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