Ronin

 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11...."In the early church there was no taking Christ as Saviour now, as Lord later - maybe never.....Today churches are filled with 'believers' who have never been made disciples. They have never denied self, taken up the cross, and followed Christ." Vance Havner......"Everyone wants a saviour. Few want a lord." Tony Evans

In Japanese feudal times, the Samurai were the warrior class, and it was their honor to be sworn to a Lord that they followed unconditionally. To be a Samurai without a lord was to have great dishonor brought upon yourself. Such men were called Ronin, and they sought to end their place of shame by becoming dedicated to another lord that they would live and die for. As I think on that, I begin to see the American church as one that is filled with Ronin, men and women who have no real lord and master but themselves. And they see no dishonor or shame in that.

We love to talk of Jesus as our Saviour. Our sermons and songs are filled with references to Him as being so. He is, but the word "Saviour" as pertaining to Jesus only appears a handful of times in the Bible. The word "Lord," as referencing Him, occurs many, many times more. Yet most of us have never noticed that, or chosen not to. As Evans said, we all want a Saviour. Few of us are looking for a Lord.

I go back to the Samurai reference. Their life was completely built around the wishes and desires of their Lord. Whatever he commanded them, they were to do without question or hesitation. Their obedience was instant. Such a way doesn't fit into our western mindset. Not in the secular sense, and since so many of us are still so heavily influenced by that mindset, even controlled by it, it doesn't fit into our spiritual mindset either. The evidence for this is seen in how easily we throw off spiritual authority when it doesn't agree with our view or desire. We see it on every level. We see it in the decisions people make about relationships, jobs, ministries, and really, most everything about their lives. Many a pastor will tell you that those who have sought counsel about significant issues in their life, after being shown how Scripture speaks to it, often ask in essence, "What's my other option?" We see such in the book, Jeremiah, when the remnant of the Jews asked the prophet Jeremiah to ask the Father to tell them what to do after some of their number had killed the governor the Babylonians had established over them. It was their desire to flee to Egypt in fear of reprisal, but they promised to do what God said. Jeremiah did inquire, and God told him that the people were to stay and that they would be well. When the people heard that, a response that wasn't in accordance with what they wanted, they told Jeremiah he hadn't heard from God at all. They fled to Egypt, where eventually they were destroyed by the very Babylonians they sought to escape. Our inbred tendency to resist His Lordship is nothing new. It's part of our fallen DNA.

There is only one answer to this; surrender, but surrender is something alien to our flesh. So we live like Ronin, masterless, except, we end up being mastered by most everything else. Our total well being lies in being completely yielded to Him, as does our true freedom. Israel ended up being slaves in the land God had given them because they continually rebelled against His Lordship. The same happens to us. How much longer will this go on for you? For us?

How weary are we of life as spiritual Ronin? For a Ronin, death was preferred over remaining in that condition. Until we're willing to die to our flesh's obsession with being in control, we will remain spiritual Ronin, living outside the fullness of His life. The true Samurai enjoyed the bounty of all his master owned. The Ronin usually lived off what he could steal or beg. A similar choice lies before you and me. Will we live on the abundance of His Bread and Water of Life, or go on as Ronin, living on sips, nibbles, and scraps of that Life?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Intimate

 "Jesus said to them, 'Come away with Me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while." Mark 6:31...."God does not have favorites. But He has intimates." Paul Rees

I've always kind of puzzled over why Peter, John, and James had a closeness with Jesus that the other disciples didn't. His Word tells us that He's not a respecter of persons. As Paul Rees states, He doesn't have favorites. Yet there are those who enjoy a deeper, richer, more intimate relationship with Christ than do others. Why? We were created for relationship and intimacy with Him, yet many of us advance very far in fulfilling that purpose. Where is the lack? Is it in us, or did He create some to enjoy a deeper knowledge of Him than others? These are questions that I, and likely no one can answer, but I do have some thoughts on it.

We're born in a fallen, separated condition from God. Our human and spiritual ancestors Adam and Eve caused it when they sinned against Him in the Garden. The infinite rift created between the human race and our Creator could not be healed by any effort on our part, yet we humans were, are, left with a longing for the One who made us. In our lostness, we have tried to fill that longing with substitutes for Him, though none can replace Him. God, in His love, knowing our state, sent His Son, Jesus Christ to take upon Himself on the cross our sin, and in His death and resurrection, make a way, the only way, for us to return to our Father Creator. In Jesus Christ, our longing for Him can be fulfilled. Yet so many who come to Him for restoration and salvation continue on with that longing being only partially fulfilled, or not at all. So we continue to look for substitutes. And those substitutes continue to fail us.

It may be that some are born with sharper spiritual sensitivity than others. It would seem so with the disciples. But is it His desire that it would remain so in them or us? I know in my life, when I saw the relationship enjoyed by great men and women of God, of the intimacy they walked in, it put a hunger within me to know Him in such a way as well. You couldn't keep me away from listening to such people. Yet others around me had no such desire. They seemed to be satisfied with sips and nibbles of His water and bread of life.

Paul exhorted Timothy to "stir up the gift within you." I believe God has given each of us the ability to enjoy deep and satisfying intimacy and relationship with Him. Our failure is that we seem content to let that ability lie dormant within us as we pursue other loves and objects of devotion. The gift of the possibility of relationship intimacy with Him never gets stirred up by us as we neglect it in our pursuit of those things that can never satisfy what we were created for.

We may not all come to the same degree of intimacy, He has made us each unique, but we all have the capacity for deep intimacy with Him, to the fullest extent possible for us. It's a matter of focusing that gift upon the only One who can satisfy it as He draws us ever more deeply into Himself. I have been given that gift, and so have you. May the waters of our spirits be stirred as we enter into all of its fullness.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Owned

 "Return to your fortress O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you." Zechariah 9:12....."With an infinite God of infinite wealth, hope never ends in disappointment." Chris Tiegreen

Recently I was involved in a discussion about things that "owned" us in our spiritual walk. These are things, people, attitudes, that sap our energy, draw us away from Him, and in effect, hold us in bondage, which is another word for slavery. When I came across the above verse from Zechariah, I began to wonder what it would mean to us if we were owned by His hope? What would it mean to you?

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans that the hope He gives us will not disappoint. God Himself spoke to His people through the prophet Zechariah that they were to be prisoners to such hope, that He would be their fortress. A fortress where His peace reigns, and where fear, anxiety, and every other assault from the pit of darkness cannot reach us. Yet hope is in short supply these days. People seem resigned to a life lived out on the edge of discouragement and despair, or right in the midst of it. That's understandable in the world, it's unthinkable in His people. We allow ourselves to be prisoners to so many things. Could we dare to enter into a life of being prisoners of His hope? To be held "captive" by His hope?

What would such a life look like? To me, it means that darkness, no matter how deep it is around us, can never prevent His light from bursting through. Prisoners of hope live in such expectation. It would mean that the most dire circumstances cannot prevent His stepping into them and bringing about His deliverance. It would mean that the greatest challenges we face, in life, in relationships, in ministry, in our journey, are not, individually or together, able to keep us from His purposes for us. It would mean that His hope, as Paul promises, will not disappoint us...not ever.

The key in our hope is not that we base it upon what we wish Him to do for us, but that our hope is in Him. Such hope has surrendered all to Him, expectations, desires, outcomes, and trusts that He will do not just what is right, but what is best. It may not seem so at the time, but all who have lived in this state can look back and know that it was and is so. I can personally attest to the truth of this.

Few of us are willing to come to a place where our only hope is Him. I certainly wasn't, yet that is where I found myself. I, like Jacob, could exclaim, "Everything is against me!" Yet I held, weakly for sure, to the promise that He was for me, and so in the midst of devastation, I believed that He would rebuild my life. He did. Not according to the way I thought or expected, but I can testify now, looking back, that what He did was right and it was best.

To be a prisoner of hope, His hope, is to live in a freedom this world knows nothing about. It is living a life held in the grip of hope. His hope. Hope that will not disappoint. He invites us to enter into that hope. To be owned by it. Do we come?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Losing Jesus

 "But why did you need to search?" He asked. "Didn't you know that I must be in My Father's house?" Luke 2:49........."The parents of Jesus lost Him at church, and they were not the last ones to lose Him there." Vance Havner

Jesus and His parents had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover, a most holy time to the Jews. They were there to worship, and must have spent a great deal of time in the vicinity of the Temple. Yet, when the time came for them to return to Nazareth, they were unaware that Jesus was not with them when they left. In fact, the Bible says that several days passed before they noticed. Our first thought must be that they were very bad parents to have taken so long to miss Him, but were they? They likely traveled with a large number of people and since the idea of family was so extended in those times, they likely assumed he was traveling with others in the group and was with them. There lies the problem for you and me; they assumed He was with them. They assumed wrongly. How often do we do the same?

So many of us assume that Jesus' rebuke of His parents concerning that they should have known where to find Him, in the house of God, meant that they should have known He'd be "in church." One translation says that He told them that He'd be "about My Father's business." We assume that He would be engaged in doing meaningful ministry for His Father. While there is some truth in those assumptions, I think we miss the mark with them. I think the Father's house means something far greater than the church we're a part of. I think it refers much more to being in the house that is His heart. This is where everyone should expect to find us. In His heart. And we most certainly should be about the business of the Father, but that business is first and foremost the business of intimacy with Him. Of being transformed into His likeness. In our zeal to do His work, we miss the work He seeks to do in us. We're in overdrive with our activity for Him, so that little of His activity is going on in us. This is how we, as Havner says, lose Jesus in church. Where are you and I losing Him right now?

Burnout is a serious problem for many in the church today. Pastors, missionaries, teachers, leaders. We throw ourselves into the business of the church, but neglect doing business with Him. We do so much in His name, but we miss living in the power of His name. We can end up with a well oiled organizational machine that will grind to a halt because there is such a lack of the oil of the Holy Spirit. We end up talking about a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that we rarely, if ever, experience ourselves. Erwin McManus said that Jesus is being lost in the church that bears His name. Where is He being lost in your fellowship and mine?

We can be diligent in planning our Sunday worship, and yet miss Him, lose Him in the preparation. As we meticulously plan the songs, the message, and all that we hope to have in the worship, we somehow lose Him in the planning. I'm often reminded of the story told by a preacher about a church he was invited to preach at. They gave him a list of everything scheduled for the service, with the minutes allowed for each part....including His message. Everything was covered. Everything but freedom for the Holy Spirit to infuse the worship in any way He chose. It may be unconscious, but we expect Him to respect our planning, and in doing so, lose Him....in the church...in the worship of the One we're there for.

Can we dare, as members of His Body, allow Him to examine where, as individuals and as His Body, we are "losing" Him? Like His parents, how far have we "traveled" along without Him? Right now, there may be no more important question to be asked. When His Spirit asks it of us, how and what do we answer?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Settled

 "Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins are scarlet, they will be white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool." Isaiah 1:18....."Nothing is ever settled until it's settled right, and nothing is ever settled right until it is settled with God." Vance Havner

One of the most difficult aspects of being a pastor is seeing the number of people who never seem to break through to victory on so many of their life issues. They attend classes, support groups, listen to sermons, and sing worship choruses. They get counseling, they talk to supportive friends, and yet, so much of their life remains mired in defeat. I have come to see that the main reason in the majority of such cases is that they have never settled the issue with God. They have come to many "voices" about it, but they have never really come to God.

The church is filled with those who have open, seeping wounds. Emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Their lives are wracked with unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, anxiety, shame, and guilt. All of it goes on because they have not heeded His invitation to "come, and reason with Me." We resist the invitation because we know that should we come, all of our excuses and reasons for our continuing in these various conditions cannot stand in the light of His presence. Almighty God will get to the root of everything in such a situation, and sometimes, oftentimes, that is the last thing we want.

It would seem that it would be the first, but we can become very comfortable in our misery. We have never known wholeness so we fear what it might be like for us. We don't like where we're at, but at least we feel we have some measure of control here. All of our control is lost when we come to Him. Having control can be the most driving force in our life. So, rather than come, we hold back. resist, and go on in our captivity. A captivity that He would break and end if we will have it. So as Havner says, our issues are not settled, and will never be settled until we get them settled with Him. When will our issues be settled with Him?

Where is His invitation to you going unheeded? Where does He ask you to come and reason with Him? Why are you stepping back, instead of forward? What does He call you to settle with Him but you choose to remain unsettled in it? The invitation keeps coming, but each resistance dulls the sound of His voice in it until we can no longer hear it. Can you hear it now?

Nothing is ever settled until it is settled with Him. In this verse from Isaiah, the Father speaks to the nation of Israel who have drifted far from His presence and are suffering the consequences. The longing of His heart is for them to come to Him, to be healed by Him, restored by Him. That is always the primary longing of His heart for us. Where is that longing reaching out to you right now? We all have issues and too many of them are never settled. They can be, if we'll but heed His calling to come, to reason, to settle it all right now. Come!

Blessings,

Pastor O

Divided Hearts

 "God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24....."Jesus would have us not ask which requirements we are to fulfill, but what more of ourselves we can offer Him." Chris Tiegreen

I think, even after conversion, we are natural "bargainers" with God. We enter into negotiation with Him as to how we will relate with and obey Him. A lot of it can be unconscious for sure, but we do it nonetheless. I think a lot of our walk with Him has two underlying questions; How much do we actually have to give Him, and, how much can I disobey Him and get away with it? This comes from a divided heart. A heart that is not fully His and retains a good deal of self-interest.

I think we very often approach God like we do the government. At tax time, we look for every loophole we can in order to pay as little tax as possible. We never want to give too much. For many God is simply a higher form of government. We know He gives to us, but our clouded hearts see Him as a taker first, and a stingy giver last. We think He seeks our money and goods. What He wants is us. All of us. What we miss is that when we give Him all of ourselves, we get all of Him for all of our life needs. Spiritually, emotionally, materially, and physically. We see giving a tithe of our income as an obligation to be paid. We give our 10% and send Him on His way. He calls it an aspect of true worship. He's an extravagant God who gives to us in abundance. He doesn't need our money or goods, but He has chosen to need us. He wants the offering of ourselves, freely given. So few of us ever see or understand this, and it grieves His heart deeply. We often give Him 10% of our income while withholding 90% of ourselves.

I don't think we ever really ask the second question "out loud," but I think the divided heart always has it just beneath the surface. Basically, we want to know just how close to the unbelieving culture of the world can we get and still be right with Him? The self-deception present in that question is clear to everyone but ourselves. We see it as asking what duties must we perform to keep His approval while at the same time indulging our flesh and carrying out our unclean desires. On any given Sunday you'll find many singing hymns and praises in the camp of the Lord who have spent most of the week living in the camp of the world in their thought lives, their relationships, their attitudes, and their personal conduct. Again, this is the way of the divided heart. To what degree, on these two questions, is it also the way of ours?

We can never really worship Him with such a heart. Indeed, such hearts may be the main reason we work so hard at trying to generate enthusiasm in our worship. We may succeed in getting some kind of emotional response, but it isn't worship. It isn't an offering of full hearted devotion to Him. An offering that has no restrictions or limits. It just offers all to Him. And there is only one pathway to such worship, to such devotion. Yielding our divided hearts to Him. Confessing and repenting of all our self-centered religious activity, being emptied of it all, and in return, filled up with all the fullness of His Spirit and Life.

"All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give." The words to an old and loved hymn. It is also what it is to worship Him in spirit and in truth. It's the heart of worship. Is it your heart and mine? Or, do we go on seeking to negotiate our offerings to Him, and measure our degree of obedience? Will we come to Him with all our heart, or a divided one?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Voices

 "They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison. Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time." Jeremiah 37:15-16....."We are coming to a day when the prophet who knows what God is saying may well have to tell it from jail." Vance Havner

Jeremiah was a prophet commissioned by God to preach His words to a generation who would, for the most part, reject, abuse, and mock him. While other professing prophet/preachers were telling the people of Judah that all would be well, that they would enjoy peace, prosperity, and security, Jeremiah was warning of the severe consequences of continued indulgence of sin, apathy towards God, and lifestyles centered upon self-indulgence (all while outwardly "worshiping Him). This angered the people, but even more, it angered those who wanted no part of His message. When the mocking and laughing could not silence him, they threw him in jail.

There was a desperate need for Jeremiah's prophetic voice in his day. There is an even more desperate need for such voices in this day. Sadly, as Leonard Ravenhill said, the American church is "more pathetic than prophetic." One of my prayers has been that God would raise up a generation of prophetic voices that hear from heaven and speak the language of heaven into the culture of the earth, and even more, into the culture of the modern church.

I don't think a voice like Jeremiah's would be any more welcome in the American church of today than it was in his time. People welcome being comforted, encouraged, and promised a continual well-being. They do not welcome warnings and challenges from heaven. Even more, they do not want to hear of the consequences of ignoring them. Such voices are not honored in their lifetime. Jesus told the listening Pharisee's that though they built monuments to the martyred prophets of old, they would have been with the very ones who put them to death had they been present in their day.

I recently read a powerful article by John Burton giving 7 reasons pastors don't address the wickedness of the culture. Fear was a recurring reason, but there was one that really stood out. He said that they fail because they have no real prayer life or prophetic unction. Unction is a little heard word in the modern church, but it means to preach in the anointed power of the Holy Spirit. Such anointing can never be upon those with shallow prayer lives, and more, how can such "preachers" speak of what God is saying when they have no idea as to what He is saying? Too many have listened more to the influential members of the church, or the experts on cultural trends, than they have to the voice of Almighty God. We give in to the fear of men over the fear of God.

Jeremiah spoke a painful truth with deep love for his hearers. We must do the same, but we must be prepared for the consequences. God has never ceased to speak to His church, but we have lacked for those who would receive and faithfully proclaim what they hear. Both in the pulpit and the pew. I have always been moved by the Scripture that speaks of God seeking a man to "stand in the gap" for his nation and people. He did not find many then. Will He find any now? Will you be such a person? Will I?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Time

 "You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don't know how to interpret the present times." Luke 12:56...."There has never been a generation as ignorant of the answer of one little question: 'What time is it?' " Vance Havner

I have been an admirer of a pastor and evangelist named Vance Havner, who many years ago went home to the Lord. He had a way of cutting directly to the root of a problem or situation, and infusing God's truth into the center of it. He, along with men like A.W. Tozer and Leonard Ravenhill, were identifying and coming against thinking, attitudes, and behaviors that they were seeing emerging in the American church. The watering down of the Word of God, the lax attitude towards sin, the adoption by the church of corporate methods over "consecrated men," and the emphasis on buildings, programs, attendance growing, and monies raised, over the presence and operation of the Holy Spirit in all of His fullness. He addressed a generation and though He has been gone nearly 50 years, He addresses ours.

He said, "Civilization today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a room full of dynamite." Could there be a more apt description of what we're seeing not only in the culture of America, but throughout this world today? And I fear that the church, for the most part, is asleep in the midst of it all. How? Why?

Jesus spoke to a generation well versed in the teachings of the Father. They were religious, but they were blind to what God was saying, and most especially what He was saying through His Son Jesus Christ. The Messiah they had been looking for was before them, but they didn't recognize Him. When He spoke and told them who He was, they didn't believe Him. When He warned them of the sure consequences of rejecting Him, they laughed at Him. When He pointed to all that the prophets who'd foretold concerning Him had been realized in Him, they denied Him. When He told them what lay ahead as a result of it all, they couldn't see it. They could discern the weather, but they couldn't discern His reality. They didn't believe the God they said they believed in.

In Luke 19:44, Jesus told the people that their city, Jerusalem, and their beloved Temple would be destroyed because they did not recognize "the time of their visitation." How close are we, the church, to entering into that same place of danger? The Father's warning signs are everywhere and are increasing, yet far too many of us continue on in our pursuit of our own comfort and happiness. We have continued to build our "houses" on foundations of sand, and we don't even notice their eroding.

I have said before, and I say again, this is not a message of despair, but of hope. We are told in His Word to "look up, for our redemption draws near." We will miss what He is saying and doing if all we can see is what is going on with ourselves. We must live looking up, listening up, and not miss what He is saying and doing in these and all days. Someone said that the enemy's greatest lie to those of us living as I describe above is to tell us that "there's still time," which permits us to go on ignoring what He is saying, doing, and warning of right now.

His Word says that "Now is the day of salvation." No one is guaranteed tomorrow. A grieving God told the nation of Israel, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." I believe He speaks this to us right now. Do we hear? Or, do we go on as we have been? After all, there's still time......isn't there?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Saturated

 "Therefore, 'Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.' " 2 Corinthians 6:17....."What would happen if everyone in the church spent the week alone with God and then came together? It would change everything." Francis Chan

Can anyone walk through a sewer and not be covered with the filth that is found there? I know I'll offend some when I compare this world to a sewer, but how far does the average person go in their day to day living without seeing "sewage" pass before their eyes? It happens with the advertising we're bombarded with, the entertainments we watch, and the music we listen to. The world is catering to our various "lusts" in ways never imagined just a generation ago. Even the one committed to purity is challenged to maintain it in today's world. How tragic that many of we who confess Him as our Savior regularly invite many of these things into our homes on a daily basis. Worse, we see no real problem with it.

I once asked a good friend who was a believer how he could watch some of the movies he did when they were filled with coarse language, and sometimes, explicit sexual scenes. He told me that he didn't notice any of that and just concentrated on the story. I'm not a legalist, but as one who once freely used that language and beheld such scenes, I knew how they attached themselves to my mind and made return "appearances" again and again. We deceive ourselves if we think that maintaining a holy mindset can happen when we're saturated with such words and images.

So how does one maintain a holy way of life in the midst of an unholy world? A world that seeks to saturate us with its values, thoughts, and desires? There is only one way. We must be saturated in His Holy Spirit. It has to become our way of life. Too few of us know how to live such a life, and too many don't want to. Even a sewer can become "home" if we spend enough time in it.

Whether we wish it or not, we are going to be confronted every day and all day with that which seeks to take our hearts and minds away from Him. The enemy knows how to appeal to our flesh and has endless ways to make his appeal. In our own strength, we have no way to defeat that. We can only overcome as we walk in His Spirit, saturated in His presence. This means time, real time, spent in His presence. This means living with a conscious awareness of Him at all times. This is an everyday lifestyle, not a once a week visit to a church building.

No matter how hard we seek to entertain and hold the attention of people, they're in so many cases, bored with church. They don't see it as relevant, or they don't believe in the power of the God they say they believe in. With as little time as the average believer spends with Him, how could they? He's not real most of the week, how could He be real at the end of that week? This is why we need to soak in the truth of Chan's words. What would happen if we set ourselves apart for Him? What if we made real time to soak in Him, hearing His heart, listening to His voice? Going ever deeper in our knowledge of Him. As Chan writes, it would change everything. How badly do we want such a change?

Jeff Deyo in his song "Lose Myself," sings, "Saturate my life, fill every part of me with You. Drown me in Your love, let me lose myself in You." We will be saturated in either the ways of the world or His Kingdom. Oh Lord, may we lose ourselves, be saturated in You.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Dispute

 "Come unto Me." Matthew 11:28....."If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words - 'Come unto Me.' In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come....'just as I am.' " Oswald Chambers

Matthew 11:28 is one of the most, if not the most quoted Scriptures. We love the invite from the heart of Jesus. "Come unto Me all you who labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We want to take Him up on that invitation. We want relief, help, strength, rest. Preachers and workers across the church have used that verse to encourage the lost and broken to come to Him. Likewise, much of the professing church has heard this invite at the end of a sermon centered on this text. What gets left out is the full meaning of His invitation. He bids us come not on our terms, but His.

Few were more direct in their presentation of Biblical truth than Oswald Chambers. His words above pierce all of our illusions about what Jesus Christ is actually saying and inviting us to. We want to come for what He gives, we "dispute" with Him over what He demands. He demands all of us, every part of us, in our coming to Him. We're eager for rest and relief, we're beyond reluctant to surrender everything in our hearts and lives to Him in our coming. I believe it was Chambers who said that when Christ bids us come to Him, He bids us to come and die. When we come to Christ we also come to His cross. All that we are, all that we have, all that we want, is nailed to that cross, and it is no longer ours, but His. Our flesh will always fight such a transaction, but Jesus Christ will not relent on it.

We have so much we wish to dispute with Him on. Our desires, our dreams, our attitudes, our anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, our secret sins. The list of items is almost endless, and we feel that to surrender them to Him will kill us, and that's the point. It will kill us, and the result is that we will find in Him true resurrection life.

In three plus decades of pastoring I have listened to countless voices saying how they desperately wanted victory, deliverance, freedom.....abundant life. Yet so few of them would find it. The reason is simple and tragic. In all of it there was in them, some area(s) where they chose to dispute with Him rather than wholly come to Him. And so they went on in their captivity because they would not become captive to Him....and be free. How like them are we?

Where is the "dispute" in your life? Chambers says, "You will never get further until you are willing to do that one thing." To come, with nothing held back from Him, in order that you might receive all that He wishes to pour out upon you. He is before each of us right now, calling us to come to Him. What will we do? Dispute, quibble, or simply surrender....and come?

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Balance

 "When the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what happened they exclaimed, "Elijah's spirit rests upon Elisha!" 2 Kings 2:15...."Mercy triumphs over judgement." James 2:13...." God's mercy is always a higher priority to Him than judgement. God's heart will always draw Him to those who need His grace." Chris Tiegreen

In the Old Testament, two of my favorite prophets are Elijah and Elisha. Both were mighty men of God, and Elijah was the mentor and example for Elisha. Before his departure from this world, Elijah asked Elisha what he would ask of him. Elisha asked for a double portion of the spirit that Elijah walked and ministered in. I've always loved that story and have always hoped that this would be my deepest desire as well; to have a double portion of the spirit that men such as Elijah and Elisha walked in. Yet, I have come across, due to the writings of Chris Tiegreen, insight into these two men, and to the ways of God that I've not truly seen before.

The name "Elijah" means "Yahweh is God." And this was what the message of Elijah pointed to. He spoke to a people captivated by a host of sins, not least of which was idolatry. He warned the people of the consequences of their sin and called them to repentance. Justice and judgement were the center of his preaching. Elisha means "God saves," and this was the central message of his life and ministry. In these two men we see what must be the whole message of the church and its ministers. A pointing to the truth that God Almighty is God alone and that He will tolerate no other gods before Him. That to reject Him brings upon us the most dire of consequences of which none can escape. This was the message of Elijah. In Elisha we see a man preaching to those same people.

As Tiegreen writes, "Elijah declared the sins of a nation. Elisha remedied them." Both men gave witness to the heart of God. He is a God of judgement and His wrath will come upon the finally unrepentant. Elisha, who had twice the spirit of Elijah, showed the deep desire of God to forgive, to heal, to make whole. His mercy will always triumph over His judgement......unless we reject that mercy.

I think our great error in the church, and an eternally costly one, is that we have no balance between the messages of the two prophets. We have a group, smaller I think, that emphasizes His judgement. God is angry, and He is seeking to punish. The other group, much larger I believe, is that God is all mercy, and that He would never allow His wrath to fall upon those who defy, disobey, and reject Him and His ways. The first abuse the reality of His justice and the latter abuse the truth of His mercy and grace. God is a God of balance, and the church must present Him as such. He hates sin and He will and does judge, but His first desire is to forgive. The church must hear and receive this message, and it must be boldly presented. Then the church must take this message to the world. This was seen in the message of His Son, Jesus Christ. It must now be seen in the message of those who profess to follow Him.

I still yearn for that double portion of His Spirit, but a double portion that will proclaim the full message of the gospel. Unconfessed, unrepentant sin will be finally judged. The verdict, hell, will be terrible. But before that verdict is given, His mercy, grace, and forgiveness will be constantly held out before all. It is a frightening and at the same time wonderful message. May we proclaim it with a double portion of His Spirit. May I, may you, walk in that Spirit right now. And if we're not, may we yearn for nothing else until we do.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Passage

"For you have not passed this way before." Joshua 3:4

We are now more than three quarters of the way through this year. It has been a year like no other any of us have ever experienced. Most are longing for a return to some kind of normalcy. I don't think that we're going to see that. Others talk about adjusting to a "new normal," but I don't think there will be a new normal either. I believe that what we have seen in 2020 is going to be repeated in some form or another in each of the years to come until His return. I believe that we're going to see continuous shakings as God moves upon our nation and upon the world. I believe that in the midst of the shakings there will also be a move of the Holy Spirit. I believe that move is taking place even now. The massive prayer gathering in Washington D.C. this past Saturday for both the Franklin Graham prayer march and the Jonathan Kahn "The Return" assembly are mighty evidence of this. I believe that we are part of a generation that will see the might and power of God as we never have before. Maybe as none have ever seen before. We are not to be fearful. We are to be watching, praying, and following His leading. And we must heed the word of the Father in Joshua 3 as He leads us. In that passage, He was taking the Israelites into a new land, a land they had never been in before. Here, thousands of years later, He is leading us into a way, a "country," that we also have never passed through before. As we travel, we must be alert, in tune with His Holy Spirit, and obedient to His leading. He will take His people through, and He will take them through in victory. But the way will not be easy. Giants, mountains, obstacles, will abound. If we will trust as we travel, we will get to the place He leads us to.

I don't believe that half-hearted faith will be sufficient. Indeed, it never has been, but we have been so comfort oriented, and so casual about holiness, sin, and righteous life, that a great part of the professing church has been deceived into thinking that it is. Massive shakings have come. More will follow. In these times, the truth of Daniel 11:32 is more relevant than ever; "The people who know their God will display strength and do exploits." This is a knowledge born of intimacy. A casual approach to His Word, to prayer, to a lifestyle of worship will not yield such a life. That kind of life will fall in the midst of the shakings.

Shakings reveal what is actually in our hearts. All the impurities that we've so cleverly hidden before can not be hidden now. The shakings will bring us to our knees, and into the depths of His life, or they will cause us to step away, to step back from Him. In the shakings that have so far come, what has been our response? What has been your response? In which direction do we walk?

I write none of this with a desire to cast gloom and doom. I write because I sense that the glory of God is going to be revealed in ways we have never known, but it will be revealed through the shaking off of all that has kept us blinded to His glory. All the glitter of this world will be shaken so that we can see the wonder of His glory. We have not passed this way before, but He knows the way. Christ is the Way. Let us follow Him. Humbly, obediently, completely. He will get us home.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Messengers

 "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Isaiah 53:1...."Is your message consistent with who you are as a messenger? With God's people, message and messenger are united." Chris Tiegreen..."We are the Bibles the world is reading." Billy Graham

There's a great deal of difference between information givers and messengers of the heart. I wonder if in the church, we have many more of the former and too few of the latter. Tiegreen writes that "Abraham didn't have a message about faith, he was a man of faith. David didn't just write about worship, he was a worshiper. And Jesus isn't just a message about salvation, He is salvation." It's a hard question,, but it must be asked and answered. Do we embody the truth of the message we seek to give?

People were amazed at the message of truth Jesus brought. It wasn't that the Pharisees hadn't also brought them truth, but they gave it in the form of information. What impacted their hearing and hearts was that when Christ spoke and taught, He did so with authority. "Never did a man speak as this man has spoken" is what was said of Him. He was and is the Word of God come to life. The Living Word. We can be as well and to the fullest extent possible for us. Jesus was what He proclaimed. Are we? If we aren't, then all we do is give information, and information, no matter how true, can never move a heart as can seeing it as a reality in the life of the one who brings the message.

If we speak peace, do we live in it? If we proclaim a message of God's love, do we embody that love? If we preach a message of holiness do we live a life of holiness? If we talk about the security found in Christ, do we live in conscious awareness of that security? Paul said of those that he wrote to that they were 'His letters." He meant that the passionate truth he wrote to them in his messages to the church was meant to be lived out in both the life of the church and the people who comprised it. We too are to be letters from the heart of the Father to not only an unbelieving world, but to the Body of Christ itself. We are the Bibles they read. Are we garbled letters on a page, or finely crafted messages from the heart of the Father?

In this fallen world, and in our imperfect human state, we will never so clearly proclaim His message as did Christ, yet proclaim that message we can. It's to my shame that in too many instances I was too consumed with my own life to really tell His story through mine. Too often I was distracted by what was going on around me or within me. I gave a conflicted message. I talked of how abundant His life was, yet lived a life lacking in that abundance. I spoke of His peace but displayed so little of it in me. I preached on the fiery heat of His love yet lacked His love in my heart. It is my deep desire to be a messenger united with His message. One with it. By His grace, more and more, I will be. What of you? All of us will be a letter of some sort each day. Will we be a letter from His heart, or from the heart of the enemy? Today's letter is already being written. What will yours and mine proclaim?

Blessings,

Pastor O