Free In Him

 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17

We spend so much time trying to avoid undesirable places. Trying to avoid pain, suffering, sacrifice, and just about any kind of circumstance that we find distasteful. Our prayers are so often focused on God getting us out of unwanted situations and circumstances. We want to have freedom from these things. We miss that this is not His purpose at all. He never promised or said that it would be. His desire is that we find freedom, His freedom, in them. And we can, if we will walk in trust with Him in whatever circumstances He allows to come into our life.

Think about what our usual responses to trouble and pain are. We have anxiety, fear, stress, anger, a whole gamut of possible responses. We are totally unsettled and feel as if everything we've counted on has been removed. It is that "feeling" that the Lord means to change in us.....because that feeling, like so many feelings, is a lie. Circumstances, no matter how severe, can never remove His presence from our lives. It's amazing how often we forget that, especially since He has made so many promises to us concerning His faithfulness, that He will "never leave us or forsake us." 

What a beautiful promise 2 Corinthians 3:17 is; wherever His Spirit is, there is freedom. So why do we experience so little freedom in the course of our trials? It's because we allow these trials and challenges to our foundation in Him to deceive us into thinking He's abandoned us, or worse, that He doesn't care. Or, if not that, to convince us that they are mightier than He is. So we plead for Him to remove them from us or remove us from them. He rarely does this, because He's at work to do something far greater and more lasting in us, and what He seeks to do in us is always of more importance to Him than what we think needs to be done around us.

If He simply gives us freedom from something, then the root issues of our lack of trust, rest, and faith don't get addressed, and so we remain captive to our ongoing tendency to stress, anxiety, fear, and panic. These are not overcome by changing our outward circumstances. They are overcome by His changing our inward responses, our inward condition. By His changing us.

Jesus said that we were not to fear the troubles that will surely come upon us in this world because He has already overcome that world and every one of its afflictions. Not only what that world attempts against us outwardly, but inwardly as well. These troubles will not cease, but He means that we will have freedom even in the midst of them. Rather than being captive to all the anxieties that they can bring, we have the freedom of living in His peace, joy, strength and assurance. This is our victory that overcomes the world. We are unshakeable because we stand upon and in the unshakeable One. The seas of life may be raging around us, but all is calm within us. We can rest in the One who commands those seas.

We are seeing cultural and spiritual upheaval on an almost daily basis. Everything is being shaken. The enemy will surely seek to shake and disintegrate our trust in Him. It will grow increasingly difficult to find a place of rest outside of it all, so we must abide in His rest within it. We know we can be shaken, but we must also know that He cannot be shaken. When the disciples found themselves upon a sea in the midst of a violent, life threatening storm, they panicked because Jesus was asleep in the boat. They thought He was oblivious to their condition. He wasn't. He simply knew that the storm had no power over Him. He desired that they would know it had no power over them either because He was with them. In these days, we may lay hold of this truth as we lay hold of Him. One day, in eternity, we will know freedom from all forms of death and danger, but that day is not yet here. Let us experience, together, His freedom in the midst of all of it. In Him we are free. In Him, we can live above any storm.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Beachhead

 "In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes." 2 Corinthians 2:11...."We may be done with the kingdom of darkness, but the kingdom of darkness isn't done with us." Chris Tiegreen

Paul penned the above Scripture from 2 Corinthians and connected it with how the devil infiltrates our minds and hearts through the presence of unforgiveness in our lives. That's the immediate context, but the enemy's ways are no less insidious or limited in a multitude of other areas in our lives. How successful he is will depend on our awareness of his ways, as Paul says, but also by being aware of the many different means he uses to attack us. Paul wrote that "we are not unaware of his schemes," but I would not readily concur with that as concerns the modern church. I think a large segment of the church is very much unaware of his avenues of attack, and we are paying a heavy price. In our marriages, families, relationships, and ministries.

The ways of the enemy are subtle far more often than blatant. Watchman Nee said that his initial assault upon our hearts and minds is aimed at securing some "ground" in our lives. His next assault will come from the ground that he has now secured. The U.S. strategy in the Pacific during WW2 was to land troops upon a strategic island, establish a beachhead, and then from that beachhead eventually secure the whole island. This is what Satan does in a life, even in the life of one who belongs to Christ. He doesn't willingly surrender a soul, and if he cannot take it back, he will seek to render it powerless. He does so by securing more and more "ground in our lives. Paul called them strongholds. It is out of these strongholds that he operates and wages war. We need to know that he will do this, but even more, we need to know the areas of our lives where we are vulnerable for him to do this. Too many of us aren't.

Besides the "normal" areas such as unresolved anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness, as well as lust, greed, jealousy, and so on, there are the host of less obvious but just as deadly operations that he conducts against us. Many of them are things that have found widespread acceptance in our culture, as well as in some areas of the church. We see them as harmless, which is exactly as the enemy would have it. Unseen enemies are always the deadliest. Let me focus on just one.

I am amazed at how acceptable the occult has become in the culture of the church. Movies, TV, literature, and video games have become saturated with various levels of the occult and its practices. In our ignorance, indeed, our deception, we don't see them as a problem, and that is exactly why he so easily establishes his "beachheads" in our lives. We watch, read, and game with blatantly occultic images and stories and see no harm in it. He in turn plants all of that in our spirits and comes against us through them. Have you ever done any studying on how many of the acts of violence carried out by teens were from young people who were strongly linked to entertainment, literature, and games that were graphic in nature, but viewed as not harmful by them or their parents. When we watch or read that which glorifies darkness in any form, what have we brought into our spirits? We are spiritual beings first and foremost. God is Spirit and so is the enemy. Both link to us through our spirits. One or the other rules our spirit. Which one is it for you?

I realize that it is easy to slip into legalism in these things and see the devil lurking in everything. That is why having true spiritual wisdom, discernment, and understanding is a must. I think they're in short supply in a great segment of the church, and so, we are easily deceived by the enemy, allowing him entry into our lives through means we see as harmless. As a result, from the foothold we've allowed him, he operates against us. Every problem we have is not the result of some satanic influence, but can we at least consider that much of the depression, suicidal thoughts, and addictive behaviors that are rampant not only in the culture, but the church, can be the result of the spirits we entertain unknowingly through what we watching, reading, and listening to?

Some may dismiss what I'm saying, so all I ask is that you honestly take this to Him in prayer as well as the things you think might be questionable for you. Wait upon Him for answers. He will give you the guidance you seek and need. If you're one that just looks at all this "demonic influence stuff" as just a lot of superstitious mumbo jumbo, I'll reference a song by the great singer songwriter of the Jesus Movement of the 60's, Keith Green. One of his songs dealt with the workings of the devil in the world and church. A lyric in it has the enemy chortling at his success in wreaking havoc because, "no one believes in me anymore." For all of us, may we not fall into such a trap. May we hearken to Paul's words in 2 Corinthians....and not be unaware of his schemes.

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Sharp Edges

 "Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand."  Isaiah 64:8

No matter how long I am here and how much longer I will go on, I am reminded again and again for my need to never leave the Potter's wheel. I'm reminded of this by all the sharp edges that keep appearing in my life. Sharp edges that can cut and scratch. Sharp edges that need to be smoothed and shaped by the loving, but strong, firm hands of the Master Potter....my Father God. I think that perhaps you know of this in your own life as well.

One of the great wonders of being on His wheel, of living and walking with Him in His Holy Spirit, is that He continues to bring us back around again and again, as He confronts us with our sharp edges. As He addresses them and shapes them in His hands. That's where we see the love and faithfulness of God. He'll never be content with allowing things, characteristics, attitudes, to remain in us that can harm others and us as well. He will keep His wheel spinning, bringing us back around again and again, exposing the sharp edges of our life and applying the pressure needed to remove them, smooth them, and make us soft and pliant in His hands. It's a lifetime process.

We can see this process in Jesus' ministry, especially with His disciples. He continually brought them back to where they had been failing, especially in the matters of belief, exposing that which was hindering their walk with Him. He continues this ministry in His people, in you and me, through His Holy Spirit, bringing conviction, correction, and shaping as He does. It can be painful. Shaping our lives and removing our flaws, some of them very deep, involves the friction of His hands pressing deep into our lives. Usually, one turn on the wheel is not enough. It can take many. He's never in a hurry. He desires to make us a beautiful work of His hand. His masterpiece. We all begin as lumps of clay with Him, but in us, He sees the masterpiece He created us to be. It's not the lump of clay, or all of its sharp edges that He looks upon. He sees the piece He is laboring to make us.

We all have our sharp edges. He, the Potter, will deal with them, but here's the key; we have to submit to His "wheel," which is His cross, and then to His hands as He works in us His nature and His life. It begins with submission. A submission that is not only initial, but ongoing. We yield to the wheel, and then yield continuously to the shaping process He is using on us.

Sharp edges. He keeps bringing to my attention the ones that remain in me. My choice in them is will I stay on His wheel and allow His fingers to remove them, painful or not, or will I jump off the wheel. That's your choice as well. I've made mine. What's yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Realm

At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”j 27The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.  Hebrews 12:26-27

I believe that we, the church, are living in the literal fulfillment of the above Scripture. Our world, nation, and culture are being shaken as never before. The church, particularly in the west, is being shaken as well. Verse 27 is particularly meaningful for us; that which can be shaken in our lives is being removed so that only the unshakeable, all that is connected to Him, remains. 

I have been looking at this verse and these words for some time now. I have preached them, written of them, and challenged others with them. This past week I was challenged myself. Challenged in ways that I was not really prepared for, but came through more deeply rooted then I was previous to the shaking. It proved to me anew that no matter how strongly we may feel we are in Him, there is always much more ground to gain and secure. There is always a deeper place for us in the Spirit. The shakings He allows into our lives are so often the means He uses to show us that. It certainly was the means He used with me.

Without going into the details, which would be too lengthy to describe here, I had very good reason to fear that my bank accounts were at risk from internet scammers. I'd been duped, and in the duping, they'd gained access to my laptop. I knew my bank accounts and credit card could be at risk. I went directly to my bank, and though they were very helpful, they could only keep watch against a possible entry into my funds. They advised me to wait overnight, return in the morning, and see what further steps might be needed to safeguard everything. This is where His shaking enters in. I had never been in this kind of situation before. More, I knew I had no real control over it at the moment. Though I didn't panic, I was under real and strong stress and anxiety. The enemy of course took great advantage of this with seemingly endless scenarios of disaster that he brought into my thoughts. That which could be shaken in me, that which I wasn't really aware could be shaken, was. In the midst of this very unpleasant place, He was taking me more deeply into His unshakeable Kingdom. It's a natural process that He uses with His people. We so easily overlook the reality that the only way He can bring us ever deeper into this realm is by allowing unexpected upheaval into our lives. We have little idea of how much there is that can be shaken....until they are. I was in a place I'd never been before, challenged, shaken, in a way I'd never been before. The only way He could place me on His unshakeable ground was to shake the far from solid ground I'd been standing on. That's exactly what He did.

The rest of the story is a good one. The bank assisted me in adding all the precautions I needed to prevent potential theft. The Geek Squad at Best Buy removed all dangerous software from my computer. The scammer got nothing and will forever get nothing. And I went deeper into His unshakeable Kingdom....but it wasn't without cost. As He worked through all these things to secure the outward circumstances, He also did an inward work within. I realized that in this, I had allowed myself to get my eyes off Him and upon the threat. I was focused on what I might lose, and not on the One I could never lose. The One who offered a greater guarantee of security than any bank or computer geek ever could. All I could do was confess my failure to trust Him, and repent of that failure. In return came the wave and security of His Presence. I had found new, unshakeable ground. I also realized there are likely more very shakeable areas remaining. When they are shaken, and they will be, I am believing that it will be an easier transition onto His ground than this last time. I want to live fully in the Kingdom that can't be shaken, and the pathway is to walk from the shakeable ground onto the unshakeable. It will be your pathway as well. Don't fear the shaking. What you might lose there is of no comparison to what is gained in Him. He, and His unshakeable realm will always be what remains.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Haunted

 "In Him we live, move, and have our being." Acts 17:28...."Our lives are to be haunted by the presence of God."

Oswald Chambers

The meaning of the word "haunted" is, "To come to the mind continually....To be continually present in. To pervade" I think this is the sense of the meaning of both Acts 17:28 and Oswald Chambers words. This is the kind of presence the Father wants to have with His people. He wants to haunt our lives. If we can get past the negative connotation we give that word, we can begin to grasp the handle of the door to His deeper life that He invites us into.

When we think of the word "haunted" we usually think of a house or place believed to be permeated with a supernatural presence. Now, I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in His supernatural presence, and I believe He means for us to live immersed in His presence. In a haunted house story, there is no place within it that the haunting presence cannot manifest itself. More, people who inhabit that house in the story are very much aware of that presence. All that makes for a good "ghost story," but how does it relate to us, to we who are His?

Someone once said that we're to live in "the atmosphere of His Holy Spirit." That means that our atmosphere is permeated with the presence of His Spirit, that the atmosphere is His Holy Spirit. Every part of it. There is no place we can go or be where His presence is not real. Our minds and our spirits are sensitive to this and aware, both consciously and unconsciously, that He is present. Just as a man or woman in love with their mate may still carry out their day to day functions, they do so with the sense of the other always present in some manner. They are never forgotten or put aside. The two have become one, and so the sense of the other will always be there for both. This is why divorce is such a traumatic experience, as the oneness that is meant to be permanent is literally ripped apart. There is not just emotional and mental pain, but deep spiritual pain as well. The oneness that we are to have with and in Him is even deeper than that of a man and wife. We are to be so intertwined with His life and being that as Jesus said, we are in Him and He is in us. This is what our relationship with Him is meant to be, yet so many of us never enter into that kind of depth with Him. Perhaps the reasons are not all that different from why so many marriages never become what God had intended for them to be. We don't give ourselves to each other, nor do we give all of ourselves to Him.

In a marriage, many find it quite easy to live throughout each day giving little thought to the one they were made one with in marriage. They can do so because they have allowed so many other things and people to draw their hearts away from the one they were to have fully given themselves to. They allowed other loves to enter into their hearts. These other loves soon crowded out the awareness of their beloved to the degree that they were now on the fringe, and easily put aside, even forgotten. The image of the other fades. Soon, we have to make a conscious decision to think of them, because otherwise, we most likely won't. This is very much the same pattern with those who profess to be His. We have entertained so many other "loves" that He has been crowded to the fringe, and soon, He is more an afterthought, if He is any thought at all. We don't live in the atmosphere of His life, but in the life we've embraced in His place. From time to time (Sunday morning?) He comes to mind, but most of the time we have little awareness of Him. The sense of His presence becomes sporadic, and continues to fade until finally, we have no sense of Him at all.

Acts 17:28 says that "in Him we live, move, and have our being." The meaning is that we have no life outside of Him. We breathe in and out in the atmosphere of His Spirit. Just as there is no life apart from the oxygen in our physical atmosphere, there is none apart from our breathing in and out of His Spirit as we live in the atmosphere of His life. We may not consciously think of the oxygen we breathe with each breath, but we are never unaware that without that oxygen, we will die. We live fully aware of its life giving power. So too must we live in the moment reality of His life giving Spirit. Haunted by His presence, empowered by it, facing and overcoming all things in it. We simply carry out all that is our life with the knowledge that God is on the throne, breathe in, breathe out.....in the atmosphere of His Spirit.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Gems

 Today I thought I'd share three statements from Henry Blackaby that I've written down in my prayer journal. They're from three separate instances of Jesus ministry, and all of them are found in the Gospel of Luke. In no particular order they are.....

"Martha loved the Lord dearly. Her struggle came in being still." How like her we can be. We strive to serve Him, please Him, produce for Him. How little we seem to really enjoy Him. This was certainly the case with Martha.

In Luke 10, Jesus is visiting the home of his friends, the sisters Martha and Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Martha was a beehive of energy, making sure everything was as it should be. So focused were her preparations that she was frustrated, even angry, that her sister Mary was not helping her but "sitting at His feet." Unspoken is that she likely saw this as a waste of time. She urged Jesus to rebuke her sister and make her help her. Jesus declined, telling Martha that she was upset over so much, yet was missing the best part....Himself. How often in just this past week have we done the same. We focus our energies into ministry, service, but we rarely connect with the One we serve, and even less do we realize Him as our source of power. Frustration and anger will always be the result. Where are we experiencing that right now? Where do we, like Martha, undeniably love Him, but struggle to be still before and in Him? Where might we be seeing that as less important to us than our activity for Him? Where do we need a spiritual adjustment?

"Do we glory in our blessings without stopping to thank our Redeemer?" This question from Blackaby refers to Christ's healing of the 10 lepers in Luke 17. They had all come to Him for cleansing of the awful disease which made them total outcasts from their culture. They wanted to be healed, and Jesus granted their request, telling them to go and show themselves to the priests. As they did so, they were healed. Nine of them went on, but one turned back and shouted, "Praise God, I'm healed!" Jesus asked that hadn't He healed 10? Where were the other 9? More, this one was a Samaritan, a people who despised the Jews, and were despised in return. How like the nine are we? How many of His blessings do we take for granted or see as our due? How entitled do we feel in our relationship with Him in that we too, glory in our blessings, but have no real sense of gratitude for them? The nine were Jews. They were the ones to be expected to thank and give Him glory, but they could only rejoice in their good fortune, not bless the source of it. An ungrateful heart makes for a barren spirit. Where is the ingratitude in our lives. Where do we walk with the nine? How much of our life turns back to Him with thanks and the giving of glory?

"His friends had the Resurrection and the Life right in their midst, yet they were grieving." This refers to the instance of Jesus joining His two followers on the Emmaus Road shortly after the crucifixion and His resurrection. They were in sorrow as He joined them, and in their sorrow, didn't recognize Him. He walked with them, listening to their hearts and their sorrow. As they came to their home, they bid Him enter it with them. As He did, their eyes were opened, and they recognized their Lord. The Resurrection and the Life had been right there with them, but all they could see was their pain, their loss, and their hopelessness. How like them are we? How often do we lose sight of Him in the midst of our own pain and discouragement? He is there, right there, with us, but we don't recognize Him. Pain and sorrow can yield this. He had promised His followers that He would rise, but they'd forgotten that. We forget it so often ourselves. Yet when they invited Him in, sorrow turned to joy. They saw the One who had never left them. Where do we need to see Him today? What is it that blinds us to Him? Would we just simply invite Him in?

Three statements. May they speak to your heart as they so often do to mine. I see them as gems from Henry Blackaby. May they be gems to you as well.

Blessings,

Pastor O

If

 …22“It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23“If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!” 24Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”  Mark 9:22-24

The above Scripture relates the discourse between Jesus and a father whose son suffered demonic possession. His need was desperate, and he sought Jesus for help, yet wasn't fully sure that the One he sought could do what his heart so longed for. In the father we can see so much of ourselves. In Jesus, we see the heart of our Lord for us, that we believe, and His willingness to help us believe when the struggle to do so is so difficult. 

Coupled with this Scripture are three statements from Chris Tiegreen that I think relate to what is happening in it. I share them with you today......

"Miracles must be done in the presence of desperation and faith." Few of us want to reach the place of desperation, the place where we've exhausted all our own efforts. The place where all we have left is Him. This is fertile ground for a miracle. When Jesus is all we have, we find that Jesus is all we need. When we're done trusting in ourselves, relying on our abilities and strength, we find the wonder of who Christ is. We may, like the father, struggle with unbelief, but in our desperation, we bring that unbelief to Him. We surrender it, and our faith, weak as it may be, is placed in Him. In response, we learn, experience, and believe that all things really are possible for the one who dares to believe....and who dares to admit their desperation. Father, in these desperate days, give us a desperate faith!

"Our faith should not be realistic." We are constantly, even in the church, asked to adjust our faith to realistic expectations. Rationalism, logic, and what our intellect tells us to be possible, have displaced true faith. Faith that beholds the miraculous. We have placed limitations on what we expect or believe He can do, what He will do. We know that scoffers exist in the world, those who ridicule the very idea of the miraculous. The scoffer has also found his way into the church. Well meaning friends try to protect us from what they see as sure disappointment. So we don't pray or believe for great things. We pray for what we believe can be possible. We know Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. We know that Christ Himself rose from the dead. What credence would we give a report of one being raised from the dead today? This is so when it comes to healings, deliverances, and the complete reversal of impossible situations. If Doctors, politicians, and whoever the particular "experts" may be cannot accomplish it, then it can't be done. Like the Pharisees who beheld Christ and His miracles, we don't believe the God we say we believe in. Almighty God! May we have a faith that is never realistic in men's eyes, but completely realistic in Yours!

"Raise your expectations to reflect His reality." Just how real is He to you? We may pray to Him, speak of Him, honor Him, and worship Him, but in all of it, how real is He to us? Someone said that we often talk of Him as if He's not in the room. This is because His reality hasn't really penetrated our day to day life. Scripture says that in Him we live, move, and have our being, but this seems far more a theory to us than a reality. We believe that He is there, with us, but our sense of Him being there is so often dull at best. Our circumstances and needs seem far more real than He does, and our expectations of Him fall in line with that. They are minimal because our sense of Him is minimal. We can see this so clearly in our current culture. The darkness and growing evil is more real to us than He is. We're intimidated by it, and though we say we believe in an Almighty God, we have strong doubts as to whether He can and will turn the tide of it all. We sing that our God is an awesome God, but do our expectations of Him reflect our trust in that? I want to grow ever stronger in my belief and trust that He is and that all the sin and darkness of 10,000 years cannot make a dent in the greatness and power of my God. Whatever our expectations may be in our God, may they reflect the reality of who He says He is, and not the enemy's lies, or our own unbelief. May we know in whom we have believed, and may we be persuaded that He will keep, and do, all that we have trusted Him for, and beyond.

We are living in a time previously unthinkable and once thought impossible. Humankind is proving, as it has so many times before, it has no means of combating the steady collapse of our culture and world. Impossibilities are everywhere around us. Our only hope is to seek the miraculous God is Ruler over all impossibilities. The Apostle Paul said that our last and greatest enemy is death. Death has been conquered in Jesus Christ. That means death, in all of it's forms has been conquered in Jesus Christ. May that be the reality we live in. May there be no "if" in our belief system. All things ARE possible for the one who believes.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Anointed

 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,"  Luke 4:18

The above Scripture is first found in Isaiah 61:1-2. It is a Messianic prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. Jesus read these words in a Jewish synagogue as the means of announcing that He, the Messiah, had come. Every word of that Scripture is one of beauty, but the one I want to focus on today is the word, "anointed." Its meaning is "To be smeared with His Presence. Saturated with His radiance." That is the witness of those who are sent to His church and to the world they seek to reach. They are to be His messengers, smeared with His presence and saturated with His radiance. The need for such messengers in the church today is desperate. Yet they seem to be so few. Why?

I don't think we have to go very far to discover the answers. First off, I don't think preaching is any longer seen as a central skill to the one who fills the pulpit. Indeed, the pulpit no longer has the place it once held in the church, and I'm not speaking in just literal terms here. Whether God's messenger has a literal one or not, when they stand to bring what is meant to be a word from His heart and mind, it ought to be with a sense of awe, reverence, humility, and total dependence upon His Holy Spirit. It should be with a sense of urgency. Desperate urgency. Eternity is at stake for those who listen. Sadly, I don't get the sense that this is what occupies the hearts of a good many of those who "preach" each week. In our desire to be "relevant," we have too often watered down His Word. I have heard from so many who tell me that they cannot remember the last time they heard a message on the cross, holiness, sin, and yes, hell. All of these confront us, and none of them can be proclaimed apart from His anointing. They are weighty and have eternal ramifications. His Spirit must take hold of the messenger in order that the deep reality of each of them may take hold of those who listen.

Somehow, in our desire to be welcoming, relevant, and have an atmosphere that fits in with the 21st century, anointed preaching is too often relegated to the background in what a search committee seeks in a pastor. A church leader once listed for me all the things he wanted in a pastor. He never mentioned preaching, and when I did, he said, "Well, if he can serve 'good bread' too, that's great."  I fear that more and more, preaching is becoming a lost skill in the church, replaced by folks sitting in chairs, having conversations with the congregation. There is a place for this, but it can never take the place of Holy Spirit empowered words laced with Spirit fire that pierces the hearts of the hearers. Preaching that lets people know that they've heard from God on this day. Preaching that demands a decision. Preaching that is prophetic, confronting, convicting, and opens a door into the throne room of God. I do not believe that God first calls a person to be an organizational CEO, or a builder of buildings and attendance. I believe He calls them first and foremost to be preachers. Proclaimers of His Word. Prophets of the Lord. I also believe that what He calls us to He equips us for. True preachers are not born. They are made. By God. Few of us are skilled speakers in public before He calls. I may have been one of the worst of all. I could barely speak in any of my early classes at Bible College, but He equipped me. He has not ceased calling and He will never cease equipping.

The need for those soaked in His Presence is deep.Those who are drenched in His presence. Smeared with it. Radiating it. If He has called you to be His spokesman, you cannot succeed without His anointing. If you are seeking a pastor, may you seek one who is a true proclaimer of His word. May the announcement of Christ concerning His ministry also be the announcement over ours. Anointed to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. May He raise up a new generation of such messengers. Eternity depends on it.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Sent

 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21

If we are followers of the King, then we are going to be a sent people. We are sent out in His name. We are to be witnesses of His life and work, co-laborers with Him in His mission and ministry. If we are His followers, I think we know all of that, but do we know just how deep the call goes into our lives? Of that I'm not so sure.

I have a quote from Chris Tiegreen in my prayer journal that both challenges and convicts me. He writes, "Jesus' command(s) is comprehensive, compelling, and urgent. Give, pray, go, die if necessary." Do we dare to contemplate the depths of this charge? I believe we're willing to do all of these....to a point. We'll give, pray, and go to a point, a degree, a level. We almost always have an invisible line, a bottom line that we think going beyond is "unreasonable." We just don't think Jesus would ask that of us. And dying? I don't think we believers in the west can even comprehend that kind of scenario. Yet that scenario could well be coming upon us. It may already be upon us.

Are we, you and I, living with a sense of urgency today? When we look upon our family, friends, and those we pass by each day who are living without Him, do we have a sense of urgency that they should know Him? A member of my family, one who doesn't know Him, hasn't shown any desire to know Him, nearly died last week. He was a breath away from eternity. We're all a breath away from eternity. An eternity that each of us will either spend in an eternal hell or eternal heaven. It's not popular to talk about this much in the church these days, but both are very real, and one or the other await all of us. The determining element will always be what we do with Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. Have we an urgency about it all? In our prayers, our giving of ourselves, in our going to them with His message of life? Have I, and have you, an urgency? Charles Spurgeon, the master preacher of the 19th century, said in essence, that if one was determined to reject Christ, and step out into an eternity of darkness and death, then let them do so having to trip over our bodies, and with our arms wrapped around their legs in an effort to stop them from doing so. Have we been living in that way? Does it mark our witness?

Then there is the last part of the Tiegreen quote, that we be willing to die if necessary. Both literally and figuratively. Are we willing to die out to all self-interest in order to live for His interests? Are we willing to literally be killed for our witness as so many of our brethren around the world already are? Jesus called His disciples His friends. He also said that greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend. Oswald Chambers said, "If I am a friend of Jesus, I have deliberately and carefully laid down my life for Him." This means the choice, the act, has already been made and carried out. Our lives belong to Him, to spend as He desires. How has He been able to spend your life and mine? Richly, or poorly? 

If we profess to be His disciples, then we have been sent out with His sense of urgency. Are we living out our witness with that  urgency? I fear too many of us are falling short of such a witness, of living with that urgency. Lord, rekindle Your passion in us. In me. May we go, preach, pray, give, and if you lead us to it, die for You. May all that we are be given over to all that You are. Paul said at the end of his life and ministry that he had sought to live in such a way that the loss of any soul could not be held to his account. May we each live in that way as well. Help us Lord Jesus.

Blessings,
Pastor O

One Word

 Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land.  Mark 6:47......"In the middle of impossible situations, we will experience God......The difference between the possible and impossible is one word from our Master." Henry Blackaby

The middle is a very difficult place to be in any journey, endeavor, or ministry. It's in the middle that fatigue will set in, with its ever present companion, discouragement. In the middle we forget the zeal that we embarked upon. In the middle, doubt, fear, and loneliness can be our only companion. In the middle, we can begin to forget His promises to us, or at the least, they seem very far away. So does He. We rarely think the middle is a distinct part of His will for us. It's part of the course He's set us upon.

In Mark 6, Jesus had directed the disciples to get into the boat and go to the other side of the lake. He didn't go with them. To their credit, they obeyed Him, though they had to have wondered at His purpose. What would they do on the other side of the lake? How would Jesus get there to meet them? Would He meet them? He never provided any information about any of that. He simply said "get in the boat and go to the other side of the lake." When they got to the middle of the lake, it was in the deep darkness of the night, and a fierce storm blew up. The disciples, fishermen for the most part and acquainted with the dangers of the sea, knew they were in trouble. They rowed with all their strength because their lives depended upon it. They were exhausted. Were they going to perish, here in the middle? Where was Jesus? Why had He sent them out to die? Why were they even here?

What the disciples didn't know was that their situation was being observed by Christ at all times. He saw the wind and waves hammering the boat. He saw the panic in their actions. In the darkest hour of the night, He began to come to them, walking on top of the waves they were sure would destroy them. As He approached them, they didn't recognize Him. Panic and fear will always blind us to His presence. Scripture says that "He made as if to walk by," and as He did, their eyes were opened to who He was. He immediately calmed the storm, disposed of the danger, got into the boat, and the disciples completed the journey. They got to the other side of the lake.

In the middle of the lake, the disciples not only forgot all the things mentioned above, as well as giving in to all the temptations to fear and give up. In the middle of the lake they forgot what He had told them in the first place. He'd told them to go over to the other side. That was His will for them, and His will for them could not be stopped by a storm, no matter how fierce. His will could only be nullified by their refusal to believe and to persevere. Christ meant for them to get to the other side. He expected them to believe that they would, that whatever they might encounter on the way could not deter from His purpose. He expected that they would remember that He knew where they were, what the dangers might be, and what they would need in order to get to that other side. In the middle, they forgot it all. We tend to as well. In the middle we may flounder, but if we hold on, we will encounter Him. The disciples held on. They encountered the God of the impossible. The God of the fiercest storms. With a word, Jesus calmed the storm, showing the truth of Blackaby's statement. The difference between what is possible and what is impossible is one word from Jesus. 

We all come to those middle places. Maybe you're there now. Press on. Remember the One who called you to the journey. The One who promised to see you through to the other side. The storms, challenges, mountains, and giants to be encountered cannot stop you from reaching the place He wills you to get to. The "waves" of the world, empowered by the enemy, may rise up against you. Remember that He walks on top of all of them. With one word, He calms them, and with one word, He gets you to the other side. For you, and for me, He always has His one word. He will allow us to get to the middle, but if we will trust Him, we'll find that He'll never leave us there. He'll get us to the other side.

Blessings,
Pastor O