Tiegreen

 Chris Tiegreen is a devotional writer that I much admire. I have found so many of his thoughts speak to and challenge me. I thought I'd use this writing to share three that I've written down in my prayer journal, and use as a part of my prayers.

"Holy Spirit, I desperately need Your touch, Your voice, Your power." This should be one of the constant prayers of the people of God. I'm not sure that in general, the average believer doesn't take the Holy Spirit's presence and ministry in their life for granted. In fact, in many ways, we think of Him only rarely. Francis Chan wrote a wonderful book entitled, "Forgotten God," detailing how the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit has so greatly diminished in the church. If we think of Him at all, it's as a benign presence, as an "it." He's there, but He's unobtrusive, especially in our corporate gatherings. We certainly don't expect Him to interrupt our well planned proceedings. How His church must grieve Him, not only in our views of Him, but in our ignorance. Scripture says that the Father loves to bestow His gifts upon His children, and that "how much more will He give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him." When was the last time we, you and I, cried out to Him as Tiegreen does in his prayer? Do we long for all the fullness of His touch, voice, and power through His Holy Spirit? Among the many desperate needs of the western church, this may be the foremost....a fresh, new, outpouring of His Holy Spirit. Many would call it revival, but I prefer to call it an awakening to all the fullness of His Spirit.

"Don't just study God's Word, fall in love with it." How do we approach the Living Word of God? What is our view of what is usually called "Bible study?" Is it a tedious exercise in trying to memorize what is written? Is it a duty to be performed? A duty that others have told us needs to be done. Do we spend time in His Word because we have to, or do we see it as a love affair that we get to grow deeper and nearer to Him in? Jesus said that, "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." A popular profession in the church is to say that we love Him. If we do, shouldn't we love His word? If we say we love Him with all our heart, shouldn't we love what He is saying to us through His Word with all our hearts? The Bible is His revealed word to us, and He speaks through it. All that He says to us through His Spirit will be in line with what He has spoken in that revealed word. He speaks outside of His written word, but He never speaks in contradiction to it. If we love Him, then surely we should love to hear Him speak. What are we, you, doing as concerns His Word? Have you fallen in love with it, or, is it merely a dry duty to be carried out?

"See yourself as a Kingdom outpost in hostile territory." One thing is certain; if we are determined to live according to the will and word of God in this world, we will find this world to always be hostile territory, both openly and subtly. The world will allow us to present Christ as one of many paths to God, but they will never, apart from His grace, accept Him as the only path. Neither will they receive their inability to please God by their own efforts, free themselves from the bondage of sin, or accept what was done on the cross of Christ. Christ as absolute Truth will never find reception in a world and culture that says truth is relative. Followers of Christ are in the world, but not of it. We live by the ways of His Kingdom, and not by the ways of the kingdom of the world. The Kingdom of God is in direct conflict and collision with the kingdom of the world that is all around it, and so will be the lives of all those who belong to His Kingdom. We will be His witnesses, His outposts in that world. We will never love that fallen kingdom, but we will love and seek to bring to His Kingdom all those who are trapped in it. We will expect its hostility, but will not be deterred by it. Christ told us to let our light shine before men. He said "Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness cannot comprehend it." We are to be "lighthouses," outposts of His Kingdom in a world composed of rebel kingdoms that are everywhere. We are commanded to be so. Are we being so, or, have we been more affected by the fallen kingdom around us, than His Kingdom within us?

Three thoughts and quotes from Chris Tiegreen. I believe they are Spirit led words, and I hope they speak to you as they have me. Be blessed today my friends.

Pastor O

Risk Free?

 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”  Luke 8:25....."We may choose safety or Christ, but not both." Chris Tiegreen....."Faith and risk are inseparable." Erwin McManus.

Scripture says that Abraham "went out not knowing where he was going." He was doing so because his God had commanded him to. He didn't ask for a detailed explanation of what to expect, or a list of things God would guarantee to provide. He simply went and believed that this God whom he was obeying would make a way for him. We all like to listen to stories about the faith of Abraham, but few of us want to live out the faith of Abraham in our own stories.

We in the western church are a comfort loving, safety loving people. We don't want to go to the store without asking Him to watch over us on the way, as well as when we return. In truth, we think His primary task with us and our families is to keep us secure. We want not just a safe faith, but a risk free one. That brings me to the question for each of us; is there anything that you would risk all  in your obedience in following Him? Would you put the well being of not only yourself, but of your loved ones in His hands, with no guarantees of anything but His love, His presence, and His promises? 

This is what He demands of us. He makes no promises about not encountering danger, opposition from the enemy, or even times of want along the way. What He does promise is that He will be fully with us, and that He will get us to where He is leading. In Luke 8, a fierce storm had arisen, Jesus was asleep in the boat, and the disciples were sure they would perish. They made the deadly error of thinking He'd abandoned them, that the threat was mightier than their Lord, and most of all, that He had commanded them to get in the boat and go to the other side of the water. They were to trust that with Him, they would get to where He was sending them. So are we, but so often.... we don't. 

We like to watch adventure movies, but we are not anxious to undertake any adventures ourselves. Yet an adventure is exactly what He calls us to when we walk with Him. In the adventure movie, danger and risk are everywhere, and we thrill to watch it all, but in our hearts, we know it's all Hollywood make-believe. There is nothing make-believe about the adventure Christ calls us to. The dangers and risks will be real, but His presence, power, and provision will be more real. We're to trust that He will get us "to the other side" no matter how fierce the various storms and trials we encounter. McManus writes, "We will be called to make courageous decisions even when gripped by fear." We can do so because of a faith that is anchored in His reality. A faith that goes far beyond "traveling mercies," securing a parking space, and His giving us days of "not too much stress and trouble." 

Here's the thing; we are entering days that none of us have seen or experienced before. "Business as usual" faith will not be enough. It never has been enough. Scripture says that "the people who know their God will do exploits." A lost world needs a church and people who do exploits in the power of their God and Savior. That means risk, danger, and living on the edge, but we'll be living on the edge with Him. That's where He's meant for us to be all along. Let's break free of the artificial safety nets we've created and step out into the unknown, storms, dangers, and risks be what they may. Our Savior is with us. He will get us to the other side. He will get us home......and on the way, we will do exploits.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Doors

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7....."Jesus urges us to come, to ask, and to believe." Chris Tiegreen

Some translations of Matthew 7:7 read that we are to "keep on" asking, seeking, and knocking, and I know there is truth in that. Yet to me, it gives the impression that the Father is One we must persistently "pester" until He finally (grudgingly?) gives in to us. I don't think that reflects the heart of God at all. I think a more correct understanding would be that we're to ask until we begin to ask for that which He wants to give us. We ask for trinkets. He wants us to receive the fullness of His Kingdom. As for our seeking, we can spend a lifetime seeking for what He says will rust and decay. He would have us seek the One thing, the best thing; Himself. When it comes to open doors in our lives, we tend to bang our heads against so many that will never open to us, or if they do, will lead us to some level of destruction. He desires that our spiritual perception, discernment, and wisdom recognizes His door, and then to walk through it. It's a pretty simple matter, but we can be masters at overcomplicating it all. What are we missing?

Maybe it's the first thing that Tiegreen says Christ calls us to, and that is to come to Him. I think most of us think that we do come to Him, but what is our heart attitude in the coming? Do we come before Him with a worshipping heart? Do we come before Him with a submitted heart? With praise, honor, and reverence? Or do we come with a demanding spirit? With an attitude of entitlement? Yes, we are to come before Him boldly, but not brazenly. we are never to lose our sense of holy reverence, and who it is that we come to. What is our heart attitude when we come to Him?

When He calls us to seek, have we already determined what it is we're seeking? Are we just looking for His OK on what it is we want, usually something that is rooted in self-centered motives. Or do we come with a surrendered heart that is willing to lay down all our desires, even our best ones, in order that we might know His desire and will for us? We sing a lot of choruses and worship songs that say our heart's one desire is to see and know Him, but if we're truly honest with ourselves, in our coming to Him, are we focused on Him, or upon what it is we want from Him? I know what my answer far too many times has been. How about yours?

His last call, the knocking upon the door does require our persistence, but mainly because the last thing the enemy wants is for us to be going through His open doors. Satan will seek to confuse, distract, and seduce us away from His doorway. The Lord would have us persevere through all of that, and grow stronger in Him, and more intimate with Him in the process. And we also learn to discern His door from all those counterfeit doors the devil would put before us.

That, for me at least, is what I see in Jesus' call. I think of His great promise, "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." I key on those first three words; "you shall know." When we come before Him in reverent, yielded, worship, asking of Him the pure gold of all He has for us, and not the cheap baubles of this world, and seeking the door that leads us into ever deeper, higher, wider, fellowship and intimacy with Him, we are entering into the depths of all it is that He has for us. I want that for me, and I want it for you as well. May we have it. May we have all it from His hand. We simply come wholeheartedly, seek wholeheartedly, and believe.....wholeheartedly.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Mixture

 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. I Corinthians 3:12-13....."My service will not be judged by what I have done, but by how much of me there is in it." A.W. Tozer

Daniel Webster said that the great sobering reality of his life was that one day he would stand before God and give an account for how he had lived his life before Him. In our current self-centered culture, I wonder how deeply we share that sense? Do we understand that not only our lives, but our ministries, our service to and for Him, is going to be judged, and the standard will not be about the amount that we did, or even the outward success of it. It will come down to how much of it was motivated by "self," wood and stubble, and how much was centered on and empowered by Him, silver and gold.

The western church has been heavily invaded by the western mindset and value system. The "ladder of success" is climbed by those in Christian service just as eagerly as those in the secular realm. And the church, regardless of what it may state to the contrary, has consciously or not, contributed heavily to reinforcing that culture. The pressure to increase may be greater than ever for the pastor or Christian minister. The church in the west, particularly in America, is not growing, and much of what we call "growth" is nothing more than people exchanging their seat in one fellowship for a seat in another just down the road. Every worker, and especially every pastor, when first undertaking a new work, feels the pressure to produce results. This pressure can cause them to use every means possible to do so. Wanting to succeed is human, but the seduction of success can become so strong that we cease to be yielded to His leading and empowering and seek to build on a foundation we create rather than on the foundation of Jesus Christ. It's a seductive path, and I've seen many go down it. I've gone down it myself. We throw ourselves into growing the church, bringing more people in, expanding our ministries, increasing finances. These are not bad things, but the means and motives behind them can be. Pastors and leaders can begin to see people as objects to be used to reach their goals, rather than souls cherished and loved by God, and entrusted to them for their spiritual well being and growth. They're there to help us get to where we want to be. The self-life, not Christ-life, drives what we do. Regardless of what the outward result may be, we've produced wood and stubble, not silver and gold. There is much good in what we've done, and there is also much of us in it. Too much. We've produced a mixture. A bit of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and a great deal of us. God doesn't share His glory.

In all of this, we have to realize the great difference between what He calls success and what our ideas of it are. Someone defined success as doing the best you can, with what you have, where you are. Faithfulness. This will also produce fruitfulness. It may result in an increase in all those things mentioned above, but it may not. It's God who gives the increase, not us. In His eyes, I believe He values the increase of His life within the hearts and lives of His people over and above the increase in numbers, monies, and buildings. Pastors and leaders may have accomplished much outwardly, but the lives entrusted to them have never grown in any real way. They continue to struggle with the same sins and addictions. Their faith is shallow, their witness weak. They are not overcomers. Which do we think blesses the heart of God more, a pastor whose ministry has yielded 50 lives whose life testimony brings Him glory, or one who can count a multitude each week, but who step out into their world each week and make little or no impact at all? When we stand before Him, what will be of wood and stubble, and what will be of silver and gold?

None of what I write comes from a smug, superior spirit. I may have been more guilty than all concerning what I speak of. I wanted the success, the applause, and the positions. I wanted to do it for Him, and I wanted to see people added on to the Kingdom, but I wanted to expand my kingdom as well. He withheld all that from me. Perhaps He couldn't, wouldn't trust me with it. In my frustrations with it all, He did bring me to a place of surrendering all that and just seeking to be faithful, doing my best, where I was, with what I had. Seeking to bring to spiritual maturity to those He'd entrusted to me, regardless of the number that those comprised. Finally, I became content in the place of ministry He'd given me, while also saddened by the wasted years of trying to climb that ladder.

I know I'll give an account one day. I can only hope that there is more gold and silver to my ministry than wood and stubble, but there will be wood and stubble. Whatever years of ministry are left to me, I pray they produce silver and gold. May all who are His servants produce the same. May we each hear on that day, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" That is my great heart's desire. May it be yours as well.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Thoughts Anew

 I hear the Lord speaking to me through these entries in my prayer journal. I pray they speak to you as well....

I don't want to merely possess faith. I want a faith that possesses me." Charles Kingsley

I agree that weak faith, wavering faith, weary faith, is still faith. Still, I believe that the kind of faith Kingsley speaks of is possible for us. Scripture says that "Our God is a consuming fire." To have the kind of faith spoken of here, indeed, to have the kind of life Christ displayed and calls us to, we must have lives that are consumed by His life. Lives that are consumed with all that He is. To have a faith that possesses us, means we must have a heart and life that is His alone, not shared with other "gods." I have been both moved and convicted by the prayer lives of men like George Muller and Watchman Nee. Both were men of prayer, and both were men who saw God alone as the Source in all things. Both said that when they had a need, particularly in the financial and material realm, they would tell no one of it but Him. Such was their trust, and such was the depth to which their faith in Him took hold of them. He was everything to them, and so, they trusted Him for everything they would need. We can have such faith, but we must be willing to be consumed by the fire of His life. When I was pastoring in West Texas, our campground was host to swarms of mosquitoes every evening. We would gather beneath a giant pecan tree each night, but the threat of the mosquitoes was greatly diminished because of the large "bug zappers" hanging in the tree. The mosquitoes would fly into the light and be completely consumed. So it is to be for us. We must step into the fullness of His Light in Jesus Christ and be consumed. Then we will begin to know and experience what it is to have faith that we can "do all things in Christ." I want such faith. Do you?

"If you were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you." Samuel Rutherford

I don't know about you, but barking dogs greatly irritate me, especially when they're barking at me. I shouldn't take it personally. They're just being dogs, and that's what they do with strangers. They're usually very friendly with those they know and are comfortable with. Maybe that should tell us something about the followers of Christ's relationships with the world around them. To truly follow Him means we live in the culture of His Kingdom, and that culture is alien to the culture of this world. Different values, different viewpoints, completely different ideas on what is "good" and what is "bad." Most of all, a completely different view of what is wrong with humanity. The world thinks that it may be broken, but that they can fix it. Those in Christ know that the problem is sin and our captivity to it. We know we cannot fix it, and that the only answer for our captivity is Christ. The world relies on self, and His people rely on Him. We are a counterculture to this world, and it will not be friendly to His message. Talk about Mohammed, talk about Buddha, talk about Hinduism, and people will almost always politely listen. Talk about Jesus, His claims, message, and His answers to it all, and there will usually be a less than receptive response. Christ didn't bring a philosophical message to be discussed. He stated flatly who He was, why He came, who we were without Him, and who we can be in Him. That message brought Him to the cross. In a myriad of ways, it will bring us to some form of His cross as well if we persist in proclaiming it. As He did and does, we can love this fallen world and all who are in it, but we can never make peace with it. A lyric from a favorite song when I first came to Him went, "A Christian and an outlaw are rebels to the world." A believer will always be a rebel to the fallen world system they find themselves in. We will always be "strangers" to it, and it will never cease "barking" at us, but the power of that world was conquered by Christ on His cross and in His resurrection. In Him, we conquer as well. Let the "dogs" bark, chase, and bite. They're only being what they are without Him. We must be what we are in Him. That's who I want to be. How about you?

"In this age, you always walk among the wounded." Chris Tiegreen

This may be the most piercing of the thoughts, and I link it to the quote from Rutherford. Hurting people hurt others. Angry people "bark." Bitter and resentful people hide. All of them because of the wounds they bear. Wounds that many in His church continue to bear. All of these wounds affect us in our day to day lives. They affect all of our relationships. Time does not heal them. A new boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife will not heal them. Money, possessions, success, none of these heal them. Only One can. The One who announces, "I am the God who heals you." For you and me, this means that before anything, we must present our wounds, all of them, to Him, and receive the healing that is ours through His blood. Then, we must step out towards all those wounded among us, and be used by Him to bring healing. We are not the healers, He is, but we are the vessels through which He can bring healing. Today, you and I walk among the wounded. If we're among them, and all of us are at some point, then we must receive the healing He promises. I welcome His healing, and I want to be a vessel of His healing. How about you?

Living in an all consuming faith. Walking, ministering, loving a world you can never feel at home in, but can never cease reaching out to. Offering yourself as His "healing balm" to a wounded, bleeding world. These are all to be found in the life of a follower of Jesus. Are they found in mine, and are they found in yours?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Your Name

 "She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize Him. 'Why are you crying?' Jesus asked her. 'Who are you looking for?' She thought He was the gardener. 'Sir,' she said, 'if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will go and get Him. 'Mary,' Jesus said. She turned toward Him and exclaimed, 'Teacher!' John 20:14-16....Mary's tears ceased, because she heard His voice calling her name." Watchman Nee

I love the old chorus that has the lyric, "Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name." I don't think that there are words enough in any language to contain or describe all that is in the name of Jesus. All the attributes of God are found in His name. In His name is joy, peace, power, strength, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation. We are given the indescribable privilege of bringing our prayers before the Father, and asking in His name. All is in submission to the name of Jesus, including the greatest of the human race's enemies, death. Yet there is something that though not equally beautiful, is wondrous to behold and know, and we see it in the risen Christ's discourse Mary Magdalene.

Mary had come to the tomb to anoint and wash the body of Jesus. She was heartbroken to discover He wasn't there. The past few days had been devastating. Her Lord taken, beaten and abused, tortured on the cross, killed, and then buried. Her emotions and spirit were raw and buried in despair. His missing body was too much. All she could do was weep. Sometimes, it appears our only option in the midst of circumstances is to weep. Likely you've been in that place. Maybe you're there now. Jesus had transformed the life of Mary Magdalene. Now He was gone. Why? What would happen to and with her now? She longed for her Lord, but He wasn't there. At least, to her He wasn't.

Scripture tells us that she then noticed someone behind her. When she turned, she saw someone she didn't recognize and believed him to be the gardener. It was in reality, the Lord Himself. Isn't it so often that in our lives crisis moments, we have no ability to see or recognize Him? Sorrow, exhaustion, fear, our world falling in upon us can do that. Too often it does do that. Yet it did not cause Him to turn from her, but to her. Jesus asked her why she was weeping? That may seem a cruel question since He knew why she was, but in truth, hadn't He told her, and all the disciples what He had to suffer, of the cross, His death, but then, of His rising again? Yet in her great pain, she, and all of them, had forgotten it. These things can blind the human heart. They can blind us to Jesus. Jesus won't leave us in that place.

After Mary tells Jesus the reason for her sorrow, He simply says, "Mary." When He spoke her name, everything changed. When He spoke her name, her eyes were opened to His reality. When He spoke her name, all her sorrow, despair, fear, and weakness vanished, and all she saw and knew was Jesus. Jesus her Lord. There is indeed something about His name, but there is also something wonderful and beautiful beyond words of His speaking our name. I believe He is always speaking our name, especially in the darkest places, but the darkness dulls our hearing, and so we don't hear, and then don't see, that He is there....right with us. Wherever we are this day, He speaks our name. The One whose name is above all names, knows our name, and our name is always upon His lips. Your name is upon His lips this very moment. Can you hear Him speak it?

I have walked through some very dark places. Like Mary, I believed those places would be the end of me. They weren't. In those place, every time, His voice would pierce the darkness, and in His voice, I would hear Him speak by name. Not so much audibly as by the witness of His Spirit. He was with me. He'd not abandoned me to the darkness. He knew my name, spoke my name, and continually gave me His name as assurance. If you are in the darkness, He will do the same. Listen for His still, small voice. It will yield a wonder beyond description. He knows your name. Let us all know the wonder of His.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Once More

For the last several writings, I've been delving into my prayer journal for thoughts and quotes that I use in my own prayer life. They seem to have been received pretty well, so I thought I'd try and share a few more. I hope they speak to you as they do to me.

The first comes from Henry Blackaby, who asks, "Are we so determined to 'get to the work' that we can't hear His heart?" I think this hits hard upon every Christian worker, but none more than they who are charged with the care of His church and people. We can so easily be sidetracked with what we wish to accomplish in ministry that we aren't even asking Him or listening for confirmation as to whether this is what He would have us do, or even where we should be. Back in the 80's and 90's, there was a strong emphasis on leaders to set goals, the popular axiom being "if you have no goals, you'll be sure to never achieve them." This always seemed strange to me, but I wasn't outspoken about it, believing I'd be seen as "negative." Then I read Blackaby's book titled "Spiritual Leadership," where he clearly spoke against such an approach. Goals mostly originate with us. Vision, true vision, comes from Him. We see this throughout His Word. Jesus had only one goal, to accomplish what His Father called Him to and sent Him for. He was always in tune with the Father's heart. The work was not His foremost concern. His Father's will was. I think too many have lost that connection. Someone said that His favorite word is, "Come!" In Revelation we're told to "listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." We need to yield all, including what we wish to achieve, and simply discover and be in tune with His heart. Nothing matters more.

Secondly, I share what John Bevere wrote in one of his books. He said, "When we doubt Him, we insult His integrity." I'm grieved when I take a moment to remember all the places where I did just that. We don't want to see it that way, but how can it be anything else? When we, in the face of all that He has promised, question whether He can or will, how are we not insulting His integrity and character? How are we not calling Him a liar, if not in word, surely in thought? How often has He, as He did with Thomas, had to ask us, "How long have I been with you, and still you do not know (trust/believe) Me?" In His earthly ministry, He would often ask His listeners, "Do you believe this?" Most, even the disciples, struggled, even stumbled to do so. It wasn't until Pentecost, when the fullness of His Holy Spirit came upon them, that they triumphed over doubt. Could it be that we, who still struggle and stumble, need our own personal Pentecost, where we are consumed by His Spirit, and can say in truth, "Yes, Lord. I believe!"

The last thought comes from Chris Tiegreen who says, "If you do not hope, you do not find out what is beyond your hope." We are living in times of hopelessness, even among those who profess to follow Him. People, families, and churches are sinking into ever deeper pools of despair. We see only the obstacles and difficulties. We cannot see Him. I think we need a fresh understanding of what Paul wrote in Romans about Abraham, who is called the father of our faith. Paul said of him, "Abraham, against all hope, in hope, believed." Abraham, at age 90, had been promised a son. A son through whom all the promises that had been made to Abraham, would be the beginning conduit for them all to come to pass. It was God who made the promise, and it was to God that Abraham clung in believing that promise. He did not consider his ancient body, or that of his wife Sarah. He believed His God, and upon Him he cast all of his hope. He didn't see all that screamed that was promised couldn't be, He simply looked to the One who said it would be. Against all hope, he in hope, believed. In these days, as never before, we are called to the same. There is every reason not to, for they are everywhere around us. There is only one reason to believe; the One who has made the promise and all other promises. Him we can believe. Him we can trust. In Him, we can fix our hope.

So, as these men advise, let's realize that the Father seeks our intimacy and closeness above all, not our labor and our work. That we would remember that Jesus told His disciples, "If it were not so, I would have told you," and so take Him at His word, and all of His word, and not grieve His Spirit. Last, that we would dare to hope in even the darkest of circumstances, knowing that this is the key to laying hold of that which everyone but He has told is impossible.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Another Three

 It appears I'm still in the sharing mode, as my last two writings have been the sharing of things I've got written down in my prayer journal. Today, I'd like to share some thoughts on three things spoken by Watchman Nee.

The first is, "We cannot just rub shoulders with the Lord." Rub shoulders is likely a lesser known expression these days, but its meaning is that of passing someone in a crowd, touching them lightly, but not really touching them at all. I think the clearest example of this in Scripture is Jesus' ministry to the woman with the menstrual cycle that was perpetual and rendered unclean by Jewish law. Jesus was in the midst of a crowd that was all around Him, but it was this woman, desperate for healing and wholeness who received what it was she sought. She wanted to do more than just touch Him. She wanted to lay hold of Him, and for Him to lay hold of her. The rest of the crowd was rubbing shoulders. She wanted His intimacy. How like the crowd are we, and how unlike the woman can we be? Each week, we attend "worship services," but we do little more than rub shoulders with Him. So few of us ever really lay hold of Him, and fewer still are laid hold of by Him. If the church is to truly experience an awakening, it must begin with a people, a person, who will not be stopped from laying hold of the King.

Nee's second statement is, "A true King is King under all circumstances. He rules everywhere." Jesus said, "All authority under heaven has been given to Me." I think the church needs a fresh revelation of the sovereignty of Almighty God and of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is the Lord who sits upon the throne. Not the devil and not the seeming unending types of circumstances and situations he seeks to work through. The Lord reigns in all places, most especially those places in which we find ourselves today. There is nothing that can change that truth. The whispers from the darkness cannot alter what the Lord has said about Himself. As Jesus commanded the storm on the sea of Galilee, so He commands every storm and happening in our lives. Paul, and all those who were on that Roman galley suffered shipwreck in that terrible storm outlined in the Book of Acts, so we can suffer such events in our lives. We live in a fallen world, and as Christ told us, we will have troubles. However, in the midst of the shipwreck, God saw to it that not one life was lost in the storm. They all made it to shore. God's will and purpose for us will be realized if we will trust in His power, His promise, and His presence. We will suffer loss and hardship, but He will get us to shore. He will get us home.

Nee's last statement is, "Darkness cannot be driven out of the world, but light can swallow it up." As Scripture tells us, Jesus is the Light of the world, and as Paul writes, "in Him is no darkness at all." He is pure Light, and the deepest darkness cannot stand against Him. In this world, darkness will sometimes, oftentimes, overtake us. Yet it is in these times we discover the power of His Light. Darkness and death go hand in hand, but Paul writes that, "death is swallowed up in victory." His victory on the cross and in His resurrection. Paul said that our last and greatest enemy is death, and that enemy has been vanquished. Light has swallowed up the darkness. Christ has conquered death and darkness in all of their forms. The Light has come, and wherever the Light comes, darkness, and all the death that accompanies it, must go. That truth was sealed at the cross.

Laying hold of the King, trusting in His rule, looking to and walking in His Light. May this be our way of life. Your way and my way of life. Without them, there really is no life.

Blessings,

Pastor O