Unbound

 "Then Jesus shouted, 'Lazurus come out!' And Lazurus came out bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unbind him and let him go.' " John 11:43

This is Easter week as we move steadily closer to another Resurrection Sunday celebration. Those who testify to a living experience of His resurrection life will be gathering throughout the world to celebrate not some past happening alone, but a now experience that is meant for everyone who, by faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection, receives Him and His offer of life.

Not long before His own resurrection, Jesus traveled to the home of His beloved friends, the sisters Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus. Lazarus had fallen desperately ill and the sisters had sent for their Lord, believing He could and would heal their brother. Jesus purposefully delayed, and when He did come, Lazarus had died. More, it was the 4th day since his death, and Jewish belief was that no one could come back to life after three days, yet with Jesus Christ, all things really are possible. As most reading this know, Christ went to the tomb of Lazarus, and confronting death itself, called him back. A glorious happening, bringing joy and life not only to Lazarus, but to the sisters, and all who were present that day. But there is something else in this that we too often miss, and to our great harm. It is what Jesus directed those standing by to do as Lazarus came out of his tomb; He commanded that he be unbound from the graveclothes he'd been wrapped in.

Jewish burial ritual called for the body to be anointed with various oils and perfumes, and then tightly wrapped in strips of cloth. When Jesus called Lazarus forth, he was still bound by these cloths. His freedom of movement would have been severely limited by them. The first thing Christ commanded was that he be unbound and set free. This is what resurrection life is meant to bring, and for too many who have been called forth from their spiritual death by Him, it has yet to take place. Many, too many, still wear their "graveclothes," and though given resurrection life, they still live "bound" by so many of the effects of their previous spiritual death.

When we come to faith in Christ, He says that He makes "all things new," but to our sorrow, we allow so much of what is old to continue to define and confine us. Our past, our wounds, our fears and anxieties. Our addictions and habits, and our attitudes and anger. All of these act as graveclothes that seek to keep us in a deathlike state. We are bound up in graveclothes, but we need to know and experience that these graveclothes can't hold us, much as our enemy the devil wants us to believe that they can. Graveclothes could not hold the risen Christ, and in Him, neither can they hold us. As He ordered Lazarus to be unbound, so does He order this for us. Has His order been carried out in your life, or, do you still try to function while wearing your old graveclothes? Are you still bound by what has been done, said, about and to you. Have you believed the lies of the tomb or the truth of the risen Christ?

When we take Christ at His word, that all things really are new, that when we are free in Him we are truly free, these graveclothes simply fall off of us. This is a life process, as we confront the "strips of cloth" that seek to keep us bound. We confront the lies they represent with the Truth that is Jesus Christ. Sometimes we need help with this, as did Lazarus when Jesus ordered those beside him to unwrap him from his graveclothes. This is just one more example of the need for us to experience "body life," Life in the Body of Christ, His church. As His word says, we're to "sharpen" one another, helping each other, in the power of His resurrection, to grow more and more in the power of His risen life. He has given us victory over death and it's graveclothes, and very often that victory is carried out by His ministry through His Body of believers.

What graveclothes still bind us? If you have never received Him as your Savior, you are wrapped in those clothes whether you would believe it or not. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He alone breaks their power. He calls you, as He called Lazarus to come forth from your tomb of death and to His resurrection life. If you have heard and come to that call, what particular graveclothes may still bind and hold you? Be free of them. Reject their claim upon you. He commands that you be unbound and set free....fully free. By the power of His resurrection, they no longer have the power to hold you. Come forth, Be free. Into the resurrection life that He calls to you right now.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Feast

 "Jesus replied with this illustration: 'A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When all was ready, he sent his servant around to notify the guests that it was time for them to come. But they all began making excuses." Luke 14:16-18

Who would turn down an invitation to a feast? A feast is not just any kind of meal. It's a table set with the finest of food and drink. Yet in this parable told by Jesus, all those who'd been invited had done exactly that. A sumptuous feast was being prepared for them, but they all found reasons to avoid coming. It made no sense. It still makes no sense, particularly when the feast being offered is the riches of the Kingdom, and the One doing the inviting is the Father Himself.

I remember a specific happening in my own life, when I turned down His invitation. It was 1974, and I was walking through a very dark and painful time. I was in college, living in the small town that hosted that college. One day I was walking, wrestling with my pain, when I happened to pass by the small building where the "Jesus Freaks," gathered. They were a small but vibrant campus community, several of whom I'd met. I was impressed by their zest for life and for Christ. As I passed by, I paused, and saw that the door to their gathering was open. As I was looking in, one of them smiled and called out to me to come and join them. I remember being frozen to that spot for what was only a few seconds, but felt so much longer. Finally, I shook my head and continued on in my walk. I continued on in my pain, my darkness, my hopelessness. I continued on in what would be five more years of that darkness, until finally, another invitation was given, and this time I accepted. Ever since, I have been both grateful for His invitation, and at the same time, deeply regretful that I spent those long years in a spiritual wilderness by rejecting His previous one. I had so many excuses to do so the first time, but all of them were empty. They had cost me, and though He has given me so much, I have never lost sight of what could have been had I attended the "feast" He first invited me to on that long ago summer day.

What keeps you from His feast? Ruth Graham, the daughter of Billy Graham said that the church is filled with people who don't know God. How can this be? If that church is proclaiming His Word, His promises, and His offer of abundant life, then a feast is being laid before them regularly, and regularly, they are turning down His invitation to partake of it. Why do we prefer the junk food and soda pop of this world to the Bread and Water of His Life? Yet we do, and all our excuses for doing so sound right to us, but if they go on, those excuses will mock us throughout eternity.

The Bible is clear that all will come to stand before Him for judgement. One group, the largest will be composed of those who have rejected Him. That rejection will be judged, and the consequences of that rejection will be terrible, final, and eternal. I plead with you, if you are a part of that group right now, turn back from it. Receive His invitation to eternal life. A life that begins right now....The second group will be composed of those who did accept that initial invitation to His Life, but will then be judged as to just how much of that life they entered into, and what they did with the life they'd been given. I think one of the things we in this second group will experience is being shown all that He had prepared for us, but that we, for one reason, one excuse or another, had never fully entered into. All of the abundance that we could have lived in, but didn't, because we excused ourselves from doing so.

Whichever group you find yourself in, and in your heart, you know which it is, He extends the invitation anew. Come to Him, and to the spiritual feast of life He has prepared for you, for us, in Jesus Christ. All your reasons for not doing so fall before the one great reason that you should, that He gave Himself up for you, in love, that you might have life, and have it abundantly. Don't spend another day in darkness, or another day surviving on junk food. Come to His table. Partake of His bounty. Partake of Him. It is time for you to come, and feast!

Blessings,

Pastor O

Disturbance

 "There arose a great disturbance about the way." Acts 19:23....."Society rarely gets nervous about the power of our lifestyle. Why? Maybe it's because we don't often live with power or we desperately want to fit into our culture...There are not many disturbances about the Way in our cities." Chris Tiegreen

Here's a clear truth: If we're going to live in the power and witness of the lifestyle Christ saved us for and calls us to, our lives will cause a "disturbance" in the places where we live. This truth is distinctly uncomfortable for many professing believers. We want to be peacekeepers, but it's a peace that comes from compromise, not from the presence of Christ. We don't want to offend, and we don't want to drive anyone off. Our witness and words should never be of the sort that makes personal attacks, or resorts to any kind of violent demonstration. However, we need to realize that if we're going to live in the fullness of His Life, and proclaim and live all of what is involved in that Life, we are going to disturb many. We're going to disturb most. We're going to do so because what we represent is going to be in direct contrast and opposition to the ways and values of the world. Nowhere was this more evident than in the city of Ephesus.

Ephesus was not only a great center of idol worship, particularly of the goddess Artemis, but also of the industry of the crafting of the idols to be worshiped. Great profit was made by the production of these idols by the silver and goldsmiths of the city. Paul, and others had been very active in proclaiming the Gospel and hundreds, even thousands were being converted. They were turning away from their idols and to the Living God. They were proclaiming and living out a New Way. His Way. This hit the makers of idols economically, and their response was violent. Riots broke out.

We don't have any record of all of Paul's sermons here, but the witness of his writing would be that he didn't directly attack the craftsmen or those who worshipped these idols. Neither did he direct the brunt of His message to the hedonistic lifestyle of the majority of the city's residents. He simply proclaimed Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That no one comes unto God but through Him. He also preached a message of holiness, of a coming out of the dirt and captivity of the world, the devil who worked through it, and into the fullness of the Kingdom of God. It was a radical message proclaimed by those who lived radically holy lives. It turned the world upside down. It turned Ephesus upside down. It still will. It still does. Do we proclaim and give witness to such a message? More, do we actually live out the message? Do you? Do I?

Tiegreen writes, "God frequently puts His people in the middle of a storm in order to show the world who we are and who He is." We are seeing God do exactly that right now . What is the world seeing in us? Who will they see that our God is? Great and Mighty? Greater and mightier than all the power of the enemy and the world system he operates through? Will they see a church and people living in the power of a resurrected life? Or will they see a timid church and people afraid to offend, desperate to keep a peace that is no peace at all? All around us are people dying in their sin. Will we dare to live such lives as to disturb their steady journey to destruction, or remain quiet, and then have to account to the Father as to why we did?

For some time now, the western church has preached and lived a costless, crossless faith. That time is ending, and that message has no power. It never did, and it was never a message from His heart. Someone said that as the world around us grows darker, it needs to see a people, a church, grow brighter with His Light and Life. His Light and Life will collide with a world locked in darkness and death. We cannot fear the collision, and we must know that there will be a cost to us in it. In the wonderful "Lord Of The Rings," trilogy, Frodo tells his uncle Bilbo that he has been labeled a "Disturber of the peace." Such a label will be put on His people in these last days as we live lives that expose the false peace of the world and the death it brings by inches. He disturbs the Deceiver and those he holds prisoner in the dark. So must we.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Turn North!

 "You have circled this mountain long enough. Turn North!" Deuteronomy 2:3

The Israelites had come to Mt. Seir in the wilderness. For some reason, they spent days circling about that mountain. Finally, the Lord spoke a clear and direct command; Turn north! He had no more patience for their walk of futility. Could it be that He no longer has any for ours?

One of the frustrating aspects of ministry is trying to work with those who continually live out cycles of sin, addiction, defeat, harmful attitudes, and toxic relationships. It can be doubly so when I realize that there is some such cycle in my own life where I too, "circle the mountain." Some part of my thinking, or past wound, or even failure, that I cannot yield up to Him, or that I'm simply to blind (or stubborn) to admit to, or surrender to Him. All the while He has looked upon my circling, and yours, seeing the harm we do ourselves, with ever growing frustration. And dare I say, some anger? Then comes His voice, oftentimes sharp, that cuts through our denial, or our rationalization, and even our rebellion, and simply says, "Enough! Cease the circling cycle. Strike out in a new direction. North was the direction He had for the Israelites. What direction might He have for us?

I think in Saul the king and Samuel the prophet we see two examples of this, and two different responses to His voice and command. God had chosen Saul as king, but due to pride, presumption, and at root, disobedience, Saul fell into a pattern of behavior that took further away from his God, and deeper into sin and destruction. He neither would listen to or heed his God's rebuke, and eventually, it led him to his destruction. Samuel circled in a different kind of cycle. Samuel had anointed Saul as king. He also loved him as a son. When the Father took His blessing from Saul, along with his anointing as king, Samuel grieved it...deeply. His grief was crippling him, greatly hindering his ministry and his effectiveness in that ministry. He was not available to his Lord. For him too came the rebuke, seemingly harsh at the time, that he had mourned what had happened long enough. He must go now and anoint the new, chosen king, described as a man after the heart of God; David. God was not rebuking Samuel's grief, but He was in no uncertain terms telling him that he could not allow his grief to control and hinder his life, ministry, and witness. Is there anywhere where He might be speaking to you as He did, or as He did Samuel, or perhaps somewhere in between the two? Have we heard His "long enough," and His command for a new direction? More, will we obey Him? Saul didn't. Samuel did? Whose heart do we more resemble?

It's easy to fall into the walk, the journey, that goes nowhere. What happens as we continue to circle the mountain is that we eventually dig deep ruts. These ruts can be so hard to get out of. Have you fallen into one now? If so, take heart. He calls to you, perhaps sharply, or maybe softly, but He calls. "It's been long enough. Cease the journey that goes nowhere. Turn to My new direction for you....and be free."

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Sleeping Church

 "Then He returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, 'Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.' " Matthew 26:40-41

Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what awaited Him; the cross and death. He knew the terrible price He was to pay in order to bring salvation to a lost race. In a ministry of great tests, this would be His greatest. He invited His three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, to join Him in prayer, for strength to face what lay just ahead. Christ prayed, and the three disciples slept.

We tend to be hard on the disciples, but how like them are we? Jesus had been telling them what was coming, and His words had to have had an emotional and physical effect. Likely, when He took them with Him to pray, they were preoccupied with what all of it meant. They were worn out emotionally and physically with what all of it meant. So much so that they were unable to "watch and pray" with Him. Here's a question for you and me; What so preoccupies us that we are unable to watch and pray ourselves? What is wearing us down, and wearing us out to the point we cannot live out this desperately needed ministry? Jesus told them to keep alert, to watch, and to pray. He asks the same of us, His church. They slept, and for the most part, so do we? It cost the disciples. All of them fled when Jesus was arrested. In some manner, they all denied Him, most especially Peter, who did so three times. As we imitate them, what will be the cost to us?

In my prayer journal I have written down, "Lord, teach me what it is to watch and pray." I wrote that down many years ago, but I know I'm still far from learning what He would have me to know and live out. I cannot, we cannot, remain unknowing of this ministry. The church in America is entering into a time never before known to it. What is happening around us is going to affect us on every level of life; our ministries, our relationships, our livelihoods, our marriages, and our families. We cannot be sleeping. We must be awakened. We must be watching with the eyes of the Spirit, and praying in the power of the Spirit. If we will not, we, like the disciples, will be scattered, tempted to deny Him, and worst of all, in too many cases, outright denying Him. Our defense, which is really an offense, is to be alert, to be watching with His eyes and heart of discernment, and to be living and moving on our knees in prayer. Then, whatever comes, we will be equipped to not only face it, but to overcome it. All of it.

Where do you need to be awakened? Where does the fellowship you're a part of need an awakening? I once heard someone describe sleep as a small example of death. I think they meant it was so because we're unconscious during it, and for the most part, powerless and lifeless. In the spiritual sense, a sleeping church is definitely very close to being a dead one. I have no desire to be part of such a Body, and no desire to be such a person. How about you? Christ calls His church to come awake, to be alive, to be watching and praying. Christ asked His disciples if, when He returned, would He find faith on the earth? In what condition will He find us? Watching and praying or....sleeping.....and near death?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Passing By

 "As they approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. When he heard the noise of the crowd going past, he asked what was happening. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by." Luke 18:35-37

The story of Jesus and the blind beggar is one of my favorites. After people in the crowd told him who it was that was passing by, He began to cry out for Jesus to come to him. Those around him tried to silence his cries, but he persisted even more loudly. Jesus heard him, came to him, and asked what it was that He could do for him. The beggar said simply, "Lord, I want to see." Jesus touched his eyes and his sight was restored to him.

There is much to explore in this passage; the persistence of crying out to Him in prayer, of being specific in what we would ask of Him, and of course, His miraculous response to a deep, seemingly impossible need. That is not what I see first though. What I see, for the blind man, and for you and me, is that in some way, Jesus passes by in our lives in endless ways, and He does so daily. Do we notice Him, and if we do, do we cry out with the persistence of the blind beggar? Are we determined that we will not miss this opportunity that He brings us with His presence? Or, by our "blindness" caused by only seeing everything but Him, do we miss Him as He goes by? And what is it we have missed as He does?

I believe that the average professing believer has become spiritually dull. Our spiritual sight and discernment is clouded. We can see all the things of the natural well enough, so well that they are all we can see. As a result not only is our sight and discernment diminished, so is our faith. Jesus, in a myriad of ways, presents us opportunities to see, to behold Him, to grow in our faith and walk. How many do we miss? How many did we miss today? Where did He "pass by" in the form of another person, especially in the form of a person we may well have been repelled by? Where did He pass by in the form of a desperate need that was right before us, but we didn't notice because we were so focused on ourselves? Where did He pass by in the form of an impossibility, but that He desired to work the miraculous in? Where did He pass by in the form of a person, one that we saw as an annoying interruption in our day, instead of a divine appointment arranged by Him? In these ways, and infinitely more, He passes by us every day. He means to work His wonders in us, to us, and through us in every passing. How many have we ever noticed? Can we even begin to think of all that we have missed because we never saw or sensed Him going by?

Jesus actively ministered for three years before His crucifixion. The number of people that He walked by during this time had to be in the thousands. How many noticed Him, and more, how many called out to Him? The blind beggar lacked physical sight, but when he was told that it was Jesus passing by, his heart "saw" who He was, and he would not miss his opportunity. I believe Jesus was fully aware of the blind beggar's presence, but He would have gone on had the man not shouted out to Him. When He appeared to His two disciples on the Emmaus Road right after His resurrection, Scripture says that He would have gone on when they reached their destination. They pleaded with Him to stay. He will constantly pass by us in all of our need and circumstance, but He will not forcibly intrude upon us in them. He waits for our call. Today, in our need, your need, as He passes by, will we call out to Him, and invite Him into all of it? Or, will He go on, unnoticed?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Burning Hearts

 "And they said to one another, 'Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened the Scriptures?' " Luke 24:32

The western church is in severe need of heartburn. I'm not speaking of the physical kind with very real physical discomfort, but I am speaking of the spiritual burning that can, and likely will, cause discomfort to our settled lives. We need to have burning hearts not only for Him, but His Word, His Truth, and the Way that He calls us to. The discomfort of that will come because we will find it impossible to live in the kind of settled, comfortable lives to which we've become so attached. Burning hearts respond wholeheartedly to not only the Word, but to the One who speaks it. Are we, you and I, in possession of such hearts? We can't be unless He is in possession, full possession, of our hearts.

Here's a question for each of us to ponder? When was the last time you read or heard His word, and your response was a burning heart? One translation puts it as hearts that felt "strangely warm." Is that experience even an occasional happening for us? The harsh truth is that too many of us approach the reading and meditation of His word as a duty to be carried out, and not an experience with Him to be caught up in. As for the proclaiming of His word through the venue of preaching, too many of us almost, if not literally, stumble into our corporate "worship" so preoccupied with other things and matters, that we're already dulled and desensitized to that word. It barely registers. Small wonder that we're bored with the average worship service, and so church leaders have to come up with different ways to try and hold our interest. The burning heart has no need of such. Does your heart?

Charles Spurgeon said that if you need to have a carnival to draw people to church, then each week you're going to have to find a bigger and better carnival in order to keep them there. A.W. Tozer said that entertainment is the devil's substitute for worship. A burning heart has no need of carnivals and entertainment. It wants no part of these in worship. The burning heart burns for His Presence, His Voice, His Life, His Power. Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else can satisfy.

The Scripture from Luke 24 takes place after the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to two discouraged disciples on the Emmaus Road. They believed the Lord they'd loved and followed had been lost to them. Yet when Jesus began to speak, their hearts responded at once. They thought they'd been walking in darkness, but their hearts immediately responded to His Light when He appeared. Can our hearts do the same? Or, have they become so dulled, so hardened, that only "carnivals" can make any impression?

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Ablaze

 "John answered them all, saying, 'I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.' " Luke 3:16...."Men ablaze are invincible. Hell trembles when men kindle."

The need of the moment, the hour, and the day are men and women ablaze with the power and life of the Holy Spirit. Most know well the beautiful words of John 3:16, but somehow, the western church has drifted far from the power of John the Baptist's words and prophecy found in Luke 3:16. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sin and the terrible consequences of them, but He also came to set us on fire. On fire with the purity, power, and witness of His Holy Spirit. That aspect of His purpose has been, if not lost, then certainly muted in the American church.

Leonard Ravenhill said that "you never need to advertise a fire." The American church has been in decline for some time now. Our response has been to form think groups, write books, read books, and go to conferences to discuss and hear how we can reverse this trend. We talk about how we can be more responsive to the culture, more welcoming to the lost. We've been doing that for some time now, and we've seen little evidence that this strategy is succeeding, at least as far as making true, spirit filled disciples of Christ. All of our ideas together are as nothing in comparison to the free burning flame of the Holy Spirit. Does His Spirit burn in us, our fellowships, His Church? Are we desperate that He should?

The great Welsh revival of more than a century ago began with two saintly women of God, dedicated to crying out to Him for the sending of His Holy Spirit upon His church. They would not be denied, and in His timing, the fire fell, and all of Wales was impacted. Hardened coal miners were converted. Donkeys, used to haul the coal wagons, had to be retrained because the only language they had known was angry cursing. Churches were built everywhere, so great were the numbers being saved. The move of God had no need of promotion. His Holy Spirit fire was all that was needed. We talk much of revival, but few of us have the heart to seek it with the fervency of those two saintly women. It's easier to have a meeting and share ideas.

In my particular segment of the Body, we have an old hymn with the lyric, "I never will forget how the fire fell..." Too few can sing that in truth, for the fire has never really fallen upon them. The need for His fire is beyond desperate. There is a growing movement in our surrounding culture to silence the church, to not permit it to proclaim biblical truth that clashes with its values and ideas. The church, doing "business as usual," will not be able to stand against it. We must have men and women of the sort Samuel Chadwick speaks of; men and women ablaze with the Holy Spirit, and made invincible by Him. Hell, and the world it operates through will tremble before such a people and church.

Many have remarked upon the decreasing emphasis upon water baptism in the church. This is a cause for alarm and correction, but even more so is the decrease in the preaching of the need for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, where all that we are is consumed by all that He is. It is a definite work of grace, but it's message has been fading from the church for some time now. Our God is a consuming fire. May He consume us, His church, you and me. Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century preacher, when asked why throngs of people came to hear him preach God's word said, "God sets me on fire, and people come to watch me burn." To watch, to be consumed with that fire. May He raise up such men and women, such fellowships throughout the land and earth. So ablaze with His holy fire as to set a culture afire. As Ravenhill said, you never need to advertise a fire.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Message

"Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham. And yet some of you are trying to kill me because My message does not find a place in your hearts." John 8:37

In one of my prayer journals, I've written in response to the above Scripture, "Father, may Your messages never cease to find their place in my heart." That needs to be my prayer, and I expect yours as well, because His messages so often don't find a place in our heart.

Jesus brought a message of life to the Jewish people. He was the Messiah they had been looking for and expecting, but the majority of them, especially their religious leaders, missed Him completely. They didn't like His message. They didn't like the way He brought His message, and they especially didn't like what the reception of His message would mean; total inward transformation. They had attitudes and expectations that Jesus and His message didn't meet. They wanted a Messiah, a King, who would drive off the Romans, and raise Israel to power and authority over the Gentile nations. They were looking for a world style kingdom, but Christ offered and invited them to the Kingdom of God. His message so disappointed and angered them that some thought Him too dangerous to allow to live, and so they sought His death. His message didn't find its way into their hearts. Has it fully found its way into ours?

We call the Gospel of Christ "The Good News," and if you count yourself among those who affirm that they have received the good news of Jesus Christ and His offer of new life, you'd likely say that His message has found its way into your heart. Perhaps it has in part, but has it done so in the whole? Can we dare to admit that His good news is not good news to our flesh, to our self-centeredness and pride, and to our determination to be in control of our lives. It is not good news to the sinful desires we want to cling to, or the toxic attitudes and habits we want to indulge. Like the Jews, we want a Savior, but we don't want one that means to totally transform us from the inside out. We'd like a Savior that will leave us mostly untouched....from the inside out.

I don't remember who said it, but it too is written down in my prayer journal. "Stop asking God to save you. He wants to kill you." That sounds harsh at first, until we realize that is exactly what He does wish to do, and exactly what our fallen flesh doesn't want. The whole message of the Gospel is that it wishes to "kill" all that is killing us. Sin, and all its effects in our lives. We professing believers can show a remarkable ability to "make a decision for Christ," and yet allow the ongoing and growing presence of sinful behaviors in our lives. We get comfortable with them, even cling to them. Jesus Christ means to bring them, and us, to the cross, and crucify both. That isn't good news to our fallen flesh, but it is life to those that will receive it.

We may not live in the place of all that I speak of above, but can we dare to allow Him to search us for where we haven't received His "message" into our hearts? How many times over the course of just the last week have we been convicted, convinced, of a spiritual need, of something He wished to change, cleanse, or heal in our lives? Whether He did so through reading His Word, hearing a biblical message, or even a song, we felt the gentle but sure sting of His Spirit telling us this thing had to go. When that happened, did His "message" find a place in our hearts, or did we find a way to "kill it" by ignoring it, or saying we'd address it later, or just convince ourselves it really isn't that big an issue? Where, in the day to day matters of our lives, is His message not finding a place in our heart?

He is always speaking to us. What are we hearing and receiving? What do we take into our hearts, and to what are we closing the door on? Do we really desire His whole message, even when we feel the sting of His rebuke? Does His message find its way into your heart, or do you find a way to avoid His message?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

He Reigns

 "Jesus fully realized what was going to happen to Him. Stepping forward to meet them, He asked, 'Whom are you looking for?'

'Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied. And as He said, 'I am He,' they all fell backward to the ground. Once more He asked them, "Whom are you searching for?' And again they replied, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' 'I told you that I am He,' Jesus said, 'and since I am the One you want, let these others go.' He did this to fulfill His own statement, 'I have not lost a single one of those You gave Me.'

John 18:4-9

We are born with a desire to control, and we don't want to be in any situations where we aren't in control. Such situations terrify us, but it isn't too long in life before we discover that we're in control of very little that goes on around us, or even as concerns us. This has always been a reality, but I think it's a reality that is hitting home now more than ever before. The pandemic, and how it has affected our lives socially, economically, and spiritually, has brought us into a time few, if any of us have experienced before. Many of us are living with the sense that everything is out of control, and we have no power to change any of it. The effects; fear, depression, anger, helplessness, are being seen throughout our societies. In the midst of this, there is a truth we need to know, that we must know. All that is happening, all that has happened, and all that could ever happen, is not out of the control of the Father through Jesus Christ. Scripture states that in Christ, "All things hold together," that in Him, "We live, move, and have our being." In the midst of what can very often seem to be chaos, stands, lives, the very real presence of Christ.

The above Scripture takes place upon Christ's arrest by the Jewish religious leaders. He's confronted by His betrayer, Judas, and the more than 100 Temple officials and soldiers. Yet from the very first moment, we see that it is Jesus, not they, who are in control of the situation. Before they reach Him, He steps out to meet them. Their intent was His and His disciples harm. Yet at a word from Him, all of them fell back, and upon the ground. The religious and political authorities of the world had come for Him, but they, as all secondary authority must, had to bow before Him. I believe that their intent was to arrest His followers along with Him, but again, Jesus was in command of the situation. He didn't ask them to let them go. He demanded they do so. He submitted to the arrest because He knew it was in His Father's purpose that He would. He could never have been taken had this not been the case. From this we need to know that only what God permits can ever touch or affect His people, and if He permits, it's because He has a greater purpose in mind. One that will be seen, in His timing, to be so. Christ submitted to the agony of the cross in order to bring forth the glory of His resurrection. He brought life out of death, and not just for Himself, but for all who believe upon Him in truth.

Chaos, and out of control circumstances may well be your experience, at least to some degree today. For the people of faith, we need to believe not what we see, but what He has said, and says now. The circumstances, the difficulties, the dangers, and all the fear and pain that go with them, are not the controlling factor. He is. He is Lord....over all of them. He is Lord over what is happening in your life, family, ministry, church, and nation. At His Name, every knee must bow. The Jewish council thought they destroyed Him on the cross. Satan was sure he'd defeated Him on the cross, and sealed Him in His tomb. Then came the resurrection. We, you and I, must hold on to that. In what seems like our worst time, He will show forth as our great Lord. Looking down or around will rob us of hope and joy, but when we look up, we see Him, His glory. We will know once more, that our God reigns.

Blessings,

Pastor O

First Step

"Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.' Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.' " Mark 9 :23-24....."Helplessness, not holiness is the first step towards intimacy with God." Timothy Keller

A father has come to Jesus in helpless desperation. His son, possessed by an evil spirit, had been suffering since he was a toddler at the hands of this spirit, falling into both fires and water. He pleaded with Jesus to "help him, if you can." Jesus answers with the the exhortation, that anything is possible to the one who believes. The father responds as so many, if not all of us would. He tells Jesus that He does believe Him, but to please minister to that part of himself that wavers, that lacks trust, and yes, that doubts in the ability of God to do the impossible.

This is where the quote from Timothy Keller should pierce each of our hearts. Jesus understands our helplessness, our desperation, and our devastation in the face of crushing impossibilities. As His Word says, He knows that "we're but dust." Because of this, He doesn't require that we come to Him in full and cool confidence in all things. He doesn't require that we get ourselves in the best possible shape, spiritually and emotionally, before we come before Him. He simply asks that we come to Him as we are. In our weakness, our helplessness, our desperation, and yes in and with our doubts. He asks that we come with all of these, empty of hope and trust in ourselves. This is how the father came to Jesus. Likely he had been seeking help for his son for years, including with the Jewish religious leaders. No one could help. He had heard of the ministry of Christ, of His working of miracles, and of His claim to the Messiah. He was in that place where, against all hope, he would believe...as much as he could in the weakness he was experiencing. He believed, yet he also doubted. How many times have we been in that same place? How many times have we come before Him, clinging to our hope in Him, yet overwhelmed with our fear, and with the whisper of the devil in our minds, that this Jesus could not, would not help us. Jesus knew that all of this was in the heart of the father, but He didn't turn Him away. Neither will He turn away you and me.

Our lives can be in such a mess, whether of our own or another's making. We can feel as if our trust in Him hangs by a thread. Still, He bids us come. He doesn't tell us to first clean up, straighten up, and pump up our faith. He just invites us to come, with all the mess, with all our doubts, and with our thread of faith, to Him. Not to just what He can do, but to Him. To who He is. To know that this Jesus we struggle sometimes, oftentimes to believe, calls us to enter into an intimacy with Him that will put to flight our fears, doubts, and unbelief.

Where in your life are you standing with that father? Where do your doubts, fears, and unbelief reside in your heart and mind? I don't guarantee that what you wish for Him to do will be done for you. I do tell you that when you come with all of yourself, nothing held back, you will receive all of Him that you are able to receive. It is not your supposed strength that draws Him to you, but your helplessness. As Keller says, it is the first step to intimacy. Have you taken it? Will you take it now?

Blessings,

Pastor O