Over The Edge

 I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5......"Christ risen means an open heaven where everything is possible for us in Christ." T. Austin-Sparks

John 15:5 may be the most "unfamiliar familiar" verse in the Bible. We give mental acknowledgement to it, but our life witness is too often to the contrary. We say that we know we can do nothing apart from Him, but my experience, both personally and in observation, is that in so much of what we undertake for Him, lurking behind it all is the sense that "we can do this! I can do this!" We're living, as one friend put it, in the realm of "possibility thinking." We're attempting what we think is possible, what we believe we can do. Yes, we'll need His help, but in the end, we see, can weigh the pros and cons of everything, and see how it can be done. I believe He wishes to take us much further than this. I believe He wants to take us into the realm of living in the sense of "nothing is impossible with Him." This is the realm where we step out into places where our very survival, let alone success is completely dependent upon Him, that without Him, we're doomed. This is terrifying ground, but it is ground He calls us to. Too few of us wish to go there.

A man named T. Austin-Sparks, an Englishman who ministered into the mid-20th century, said this; "Are we willing to do what can only be done in the power of His life? That unless He "shows up," it is impossible to accomplish?" This was the norm in the first century church, indeed, the norm for all who have been greatly used by Him. The disciples, as well as Paul, were all sent by Him into impossible, even hopeless situations. Situations that were beyond the natural ability of all of them. They didn't shrink back. They didn't because they had no confidence in themselves, but total confidence in their Lord. They knew that if He was leading, then what was against them didn't matter. The impossibilities didn't matter. They knew nothing was impossible with Him, and so, nothing would be impossible for them as they lived in, abided in Him. Someone said that those who are fully alive in Him look completely out of their minds to the unbelieving, including the unbelieving in His church. I think the world, as well as the church, is in desperate need for just such men and women in the days in which we're living.

When I think of an example of this, I think of a man named David Wilkerson, who pastored a small church in a town called Turtle Creek, very near where I grew up. He came to feel a call upon his heart to go to the city of New York and establish a street ministry there. He had no resources for this but the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Neither did he have anything in his background to suggest he could do it. All he had was a call into the impossible, and a Lord with whom He knew there was nothing impossible. He left a small industrial town that bore no resemblance to NYC, and went there. He should never have been heard of again, but God used Him. The effects of his beginning a one man ministry are seemingly infinite. Not just in the establishment of the Times Square Church and all its far reaching ministry, but in the thousands upon thousands of lives transformed through that church and his ministry. God took a simple man, one who knew he couldn't do what His Father called him to do, and worked mightily through him. Wilkerson knew he couldn't, but he knew that if his God was calling him to the impossible, his God would also do the impossible. This is the kind of faith and walk that a dying world is crying out for. A faith that He dares us to test. Can we? Can you, and can I?

I've heard many talk of being involved in "edgy" ministries, those that go to the edge of where the church has been ministering. I think Christ calls us to something much greater. If we're on the edge, we're still on familiar ground. I think He calls us to step over the edge, where the only ground is Christ Himself. That's the realm of "nothing is impossible." Do we have the courage to go there, or, do we continue to measure our lives and service in terms of what we think is possible, which contains a strong element of security, or step out into the place where our only security is Him?

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Fruit

 "But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such, there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

In my last writing, I pointed to all that the Father seeks to do in cleansing us from everything that keeps us from living in the fullness of His life. I know that the sum of them is daunting for us to consider, as well as painful to walk through. I'm reminded of a lovely song from the Jesus movement days from a group named Dogwood. A lyric in one of their songs spoke of the result of His searching love exposing and cleansing sin in our lives. It goes, "It's a bitter persuasion, but the end is so sweet." So it is, and just as the previous devotion contained a prayer for His searching, so does it also have this prayer for the fulfillment of His desire for us when all those blockages have been cleansed. The end is so sweet. So I pray that I might.....

Know and Believe Him.....Not know about Him, or have mental information on Him, but to truly know HIm as He is, as He's revealed Himself to be. Knowledge and belief that anchors my heart and soul in Him. Knowledge and belief that stems from my choice to believe that He is who He says He is, and that He'll do what He says He'll do. That He loves me, works on my behalf in all things, and that He really will bring ultimate good out of all my circumstances, and I can and will trust Him. To really know and believe Him is to yield true peace and joy in my heart.....and yours.

Glorify Him....That what I speak, how I live, the fruit of my life would point to Him. To His goodness, His power, His faithfulness. That those looking upon my life know that the miracles He has done for me did not come about because of who I am, but who He is. That the witness of my life doesn't bring attention to me, but points to Him in every aspect of His being; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Find True Satisfaction in Him.....Before I knew Him, my life was one of frustration, discontent, and a seeking to escape the realities of my life. Dissatisfaction, discontent, and frustration with our lives as they are, may be the most severe affliction most of us experience. So often, wealth, success, recognition, cannot remove the sense of meaningless so many live in. Jesus Christ saves us from meaningless and gives our lives the purpose we were created to have. I can remember seeing so many bumper stickers back in the day that read, "Jesus Satisfies." I had no idea of the extent of that truth until I came to know Him myself. Scripture says we can gain the whole world, but it profits nothing, satisfies nothing, if we do not have Him. He really does satisfy.

Experience His Peace.....The world speaks so much of peace, but what it seeks is outward peace, freedom from outward conflict, and even that peace is tenuous at best. Jesus Christ invites us into His peace, a peace that is true. It is of such depth that the turmoil around us cannot affect the rest within us. Our spirit is at peace. Our heart is at peace. It stems from the peace we have with Him. It comes from our abiding at all times in Him. He is our refuge, our hiding place, our strength, and our assurance. Because of it we can live steadfastly in Him. The chaos of the world cannot touch that rest.

Enjoy His Presence.....So few of us seem to know what it is to actually enjoy our walk with Him. We see it as a duty, an obligation, or a book of rules to be followed. We do not know or experience Him in an intimate way. He seems a God far off, and not One who is near. We can serve Him, pray to Him, talk of Him, but we don't enjoy Him or know what truly living in Him is. He calls us to live an adventure with Him, knowing the fullness of His joy. Too many believers live a joyless life, and it shows to a watching world. I deeply desire to live in His Presence, enjoying every minute. I can. We can. Do we?

These are the fruits to be experienced when we are clean before Him. Are they being realized in our lives? Are they being realized in yours? If not, can we confess it to Him, and allow Him to bring us to the reason for it, and the solution to it...found only in Him? First we invite Him to search us, then we must invite Him to fill us.....to overflowing. He will, if we will.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Search

 23Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23-24 isn't a popular or much used prayer, and when it is prayed, it too often is not at all sincere. Most of us are not anxious to be "searched" by the Holy Spirit. We prefer to hide. That's our flesh's first reaction to a holy God. In the garden, the first thing Adam and Eve sought to do after their sin was to to hide from Him. They couldn't. Neither can we. Not me, and not you. But we can do a wonderful job of thinking we can.

Few of us, especially we who profess to know Him, ever want to think that the word "wicked" could ever be attached to us. That's a term we reserve for the Hitler's, the Stalin's, the murderer's, rapists, and sex and drug traffickers of this world. Yet God defines as wicked any attitude or behavior that goes against His will and purpose for our lives. We are fallen people, born into a fallen world. We're born at cross purposes with Him, in rebellion against Him. Oftentimes openly, but even more often, subtly. When we come to Jesus Christ by faith, we're forgiven of all our sins, and made right with Him. However, the effects of our previous rebellion remain embedded in our hearts and mind, and He is dedicated to searching them out, shining His healing Light upon them, and eradicating them from our lives. This can be painful, light hurts the eyes that have for so long been attuned to darkness. Death fights life, but neither darkness or death can stand against His Light and Life, so it will always choose to hide. We must allow Him, indeed, invite Him to search it out, and to die to them all.

In my prayer journal I have this prayer that I seek to keep before Him on a consistent life basis. I ask that He would destroy these obstacles to my growth in Him wherever they may be found, and I have been guilty at various times and in various degrees of all of them. So have you. I'll briefly list each:

Unbelief....Or a lack of faith and trust in Him. We don't fully believe what He says, about Himself, about ourselves. It often shows up as double-mindedness. We flip flop between taking Him at His Word but also doubting it. He seeks to search out its roots, and they can go deep, so that we reach that place of a decision to trust no matter what. When that happens, we grow in grace, and darkness and death lose their grip.

Pride....This shows up in our lives in an infinite amount of ways. In the main, it is us exalting ourselves against everything and everyone, even the Father. It can be very subtle, and disguise itself as righteousness. We excuse it, and He hates it because it always denies Him. It's the most rooted of all of them and the most painful to have exposed in us.

Idolatry....Our hearts can contain millions of little and big idols, all of them supplanting Him in some way. They can be husbands, wives, children, jobs, possessions, comfort, success, even ministry. All of them seek His place. None of them will be tolerated by Him. Their destruction must happen if we are to ever grow more and more into His image.

Prayerlessness....This may be our most excused of all of them because we don't feel we harm anyone in it. And we can excuse it in ourselves so easily, to the point where we're sure He's not too upset with it. He understands how we haven't the time for it, that we have so much other stuff going on. We don't want to see that it springs from our lack of desire for Him. Worst of all, no matter how often He shines His light upon it, we find ways to continue on in it.

Legalism...Also disguised as righteousness. Or justice. We hold ourselves and others to rigid standards so that we exhaust ourselves and everybody else. More, we depend upon ourselves, and not Him to live up to them. It is deeply linked to pride, and just as evasive. Where it exists, His love and mercy do not. It goes to great lengths to hide from Him.

All of these I invite Him to search out in me, but sadly, not often enough. All of them are obstacles to His advance in our hearts and lives, and as long as we remain guilty of trying to hide them from His searching love, they'll remain and seek to block His growth in our lives. Only He can expose and cleanse them from our hearts, but that won't happen until we are sincerely desiring the work of the prayer in Psalm 139. Are we? Are you? Am I? Sincerely? Until we are, we'll not know the fullness of "the way everlasting."

Blessings,

Pastor O

Amalekites

 "The Lord will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation." Exodus 17:16

The Amalekites were a people who steadfastly resisted the nation of Israel. They sought to prevent their entering of the Promised Land of God. Once the people took possession of the land, it was Amalekites, allied with the Midianites, who mercilessly raided and plundered the Israelites. They were always found opposing the purposes of God in and through His people, seeking to keep them from His blessings. This led to God swearing to be their enemy throughout eternity.

Here, thousands of years later, would you be surprised to learn that the Amalekites are still very much with us? The nation itself may have disappeared, but their successors are many, and many of them persist in their opposition to His purposes in our lives. Who are our "Amalekites?" Who are yours?

Amalekites are those who seek to distract and defeat us in our journey of faith. They come in all manner of ways. Relationships, goals, desires, even ministry. Some can be openly evil, but others, very likely most others, can be benign, and even seem very good on the surface. Yet through them, the devil has this one purpose, to distract us from, keep us from all that the Father has for us. They mean to keep us from the Father Himself.

John Wesley said that anything that keeps us from His purpose, that keeps us from the beauty of deep relationship with Him, that diminishes the joy of relationship with Him, that this thing is sin to us. Those are strong words, but I want to tell you that I have found it to be completely true in my life, and with things that on the surface would be called "good." It has been in the area of relationships, and yes, in my ministry.

There was a period in my life where I actively sought a loving relationship that would lead to marriage. This in itself is not bad, but the fruits of that were. There were several that seemed they would lead to exactly what I desired, but all of them, in varying degrees, resulted in distracting me from Him, leading me to make an "idol" out of the relationship, and wounding me both spiritually and emotionally. I know that I'm not alone in having this result. This doesn't mean that the desire for good, healthy relationships is wrong, but that we can be led astray by that very desire and suffer great harm in our pursuit of it. It can easily become an Amalekite that leads to our spiritual defeat. We need to be very much aware of this.

My other Amalekite has been the very ministry God called me into. In the west, we have taken hold of a very twisted idea of what ministry success is, and I, along with so many brethren, fell victim to that. My desire to have a robust, ever larger fellowship led me into focusing so much energy into the pursuit that it became more of a "god" to me than my true God, my Father in heaven. I followed after ministry success more than I followed my Lord Jesus Christ. Ministry had become an Amalekite. Seeking His blessing had taken the place of seeking Him. Serving Him had taken the place of loving Him.

These have been two of mine. What are yours? Comfort? Financial security? Professional achievement? There can be no end to the number of Amalekites that come against us. God stands against all of them. He calls them His enemy, and He will ruthlessly oppose them. Yes, even the ones we think of as good. If they are drawing us away from Him, they are His enemy, and they are ours as well. We can make no truce with Amalekites for they will never make one with us. Our destruction is their goal.

Amalekites can come to us as "friends." This is why we need to walk in the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit. With them, we can see the difference between what is good, or seems good, and what is His best...Himself. Through them, He will send us checks in the Spirit as warnings of where our hearts are veering off from His in our journey. Amalekites will always be around this side of eternity, and their danger is real. He is more real. If we stay tuned to His heartbeat, they will not succeed in stopping what He's doing in our lives.

God is not against us having any of the things or people mentioned above. He stands against any and all who would seduce our hearts away from Him, intentionally or not. Whenever Israel gave way to the lure of the various "Amalekites" that appeared, they suffered. So will we. Beware the Amalekites!

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Invasion

 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." Luke 11:2

How many of us have prayed the above prayer, perhaps times beyond number? Here's a question; is that prayer being answered in your life, in mine?

There are countless reasons why it may not be; disobedience and rebellion, unbelief, or just plain spiritual laziness. It could also be that we feel unsure as to just how it might be. We do tend to make things far more complicated than Jesus ever intended them to be, and it was Jesus who gave His disciples this prayer when they asked HIm for one. He wouldn't have done so if He didn't know that it's reality can be realized in our lives, needs to be realized in our lives.

Many years ago I was led to write down this prayer in my journal as a means of seeing the prayer from Luke 12 come to fruition in my life. I pray for three things to that end, and then ask myself, by His Spirit's leading, to what degree have the first three come to be my life experience?

The first step in the prayer is that His heaven, His Kingdom, would invade this earth. Every aspect of this earth and its culture. That no part of our society would be left untouched by the effects of His Kingdom upon it. His Kingdom can be rejected, but even in the lives of those who reject it, His Kingdom exercises strong influence on the ways and behavior of even those who ultimately reject it's King, Jesus Christ.

Secondly, I pray that His Kingdom Light will invade the darkness of this world. The expansion of spiritual darkness in our world can not be denied. We really have entered into days where good is called evil, and evil is called good. Yet that darkness at its greatest, cannot stand against the Light that is Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the World. I pray that there is no corner of darkness that has not been confronted with His Light.

Thirdly I pray that His Life will invade the spiritual death of this world wherever it may be found, and my friends, we are seeing it and its effects everywhere. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. It has been said that Jesus during his earthly ministry, never attended a funeral where the lost one remained dead. The enemy of our souls has been holding a funeral for this world from the beginning. His horizon for us is death, but Christ's is Life. Abundant, full, free, Life. The curse upon the human race is death, but as the old hymn says, His Life extends "far as the curse is found." May His Life invade every degree of death in every place.

Lastly, I then ask myself just how deeply has His Kingdom invaded my life on this earth, His Light into any darkness in my heart, and His Life into any place where death may be reigning in my mind, heart, and spirit? I think until we can come to such a place in our prayers, prayers for the coming of His Kingdom are mostly empty ones. The fullness of His Kingdom comes through individual lives within the Body of Christ. One by one until they comprise the whole, and then that Body is the very presence of the fullness of His Kingdom here on earth.

I hope this makes the prayers for His Kingdom to come a little more clear for you. I know this, I need to pray it even more now than ever before. His Kingdom has come, and is coming. May we, you and me, enter into all its fullness. May we welcome the invasion of His Kingdom into all the kingdoms of this world.....most especially ours.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Go Deep

"The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." I Corinthians 2:10....."God has called us to go deep. The cross is our holy invitation. We are not saved for superficiality." Chris Tiegreen....."The Holy Spirit of grace desires to disturb your sleep. Blessed are you if you awaken." Lars Linderot

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus directed His disciples, who were fishermen who'd labored all night without catching any fish, to "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." They thought the order futile, but they obeyed, and were rewarded with a great catch of fish. In the deep they found the fish. In the deep things of the Spirit, we find Him. You'll catch no fish in the shallows, and neither will you discover the depths of the Father there. So why do so many seem content to live in the shallows spiritually? Why do we prefer spiritual superficiality to spiritual depth?

Nothing can thrive in the shallows. I remember walking around a lake well stocked with fish, but the only ones near the shore, in the shallows, were dead ones. Alongside them was decaying plant life, and silty waters. There is little or no life to be found in the shallows, not physically, and even more so, not spiritually. Yet in my nearly 40 years of ministry, I have found far more professing believers who prefer the decay and death of the shallows to the abundance of life to be found in His depths. How is it that so many prefer it?

When Jesus told Peter and the others to put out into the deep, they were reluctant to do so. They'd worked all night but found no reward for it. They were exhausted. Yet Jesus told them to go. There's a truth in this that I think we miss. There is no possible way to "work your way" to the Father. The only doorway is Jesus Christ. What I see in this Scripture is that while it is true that we cannot earn our way to Him, He can be reached when we obey His Spirit as it draws us. Our efforts yield exhaustion and failure, but when drawn by His Spirit, we reap the fullness of His Life. We have to press on into the deep, but His grace and power are limitless as we do. It would have been easy for Peter and the others to stay at the shoreline and rest, but they yielded to His call, launched out, and had the greatest catch they'd ever experienced. After this, they left their nets and followed Christ. I think we never put out into the deep because not only will we not leave our familiar shallows, neither will we leave our familiar "nets" that hold us. Jobs, relationships, attitudes, desire to control, and secret sins in order to do so. So we stay in the shallows, continue to live spiritually superficial lives, and never experience or know what life in the deep things of the Spirit will yield.

For some time now the church has been calling for a message that is "relevant" to a dying world. We seem to think that means in the main, entering into the pop culture with what too often is a pop culture message. A superficial church will never be relevant to a lost culture, no matter how trendy and modern it wants to look and sound. It will always be irrelevant. But a church soaked in the depths of God, of His Holy Spirit, will have a message and voice from the very throne room of God. This has always been the need of the hour, but perhaps never more so than now.

In closing, let me make a point put forth by the late evangelist Vance Havner. He said, "In Christian experience, we cannot move on to deeper things until sin has been faced in our lives." Too few of us are willing to do this. It's easier to deny, rationalize, or justify them. As long as we do, we remain in the shallows, suffering decay and the onslaught of death. They are an anchor, slowly drowning us...in the shallows. It is time to put out into the deep, to know in ever greater ways, the depths of the God we follow. This is the time to "go deep." Is it the time for you?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Theme Parks?

 2 Preach the word; be ready [a]in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and [b]exhort, with [c]great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires......2 Timothy 4:2-3

Theme oriented amusement parks have been very popular for a couple of decades now. They are built upon one or more pop culture themes, generally movie and entertainment related, and they attract thousands of people who pay a hefty price to attend and be a part of the fun and entertainment. I have no problem with them, but I have a question for we who are the Body of Christ, the Church; have we, unconsciously or not, been turning our fellowships into Christian themed "parks" rather than serving as salt and light in the world here we've been placed?

I don't think we can dismiss that question lightly. A couple of years ago I visited the website of a large southern Florida church. In it's presentation it said, in bold letters, "We think church should be fun!" Fun, having a good time, was central to their DNA. Now let me say that in no way do I think a church or its people ought to go about looking like it was soaked in lemon juice. Body life should be both enjoyable and joy filled. We should love Him and each other passionately. Yet as I read all the info on this fellowship, it was clear that they wanted people to mainly feel good, have a wonderful time, and most of all, to come back. I didn't see a commitment to discipleship, to the preaching of living a holy life, or of the mention of sin, the cross, or the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. I'd like to say that this was an isolated case, but it isn't. I've found many similar fellowships through the years.

Now, in case you may think that I'm just an old preacher, set in my ways, and upset about new ways of doing ministry, you would be totally wrong. In the last couple of decades of my active ministry, our church was anything but traditional. I was always open to better ways of ministering His Truth, but in all of them, Paul's exhortation to Timothy in the above Scripture remained central. In season or out, whether the times were opportune or not, the core of the message was always to call people out of the darkness of sin stained lives and into the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. Exposing, correcting, rebuking, and exhorting were all part of the message. With a broken heart, I saw many walk away, rejecting that message, but I also saw many who embraced it. One translation of the above Scripture begins with the word "Herald," instead of "Preach." I love both, and see both as what is needed. A herald was entrusted with a royal proclamation, and we who have been entrusted with Almighty God's proclamation must not fail to herald it. There can be no compromise. And we must know that Christian theme parks, where there is a theme built around Truth, but never fully enters into it, can never faithfully live out this Scripture.

I keep in touch with many people in the church who've been a part of my life through the years. A disturbing trend among most of them is that in the fellowships of which they're a part, they cannot remember the last time they heard a message centered on the cross, on holiness of life, on sin and its consequences, and especially, on hell. We're to proclaim the full word and message of the Bible, but tragically, we have drifted into becoming, in too many places, exactly what Paul warns against; ear ticklers who attract those with a desire to be tickled. Could you be comfortable in such a fellowship? Would you embrace the one Paul speaks of?

Here's the good news. I believe there is a move of the Spirit taking place in His church. I believe that Theme Park Churches will not survive the days we are entering into. I believe there is a growing hunger both in the church itself and the surrounding culture for real biblical truth. Truth that transforms. I was ordained in 1987. The ordination ceremony was led by a man who I consider one of the great men of God in my lifetime, Dr. Charles Strickland. It was his habit to speak into each newly ordained life after he prayed for them. To me he said, "There are strange winds blowing through the church. Preach the word, in season and out." I have never forgotten that. We cannot forget that either. A dying world has no need of Christian theme parks. It needs a church alive, infused with Holy Spirit truth and power. That's where He is found. Will we be found there as well?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Blind Trust?

 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, LORD," they replied. 29Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith let it be done to you" Matthew 9:27-29

Someone said that the journey of faith is a matter of coming to the place, again and again, of having to live out what it is we say we believe. I agree, so I have to ask, both you and myself, where are we on that journey of faith. Do we live out what it is we say we believe? It was said of the Jewish leaders of Christ's time that they didn't believe the God that they said they believed in? Do we? We had better, because I believe our faith, our confession of what it is that we believe, about Him, His Word, His promises, His truth, is going to be tested as we have never seen it tested before.

The blind men who followed Jesus were desperate for His healing. Their desperation lent strength to their faith. They had no physical reason to believe they could see again, and in the face of that, Jesus asked them if they believed He could restore their sight. They answered that they did, and then He did. Here is where some questions come in, and only we can answer them. What if He had not restored their sight? Would they still have hailed Him as the Son of David? Would they still have followed Him? Let's get more narrow; what happens if that which we ask of Him isn't given us? We all have deep needs in our lives, desperate ones. If we call ourselves followers of Christ, we are going to go to Him and ask that He respond to them. A loved one with what is believed to be terminal cancer. A child living in open rebellion. A marriage that seems beyond repair. The list can go on and on. What happens if we take all of these to Him....in faith...and He doesn't respond as we hoped? Jesus restored the sight of these men, yet there were others, many others, who were also blind, sick, broken, who were not healed. What if in our desperation, we find ourselves among those "others?" Will we still believe? Will we still trust? Will we still go on with Him?

I think that this is the true journey of faith; coming to the impossible place, looking to Him in that place, and going on with Him in trust whether He responds as we want Him to or not. I give Him glory for all the miraculous things He has done in my life, and in the lives of so many others. Yet, not every desperate prayer was answered as I wanted them to be. When that happens, and it will happen to us all, we're faced with the choice of whether we will still believe. Will we believe that He is good, merciful, all powerful, perfect love, even when the circumstances of our lives give the appearance that He is none of those? And be assured, such times will be ours.It is in these places that we'll have to choose to either believe, or reject all that it is we have confessed concerning our faith.

The key to this is our coming to the place, before we have actually come to these kinds of situations, where we have decided that, no matter what, we are going to believe Him, trust Him, follow Him. Some will call this blind, foolish faith, but it's not, for it is this kind of faith that is rewarded with seeing Him in the midst of all things. In the midst of our disappointment and pain, our discouragement and sorrow. Our decision to trust, believe, and obey, opens the eyes of our hearts to see Him. And we will see Him.

We cannot live the kind of faith life I speak apart from His cross. It is there that we die to our insistence upon having everything work the way we wish them to. At the cross, we surrender to the wisdom of His way, trusting that even in suffering, He will bring His good out of all of it, that His purposes and ways are far above ours. Only at the cross can we pray, as did our Lord, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done, O Lord." And we can say this because we do believe.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Desperados

I first wrote this a number of years ago, and I'm just sensing a need to send it to you today. I think it is even more timely now. We are living in desperate days, and those who are His must be a desperate people. Desperate for Him, His Life, His Truth, His Holiness. We are to be, as this writing says, Kingdom Desperados. Men and women desperate for the fullness of His Kingdom. May we, you and I, His Church, be such desperados in these days.

Desperado. Besides being a song by the Eagles, what meaning can the word have for us? The dictionary defines desperado as a "bold, violent criminal, a person of desperation." That's not a definition that many Christians would want to be identified with. We prefer "law abiding, peaceful, good neighbors, good people." I don't negate those terms but I do think the church is suffering from the fact that we seem to have an overabundance of "tame Christians." Does this mean I promote lawlessness in the lives of believers? Certainly not in the earthly sense, but for sure in a Kingdom one.

When I first got "saved" all those years ago, and contemporary Christian music was a genre where folks wrote songs out of love for Him and not a desire to have a profitable hit, I remember a small station in Colorado Springs playing a song that contained lyrics that said, "A Christian and an outlaw are rebels to the world." In a sense, a Christian must be an outlaw as concerns the value system and worldview that saturates the culture they're a part of. We are to live in total submission to Him, and in total rebellion against the god of this world and his system. We're desperados, people desperate for Him, His Kingdom, His life, His heart and His ways. At least, that's what we're called to be.

Matthew 11:12 is a scripture we tend to just read over and not give a lot of thought to. Mostly because we don't really understand it, and don't seem to really want to. They're Jesus' words. He said, "And from the day of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." We pray "thy Kingdom come" on a regular basis, yet our attitude for the most part seems to be a very passive one. We wait for His Kingdom to come like we wait for a bus or the metro. Passively, disinterestedly, in mostly boredom. If it comes, great, if not, well, we'll just keep waiting. We've got plenty of reading material and other things to keep us occupied. That attitude will never lay hold of the Kingdom or be laid hold of by it. Christ calls us to seek His Kingdom with a vigor and passion that looks like violence to all who are observing. There is a desperate hunger and desire for it, for its fullness, that it would not only be part of our life, but that it would, He and His Kingdom would, be our life. We storm the Kingdom of heaven and in return are consumed by the Kingdom itself. As we take it, it truly takes us. That I believe, is what marks a Kingdom Desperado. I want to be one. How about you? Active, passionate, and yes, violent, in and for the cause of Christ. We've waited for the "bus" long enough. Let's fold up our "papers" our study groups, classes, and meetings, where much is talked about but little is laid hold of, an attitude that seems to have been the law of the church for much too long, and be "outlaws," seeking His Kingdom....with desperation. Kingdom desperados.

It's been nearly a decade since I wrote the above, but I think it's message is timeless. Mark Batterson said that if we are truly to follow Christ, He will take us out into the shadowlands, where light and darkness clash. This is where the church now finds itself, in a clash of kingdoms. Passive dwellers of His Kingdom will not survive there. Only those who seek His Kingdom with a desperation born of the days in which we live. We live with desperation, but not a hopeless desperation. It's desperation determined to lay hold of Him. Such desperation will never be disappointed.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Shipwrecks And Snakebites

 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7...."We are in deep need of three-way faithfulness, to the faith, to the fight, to the finish." Vance Havner

We are in both a fight and a race, and the only way to prevail in both is with a solid rock faith. Do we have these? Do you, and do I?

The Apostle Paul penned these words at the end of his life and ministry. All the apostles knew the truth of what he wrote, but perhaps none more than he did. Surely no one fought more spiritual and temporal battles than he did. Surely none ran a more challenging race of faith. And he did so to the very end, to the finish line of his life. No matter what our challenges may be, I doubt very much any of us will ever face all that he did in his journey with Christ.

Commenting on some of Paul's trials and how they relate to us, Mark Batterson said that sometimes, our lives seem to be nothing more than a series of "shipwrecks and snakebites." He was referring to the Paul's experiences on the island of Malta, where he had survived a shipwreck only to be bitten by a poisonous snake when he arrived on the shore of the island. Our lives can seem so at times. We seem to go from one major crisis of life and faith to an even greater one right after. This is when the "fight" grows ever more difficult, and we grow ever more weary. We're tempted to give up the fight, step off the track, and cease running to the finish line. Maybe you're there now. I certainly have been. I've been in the dark tunnel that seemed to have no end. I've felt like giving up, felt I had to give up, but every time, a fresh blowing of His Holy Spirit came at my back, and carried me on a few more strides, and I continued the race. He gave me the strength to keep fighting, to keep running, to get to the finish line. Could it be that you need a fresh blowing of the wind of His Spirit at your back today? He is faithful to give that as you remain faithful to receive it.

We are in a time now where living out Paul's words is a virtual necessity. The believer has never been allowed to be passive, but somehow, that's what many of us have been. We are to come against the power of darkness and death by living, speaking, acting in the power of His life and light, of His resurrection life and light. The enemy will throw obstacles in front of us all along the way. We can't be deterred. We must press on, accepting the challenges, and in our accepting them, triumphing over them in His power and strength. The enemy may attack, but he cannot keep us from reaching the finish line the Father has set before us. Shipwrecks and snakebites could not stop Paul, and they will not stop us.....unless we let them. Paul would not let them. Will we? Will you?

Some years ago, I wrote down in my prayer journal, inspired by Hebrews 12:3, "When I become weary and discouraged, Lord help me to think on what Christ endured on the cross, so that I don't give up." No one, not even Paul, endured so much, suffered so much in His faithfulness to His Father as did our Lord Jesus Christ. He conquered, and in Him, we do as well. Press on. Run well. Fight the good fight. Finish the race. In Him, that is our destiny. Let that destiny be fulfilled.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Hardening

As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." Hebrews 3:15

The above Scripture from the book of Hebrews refers to an earlier Scripture from the book of Isaiah, where God pleaded with His people to not respond to Him with hardened hearts, as their forefathers did when they rebelled against Him during their journey out of Egypt. It speaks to me as to how it is that people, including those who would claim to follow Him, respond to His Word and Voice.

I see there being basically three responses to His speaking to us. The first is that we ignore Him altogether. Few of us would say we do this, but we have a seemingly infinite amount of ways to ignore Him. Like children who hear the voice of a parent calling them home, we choose to not listen. With this response, it always comes down to a conflict of wills. He calls us to Himself but we prefer the company of our own selves. Our ways seem better, and His seem to make no sense. However we want to frame it, we rebel against Him, and with each refusal to listen, our hearts grow harder and ears more deaf. Eventually this ignoring, this rebelling leaves us with hearts so hard and ears so deaf that we no longer hear Him calling. The consequences of our ignoring will be eternal and terrible, and it is not only unbelievers who fall into this category, but those who would profess to be His as well. Where have you been ignoring His voice, and where in your heart is a hardening taking place?

The second response, and equally destructive, is that we hear Him and come under conviction concerning what it is that He is speaking. We know, with His searching of our hearts, that there is an issue, or issues, that harm us, and He seeks to heal, cleanse, and transform. Initially we have full intention of yielding these to Him, and even make a brief show of working towards seeing change, but we never truly yield anything up to Him. It isn't long before we fall back into the same behaviors, attitudes, and patterns that He had addressed. No real change has taken place, but we've deceived ourselves into thinking that because we've admitted that there's a problem in our lives, we've actually addressed it. We haven't at all, and the result will be what happens in outright ignoring Him. Our hearts harden, and our spiritual ears grow more deaf every time we refuse to go beyond the point of conviction. And we never see that this too is rebellion.

The last response is too often the least experienced. We hear Him and His call to come and bring the issue, the need, the wound, the fear, to Him and surrender it, all of it, to Him. We place ourselves willingly on His altar, and allow the fire of His Holy Spirit to consume us. What happens is spiritual transformation, and an ever deeper journey into His wholeness and life. The result is something our willful flesh can never understand; that to surrender to Him is Victory.

The idea of obedience has become quite blurred in the church today. We have so emphasized grace as to eliminate the need to obey. He loves us so much that we are sure He'd not be too demanding on our obedience. To believe this in any degree is delusion, yet countless numbers have fallen prey to it. Early on in my ministry I had a man in the fellowship who was failing badly in his responsibilities to his wife and family, as well as the church and the Lord. He was spoken to about it many times, and always he would say, "The Lord's been speaking to me about that." Speaking, perhaps, but heeded not at all. I don't know that he ever did. How like him are we, are you?

Where might the hardening and rebellion be found in your heart today? How many times has He spoken yet you have found a way to ignore, or make half-hearted attempts to change? Where has He stopped speaking to you on issues you know haven't changed in you? Do you understand what this means? Scripture tells us that we're to seek Him while He may be found. I would add that we must listen to Him while we may still hear. He never ceases to speak. Have you ceased to listen?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

I've Seen Jesus

 "Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, 'I have seen the Lord.' " John 20:18......"As if till now, I've never lived. All that I'd done before won't matter anymore. I've just seen Jesus, and I'll never be the same again." Lyrics from "I've Just Seen Jesus," by Bill Gaither and Danny Daniel

Someone asked me in our church's Good Friday service what I thought the disciples were feeling after Christ's death on the cross. That wasn't difficult for me to answer. I told them that they were emotionally and spiritually devastated. They were crushed and in a state of despair. Mary Magdalene and other women had gone to the tomb to wash and anoint His body. The disciples were so terrified and without hope that they wouldn't venture out of hiding. All of this is recorded in Scripture, but it is not this information that allows me to answer their question. What makes me answering it possible is that I, like the disciples, have been in that same emotional and spiritual state that they were, and only experiencing what they were to experience, and Mary had experienced would suffice; I had to see Jesus too. Have you been there as well? Are you there now?

Let me ask a question here. Have you seen Jesus.....ever? I don't mean have you read of Him, heard of Him, and memorized all of what you've read and heard. I mean, have you "seen" Him? Not with your physical eyes, but your spiritual ones, the ones that are found in your heart. I have found, in so many ways, that He can be seen, will be seen with such eyes, eyes that are attuned to His voice, and are always seeking Him. I've also found that He can be seen best in the darkest conditions and most hopeless situations. His Light seems to show best in those places. Somehow, when all is bright and sunny, that is when our eyes are most prone to miss Him. Darkness and pain somehow awaken those spiritual eyes to Him, to the One who is always there.

As I said, Mary and all the others were broken beyond description at the seeming loss of their Lord. When she first encountered Him in the garden where the tomb was, she thought Him to be the gardener. She said with tears, "They have taken my Lord away." And then Jesus spoke her name, "Mary," and with the hearing of her name, she recognized her risen Lord. Suddenly, His Light came bursting through her darkness, just as Scripture promises that it always will. Weeping was turned into joy, mourning into dancing. In an instant, everything changed. Why? Because she'd just seen Jesus. When that happened, the lyrics to the Gaither-Daniels song became real to her. Have they ever become real to you?

I have seen the very dark places of despair and hopelessness in my life. I have wondered at times if somehow He was gone from my life as well. I am so thankful that in those places, He wooed my heart to His Presence, and opened the eyes of my heart to see Him, and I would find again, when I saw Jesus, that though the conditions might continue, they could not hold me because He was there. I "saw" Him in the hearing of His voice, and the sensing of His Presence.

So I say to you, if you find yourself in such a place today, "I've seen Jesus," and if you need to as well, take heart. He will never fail to show Himself to the heart that truly seeks Him. Trust Him to, in His time and way, show Himself, and turn your weeping to joy, and your mourning to dancing. I've seen Jesus, and so will you.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Stone

 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. 2Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" 4But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. Mark 16:1-4

I love all the Scriptures dealing with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but this one has always held a special place. It was the women who followed Him who were on their way to the tomb where He'd been buried, with the intent to anoint and wash His body. such was their love for Him. Yet they knew they would face an overwhelming problem in reaching Him. The tomb had been sealed, and in fact, Jewish religious leaders had asked Roman authorities to do the sealing, which would make it impossible for them to carry out their intent. How would three women without the needed strength, remove a stone far beyond their ability to remove? Can you imagine their amazement when upon arriving, they not only saw that the stone had been rolled aside, but that an angel of the Lord greeted them, telling them that the One, the Christ, they had been seeking wasn't in that tomb, that He was risen, that He was alive. The angel then directed them to go and tell all His followers that Christ the Lord was risen, which they did.

A wonderful, glorious story, and two thousand years later, it remains so, even more so. But the part I never seem to lose sight of, that continues to bless and move me, is the rolling away of the stone. That stone stood for all the obstacles we tend to see in life. Obstacles that we see as keeping us from Him, His Life, Hope, Joy, Peace, and Freedom. The stone that blocks our access to the fullness of His resurrection life, and the power and wonder that comes with it. The stone that the enemy of our souls continually rolls before all our hopes of freedom. Freedom from the penalty of sin, from the consequences of those sins, and from the deathgrip that he continually seeks to hold us. It is a stone that we know, as did the women, that we cannot remove ourselves. It blocks us from entering into the life that He has promised. It makes impossible any idea of self-effort, of doing enough, keeping enough rules, of earning His favor. The stone blocks that all completely. It takes a power, greater than all that of the world, the devil, and our flesh to remove it. And the Father, in and through Jesus Christ, has provided it. The stone that no amount of effort can remove, is removed through simple, believing, saving faith in the crucified, yet risen Christ. The stone has been rolled away. Has it been rolled away for you?

What are the "stones" in your life that are keeping you from encountering and knowing the risen Christ and the resurrection life He offers? They are only immovable stones in your eyes, not His. Whether it be unbelief, fear, open wounds, and a plethora of other things, none may bar the heart that seeks Him. Stop trying to reach Him and His life by your own efforts. You can't. Trust Him to roll every stone aside, and then behold Him, the risen Christ. That stone could not prevent Him from coming to you, and it cannot prevent your coming to Him. It's been rolled aside, so.....come!

Blessings,

Pastor O