark 1:35 "It's a gift to God when we worship in the darkness." Sheila Walsh

The earth, particularly our part of it, is shrouded in darkness. The pandemic, the political turmoil, protests, rioting, murder. Many are living lives on the very border of despair. Many of them are believers, who are meant to have a hope, a hope in Him that nothing can sway. Yet they have been swayed. We are seeing demonic attacks not only upon the affairs of men, but upon the very faith of the people of God.

I am hearing from many different sources that as much as half of all current pastors are considering leaving the ministry. They are overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness. If this is the state of the shepherd, what must be the condition of the flock? I say that with no critical spirit. I have been in that place. I have lived and ministered in the darkness, in the pain and in the fear. I have found, and I continue to find, that there is only one choice for we who walk in such places; we must surrender the heartbreak, and all the elements that accompany it, to Him. Oftentimes, the greatest gift we may give the Father is to give Him our pain. All of our pain. It is a great gift because too many times we cannot bring ourselves to surrender our heartache, pain, and disappointments to Him. So they remain, eating away at our faith, trust, and belief in Him. In who He is, what He has promised, and what He will be to us in all of it.

Michelle Cushatt said that we often equate the presence of pain with the absence of God. In reality, if we'll dare to believe it, the place of pain is almost always the place where we'll discover the rich realities of His presence. We don't often think of Him in such a way, but Jesus likely suffered a great deal of pain and disappointment during His earthly ministry. Surrounded by slow to learn disciples, hostile religious authorities, and oftentimes indifferent targets of His ministry. The One who came to save was rejected by most of the ones He came for. Most of the ones who were the object of His love. This is why we see Him so often going off by Himself, to lonely places, in order to worship and commune with His Father. Why are we so slow to do the same?

Walsh says that worshiping Him through the long night changes who we are. Only the surrendered can do this. When we surrender in the dark, this is when His Light comes. This is where we discover His mighty presence in that dark, and all the pain that comes with it. Could it be that He is calling you, me, all of us to such worship?

Will we come? How can we not? His Word says that darkness is not darkness to the One who is the Lord of all Light. Let us gather at the cross, in the darkness, and behold His presence. His resurrected presence. Come to the lonely place and discover that He is there. He always has been, and that He has mastered the dark places, all of them, and He reigns in them. Our God reigns.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Close, but...

 "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." Mark 12:34...."To be 'not far from the Kingdom of God' is still to be outside of it....Modern religionists have so watered down God that He is alleged to be known on their own terms." Chris Tiegreen

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." "Close, but no cigar." "They came close to winning it all." These common sayings are familiar to most, and all, in one way or another convey the same message; being close is not enough. Being close does not secure the prize. Being close, in the end, does one no more good than if they had remained far away. The world knows this. How come we in the church don't?

I'm a Wesleyan in my theology. This means I believe in what Wesley termed "prevenient grace." This is the grace of God drawing an unbeliever to Himself. It's a wonderful thing to behold and to see God working in someone's life in order to draw them into His life. Somehow though, many in the church have contented themselves with talking about how close someone is to coming to Christ.

Unconsciously, we can be lulled into a kind of comfort zone where we think that their being close is the same as their being transformed. This happens because we can observe them saying and doing what we would consider to be the marks of a believer. Maybe they've begun to attend worship withs some regularity. Perhaps they've started to read a Bible. Maybe the names of God and Jesus start to be used in their conversations. All of this and more can be happening in their lives and yet, they are still outside of the Kingdom of God. Most tragic of all is that we can see and hear all of this and not only be convinced that a spiritual transformation has taken place, but we may convince them as well.

Large numbers of such folks sit in worship services, watch them online, and sing, listen, and converse about a Kingdom that they aren't a part of. They're deceived, and oftentimes, so are we.

Jesus spoke the words from Mark 12 to a Pharisee, a teacher of Jewish law. Jesus had asked him what the greatest commandment was, and he answered correctly, to love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. He answered with conviction, and in the answer, the Pharisee thought all was well. Jesus didn't see it that way. Being a part of His Kingdom is not about knowing doctrine, but about knowing God, and key to it all was that it was not possible to know God apart from knowing Him through Jesus Christ alone. That was what was lacking in the Pharisee's heart, and it was what was keeping him outside the Kingdom of God. It continues to keep multitudes out as well. There is only one way to the Father, and that is through faith, transforming faith, in Christ Himself, The only cost of entering into His Kingdom is that we must let go of all others. In that is the stumbling block, and that is why so many come near, but never come into His Kingdom. They live their lives outside of it, and they end their lives outside of it as well.

I close with some probing of the hearts of we who would say we have taken that step of believing faith in Him alone. Of we who would testify that we are citizens of His eternal Kingdom. Could we dare to allow Him to expose what part or parts of our lives are presently existing outside of His Kingdom? What attitudes, desires, dreams, goals, beliefs, collide with what He has revealed that His Kingdom consists of? The subtle lure of the world's distractions and attractions are always seeking to seduce us. Where have they succeeded in seducing us away from His Kingdom and in that place or places, taken up residence in a kingdom set up against His? His Word says that He'll tolerate no other gods before Him. Neither will he tolerate rival kingdoms. What rivals might exist in our hearts right now? Are we ready, willing for them to fall?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Conquerors

 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37......"Jesus Christ didn't die so that we might have the ability to cope, but the ability to conquer" Jimmy Evans

We cope more than we conquer. That's a sad testimony for His church. We believe that on the cross Christ conquered the power of sin and death, yet somehow, we cannot receive that He passed that victory onto we who believe in Him. Someone said that we don't believe the God that we say we believe in. We see the truth of that in countless ways in the lives of His people. We live below the fullness of His promises. He sets a bountiful spiritual table before us and we are satisfied with eating the crumbs that fall from that table.

So many in the church seem to live in cycles of defeat, usually defeated by the same thing(s). One step forward followed by two steps back seems to be the norm for many, as well as the expectation. I can't find any place in His Word that tells us that this is to be the expected life of a child of God. Yet it is what many expect. Why?

Teaching is a great part of it. Whether it is intentional or not, a lot of the preaching and teaching of the church tells us that we cannot expect to know real freedom on this side of eternity. Sin in the life, and the failure and defeat that go with them are to be expected. Our lot is to expect God to give us the grace and ability to cope with that and keep them all at bay. I don't believe His work on the cross and the power of His resurrection give us such a life. That life will never win the name of "more than a conqueror." Yes, on this side of eternity there are issues, behaviors, attitudes, most of them sinful, to be faced. His death and resurrection give to us the power to overcome them all as we face them. Face them head on in the power of His resurrected life. For the believer victory comes by way of surrender. Surrender of all in our life that isn't Him as we see that replaced by all that is Him. He transforms and frees from the inside out. In the OT, God gave Israel all the land, but they stepped out in faith and conquered it as they went. The power and authority to do so was theirs from the beginning. So too for the believer is the power to overcome all that is against us in this life. We conquer as we go. We come to Him in consecrated surrender and He responds with sanctifying us with His Holy Spirit power. Then He leads us on a walk of victory as we, in Him, confront all that is against Him in our lives, and conquer them in His power. We fight battles along the way, but the outcome has already been decided at the cross. This is what it is to live a conquering life instead of a coping one.

I think we have coping lives because we focus on ourselves and our problems instead of upon HIm and His resources.

We cope because we have accepted the enemy's lies and labels upon us, instead of believing and knowing that our identities are sealed in Him, and in what He says about us. So we cope instead of conquer. Scripture says that we were born again into a living hope. A living hope! We were created to be more than conquerors. Let us fulfill that purpose in Christ, because in Christ, we CAN do all things.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Storytellers

 "As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!" John 20:20...."He tells His story through our scars." Sheila Walsh

Someone said that the only visible scars in heaven will be those worn by Jesus. All of ours will have vanished. Until then though, we all bear the scars of life in a fallen world. For those who have their life in Him, He uses those scars to tell His story.....and ours.

Without Christ, the scars of most serve to show forth shame, anger, bitterness, defeat. For the believer, the one who has put their trust, their lives, and their wounds in His hands, they will serve as illustrations of His victory. That was the case when the risen Christ showed His scars to His disciples. The scars were proof to His disciples that He was indeed risen, that death, and the suffering of the cross, could not hold Him. They were filled with joy. If we will give our wounds and scars to Him, He will do the same with them. He will make them marks of the lives of an overcomer. They will be proof that the suffering we walked through did not crush us, but were used by Him to lift us higher in Him as well as deeper in Him. As Erwin McManus wrote, "He doesn't take us around the pain, but through it. The faith journey doesn't get easier. We get stronger." There is a wonderful story and testimony of His life and power in and through our wounds. They could not hold Him, and so, neither can they hold us. Every scar we bear, even the most painful and devastating, is turned to victory because what was meant to destroy us instead made us more like Him, and displayed His glory to both a watching world and a watching church.

Walsh says that our scars are proof that He heals. Yes, they're visible on this side of eternity, but each one tells the story of a triumph over that which was meant to destroy us, to kill our spirit long before we would actually die. Such stories give hope to those who are also walking through their pain with bleeding wounds. There is healing to be had, great hope to be encountered, and great life to lived. And a wonderful story to tell through the scars.

We all have wounds. All of them will tell a story. What story do ours tell? They will point either to death and darkness or to His Life and Light. They will tell either His story or the enemy's. The world is literally dying to hear His story. Will you and I be His storytellers.....through our scars?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Stale Air

 "You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence." Psalm 16:11....."Jesus is the wisdom of God. He is the Provision of our sovereign Lord. He is our refuge from the world of sin and death. All God given roads lead to Him." Chris Tiegreen...."Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God." Leon Bloy

How can it be that those who should be the most joyful people in the world, His followers, are instead often among the most joyless? In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the kingdom of Rohan is under the oppression of the dark realm of Isengard. As they enter it's king's city, the dwarf, Gimli Gloin, seeing the despair on the faces of its citizens remarks, "You'll find more joy in a graveyard." I wonder, to an onlooking world and church, is that the impression many of us give as well? Are we joyless believers? Can there even be such a person?

Why is His joy missing in so many lives? It's a complex question that has a more simple answer. In verse 8 of Psalm 16, David writes that he set the Lord always before him. That is, he lived each day, through each day, in His presence. Not some vague awareness of His presence, but a vibrant one. He had the spiritual sense of His always being with him, and that reality affected every level of his being, spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional. Many struggle to live in such an experience. They believe in Him, but they don't really find Him relevant to their day to day lives. Tiegreen says that this is because they don't seek Him intimately. Intimacy is the key to His presence and so, the key to His joy. This comes from our living in the atmosphere of His Holy Spirit and breathing in, and out, the air of that atmosphere. Despair and hopelessness have no place in such a life. If we dare to live that life, they will have no place in ours either.

Too many of His people are living in the stale air atmosphere of this fallen world instead of the atmosphere of heaven. The way out is to simply ask. Ask Him to bring us, you, out of the stale and into the fresh. Let Him stir His life into yours. We weren't created for the stale air of this fallen world, but the rarified air of the Kingdom. It will be the Kingdom Seekers who live in it, and in the joy that marks its atmosphere. Will you and I be among them? In His Presence there is fullness of joy. Breathe in, and breathe out that presence....and know His fullness of joy.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Mansion Builder

"When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?' 'Yes, Lord,' he said, 'you know that I love you.' " John 21:15 "If you could have heaven and all you could ever have wanted, and Jesus wasn't there, would you be happy?....How many of us are truly in love with Jesus?" Francis Chan

Chan asks chilling, piercing, and convicting questions. They require some deep thought before we answer, and I don't think we really want to contemplate those questions too deeply at all. The answers, the real answers we come up with may well terrify and grieve us. They certainly grieve Him.

When Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, Peter, as always, was quick to say he did. Yet his recent actions of denial, coupled with his fear of being closely identified with his Lord were before him and before Jesus. There can be no doubt that Peter loved His Lord. The problem lay in that he loved himself as much or more. Jesus knew this and Peter didn't really want to know it, or at least admit to it. How like him are we?

There's something else here though that goes beyond fear, the cost of following Him, and the concept of total surrender and devotion to Christ. It has to do with how we see Jesus Christ and how He actually fits into our day to day living. That's why Chan's questions are so penetrating. How much and how deeply do we really desire Him? What is it that we're really looking for? Are we seeking the fullness of blessing that He can give us, or are we seeking Him, His Person and Presence? That's why the question about enjoying heaven even if He weren't there is so impacting. It is so because a lot of us live much like that right now. We are far more interested in the blessing than we are the Blesser. We're more attached to the gifts than we are the Giver. The truth is if our lives were filled with fulfillment we might well be filled with satisfaction even though we lack any real sense of Him. The proof of this is seen in how many professing followers of Jesus live exactly like that every day. If it is so in this life, it would be so in eternity as well.

So we're faced with the second part of Chan's question as well as Jesus' first inquiry of Peter. How many of us are truly in love with Jesus? Do we really love Him? Peter said he did, but his love had limits. Jesus continued to probe until the truth of it all was squarely before Peter, and then he was broken before Him...and could then truly love Him. He will deal in the same way with you and I, particularly in these days in which we find ourselves. If you've been living a blessing based life, one where your love and loyalty are tied to what He gives, be prepared to come face to face with these questions, and directly from the Lord Himself.

Where do our hearts really dwell? In Him and His eternity, or in our own ideas about what makes for a fulfilling life? How rooted to this world are we? It's always been popular to call the place Jesus promised to prepare for us a "mansion." Someone said that we want our mansions to be here, so attached are we to this world. What is it that our hearts really long for? The mansion, or the Mansion Builder?

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Troublemakers

 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?' " I King 18:17....."Citizens of God's Kingdom are troublemakers to this world." Chris Tiegreen....."Men boast of their tolerance who should be ashamed of their indifference." William Houghton

Ahab, the corrupt and evil king of Israel hated the prophet Elijah. He hated him because Eijah consistently and constantly confronted his evil and his sin. He saw Elijah as a troublemaker for the nation, and he was. He was raised up by God for that very purpose in order that through him, the Father could expose sin, and call the nation, and even their king, to repentance and back to their God. Kings and nations do not like to be confronted about their wrongdoing, especially when the one confronting them is a voice speaking for the Father.

I believe the Father seeks to raise up a new generation of "troublemakers/" In the pulpits of His churches as well as in their pews. Troublemakers who do not fear to confront sin and wrongdoing. Troublemakers who will boldly address that which is a cancer upon our nation, nations, and cultures. Troublemakers who will not avoid speaking to "hot button" issues, and who will not be influenced by what the possible cost of doing so will be, but by the cost of not doing so.

In the Old Testament, few if any of His prophets came with a message that was welcomed by the people. Many of them were killed, and all of them suffered in the price they paid to bring His message, His warning. In spite of this, there was something that marked them all. They could not be silent concerning that message. Jeremiah said that if He tried to keep God's words hidden, they would literally burst from him. They had to proclaim His word. All of His word. How many like them do we have today? Not just filling pulpits, but in our communities, workplaces, and wherever His people are found? We have allowed ourselves to be silenced too long, and we have witnessed the cost. We see it everywhere around us. Our culture is in its present condition because His church has been mostly silent. The awful result is that the church has been more affected by the culture than the culture has been affected by the church. This is an unspeakable tragedy.....and sin.

In the book of Acts, when Paul and his fellow ministers came to a city, the citizens of that city said, "These men who have been turning the world upside down have come here also." The need for such men and women today is beyond desperate. God's troublemakers, showing up everywhere.....beginning in His church. Not troublemakers who work with the weapons of a fallen world, but who trouble the hearts of the lost, rebellious, and disobedient with their words of truth and life. His words of truth and life. Are we, you and I, willing to be such people? Troublemakers troubling the strongholds of hell.

Someone said that it was their desire to be on the devil's "most wanted list." Kingdom troublemakers will always be on that list. The names on that list will always be in places where His light and hell's darkness clash. Dare you, and dare I be found on that list? Troubling the darkness by speaking His Light into it. Troubling death by proclaiming His Life. Troubling the kingdoms of this world by living in the power of the Kingdom of God. Where do we sign up?

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Promise

 "Call on Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me." Psalm 50:15...."You cannot live zealously for Jesus while living as a victim of circumstances." Chris Tiegreen

I believe in a God who promises to deliver His people, and His people can find themselves in countless situations that require His deliverance. The question for us is, just what constitutes His deliverance? What does His deliverance entail? What are our expectations of it?

I think most of us, including myself, have almost always seen His deliverance as Him moving on our behalf to evacuate us out of an unwanted, usually dangerous situation. We want out of it, and that's human. "Lord, get me out of here," has been a prayer of almost all of us at one time or another. That's our first desire. Does it shock you to know that it is almost never His?

I have learned, and continue to learn, that though the Lord is completely faithful in His promise to deliver His people, His methods for doing so rarely seem to involve removing us from the circumstances we hate, fear, and want to escape immediately. For me, most of His works of deliverance have involved Him leaving me right where I was, but doing a work of deliverance nonetheless. That work was not seen on the outside, but on my inside. In my spirit, my heart, and my mind. He doesn't seek to deliver us out of something so much as to deliver us in it.

Being delivered in the midst of our circumstances is a concept we neither understand or desire, but it results in His doing a work in us that an evacuation of us from those circumstances could never accomplish. Too many of His people allow themselves to be imprisoned by their life situations. They feel that the only way they can be free is if God does something to change the "landscape" around them, whether it be in the form of difficult people, or hard places, or painful suffering. We want what is external to change. God wants us to change. He wants to so work that no circumstance, hard place, or time of suffering can chain His Spirit within us. This is what it is to be delivered in the dark place, yet not out of it. Here we discover the truth of His Word, "He that is free in Me is free indeed."

It is human to want to be removed from the midst of the hard place. It is Christlike to remain in that place, yielded to Him, and trust Him to work within us His purposes for us. To be delivered not out of that place, but into the place of Christlikeness. He delivers by breaking all the power of fear, despair, and hopelessness, that seeks to destroy us in that place. It is in that work of deliverance that we find the truth of the promise. To take us out of a situation doesn't break the power of those above things. They remain to assault us another day in another situation. Their is broken when He delivers us from their power without changing the situation we face. That is the promise, and it is your promise and mine. He will deliver.

Blessings,

Pastor O