Masterpieces

 "Then the Lord gave me this message: 'O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done with his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand. so are you in My hand.' " Jeremiah 18:5-6....."We are pieces of clay trying to explain to other pieces of clay what the Potter is like." Francis Chan

After His resurrection, Jesus commissioned His disciples to 'tell everyone what you've seen and heard." They were obedient to that command. Are we? Are we really? Someone said that we "say so little about what we've seen and heard because we have seen and heard so little." In other words, our personal contact and knowledge with the risen Christ, the Holy Father, and His Holy Spirit is on such a small scale that we have little to share that's of real value. We can give the standard info we've learned in a lifetime of Sunday School classes and Sunday morning sermons, but we do so without passion. We talk about Him as if He's not in the room. We can't present a God that people would long to know because at root, we don't know Him either.

Chan said that the only way we, the pieces of clay, can tell others about our Potter/God is by the intimacy we've had and have with His hands and heart. A true artist at work on his pottery wheel shapes and molds the piece he's working on with the utmost care and love. As a master craftsman, he seeks to produce a masterpiece. He puts himself into the work he's doing. Such is the way of God. Our problem is, we are rarely willing to submit to being on His wheel. We have no real and deep link to His loving hands and the heart that works through them. We want all that comes with His finished work, but we are rarely willing to tarry in order to be His finished work. So, though we profess to know and be His, the result is a mis-shaped work that looks little like the end He intended. There is little to distinguish us from the unskilled products of the potters of this world. We can't tell them much more about our God then they can.

God created each of us to be a masterpiece. Whether we are or not will always come down to what we do with Jesus Christ, whether we receive or reject Him, and then, to what degree will we yield to His shaping hands? It's true that He creates us with His finished product in mind, but what we miss is the joy and love He expresses in the process of taking us to that end. The shaping, the constant injection of His love into His work. How He places just the right pressure, and where and when He needs to do so. As He shapes His masterpieces, it's not for the purpose of putting us on display in His church's trophy case. It's because He means for us to be finely crafted pieces of clay, shaped by Him, tempered in His fire, and then a work that displays wherever they are the character and love of the One who made a work of beauty from a non-descript lump of clay.

Someone said that God cannot reach the world until He first reaches His church. I think it's time for each of us who take His name to allow Him to place us back on His wheel. To make soft again what has become so hard. To take what has done little more than gather dust, and become at last, the work of beauty that He intended. When this happens, we will be His masterpieces, and we will tell all the surrounding lumps of clay, which we have been, what the loving Potter is like. It begins with our realizing we're clay, then yielding to His wheel and His hands, soaking in His loving care, and then from the wheel to the world. Just as He intended. Masterpieces, shaped by His loving hands and heart.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Hiding

 "Toward evening they heard the Lord God walking about in the Garden, so they hid themselves among the trees. The Lord God called to Adam, 'Where are you?' " Genesis 3:8-9....."Hiding from God is the first conditioned reflex recorded in the Bible." Unknown

The other day I took my car in for its 45,000 mile service. I almost always listen to praise and worship music while driving, and though the CD player stopped when I turned off the engine, it would immediately come back on when the car was started again. I noticed when the service was finished and my car returned, that the player was not only off, but the volume had been turned completely down, and the audio system switched over to AM radio. Right there, I thought of the above Scripture and quote. What had been beautiful music to me, obviously wasn't to the one working on my car. He didn't want to listen, and he exercised the proof of the above quote. Those without Him, those who are walking against His light and His will, will always seek in some way to hide from Him. We don't want to hear. We don't want to know. In the end, we don't want the truth. Not about Him, and not about ourselves. So we hide. The thing is, He always knows where we are.

Sin was never to be a part of the human condition. God created us for fellowship with Him. Such fellowship existed between Adam and Eve and the Father. The invasion of sin into that relationship through their disobedience concerning the forbidden fruit changed everything. Sin separates us from Him. Sin caused them to now fear and want to be away from His presence. So, they hid themselves. Their reflex has become ours, and the truth of that is seen throughout our cultures both past and present. Sinful men and women will always seek to hide from a Holy God. When Peter began to understand who Jesus really was, he cried out, "Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man." His presence will always expose our sinfulness. Our reflex will be to hide. We hide by denying Him, ridiculing Him, persecuting Him, fighting Him, and in the end, rejecting Him.

There has not been a more polarizing figure in the history of the human race than Jesus Christ. Who He is cuts through all of our denial and intellectual reasonings connected with Him. Like Isaiah, in His Presence we are undone. In His presence, His Holy Presence, we become aware of how unclean we are. In His presence, we have two choices, be undone, and surrender, or....flee and seek to hide. Which is yours?

I don't speak just to those who have not given their hearts to Him, but to those who profess that they have. Where in our lives are we hiding from Him? Where are we entertaining, indulging in some "secret sin." Where are we harboring thoughts and attitudes that are in conflict with His character? Where, when His Presence is upon us, do we run and hide? We do some of our best hiding in church. We hide in our activities, even in our ministries. We're found everywhere in the church but in His presence. We hide in plain sight. Where might we be doing just that right now?

I don't view that mechanic with any kind of disdain. 40 plus years ago he was me. I was the mocker, the rebel, the one who ran from Him. I will never cease to praise and thank Him that in my hiding, He came seeking. I hid in every avenue of escape I could. Pleasure, relationships, or the pursuit of them, and whatever I could find or use to dull my sense of emptiness. I hid from the truth of my lostness, but He wasn't deterred. As He came to Adam and Eve as they hid in the trees, He came to me in my own hiding place. He found me, brought me out, made me clean, healed and cleansed my sin and fallenness. Has He done so for you? Or are you still hiding? He seeks you. He calls your name. He knows where you are. Do you?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Slaves

 "You are not slaves; you are free. But your freedom is not an excuse to do evil. You are free to live as God's slaves." I Peter 2:16

The love of and desire for freedom is deeply imbedded in the human race. We see that on display throughout history. The slave rebellion in ancient Rome, led by the gladiator/slave Spartacus. In medieval England and Scotland, where William Wallace led a rebellion of Scotsmen, held under the English yoke aimed at breaking that yoke. Later, that same spirit filled the founding fathers of this nation as they led the thirteen colonies in a rebellion to free themselves from that same England. Men and women want to be free, and both history and the current stage is filled with examples of them seeking to be just that, free.

Yet, for all our talk, all our rhetoric, are we truly free? Where is the full evidence for that, in this nation or any other? True, we may enjoy certain outward freedoms, especially in America, but how many truly live in freedom today? How many have hearts, minds, and spirits that are free. We may have the appearance of freedom, but where is the reality?

Look at our own culture, which is what most of us are familiar with. Everywhere we look we see people held in the grip of a multitude and ever growing number of addictions. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, video games, computers, i-phones. It has no end. Counselor's offices are filled with clients seeking freedom. 12 step programs are everywhere, trying to help people to break free. Beyond the addictions are emotional prisons like anger, unforgiveness, fear, anxiety, and depression. We may walk about with the appearance of freedom, but we are "prisoners walking." We are part of a long, seemingly unending "chain gang," linked to each other while far from each other. We are slaves with a seeming infinite number of jailers and masters. It needn't be so, but we are blind to that truth. There is one who can break any chain, open any prison door, defeat any cruel master. He can do so because He already has defeated them all.....on the cross, and in His resurrection. If only we could see that. If only we could believe that.

We hate the very thought of being a slave. We will always deny it. We see that with Jesus' words to the Pharisees when He told them they were slaves. They replied that they'd never been slaves to anyone, when the open truth was that through most of their history, that's exactly what they'd been. To Egypt, to Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, and at that time, Rome. I'll connect what I say next with what I wrote in my last writing when I said that before you could be saved, you had to realize that you're lost. In the same way, before you can be free, you have to admit you're a slave. Our delusion of being free will always strive to keep us from that admission. But if we will admit, then the door swings open to our release, to our freedom. But it's a freedom that can only be known through our surrender to Him. Through our becoming slaves to Him, which makes no sense to our flesh, but is true nevertheless.

For that to be involves a mystical work of grace that can only take place in Christ. Peter says, through the Holy Spirit that they are not slaves, but free. That's the truth. Then he says that they are free, but also slaves to Christ. How can that be? It can be through the reality that when we yield completely to His Lordship, we are totally His. No other master can lay claim to us or have power over us. Thus, all these addictions and "masters" that have held us, abused us, ruined us, have their claims and power over us completely broken. We are free from them, and free in Him. Fully free. Can you dare to believe that? Will you dare to believe it?

This is a lot for one reading, I know. So, I challenge you to study I Peter 2:16. If there is anything that is holding you prisoner in your life, anything, ask Him to break its power over and in you. Exchange your chains for His freedom. Let Him prove to you the power of His risen life. He has done so for multitudes already, let Him do so for you right now. Know what it is to be free to be His slave.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Ditch

 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:10

It's been said by many that you cannot truly be saved until you know how lost you are. I think this truth explains why so many who profess to have exercised believing faith in Christ have never really shown forth a transformed life. In the western church, we've been exercising an "easy believism" for a long time now. We invite people to faith in Christ, but what kind of faith and what kind of Christ do we call them to? I think, intentionally or not, we present Jesus as Someone who can be added to our lives in order to make life better, to make us better. Jesus has no interest in making improvements in us. He came to transform us, from the inside out. He came to bring us life out of death. He came to make us new. He came to make us His.

Author and speaker Philip Yancey tells of his early experiences at the Bible College he attended. He considered himself an intellectual, and as he observed his fellow classmates, he came to view them with disdain, seeing them as his inferiors. His disdain grew into contempt, and he withdrew ever further from the life of the school. He was required to be a part of a prayer group, but would never pray, seeing it all as foolishness. Then one day, he did, and as he "prayed," he said he didn't care if people were lost. He didn't care if his fellow students were lost. He didn't even care if he was lost. Others in the prayer group sat in stunned silence, and then Yancey tells of how, in the midst of this horrible "prayer," He thought of the story of the Good Samaritan, where the Samaritan came to the wounded man in the ditch by the side of the road. He relates how he saw himself as the man in the ditch, and he saw Christ as the Good Samaritan. He said that Jesus kept extending His hand to him in order to bring him out of the ditch, and each time, he spit on the face of Christ. This happened several times in the vision, and then, Yancey relates, he was thunderstruck by a truth; he, Yancey, the one who knew more, was more than everyone else, was in fact, the neediest one of all. He saw his own lostness, and in that seeing, also saw his desperate need to be "found." And so he was, as he took the hand of Christ, and was lifted out of the ditch.

I doubt that most who've had a true conversion experience have had one so vivid as that, but, in some way and at some point, we all must realize that we are the ones in the ditch. We are each the neediest ones of all. Not realizing or admitting that will always result in our being what my first pastor used to call, "being about half-saved." And being half-saved is no better than being unsaved.

So many professing believers are so casual about their faith. They're casual in their worship and devotion. James Robison said that we don't value the things we say we value, and this may be true as concerns salvation more than anything else. We don't really understand the extent of our lostness, the extent of the horror of sin, and the extent Jesus Christ went to offer us salvation. Such is the devastation of sin that the only remedy for it was for the only Son of God to come and take sin and its awful penalty upon Himself. To take on the sin of the world, mine and yours, and let the judgement of God fall upon Him as He bore it. There was no other way, and it was His perfect love that took Him to the cross. How can we be casual about that? How can we so cheapen the work of the cross? How can we invite people into that easy believism when He paid such a terrible price for our freedom?

Because of the sin that permeates this fallen world, we are all born into that ditch. We cannot get ourselves out. Only by taking the hand of Christ, in believing faith, can we be lifted out. Until we see that we are the one in the ditch, we will, in one form or another, "spit in His face," as He reaches out to us. I know we hate that comparison, but it's real. Have you ever seen yourself as the one in the ditch? Or, have you believed yourself to be a basically good person that He can make even better. If so, you'll remain in the ditch. But when you realize that you, like me, like all of us, are the neediest one of all, then you can be lifted up to His life. Free of the ditch, and free of the penalty and bondage of sin. We were not made for the ditch, but for Him. When He fixes His eye upon us, I believe two things happen. We see ourselves as we are, desperately lost, and we can begin to see what we were made for, life full and free in Him. He has fixed His eye upon you. What do you see?

Blessings,

Pastor O

New Day

 "Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to see the tomb." Matthew 28:1...."It's only on Sunday that Friday makes sense." Sheila Walsh

It had been an earth shattering three days for the two Mary's, and all the other followers of Jesus as well. Their Lord had been taken, beaten and bloodied, forced to carry a heavy cross to His place of execution, and then crucified and killed there. Then He'd been buried in a tomb. A tomb sealed by the authorities. The One in Whom they'd hoped was gone. All they had were their grief and their questions. Why? Why had it happened? Why had God allowed it? Why had their Lord Jesus yielded to it? What would become of them now? Was all of it for nothing? Nothing made sense. Their limited human minds could not grasp anything more than what they had seen and were feeling. Have you ever been in such a place? Are you there now?

Walsh's above quote is so powerful. Christ was crucified on a Friday. Just a week before that He'd been hailed as Messiah by crowds of people. Everything seemed poised for Him to fulfill that which they believed He'd come for. And then this had happened.....on a Friday. Everything was darkness and despair. They could not even begin to grasp the why's of it all. They could comprehend nothing of what had happened to them. Again, have you ever been there? Are you there now?

Then came Sunday. As the Scripture reads, "as the new day was dawning." The two Mary's could not have known it, but all that had happened on Friday was in preparation for what He was doing on this day, Sunday. Here, on Sunday, the events of that terrible Friday would begin to be understood. Fridays are never final for those who are His. His Sunday is always coming, and will come, for those who trust and believe Him.

The two Mary's and all the disciples would soon behold the risen Christ. Sorrow would turn to joy, and their mourning into dancing. His Word, "Sorrow lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning," would come wonderfully true in their lives. The death that took place on Friday was only to open the door on the eternal life found only in Him that sprung forth on Sunday. The old day, Friday, was past. A new day had dawned. Suffering, pain, and sorrow are always going to be part of this fallen world. His people are not going to be immune to it. But if we will trust Him, He will bring us into our new day. And in that new day, He will bring us into understanding that even in the pain of Friday, He was working to bring us into Sunday. He has a new dawning day for each of us.

Are you living in a Friday right now? Take heart. As the old saying goes, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming." Press on. Take your pain, along with all the unanswered questions, and give them to Him. The heartache of Friday will not last forever. He will bring you into the fullness of His new day. Sunday is coming, and Friday and its pain will fade into the backdrop as His joy comes with all its wonder. He has defeated Friday in every form it can take. Cling to Him as He shows you how true that is.

Blessings,

Pastor O

From Here

 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. 2 Samuel 24:24

Singer, speaker, and author Sheila Walsh tells a story from her younger years in Scotland. An evangelist had come to town and conducted his meeting in a large tent. At the beginning of the final night of his meetings, he announced that all who wished to be healed, would be by the conclusion of the service. People eagerly crowded the platform, seeking healing. At the end of the service, the evangelist exited the stage and was quickly ushered to a waiting car which took him away. Slowly the crowd dispersed until only two people were left; Walsh and a man named John. John had been in a wheelchair ever since a terrible accident had crippled him some years before. She knew if anyone would have desired healing, it would be John. He was still in his chair. She approached him with tears in her eyes, disappointed for him, and angry at the evangelist for making a promise he obviously didn't and wasn't able to keep. As she came to him, John looked up, saw her tears and said, "Sheila, I know the Father can heal me at any time He would choose. Until He does, I can worship Him from here." Worship Him from here. From his chair. A chair he would never have chosen. A chair that he could have allowed to be his prison. A chair that was instead, an altar to worship His God.

I'm deeply convicted by this story. Just as I'm convicted every time I read the Scripture from 2 Samuel. David the king wanted to build an altar to God. Araunah, who owned the threshing floor that would be the site of the altar and the oxen to be sacrificed, wanted to give it to him at no cost, because he was the king. David refused, for he would not give to his God a costless sacrifice. How many of us possess that same spirit? How many of us could speak the words of John if it were us sitting in the wheelchair? How many of us could worship Him "from here," if "here" was a location we didn't choose, and wouldn't want?

How we must cheapen our worship of Him by all the unworthy attitudes we bring before Him in our "acts of worship." How many complaints do we bear, most of them petty, when we come before Him? We come with such a spirit of entitlement. He has promised abundant life, but this part of our life doesn't seem abundant at all. Why? And more, what will He do to change it? We're willing to worship Him, but not "from here." Not from whatever we see as our own "wheelchair." And all the while we're blind to what an offense that is to the God of all things. Unlike David, and John, we're very willing to offer to Him worship and sacrifice that costs us little or nothing.

Where is your and my "from here" place today? Are we able to worship Him there? Can we trust Him for what isn't in our lives, and worship Him for who and what He is? Can we worship Him in the darkness, the pain, the unknown? From the place we never wanted to be, don't deserve to be, and unless and until He acts, will continue to be? Can we worship Him when it costs us everything to do so?

I never cease to be appalled at the casual approach to worship we have in the western church. We don't seem to know how to prepare for worship, let alone worship itself. We're relying on praise teams and atmosphere instead of the glory and wonder of His Presence. More, we're led by our moods and emotions rather than the reality of who He is. Father, forgive us, we know not what we do. Or maybe we do know what we do. Let us turn from our worthless worship and take on the heart and spirit of David and John. Let us worship Him from here, wherever here is. Such worship will never be rejected. How much of what we've been calling worship has been?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart To Heart

 You will make known to me the way of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 16:11

In one of his devotionals, Chris Tiegreen writes a prayer that I have placed in my journal and have sought to make my own. It goes, "Holy Spirit, fill me with Your thoughts, acquaint me with Your ways, saturate me in Your presence." What would my life be like if this prayer is fully answered in me? What would yours be? More, why can it not be? We are the only blockage for it not coming to pass.

Dwell upon what is asked in that prayer. "Fill me with Your thoughts." Scripture tells us that we're to have the mind of Christ. How? The answer is both mystical and simple. The mind of Christ is present in the Holy Spirit. He's a Person, the third member of the Holy Trinity. We come to know His mind by dwelling in His Presence. Just as we can come to know another's mind by keeping company with them, even more so can we absorb His mind by intimate interaction with Him. The deep desire of the heart of God is that we know Him, and He has made the means for doing so abundantly available to us. That starts with realizing His words that tell us, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, or My ways your ways." When we admit this, we begin to surrender our flawed thinking, and have Him fill us with His thoughts and ways. This is where the mystical comes in. We find ourselves more and more thinking in ways we never did before. Seeing in ways as never before. It's the result of the ministry of the Holy Spirit renewing our minds on a day by day basis. We take on the mind of Christ, and it's a lifelong process.

The next step then would be He acquaints us with His ways as we discover His ways really are vastly different from ours. Our flesh is prone to react, usually poorly, to what is going on around us. His way is to respond, with His truth, His insight, and His heart. We're prone to volatile anger, and He has merciful patience. We quickly judge, while He looks past the surface to what is going on beneath the surface. He operates far beyond the realm of human logic and understanding, moving with a supernatural wisdom impossible for our fallen flesh to grasp. In the spiritual journey, His ways more and more become ours.

Last, to be saturated in His presence simply means that's where we "live." In His Presence. It means that as we live our day to day lives with all the responsibilities that go with it, He is a conscious reality to us. We sense Him and realize He's there. We can immediately enter into communication with Him, lay hold of His thoughts, His heart, and His will in any given situation. We can do this because over time, we have cultivated His Presence and we have come to know His voice. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." We may not care to be called sheep, but Jesus often called Himself the Good Shepherd. A shepherd is charged with the care of the sheep, and his care is such that he develops a rapport with them so deep that they recognize his voice when he calls. They follow him and will not follow a strange voice. So it must be with His people. We know and follow His voice, and we won't follow the voice of any other. As for being sheep, well, sheep can be incredibly stupid animals. Can we deny that we can be incredibly stupid people as well?

He invites us into His Presence, and the invitation is constant. Do we come? Or do we continue to act like wandering sheep, always getting ourselves into trouble, being deceived by the enemy, and slaughtered by him. I've a pastor friend who upon awakening each morning, invited His presence to saturate every part of his being. That's an invitation Christ will never refuse. Let us extend it to Him today. Let us do so right now. Let us live heart to heart with Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Command

 "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?" Jesus replied, "You must the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." Matthew 22:36-38....."If the greatest commandment is to love Him with all our being, is the greatest sin the failure to obey it?" Chris Tiegreen

Larry Crabb said that we love God like we love our favorite restaurant or store. We love them for their good service, for their getting us what we want, and for making us feel good all the while. We love them until a better restaurant or store shows up and does all of it better. Like our love for these, our love for Him tends to be very shallow and fleeting.

Love has become the cheapest of words in our culture. Perhaps in the church most of all. We use it so loosely, and often manipulatively. It may burn white hot for a time, but when it cools, we walk away from what had been the object of our love, and easily it seems. We bring this same style of love to Him, and then, to each other. There is little that's deep rooted in it. We're a fickle people. Deep down, we know that, but we seem little bothered by it. That alone should show us how shallow our love for Him and one another can be. In fact, can it be called love at all?

When Jesus answered the question, He was quoting from Deuteronomy, where the people were told that they must love the Lord with literally all of their being. Such love can never give way to any other love. Yet, in the hearts of His people, it does, and often. We know that. We've experienced it. It's witnessed by the many times we've pushed Him into the background of our lives and invested our "being" into a person, a profession, and yes, a ministry. Something or someone else gets the best of us, and He gets whatever is left over. We know it's wrong, but we're not bothered overmuch by it. After all, we know He loves us unconditionally, so we make peace with the wrongness, the sin of it, and go on. We're blind, not only to the sin of it, but that the Lord will give us over to the tyranny of our other loves. He did so with Israel, and many times. He will do so with us. Yet, somehow, we go on giving ourselves over to that which either cannot love as He does, or will not, and never will. We become enslaved to our lesser loves and lose the freedom we have with our first and greatest love.

We don't understand what He has for us in this commandment. We think He's forbidden us to passionately love other people or things. He hasn't. What He wants us to know and experience is that when He is the centerpiece of our love, His love flows into and out of us. We learn to love with His love, and our experience of love reaches heights we never dreamed of. Our love for another would never be extinguished when it is fueled and kept alive by His infinite love in us. Why do we think we know so much more about love than the One who is the Author of Love? Our problem is, we don't really know, and haven't really experienced the Author.

True passion for Him can't be worked up. It's only experienced as we experience Him. Annie Herring, the gifted singer-songwriter of the Jesus Music group 2nd Chapter of Acts, tells of her meeting Christ through His saving grace. She'd been in San Francisco at the height of the "hippie" movement. She was on the verge of securing a recording contract with the promise of becoming a star. She heard His voice whisper into her heart that she could sign that contract, and have the stardom she'd so craved, or she could have Him. She said she answered, "Lord, after knowing You, I don't want anything else." May we, you and I, share her passion. May we love Him with all of our being. May we want nothing else, serve nothing else, love nothing else, over and above Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O

To What?

 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me" Matthew 16:24....."Is it possible the power of the church has been lost because we keep inviting people to comfort, safety, and security in Christ?" Larry Crabb

If you're one who is a frequent attender of church worship services, can you recall when Matthew 16:24 was last preached? I mean really preached, without apology, without fear of scaring people off, and with a full description of what it meant to "take up his cross?"

Crabb asks a penetrating and probing question. To what are we inviting people to? When we invite them to Jesus, what kind of Jesus are we bringing them to? One who guarantees our every need and comfort being seen to? One who promises to keep the suffering and pain of life to a minimum? One who will keep us "safe" wherever we are and wherever we go....even if it's down to the corner store? Can any of us point out any place in His Word where Jesus made such an invitation? Indeed, Jesus sought to dissuade people from coming after Him until they had "counted the cost." He wanted them to know that He wasn't inviting them to a safe life. He was inviting them to His life. His way. His cross. They knew exactly what He invited them to. What He still invites us to. So...why don't we?

In so many ways, we've emphasized His blessing, His comfort, His peace, and His help. We've created a kind of expectation in people that if there is suffering and pain, we can count on Him to make it of short length and limited effect. It reminds me of the ads directed at children of my generation and the toy sets offered by manufacturers. Along with the picture shown, there was always a blurb saying something like, "Here's what you get!" It's a common approach with adults as well. Promoters want to promote what the buyer is getting. Somehow, this "promotion" has found its way into the western church. As one man put it, we've exalted the blessing over the Benefactor. Come to Jesus and you'll have peace, joy, protection, security, provision, and much more. There is great truth in this, but we define these blessings and gifts according to our earthly understanding, and not the understanding of His Kingdom.

In my prayer journal I have written, "Can He trust me with pain and adversity?" Not if my expectation is in His keeping me from the effects of pain and adversity. Not if I think He will somehow make an exception for me in the carrying of my cross, of my following hard after Him. Of, as His Word says, "partaking of the sufferings of Christ." All of this is what's involved in the extending of His invitation, but so often lacking in ours.

I know it's risky to preach this, but then, it's extremely risky to follow Jesus. It is also the greatest blessing and joy. Someone, I don't remember who, asked this question; "Are we willing to lose everything on His behalf in order to gain everything He has promised? Instead of living a long life, are we willing to live a life worth living?" Jesus invites us to enter into places only dead men and women can go. Dead to all the demands of self so they can be fully alive to the call of Christ. What an adventure! What experiences we will share with Him. Entry comes by way of the cross. That's what He invites us to. He invited you. Do you come?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Anyone?

 "Anyone who has faith in Me can do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these because I am going to the Father." John 14:12....."All the possessions of the Father are the inheritance of His children." Chris Tiegreen

How many times might we have read John 14:12, or heard it preached? Do we really listen to what Jesus is saying? Do we believe Him? Or have we somehow watered down what He's saying to fit into our rational, 21st century thinking? Surely He doesn't mean that we will do not only what He did when He ministered on earth, but even greater things. I mean, we're only human, right? Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Us? Well, we're just who we are, and we can't conceive of His words ever becoming our reality. But if He said them, doesn't He mean them? We believe that all that was in the Father was equally in the Son. Why can we not believe that it is also in us, in we who are His?

Tiegreen challenges us to begin every day with these questions, asked in sincerity and expectation...."Lord, show me today how this Scripture can be true in me," and, "Father, how shall I use my inheritance today?" I know from personal experience that those are extremely scary questions. I've been seeking to incorporate them into my prayer life, but as I do, that voice of doubt rises up. " Can this really be true? Can I do even greater works than these?"

Jesus, at various times asked His listeners, "CAN you believe this?" with the emphasis on the "can." He was asking if they, we, could reach a place in our faith walk where we really do believe that we are the "anyone" He speaks of? If we can, the results would more than boggle our minds. They would impact the world just as they impacted His world. When Christ returned to His Father, He entrusted us with His ministry, and He gave us His Holy Spirit to do it. Can we say that we have even begun to do it? And why haven't we?

I think one of the great hindrances to our believing has been so much of the teaching, bad teaching in my mind, that all the giftings and miraculous happenings of the early church ceased with the passing of the early, post-Pentecost church. Tell me, when you read your Bible, when you hear His words, do you get any indication that this is so? If you are a Spirit-filled and led person, does the witness of the Spirit within you tell you this is so? There is no indication in the Word of God that its true. We believe that His words are always directed to His church throughout the ages. Why do we make an exception with these words?

I'm not saying that we can go about doing these works on our own initiative and at times of our own choosing. He is the initiator, and He chooses the times and ways. Our key is to walk and minister in complete communion with Him, and be vessels through which He can minister, and do His works. Peter was such. Paul was such. So were countless others, great and small in the early church. I believe we can be such too.

John Stott said that someday, someone will pick up a Bible, read it, believe it to be true, and change the world. Can't that someday be now? Can't that someone be you, and me? I want to be bold enough to have the faith to believe that I can be, you can be, the "anyone" Christ speaks of. I want to be free of the chains of my rational, western mindset, and simply, like a child, believe. Jesus told us that we must have faith like a child, instead of the cynical half-faith of much of the church, and outright non-faith of the world. I want to be that anyone. How about you?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Brushstrokes

 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” John 13:7....."Our lives will be decided by what goes on in the small brush strokes, yielding either a masterpiece, or a mess." Andy Andrews

I think most of what Jesus does in our life is beyond our comprehension as He's doing it. We're always looking for great things, but He seems to do His best and most effective in the small things. When you think on it, the great events of life are not really what shape us. We're shaped and molded by the small ones, the small brush strokes that rarely stand out to the eye, but are central to the finished portrait.

The idea of God as our Master Craftsman is a common one. We know Him as the potter, shaping our clay on His wheel. We've likely heard reference to Him as the Master Sculptor, taking our ugly block of marble and shaping from it a work of beauty. Those are great analogies, but for me, I prefer to think of Him as the Master Artist, painting our lives on His canvas, and almost always in ways beyond our comprehension.

I can't think of many things that are more boring than sitting for a portrait. We're anxious for the finished work, but we have little patience for the process. We want the artist to get on with it, finish it up. Let us see the end result. Yet, a Master Artist would never allow themselves to be rushed. They know that the final beauty will be found in those small brush strokes. Those ones that blend exquisite colors and connect the greater parts of the portrait. Without them, the work would have no clarity, and would likely be discarded and despised by the one for whom it was done. So, we must allow the artist to complete his work, in his way, and in his time. So it is with the Father, as He uses the brush of His Holy Spirit to produce the portrait that is our life in Him. He bids us to be still and allow Him to paint His masterpiece through those small brush strokes and trust Him to be doing just that. Especially when every part of us screams for it to be done, over, and finished. If we refuse, the result will not be a masterpiece, but a mess. Our mess.

We are all of us, at varying points of applying His small brush strokes. Those strokes can produce a multitude of feelings and responses. Boredom, pain, anger, and more. We want to escape the process, He commands us to remain in place. A sudden move on our part can cause real damage to the work. Damage He can and will repair if we remain before Him, but damage that leaves a mess if we won't.

As the Father "paints" our lives, He will rarely tell us what He's doing, or how the work is progressing. Mostly, He'll be silent, and most, if not all of our questions to Him will be unanswered. What we feel and experience will likely encompass a very wide range of emotions and responses. All we may hear is His whisper, saying, "Trust Me." And we must. We must trust that He is indeed the Master of masters, the Supreme artist. The maker of masterpieces. And that's what we'll be as we submit to the brushstrokes. He will make no mess. That's our specialty. But if we will be still in the painting, we will be on display for all to see as another of His masterpieces. Unique from all the others, having a beauty like none other. And it will all depend upon how we respond to the brushstrokes.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Beauty

 The Light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." John 1:5

There's a beautiful scene in the "The Lord Of The Rings," the final installment of the Tolkien movie trilogy. Frodo and Sam are making their way through the dark night of the realm of Mordor, abode of the evil Sauron. All about them is the fruit of that evil, but as they walk, Sam looks up, and the heavy clouds part for a moment, and Sam sees the beauty of a full moon. Sam says to Frodo, "There's beauty here that no darkness can touch." Beauty that no darkness can touch. This is what those who live in and with Christ have; a beauty, a truth, a light, that all the darkness of this fallen world cannot touch or change. It is real, and for the believer, it is more real than the darkness. He is more real than the darkness. He has always been so. He will always be so.

Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. As John 1 says, He is Light that shines through the darkness, even the thickest of darkness. All the power of that darkness will fail to put that Light out. We have over 2000 years of proof of that truth. All the fury and hate of the devil and his hell have been unable to do away with the truth of Jesus Christ and His Light that comes with Him. To this day, the assaults continue. One only has to scan the TV listings to see all the documentaries and movies produced to "disprove" the reality of Jesus Christ and His claims. It has been so since His coming to men. Yet all attempts have failed, and will continue to fail, because the darkness will never be able to extinguish His Light.

That's why I love the scene in Mordor so much. The pall of Mordor, hell, is real in this fallen world, as is the darkness it has wrought. Pain, suffering, death, loss, sorrow. We are all subject to their effect to some degree on this side of eternity. The difference for the believer is that if we look for Him in the dark, we will behold His Light. We will see His beauty. We will discover, as did Sam, that the enemy's darkness can never touch His beauty and light, or diminish it.

Joni Eareckson Tada, a paraplegic since the age of 18, and one acquainted with much suffering and pain, said that in our journey into the darkness, which we will all experience to some degree, we will hear Him ask us in the dark of the night, "Do you believe and trust Me?" We will hear only His voice, but if we answer with "Yes," then we will "see" Him as well. We will behold His beauty. My beholding may differ from yours, but the beauty we see will be real, and it will be Him. As we journey through the Mordor of this world, we will experience the beauty no darkness can touch.

The pathway of the believer will always lead through Mordor. As we go, there will be much to terrify, that seeks to have us give up, and turn back. At that time, if we are attuned to His voice, we'll hear Him ask, "Do you believe Me? Will you trust Me?" How we answer will determine whether we see Him, His beauty that all the darkness of Mordor cannot touch. Or, will we just see Mordor and its darkness? What will you see? What are you seeing now?

Blessings,

Pastor O