The Riches

 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!  Romans 11:33......."Here is a fountain that will never run dry, a treasure that can never be used up, a wealth that can never be exhausted. All other pursuits and quests and interests pale, but the riches of God in Christ Jesus will thrill us forever. Hallelujah!.....How can any preacher ever run out of sermons, with all this to ponder and preach?" Vance Havner

Not just any preacher, but how can we who are His ever cease to wonder and be amazed at the depths of who He is, and the neverending riches He gives to them? How then can it be that so few of us ever even scratch the surface of knowing? How can we remain so ignorant and unaware?

I think part of it lies in that we have centered our faith around ourselves and not Him. We dwell upon all that He can give to us, do for us, and accomplish for and through us. We are earthbound in our thinking and though we may look to Him, we never seem to really see Him. He's our Helper, our Aid, and sadly, tragically, oftentimes just an Accessory to our faith. We know much about what He can do for us, but we know so little of Him. We think His riches are realized in our accumulation of the silver and gold of this world. We think they are our inheritance. We don't realize that it's He who is.

So many of the sermons preached today focus on His love. His love for us and all that His love brings us. Healing, renewal, provision, protection, and abundance. All of these are certainly part of what we realize in Him, but they are not in themselves Him. How many preachers take to their pulpits overwhelmed by the awesome wonder of who He is? How many even attempt to take their fellowships into the very throneroom of the Father. I have often thought that no greater thing can be said of a preacher than that He showed his congregation the Father, that he revealed to them a portrait of who He is. That He made real to them the wonder and glory of the three in One God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Every preacher is inadequate to come to describing this, but every preacher has the responsibility to seek to do so. Yes, we will fall short, but we must never stop reaching for words and images to do so. But we can only do so to the degree that we ourselves have beheld Him, seen His glory, and have partaken in the fullest degree possible of His riches. Too many messages ask us to love Him because of what He does. That kind of love is easily broken when we feel He is not doing for us what we think He should. When we come to love Him for who He is, all that He is, that is a bond and a love that is unbreakable.

I challenge you, and myself, to dwell upon the infinite depth of His riches today, this week....this life. Eternity will be about the ongoing discovery of those riches. May the yearning for those riches begin now, today, in all of us. Jesus said that "eye has not seen and ear has not heard all that the Father has prepared for those that love Him." Our flesh bound minds and understanding tend to put that "all" in terms of what can be counted and measured. He puts it in terms of Himself. May we yearn for the realization of it all. May the yearning begin today.

Blessings,
Pastor O

More Random Things

Just a few more from my prayer journal.....

"We must come to the place of letting go to God even the most precious of His promises and our dreams." I wrote this down a number of years ago when I realized I had made idols of some of His promises and too many of my dreams and desires. By this I mean that I was so intent on His bringing to pass in my life a promise that I had claimed or a desire I had that its realization had begun to consume me. It, or they, had become an idol. I needed to surrender the promises and dreams to Him. At some point, we must realize the danger of having our dreams and the realization of a promise becoming the focus of our life. Our focus is no longer on Him but upon the goal we want to reach, the result we want to realize. These become idols to us. God is simply a means to be used in realizing them. It can happen very easily, and our only safeguard is to surrender them, all of them, to Him. We can still have the desire and hope for the result, but we rest in Him in the midst of it all. His will for us is supreme. Christ came with a mission from His Father, to bring the message of life, forgiveness of sins, and the healing of broken hearts and spirits. He desired the fulfillment of it all, but the desire was surrendered to His Father. That's why when Satan tempted Him with the giving to Him of all the kingdoms of the world if He would serve him, He refused. He would not take the devil's counterfeit way to fulfillment. He would surrender His way, the way of the cross to Him, and trust Him. In our most cherished dreams and hopes, and the promises we stand on, can we also surrender them all to Him?

"When the Son sets us free, He expects us to be and live free. Completely free." Chris Tiegreen....Scripture tells us that "when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." This is one of the great truths of His Word, yet it is a truth so few of us are really experiencing. When one comes to Christ in believing faith, receiving Him as Savior and Lord, the claim of sin over us is broken. In Christ we are forgiven, made new, and made whole. We have been transferred and transformed from the kingdom of darkness and death to the Kingdom of Light and Life. We have been made sons and daughters of the King and heirs of His Kingdom. Yet so many never walk in this freedom. We live like prisoners of war when the war has already been won by our Lord and Savior. It was won and sealed at the cross and in the resurrection, but the enemy convinces us that it's not really so. We have been given resurrection life, and the power that conquered sin and death, yet we continue to live in bondage to both. We are "more than conquerors" in Christ. Christ Himself said we have "all things" in Him. We are called to abundance, but we live with lack. The central reason is that we don't really know who we are in Christ, and the enemy works overtime to keep it so, to keep us in darkness. He calls us into the Light, and if we will walk in it with Him, His Word, His Life, and His presence will soak every chain from us. We will live free because we are free. This is the way He expects us to live. Calls us to live. Are we meeting His expectations?

"We seek to serve Him with whole hearts while drinking His Living Water with half a heart." Alicia Britt Chole

....Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that He offered Living Water, the water of Life. He said that those who drank the water of the well would only grow thirsty again, but that the ones who drank of His Living Water would never be thirsty again. This is true....if we will continuously drink His water. Our problem is that we so often go back to the well water of this world to slake our thirst, and we end up being even more thirsty. We may still drink of His Living Water, but not as fully or deeply. We do so, as Chloe says, with half a heart, yet we seek to serve Him with all our heart. Jesus said that out of us will flow rivers of His Living Water, but this won't happen when we take only sips of it at a time. The result is service, ministry, which becomes burdensome and tiresome. We begin to resent it and those we seek to serve. Eventually, we burn out. Too little of the water of His life flows into us and so eventually, none of His water flows out. We dry up because the richness of His Holy Spirit, His Living Water, ceases to flow into us, and so nothing flows out of us. Where, in your living for Him might this be happening? Where do you drink of His Water of Life with half a heart....or no heart at all?

Just some more random things......Blessings from Pastor O 

Everything

"....so that in everything He might have the supremacy." Colossians 1:18...."Groups of Chinese students regularly leave their homeland on a march to Jerusalem. Why? Because the route goes through strongholds of every major religion in the world, and the students' passion for telling the story of Jesus is strong. They know that many of them will die from persecution along the way. They know that they aren't allowed to turn back, even if their family members need them. Regardless of health and hardship, they will continue until they reach Jerusalem or die. In their lives, Christ is supreme.....Intellectual faith in the deity of Jesus requires little risk. Lifestyle faith in the deity of Jesus requires everything." Chris Tiegreen

What are the risks we are willing to take as we follow Jesus? How far will we go into the areas of danger and loss? What cost are we willing to pay in our obedience? These and even deeper questions are staring at us and have to be answered no matter how difficult and no matter how we may seek to avoid answering them.

Tiegreen's telling of the Chinese students is real. Their desire to be a living sacrifice for Him is real. They forsake all, even the demands of family, in order to live out a witness for Him. I know as we read that, we, especially in the west, think that is going beyond what He would ever ask of us, but is it? Is our commitment to Him so deep that we will follow wherever He leads even if it brings pain to those we love? Even if it means losing their love. Many would say that they would draw the line at that, but Christ had no such line. In His earthly ministry, even His family didn't understand Him, and tried to dissuade Him from His purpose, but fulfilling the purpose for which He'd been sent was His priority. Loyalty and devotion to His Father outweighed His devotion to any earthly person or thing, even to those He was closest to and loved deeply.

What I relate now is not for the purpose of casting me in some perfect light. My flaws are many and often glaring, but there have been places in my life where I had to choose between what others I loved desired and obeying and continuing on with Him. The most trying was in my marriage. Without seeking to cast my former mate in an ugly light, I will just say that she came to hate her life as it pertained to my ministry. Her pressure upon me to make major compromises in my calling and belief grew by the year, eventually coming to the point of demanding I leave it completely. For me, and I stress for me, that could never be an option. I make no judgement on others who say it would be, but it wasn't, couldn't be for me. His Word says that His gifts and callings are irrevocable, so how could I turn away? For me, I couldn't turn back. To do so would be a turning of my back on Him. I would not, could not do that. The result was that I lost my marriage, and so much more. My grief was deep, the wounds were deep, but in the depths of my heart, I knew that my choice was the right one. I could not lay down my cross, and I could not leave off following Him completely....no matter the cost. I grieve the loss and the cost, but I don't regret my choice. For me, there never was a choice.

I want to add that the immediate result was crushing. When she left, I had to step out of ministry. No pathway back in seemed to exist. The enemy mocked me relentlessly. That my choice for Him brought the loss of everything. There seemed no pathway back to the life I had given all of myself to. All I could do was trust in His calling. Trust in Him. In due time, despite all that seemed against me, He proved the truth of what Peter wrote in I Peter 4:19, "....and trust yourself to the God who made you, for He will never fail you." He never has, and I know that He never will.

I don't write any of this for any reason other than I believe we are entering into days when such choices will be placed before each of us and all of us who take His name. Following Him is going to bring ever increasing cost and loss. It will affect us, and it will affect our loved ones. Will we press on in Him regardless? We are going to have to answer. We cannot evade His question forever? When He confronts us, when He confronts you, when He requires everything, how will you answer?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

5th Gospel

 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

A man named Juan Carlos Ortiz speaks of a 5th Gospel, popular among many in the church. You'll not find it actually written anywhere except in the hearts and minds of many who struggle to accept and live out the truth of Matthew 7:13-14. Ortiz says that the central message of this 5th Gospel, which he calls, "The Gospel Of The Evangelicals" is, "We take what we like from His Word and take out what we don't. God the Father and Christ His Son make no demands upon us. Jesus accepts us whether we fully accept Him or not."

He says this Gospel creates a third gate and road, the Middle. The large gate and road are for those evil sinners who do all manner of evil deeds. They're the ones heading to destruction. The Narrow gate and road is for all those called to full time ministry; pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and various full time workers in the Kingdom of God. The Middle gate and road is for the rest of us. It give us a lot of leeway. We can walk a bit on some aspects of the destructive wide way while maintaining a walk on parts of the narrow. That is, those parts we can accept and live with. The Middle way he tells us is the invention of men. That's true, but that bogus way has attracted and seduced so many to their destruction. It continues to do so today. Are you walking upon it now?

The truth of all of this can be seen in the message being proclaimed in so many parts of the western church. Jesus made clear that if we are going to follow Him, we are to take up our cross, the cross that will lead us to our own encounter with our own Calvary and follow upon His way. The narrow way. The way of the cross. I ask you, how often are you hearing this message from the pulpit of your fellowship? Have you ever heard it? Or have you been saturated with Ortiz's "Gospel of the Evangelicals?"

This is what Ortiz had to say about what is marking so much of the modern message of the church; "We're always appealing to man's interests. Jesus is Savior, Healer, the King coming for US, for ME. ME is at the center of the gospel message." Think on how true that is. Think on how we have presented Jesus as someone who will make your life better, richer, more abundant. It may be good now, but if you add Jesus, it will be even better, a life filled with blessing. In truth, we have proclaimed Him as more of an add on to our lives than as He who is not just Savior, but Lord. In the Bible, He is called Lord far more often than He is called Savior. Entering into the fellowship of His sufferings isn't part of the package. As Ortiz remarks, "We're anxious to be relieved of the burden of our sin, but we want our 'self-life' to walk away unchanged." In short, He can save us, but He can't "have" us. This is the Gospel of the Evangelicals. It's not just coming to a church near you, it's already arrived.

The time for this message to be put to death is now. It begins with our willingness to die out to its attraction. Our flesh embraces such a message. His Spirit and Life never will. May we hear the true message of Christ, of His cross and His life. May we cease trying to walk a non-existent middle road and enter in by the narrow gate. And may we know something more. As someone said, His narrow gate leads into a wide life. It is not a life of rigidity, but of freedom and abundance in Him. The Narrow Gate is Christ Himself. Those who have really experienced Him will choose no other. May He be chosen by us, by you today. Enter in by the life gate of Christ.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Random Thinga

Just a few random things from my prayer journal......

"The prince of this world approaches. He has no power over Me." John 14:30....There are "modernists" today who want to interpret all of Jesus' encounters with Satan and his demonic activity, especially as concerns demonic possession, as actually being cases of severe mental illness. This is a fallacy. In all of these instances, Christ identified who he was dealing with as a demon, even commanding them to give Him their names. He spoke many times of the reality of Lucifer, the fallen angel, and of his evil purposes against the human race that the Father loves. He often referred to the devil as the "prince of this world," meaning the Father, because of the sin of Adam and Eve had allowed Satan certain rights in this world and dominion over it, but the boundaries are set and controlled by Him. As Scripture says in so many places, "It is God who rules." So, the devil is real, but what we who follow Christ must know is that just like our Lord, "he has no power over us." Christ spoke these words to His disciples shortly before He was arrested and then crucified. He knew the enemy's full frontal assault had begun, but He also knew that it was His Father who ruled and was in control of all that would unfold. We must know this as well. Our enemy will approach us constantly and through many devices. He will seek to convince us we are helpless against him, but he can only accomplish against us that which we allow him through unbelief, disobedience, or ignorance. When we know who we are in Christ, we know we have His authority over the enemy. We know he will approach us. It's who He is. When we know who we are, we know he has no power over us. The power lies with the Lord we follow, believe, and trust. And in Him, we too have that power.

"So I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this..." 2nd Samuel 6:21-22....."Are we willing to look like fools for believing Him....even in disappointment?"
David had been leaping and dancing before both the Lord and the people as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem. His wife Michal disdained him for it. She thought such a display beneath a king. David didn't care at all about how foolish his faith and relationship with his God would look to anyone else, no matter their station. How about us? Are we willing to look like fools for trusting in Him when everything is against us? When it makes no rational sense to believe Him? When circumstances say we face nothing but impossibilities? We may say yes in all these, but there is one more; when He does not act in the way we expected....when we are disappointed with the immediate results of our faith.....when we look like complete fools before all eyes for our faith.....will we still trust Him regardless? Are we so surrendered to Him that no matter what the immediate situation may say or look like, and no matter how unreasonable our faith may seem, we are steadfast because "we know who we have believed, and we are persuaded" that He will, in His perfect time and way, come through for us, deliver us, provide for us, bring victory to us? Even when everyone calls us fools for doing so. Are we willing to have that kind of faith and trust? Do we have such faith and trust right now?

"Philip, don't you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you?" John 14:9.....Where, as followers of Christ may He be asking this of us, of you, today? Where are we doubting His character, His faithfulness, His power and authority?  How much more time must go by before we really know Him? Will we ever really know Him? Philip had asked Jesus to show them the Father. He was blind to the fact that everything Jesus had said and done had been His showing them the Father. He had told them plainly that when they saw Him, they were seeing the exact representation of His Father. Of their Father. He had been doing so directly for nearly three years, but Philip didn't yet see it. Didn't see Him. Do we? How long must He go on displaying before us who He is, coming through for us time and again? Doing His miraculous works, showing His wondrous love. Proving Himself faithful....before we believe Him? Before we trust Him?  How much longer must He go on putting up with our unbelief. Unbelief that, intended or not, slanders His character. Unbelief that says we don't really believe He is all that He has told us of Himself. Jesus said that "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." Have we ever truly seen Him? How much longer until we do?

Just a few random things to share with you today.

Blessings, 

Pastor O 

Stifled

 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.  I Thessalonians 5:19....."Are you remaining loyal to the Son of God in the things which beset His Life in you?"  Oswald Chambers

This Scripture and the quote from Chambers have particular relevance to me today, and in a very unexpected way and from an unexpected source. I'll explain:

I normally write these devotionals the day before I send them out. That means that todays would have been written yesterday, which was Sunday. I had every intention of doing so. However, I first wanted to "enjoy" watching my team, the Steelers, play that day. I figured that there would be plenty of time afterward to delve into the "spiritual realm" after I'd indulged myself in the temporal. Let me say that I didn't enjoy my experience. My team played horribly and lost, and in the most frustrating manner. Now I had thought I'd put getting frustrated over what is really insignificant well behind me. This game revealed that I hadn't, and this is where what I write today comes in.

After the game, I set my attention on seeking out what He would have me write, something I always do. What I found instead was that spiritually speaking, His Spirit wasn't flowing to me or through me. It wasn't that I was fuming with anger, or suffering some great level of frustration. It was simply that I had invested so much of my energy and focus on something that had neither spiritual or eternal significance. My attention was well away from Him, and as a result, I'd stifled His Spirit. I had put up an obstacle between His presence and my heart and mind. It wasn't intentional, but it had happened. A dullness had come into my spirit and along with it, a dullness towards His voice. I looked over many treasured Scriptures, quotes, and thoughts. I wasn't hearing His voice in them and my heart wasn't being warmed. I had not lost Him, and I had not gone against Him. I'd just taken my eyes off of Him for a moment, and with them, my heart as well. I had stifled His Spirit, or as another version reads, I'd quenched it. It wasn't until reading this morning's devotion from Chambers that my heart really responded to what he was saying. I had allowed something of little value to push He who is of the greatest value out of my spiritual vision and focus. When I read that, I confessed it to Him, received His forgiveness, and my spiritual edge was restored. This writing is the result.

In this life, there are an infinite number of ways we can knowingly and unknowingly stifle and quench the flow of His Holy Spirit to and through us. There are so many things, anxieties, stresses, activities, ministries, even those which we enjoy, that can so get our attention and focus that we lose our focus on Him. What the Bible calls "leanness" enters our souls. That happened to me yesterday. Where does it happen for you? Where is it happening now? 

Chambers asks where our loyalty to Him wavering? We may answer that we have not been disloyal at all, but the truth of it is that wherever we allow something else to push Him out, that something else takes His place, even if it is but for a moment. In that moment or moments, leanness will enter our souls, and our sense of Him, His Presence, and His Life will diminish. If left unchecked, such a state will become acceptable to us, and eventually, we can suffer what Paul called "shipwreck to our souls."

I share this today in the hope that all of us will realize how easily we can thrust Him aside, and the possible long term consequences of it becoming our spiritual lifestyle. May our spiritual "edge" remain sharp because our hearts are always undergoing the shaping that comes from His hands being constantly upon us.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Prayer

 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." Matthew 23:37

In the midst of using my prayer journal today, I came upon this prayer that I wrote down some years ago. I don't remember the source of it, but I can never read it or pray it without being convicted of how far I still am from fully living it out. Even so, it is something I pray will become my life. Would you dare to pray with me?

"May I see this dying world with His heavy heart." When Jesus looked down upon the city of Jerusalem, He did so with a broken heart. The very city, people, and nation to which He'd been sent had rejected His offer of life and freedom. They chose death and darkness. How do we look upon a culture that is equally ignorant or rebellious towards His message of life? Does our heart break over the state and the fate of all those who choose against Him? Do we live with heavy hearts about it all, or are we far more concerned with our personal comfort, and that we receive all of His blessing that we can?

"That I would hurt wherever He hurts and love everywhere He loves." This was simply the way Christ lived. Wherever He was, He was deeply affected by the condition of those He had come for. He not only saw their pain, He felt it, shared in it. He longed to heal it. As He hurt for and with them, He also loved them. Even those who rejected Him, hated Him, and sought to kill Him. What are our lives like in comparison? Do we hurt along with those we see hurting around us? Do we love them as He does? Or, do we seek the safety of our church fellowships, trying our best to keep the fallen world around us out? Jesus ran to those who were wounded and broken, coming alongside them. Do we do the same, or do we run away?

"That all of my being will be an instrument of His love, power, and authority." Are we so focused upon Him that all of our energies are directed upon displaying not only His love, but His power and authority over a fallen world and the devil who operates in it? Do we seek to be vessels of His life, His healing, His deliverance? Do we believe that we have at our disposal His power and His authority? Do we know that we can not only love those He has placed around us, but that we can display that love for them through the use of His power and authority over that which holds them captive? Or, do we live as though we're helpless against the darkness and death of this fallen world?

"That I will love and minister where He loves and ministers." Jesus did this wherever He was. He journeyed everywhere in His earthly ministry, and He ministered all along the way of every journey. There was not any place where He ceased to be the Messiah, the Savior. Is this our lifestyle? If we are His, then we are to live out His life in every place we find ourselves. We are to  offer His life in every place He puts us. If we are His, there is no place we will find ourselves in by accident. He has us there for a reason, and the reason is to be vessels of His life, love, and authority there. Does this describe the way we currently live? Or do we choose when and where we will be so, based on whether it is convenient for us to be so or not?

"Last, will I drink the cup, no matter what it holds, that He offers me?" The brothers James and John asked Jesus if they could sit at his right and left hand in eternity. He asked them if they could drink the cup, take on the life that His Father had called Him to, as He had. Can we? Can we no matter what that cup holds? Are we so dedicated and surrendered to Him that we will take that cup, drink that cup, no matter the pain, adversity, and sacrifice it may contain? Many of us, like James and John, dream greatly of doing great things and being great in the Kingdom of God. How many of us have taking His cup of suffering as being part of that dream? Are we willing to drink of His cup regardless of what it contains, and all because He offers it, and that the drinking of it will be for His glory, even if no one else knows or sees?

That's the prayer. Can we pray it? Can we live it out? Or do we sidestep it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

More Questions

 I want to share three provoking questions I've written down in my prayer journal.....

" And the evil spirit said to them, 'I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?' " Acts 19:15...Does the devil know who our Lord is but is unaware of who we are?......The Scripture verse from Acts has to do with 7 men, called the sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, who were attempting to exorcise a demon possessed man. They were using the name of Jesus in their attempt. As they did so, the demonic spirit asked the above question, and then after asking, leaped upon them and severely beat them. They had tried to use the name of Jesus but had no personal knowledge of the One who had the name. The evil spirit recognized the power and authority of Jesus Christ, and of the apostle Paul. He recognized no such thing against the sons, and they were powerless against it.....This account brings me to the question for each of us. Does the enemy well know the identity of our Lord and Savior, and that of various spiritual warriors in the Body, yet has no real "knowledge" of who you and I are? Is the witness of our lives, of the authority we have in Christ as His followers, so weak and shallow as to render us "non-entities" in the spiritual realm? I remember hearing a preacher once say that they wanted to be "on the devil's most wanted list." To be such a threat to the kingdom of darkness and death as to be a target of his attention. Do we? Or, are we more concerned with our comfort, security, happiness, and self-advancement as to render us powerless in spiritual things? Does the enemy render a verdict upon us in spiritual things by saying to us, "I know who your Jesus is. I know who the great saints who have gone before you are, and the men and women filled with Holy Spirit power around you. But I don't know you, because you are not, and have never been, a threat to me." May we who take His name, yearn to be a sharp thorn in the side of the devil.

"Let me say plainly that I have been faithful. No one's damnation can be blamed on me, for I didn't shrink from declaring all that God wants for you." Acts 20:26-27....Paul said no one's damnation could be blamed on him, that he'd been faithful to declare the whole message of the gospel. At the end of all things, will we, will I be able to say the same?....This is a haunting question to me. Though it is true that we have personal responsibility as to what we will do with the truth and claims of Jesus Christ and our spiritual destiny depends on what we do with Him, we who have been given His message to proclaim, have personal responsibility as well. If we have received the Good News of the Gospel, then we are compelled to proclaim that message to those who've not heard it, even if they have little interest in doing so. This doesn't mean that we seek to use a hardline approach of getting them to believe in and receive Him. This rarely is successful. We do however have a responsibility to be spiritually sensitive to all those around us and be aware of opening we have to tell another about the joy of the Jesus we have come to know, love, and follow. It is to be our burden that those without Him would not be. We are to reach out to them, love them, pray for them, and as much as possible, be a witness of His life before them. Central to our lives should be a deep desire to see others come to know Him, be made free in Him, and brought into the Kingdom through Him. Paul lived with a love for souls and his deepest desire was that everyone should know Jesus. The witness of His life is that as much as it depended on him, he would live for and proclaim Jesus before all, so that when the end of His life came, he could declare that no soul lost could be blamed upon him. He'd been faithful. May it be that we, you and I, live out the remainder of our lives with that same desire. When our time, witness, and ministry draw to a close, may no soul be lost because of our failure to be faithful to our calling.

"And I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead." Acts 23:6......"We will continually be tried as to our belief and trust in the resurrection power of Christ. What will be the verdict?"....Paul had been brought before the Jewish religious leaders to answer for his preaching the message of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. He was on trial that day, but he also knew that he would be on trial before the eyes of the world every day as to whether he, in all things, trusted in the overwhelming resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Power that gives victory over death in every form it may take in this world. We who take His name will also be on trial before a watching world as to our trust in that same resurrection power. What will be the verdict upon our life and witness? Will we be found guilty of living in all the fullness of His resurrection life, facing every challenge and danger of life with confidence in His resurrection and total victory? Or will we be "innocent" on all counts? Will we show that we are as much at the mercy of this world and the enemy who works through it as those who don't know Him? Will we be victims of them, or Victors over them? In Christ and His resurrection life, we have received all we need to live in victory. In abundance. What is the verdict on how well we live? Do we live defeated, discouraged, beaten down, or are we overcomers, more than conquerors, victors in Jesus? There will be a final verdict on your life and mine. What is the current evidence pointing towards what that verdict will be?

Just a few questions for us to contemplate......Blessings to all.

The Towel

 4So He got up from the supper, laid aside His outer garments, and wrapped a towel around His waist. 5After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that was around Him.… John 13:4-5

I'm not writing on what I first intended today. I wanted to write an exhortation calling on the church to "stand, fight, and pray" in these days. Those kinds of messages come somewhat easily for me, and I strongly believe in living out such a faith life. However, something Oswald Chambers asked in his devotional grabbed my heart and made me realize how much a part of our faith life it is as well. He asked, "Can I use a towel as He did?" Yes, I believe I can stand with Him, fight with Him, and pray with Him. Can I take a towel as He did and wash the feet of others as He did. Standing, fighting, and praying. It may be true that it is not easy to find others who will join us in that, but the deeper, more convicting question is, can He find us to join Him in the washing of another's feet?

To wash another's feet is to be in an extremely humbling and vulnerable position. In the culture of ancient Israel, a guest's feet were washed whenever they came into the home of another. The lowest servant of the household was given this task, and it couldn't have been a pleasant one, owing to how filthy the feet could get in those times. Jesús didn't think it beneath Him. Do we? Oh, we may be willing to do so a time or two, but as a lifestyle. The Apostle Paul said he was willing to be a doormat if it brought glory to God. Being a doormat holds little attraction for me, and I'm sure for you as well, but if He leads us into places where that is exactly what we must be for Him, will we be? If we are, how will we do so? Sullenly, with an attitude that shows we're above such things. Angrily, with the attitude that we deserve a much higher station than this? Few of us would do so joyfully, knowing that if He has placed in that position, it is for His glory, even if we can't see how it could be for our good.

Every pastor knows how difficult it can be to find people to serve in the church. It is even more difficult to find those who will do so with a servant's heart, a heart of humility. Many who serve in our fellowships often do so from the desire to have a platform. A place where they can be visible, seen, and applauded. Worship leaders and team members can easily fall into this. So can pastors. But what if He calls us to a place of anonymity? A place where no one knows we're there but Him. What if He asks us to assume the place of the lowest servant, the foot washer? What if He places us in the spot where no one notices, appreciates, or sees us...but Him? Will we go? Can we do so with a sweetness of spirit? There's an old chorus that goes, "In my heart there rings a melody." Can we serve in that place with such a sweetness, such a melody?

So, we come back to Chamber's question; can we, can you and I, use a towel as Jesus did? Can we serve as He did? Can we assume the lowest position and serve there? Or do we look for a better option, a higher place? He holds His towel out before us. Do we take it?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Unmovable

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, Ephesian 6:14....

"When we base our faith on moods and situations rather than on facts, we are blown by every changing wind....If we are rooted in the Gospel, we will not be moved."  Chris Tiegreen

I'm both burdened and encouraged today, and it concerns the same topic; the knowledge and living out of His Word. On the one hand, the number of professing believers who have at best, a rudimentary understanding and personal experience of His Word is appalling. Ignorance of His Word, and application of His Word into our lives may be the lowest we have ever seen in the western church. As a result, we have believers aplenty who are doing exactly what Tiegreen speaks of. Their faith and trust in Him is dependent upon their mood and circumstances. They are not grounded in His truth that is revealed in His Word. As a result their lives are literally blown all over the place depending upon how they feel and what they see. For not only pastors, but for all who are grounded in Him, that is a grievous and costly reality. It is a burden upon the heart.

At the same time, I'm encouraged. Encouraged because I see a growing number of people in the church, both young and old, who are asking, often with a sense of urgency, to be discipled, mentored, and encouraged to grow in Him. Just a few weeks ago, a person in our fellowship approached me and admitted that they were spending almost no time in either prayer or the reading of His Word. They were feeling great conviction on that truth. They asked me if I would be willing to hold them accountable to begin doing both? I agreed, and now each time I see them, I ask them how it is going in their desire to grow in the knowledge and experience not only of His Word, but of and in Him? It blessed me to hear them say each time that they are holding to it. There are bumps in the journey to be sure, but they are pressing on, having it become a part of their life, a part of who they are. They are growing in Christ.

We are living in tumultuous times. Times that will assault us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If we are unaware of all He has provided in His Word and in Himself to counter all that is happening and all that can happen, we will be at the mercy of those assaults. Paul exhorted the Ephesian church as it walked through persecution, to stand firm. Not in their own strength, but in His. They could do so because they were established upon the foundation of Christ and His truth. With all that was going on around them, and there was danger and even death everywhere, they could be unmoved in their faith and trust. They could be so because they were living out what Paul had also written in one of his letters to the church. They were persuaded that He was and is able to keep all, including their very souls and lives, that they had committed to Him. They could and would stand firm in Him. They knew Who it was they had believed in. Put their trust in. We can as well. The question we must answer is, will we? In these days, and in all days, will we stand firm in His truth? Unmovable. Unshakeable....in Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

His

 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word." John 17:6...."Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession." Oswald Chambers

I was struck today by something Oswald Chambers said in his wonderful devotional, My Utmost For His Highest. He said that we may well be saved, converted, even transformed on some level, but that does make us His. I think this flies in the face of a great deal of our thinking, because the average believer does consider himself as belonging to Christ. And they are right....in part, because parts of them may well belong to Him, while other parts belong to someone or something else. We're not really "His" at all. We're more like a "timeshare," where we have Him as a guest, but not as a full resident. Like a timeshare property, others have a stake in us as well. We're no more His than we are theirs. Everyone and everything has a piece of us.

Jesus gave a very hard saying to His disciples in the Gospel of Luke. He said that unless someone hated their mother, father, sister, or brother, even themselves, they could not be His disciple. We're repelled by that, but we need to have a deeper understanding of what He meant. He didn't mean a literal hate, but He did mean that nothing, absolutely nothing, even those we are most intimately related to, could have an equal or greater claim to us than Him. People are "owned" by so many things today; relationships, possessions, jobs, even ministries. They, not Christ, have the greater part of us. Jesus meant that when it came to following Him, He would lead us in ways that other people might not wish us to go. For His disciple, that could not deter their following, no matter how much they might love or value that person. Loyalty to Christ was absolute and following Him might mean, will mean, rejecting what other people think we should do. For the other people, that might look like hate. It is not. It is complete trust and love for the Lord, and a trust that our following and obeying would not only be for our good, but theirs as well. To be His disciple means He has our absolute commitment and loyalty. The apostle Paul said he was a bondslave of Christ's. He belonged to Him completely. He was not his own. Neither are we, but too often, we live as though we are.

Someone said that we have many believers these days, but few disciples. We believe in Him, but we give ourselves to Him in degrees, to a point. You don't have to be rich to be in the same place as the rich young ruler in the gospel. He wanted to follow Christ, and he was willing to keep all the "rules," but when Jesus directed him to sell all he owned and then come follow him, Scripture says that "he went away sad." His ultimate loyalty was to his money and possessions. Where is ours?

As concerns our relationship with Him, what defines it is not how we describe it, but how He does? Does He know us as believers, or as sold out followers? Does He know us and call us His disciples? One who is content to be a believer can have a nominal walk with Christ, but they can never be His friend. That is reserved for those who are His. His disciples. Has His friendship been reserved for you, and for me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Questions

 I thought I'd share three questions from my prayer journal that have been asked by writer/speaker John Bevere....

"For I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20...."If He's always with us, why do we do so much of what we do?" 

We love to quote the above Scripture when we're wanting to reinforce our feelings about our security in Him. When we face all the dangers of life, we take comfort in the knowledge that He is with us. When we're called to difficult, even impossible tasks, we are strengthened in knowing He is with us. We take heart in life because we know He is with us. So, what do we do with Bevere's question? If we know He's with us, why do we do so much of what we do?....How is it that we can behave in our thoughts, words, and actions as if He's not present? How is it that we can so easily forget or ignore His presence when we're drifting away from Him, or just plain rebelling against what we know to be right? We're all guilty of this to some degree aren't we? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that we don't really do much to cultivate an intimacy with Him that makes for a constant consciousness of His presence. He's the "fire alarm" we pull when we're in trouble, but we easily put Him back on the shelf once the fire is out. We're not tender to His presence and so we're able to act out in so many ways that are alien to Him. To our shame, we, like the ancient Israelites, honor Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him. May it be that each of us become so entwined with His life that we are never without a deep sense of His presence. Knowing that He is with us, but also knowing that He will not be with us in anything we do that goes against His heart. May it grieve us to grieve Him.

"Will God have to call another to do what He first assigned to us?" Scripture abounds with instances where God called men and women to not only certain tasks, but certain lives. Tasks that were impossible from the human standpoint. Lives that took them into great dangers, challenges, sacrifices, sufferings, and yes, death. Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter, John, Paul, the disciples whose names we know, and the multitudes whose names remain unknown. They fulfilled their calling. Have we? Indeed, do we even know what our calling is? Certainly it involves something far more than attending church, giving our tithe, and performing a few good works along the way. The rich young ruler was called by Christ to sell all and follow Him. He could not do that, and so he turned away. Have you ever wondered what it was Christ was calling him to? Who did Jesus need to call in order to carry out that which was first to be assigned to the young ruler? Everyone who believes upon and receives Him has a calling. Do we, you, have any idea what that is? Is what He's called us to going unfulfilled? What souls are at stake? How is eternity being affected by how we are answering or not answering that call? Who has He had to look for to do what He first assigned to us? What will be the cost of our not knowing, not going? When we stand before Him on that final day, what will we use as our reason for not living out that which He created us for and called us to?

"Are we offering a salvation message that omits the cross while still offering its benefits and blessings?" Paul said that the center of his message was the cross and Christ crucified. He said any presentation of the gospel message that didn't have the cross as central to it was a counterfeit one. Scripture in the New Testament, both in the Gospels and the various epistles are clear as to the centrality of the cross and His death upon it and subsequent resurrection. Yet, there are professing churches everywhere in our culture that have either "dumbed down" that message or excluded it all together. They offer listeners His life, but it's a life that doesn't include His cross, or ours. There is no cost to us in the message. No cost, and no cross. Is this the message you have heard? If it is, you have yet to hear His message of life. Have you ever gone to your own Calvary with Him? Have you been, Paul writes in Galatians, "crucified with Christ, so that it is no longer I (you and me) who live, but Christ lives in me?" Have you embraced His blessing while rejecting His cross? Have you fallen victim to a false gospel message? Will you receive and embrace His true one? It's proclaimed at the foot of His cross. "At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,and the burden of my sin rolled away." Do you know the reality of that truth? Do you know the message of the cross?

Three questions that demand our answer. How do we answer? How do you answer?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Orphans

 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.  Romans 8:14-17......We're concerned about provision, protection, and position. We need none of them if we realize we are heirs of the Kingdom." Anonymous

I came across a story some years back that, if not true, is certainly true of how many of us live spiritually. A young boy was taken in by a family, but was not made part of it. His place was in the barn, which is where he lived, took his meals, and so on. Each morning, the family would gather for a hearty breakfast, and all would sit around the table, enjoying the fellowship and company of each other. The boy, having no family of his own, and longing that he would, would go to the window, look upon all that was happening, and long to be a part. But he wasn't. He believed he never could be. So he returned to his barn.

So many in the church are living as that young boy did. The difference is, we have been given, in Christ, a place at the Father's "table." Our problem is that we have been deceived by the enemy that we must earn our place there. We must do more good works, try harder to please Him. When we do enough, work enough, pass enough tests, then we can hope to have a place. This is the mentality of an orphan. A mentality that always keeps us "at the window," gazing upon something we think is beyond us, and we exhaust ourselves trying to secure it.  We don't realize that in Christ, our place has already been secured. We are not orphans but sons and daughters of the King and His Kingdom. We keep trying to get into a room that has already been opened to us. 

Someone said that too many churches are more like orphanages producing orphans. People are taught that they must try harder, work harder, do more, work more, please Him more. They may teach that we're saved by grace, but we live by the law. Our faith is completely behavior based and so we can never feel secure in Him. We always feel like we're on failure away from being put out. We never really feel like a son or daughter. We never feel at home. We feel like we're still at the window, looking in. We don't understand who we are in Him, what we have in Him, and all we can be in Him. We are accepted not because of what we've done or are doing, but because we are His, in Christ. It is Christ that makes us acceptable to Him, and it is through Christ that we enter His Kingdom as sons and daughters, full sons and daughters of the King. We miss that a works based faith keeps us centered on ourselves, what we do and don't do. We're not focused on Him. The self life is exalted over His life. It's about what we're doing, not what He has done.

I have written in my prayer journal, "Bring us daily to Your table, so that we would not only have our place there, but that we would no longer live as orphans." May we come to His table. May we feast on His life there. May His life flow out of us....as His sons and His daughters. Orphans no more.

Blessings,
Pastor O