The Gap

 “I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one."  Ezekiel 22:30....."A blinded world needs us to stand, to fight, and to pray." Chris Tiegreen

When you read the verse from Ezekiel, what registers upon you? Upon us? When you look at the word "land," what do you think it refers to? The particular nation you live in? Surely. Does it also reference the church? I think it does.

There is no question that the culture of America has plunged into ever deepening darkness. Many speak of the "new normal," even in the church. Sin, perversion, violence, sexual confusion, murder, pornography, sex trafficking, pedophilia, and a raging epidemic of drug and alcohol addiction. No one feels safe. Few if any trust their government or the media that is supposed to hold the government accountable. This is the new normal, and we, even in the church, have become desensitized to it all. We just shrug and say that it's the way of things today. Spiritual blindness is not only the characteristic of the world. It's becoming the characteristic of much of the church as well. The Bible says that we sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. We have been sowing for a long time now. We are seeing only the beginnings of the reaping. It is the desire of God's heart to deliver us from the judgement sure to come upon a wayward world and backslidden church. How many of us will really stand with Him in that desire? As He looks about for those who will stand in the many and ever widening gaps in the culture of the world and the church, does He see no one, including not seeing us? Not seeing you, or me?

There are many today who are more than willing to be politically active but remain spiritually asleep. Believers should be actively involved in the political process, and seek to elect those who at the least, stand on morally righteous ground. However, we will not overcome the darkness at the ballot box. It is much too late for that and was  never an option anyway. We will fill the gap and push back the tide of darkness and death from our knees, and from our pulpits, and with our testimonies. Not with words of anger and hate, but of heartfelt love for a lost human race. Yet the words we speak must be words of truth, spoken in both boldness and love. Many will reject that truth, some violently. For the sake of those held captive in the darkness, we cannot leave off. We must press on. We must stand in and upon Him, Jesus Christ, as we stand in the gap both for those engulfed in the darkness, and for the Almighty God who seeks through His church to rescue them.

The gaps before you and I are everywhere. In every level of society they are there. In every institution and system. The disease of sin permeates everything. In Isaiah 6, as God appeared to him, Isaiah heard God speak of the terrible state that the people of Judah had fallen into. He issued a call; "Who shall I send, and who will go for us?" He didn't address Isaiah directly. He was issuing a call to all of His people. Isaiah heard it. We're not told how many didn't hear it at all, or heard but ignored it. He was looking for "gap fillers." Isaiah answered, "Here I am. Send me." That call has never ceased to go out from the throne of God. Which of us heard it today? Which of us will go? The life of the land we live in and the church body that we're a part of are at stake. Moreover, eternity is at stake. The gaps continue to widen. Who among us will go to fill them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Goads

 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Acts 9:5......"Some of us 'kick against the goads' for a lifetime, all the while believing that we are surrendered to the will of God." A.W. Tozer

Acts 9 details the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Known as Saul before this, he was a dedicated Pharisee and defender of the Jewish faith. He had zealously been persecuting, imprisoning, and even killing Jews who had become followers of Jesus Christ. He had been present at the stoning of Stephen, an eyewitness to not only his death, but to the powerful witness of the reality of Christ as he died. He had heartily approved of it. After witnessing Stephen's death, his persecution increased, and he was traveling on the Damascus Road with the full intention of arresting and jailing every believer he found there. On the way, he was waylaid by the risen Christ, who spoke the words of Acts 9:5 to him.

It seems curious that Jesus would talk about Paul kicking against the goads, the pricks of the Holy Spirit. If anyone was dedicated to a cause, a cause he believed to be of God, it was Paul. Yet the Holy Spirit had made a deep impression upon the heart of Paul through the manner of Stephen's death, but surely to the witness of those believers he'd been persecuting. There was something about it all that continued to bore into his heart and spirit. Something real. Something undeniable. He fought against it by increasing his efforts at attacking His church. Yet deep within, he knew that the faith and witness of those he'd been tormenting was real. He couldn't get away from it. Kick though he might, the pursuit of the Spirit grew ever stronger. Paul thought he was surrendered to God. It took the appearance of Jesus Christ on that road for him to "see" that he wasn't. That he was anything but surrendered. How like Paul might we be? Where are we like him today?

It is so easy for us to say we're yielded to Him and yet in so many different ways kick against Him. How many areas of our lives has He brought His Spirit to bear upon, convicting us of wrong attitudes, actions, and responses? More often than not, we find ways to put Him off or just outright ignore Him, acting like we never actually heard Him. He speaks to us about how we behave in our marriage, in our stewardship of the resources He has given us. He speaks about how we are raising up our children in Him, or more correctly, how we're not. He speaks to the manner of how we're serving Him, or carrying out our ministry for Him, or the lack of service and ministry altogether. The list is almost endless. His Spirit goads us, pricks us about it all, but we go on kicking. What will it take for it to end, and if we go on, what will be our end?

Before he met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road, Paul was not a believer, though he believed he was. Afterwards, no one in the Bible displayed a more steadfast faith than he. Where do we believe that we're fully faithful, but we aren't at all? Where have the goads of conviction been digging and we keep ignoring or denying? Two results lie ahead for us. The first is that they get more intense until we can no longer deny them, and we yield to Him and His will. This can be a painful road, but a great one, because we become more deeply His. The second is much less so. We continue to deny and grow ever harder in our resistance. Eventually we have become calloused to the goads and pricks and no longer even notice. Instead of full surrender we have chosen full disobedience, and the terrible end of it all. Which option are we, you, closer to? Where are you on your own Damascus Road?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Consecrate

Consecration is a voluntary act of committing oneself to worship, prayer, and service to God. The word “consecrated” literally means: “to unite by force with the sacred.”......"Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?" I Chronicles 29:5

I have read the above Scripture many times before, but today, it really impacted me. The word "consecrate" really struck me. It's a word not much used or experienced by much of the modern, western church. In the midst of a consumer centered culture, we have become a consumer centered church. Lord, forgive us.

King David spoke the words found in I Chronicles 29 upon his speaking before the people, commissioning his son, Solomon, to succeed him as king, and to undertake the great and holy task of building the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Building the Temple had been the passion of David's life. He sought it as the greatest act of worship he could offer. Yet the Father had told him it was not to be his part to do so, but that of his son, Solomon, to do so. As David told the people this, he spoke of all the gold, silver, precious stones, and so on, that he'd given and dedicated for the building of and ongoing worship in that Temple. He then, in the words of I Chronicles 29:5, asked who among his listeners would join him in this act of dedicated, consecrated worship of their Almighty God? The people responded with a floodgate of offering, not just of precious minerals and jewels, but with the entirety of themselves. They and all they had was consecrated to Him. It was their ultimate act of worship. We understand so little of what moved their hearts to do so. We understand little of it because we know so little and experience so little of what true consecration is.

We link the word "dedication" with consecration quite often. We also prove that we know very little about that word as well. This can be witnessed by the number of parents who bring their children to church in order to "dedicate them to the Lord." The participate in the ritual, and then sadly, their participation ends with that ritual. This is proven by the careless, lazy, and irresponsible ways so many parents "train up their children in the Lord." If we can't be faithful in the consecrating of our children to Him, how can we be so in anything else? 

I think people have become fearful of all this. We link it up with the practice of cults and pagan sects, but it is biblical. Scripture says that we are not our own, but His and this is true whether we believe it or agree with it or not. To consecrate ourselves and all that concerns us is an act of total devotion and trust. It is also an act of telling Him that we'll not give ourselves over to the pursuit of that which is profane or sullies His name. It means that wherever we stand, we stand with Him, and that makes it holy ground. We're to treat it as such. It doesn't mean that we dress in weird robes and go about chanting Scripture or praying loudly in public. It does mean that we live in complete awareness of His presence, of His holiness, and that we have made ourselves completely available to Him for His use at any time and in any place. We have, as Romans 12:1 says, presented ourselves to Him as a "living sacrifice." Our will is completely surrendered to His. There is only one way for us to live this out: we die to our own will so that we can live to His. This is what Paul meant when he said that he had been "crucified with Christ," and that it was no longer he who decided his way, but Christ. All of this is found in the meaning of consecration, and all of this is why it is not a popular topic preaching and discussion in the church today. We are rarely willing to be living sacrifices for Him. We're even less willing to die to our self-will that we may live to His.

There is so much more to say and write about all this. I'll close with the last words of the definition of consecration shared in the beginning. "To unite by force with the sacred." To truly be consecrated by force with Him means that He has done the great work of entirely sanctifying our lives and hearts. This is a work of grace that is accomplished when we freely offer ourselves up to Him, dying to ourselves that we might live unto Him. David called all the people to such an act of worship with the Temple. Christ calls us to such an act of worship, you and me, today. The people responded to David. How will you and I respond to Christ?

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

Your Way

 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.  Psalm 37:5

I'm part of a men's prayer group at our church, and this morning the Lord put this Scripture on my heart to share for a short devotional. As we talked about all that the words of the Psalmist, King David, might mean, one of the brothers said that he had read where someone said of it, "Commit your way to The Way." I've been thinking about that since then. I'm blown away by all that is in that statement.

When I was preparing for the ministry at Bible College, we were always encouraged to study the meaning of words in Scripture. In the original Hebrew and Greek Aramaic in which the Scriptures were written, a word could have more than one meaning. This is a bit alien to the western, English based mind. For instance, the meaning of the Hebrew words for "commit" and "way" would be, "roll upon in trust the course of your life." That would mean putting into His hands, and therefore completely out of your hands, the entire way of your life and all that makes for your life. We humans are born with an ingrained desire to control.....everything. For God to command that we give unto Him all things concerning our lives and renounce our desire to control them goes against our fleshly nature. It is almost always the last thing we want to do. We're blind to the reality that it should be the first. In whose hands are things, all things, most secure? His or ours?

As I think upon this I'm reminded of an illustration I once came upon in my devotional reading. A Christian missionary/explorer was in an uncharted, unmapped territory in Africa. He had secured a guide who was both highly regarded and trusted. The missionary, realizing the complete lack of anything like a map, asked this guide, "How will we find the way?" The guide simply  replied, "I am the way." The missionary's part was to trust the one who knew the way and so was the way. Jesus Christ told His listeners, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes unto the Father except by Me." The human race has been searching for the "way home" ever since Eden. We have come up with some remarkable ways of getting to God. All of them require us "doing something," actually many things to get there. Christ tells us that all of them fail. They fail because we can not reach Him by our good works or behavior. We can only reach the Father through faith in His Son. His Son who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Way....in all things. 

Many who have trusted Him with being the way to the Father and His eternal life, somehow find it hard, even impossible to trust Him with the day to day events of life. We believe that He can do the greatest work, saving our souls, forgiving our sin, bringing us into His Kingdom, yet we cannot trust Him with our needs, our families, marriages, jobs, and ministries. We take them all, all the burdens upon ourselves when He calls us to cast all our burdens upon Him. This is how our lives become a wearying grind, filled with anxiety, stress, frustration, and eventually, hopelessness and despair. I'm always reminded of an entertainer I once saw on the old Ed Sullivan variety show. He had 10 poles upon which he placed 10 plates which he set to spinning. He then raced from pole to pole trying to keep them spinning. He was able to do so for a few minutes and his act ended with him being greatly applauded. Like him, we can keep all of our affairs "spinning" for a short time, but no longer. Eventually our plates will fall, and us with them. Many yours are falling right now.

Can you commit your way to Him? Can you trust Him....with all things that make for your life, your way? Can not the One who alone gives life, take care of all that makes up for life? If you can't trust Him, who then will you, can you trust?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

This and That

 This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24.....He has also set eternity in their heart  Ecclesiastes 3:11

It was said of Martin Luther that he had two days on his calendar; "This day and That day." What he meant was that he was not consumed with living in the midst of any days but these. He would live the current day to the fullest of his ability. Whether it be "good day" or a "bad day" it would be lived for the Lord, listening for Him, looking for Him, seeking to glorify Him in it. He would not be distracted by what had gone on yesterday or fearful about the next day. He would receive the day the Lord had granted him, and he would rejoice in it. He would rejoice that on this day His Lord and God was with Him, and since He was with him, he would have victory no matter what the day held.

In addition to "this day," he would also live for "that day." By this he meant that great day when he would fully behold His Lord. That day when all he had lived through, walked through, and yes, suffered through, would be past. No more tears. No more sorrows. The day that he would enter into the fullness of eternity. An eternity he had been created for and had been seeing from afar, but now in all its beauty. For Luther, these were the only days that really mattered. He would live his life around them. Do we? Do we even know how? Do we even desire to?

We say, even as followers of Christ, that we only take one day at a time, but how true is that? How much of our lives today are going to be affected by what happened yesterday, even if that "yesterday" was many years ago? How many of us spend so much time fretting over tomorrow, so consumed by it that we miss everything that was there for us today? Even if we are not focused on either yesterday or tomorrow, we can be so upset, so overwhelmed with the events of today, that we completely miss what God may have for us in it. Even in the worst of days, He is moving, speaking, bringing the opportunity to go deeper in Him, or share something of Him to another going through a similar place. We are missing Him in our today. Think of all those during the earthly ministry of Jesus who came into contact with Him, even heard Him speak or felt His touch, yet they never really noticed. Their minds were absorbed with their own lives. They missed Him in their today. How are we like them?

Yet, I think even worse than all this is how little thought or preparation we have or give to "that day," a day that will surely come to us all. We live with a yearning for eternity. He is the One who put that yearning within us. C.S. Lewis said that if there exists a longing within us that nothing in this world can fulfill, perhaps we should recognize that we were made for another world. We may reject that truth, deny it, avoid it, or run from it, but it remains the truth. Our lives here are, as the Bible says, "but a breath." Eternity is forever, but how little thought or concern we have for how we will spend it. That day, when all that we have lived out in these days will be weighed. Will we have lived for Him, for Christ, or will all of our lives be invested in a world that is passing away? Will we be ready for "that day?"

This day and that day. Two days that define all of what our lives will be and have been. How do we face them? How will we face them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Draw Near?

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  James 4:8......"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering and come before Him.; Worship the Lord in holy array." I Chronicles 16:29

In the western church, we have so magnified the place of His grace through the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, that we tend to dismiss almost entirely His calling upon us through His original covenant. The result has been a corruption in what we call "worship." 

In the Old Testament, He established a holy priesthood that was to minister to Him on behalf of the people. These priests were to be ceremonially clean when they came into His presence. His holiness was magnified before both the priests and the people. Scripture says that He dwells in "unapproachable light." So great was His glory, is His glory, that He told Moses that "no man may see Me and live." The priests came before Him with a holy reverence, and only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of His Presence was. 

With the coming of Christ and the New Covenant given us through Him, we may now come into His presence freely. Those who are His have total access to the Creator of the Universe. A Hebrew living in Old Testament times could surely have no concept of how wonderful this is. And that my friends is what I write about today. I want to speak of how far we have drifted in the modern church from a holy reverence for Him in what we call "worship." 

I am so thankful that through Jesus Christ I may draw near to Him, but how easily I forget how I am to draw near to Him. James speaks of coming before Him with clean hands, a pure heart, and single minded devotion. The writer of 1st Chronicles speaks of worshipping Him in "holy array." This references how even the vestments of the priests were to be perfectly clean when they came to minister to Him. Our holy array is to be our hearts. We are to come before Him not only clean outwardly, but inwardly as well. He expected His people in the Old Covenant to come before Him with fear and trembling. Not as a result of being carnally afraid of Him, but in awareness of how Holy He is, and that His Holiness is so great that apart from Christ, we can never come before Him, that His holiness would kill us were it not for His grace. This should fill us with awe, but I would make the point that the average attendee in the western church expresses little awe and reverence upon entry into whatever place they join into corporate worship. This reality should trouble us greatly. Why doesn't it?

A good pastor friend of mine described a recent visit to a large church in Texas. He said the presence of God was so powerful and so corporately felt that you couldn't help but be overcome by the wonder of it. He said that at the conclusion of the singing part of the service, a time of worship where no one had to be asked to stand before Him, He realized he had tears streaming down his face. He felt like he had joined with a people who knew personally the wonder of their God, and entered His sanctuary in awe, reverence, and yes, fear and trembling. You and I may feel we belong to a very good body of believers. I know I do, but tell me, when you observe His people coming to His church, entering into His presence, do they, do you and I, do so with an awesome sense of reverence and wonder? Are we acutely aware of our need for clean hands and pure hearts? Are we acutely aware of any part of us that is not clean, that is not holy? Where we are not, at least in part, clad in "holy array?"

We're invited to draw near. I am so thankful for the invitation. How do we come? With clean hands and a pure heart, clad in holy array? This is not a plea to "clean ourselves up" before we come to Him. He's the only One who can make us clean. What it is is a plea to live in deep awareness of Him, of His holiness and wonder. To realize and sense that we are always in His presence whether we acknowledge it or not. To realize that because of this, wherever we stand is holy ground, because He is there with us. When this becomes our way of life then His Spirit is continually at work within us, giving us, as the chorus says, "clean hands and pure hearts." And that is how we enter His presence, and we would not enter, could not enter, in any other way.  

May we draw near, live near, and never depart. Clean hands, pure hearts, encountering and experiencing our awesome God. May it be so. May it be so now.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Rescue Plan

 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.  Job 23:10

I heard Sheila Walsh ask the question, "Have you ever thanked God for not answering something you had prayed for?" She was referencing a time in her life when she had checked herself into a mental hospital. She suffered from deep depression and anxiety issues. She also had the memory of her father's mental illness, which was the result of a severe head injury. Eventually he had committed suicide. All of this converged upon her that first night in the hospital. She was terrified. She said she then prayed that the Father would take her out of her nightmare, that He would take her home to Himself. She then added, "But that wasn't His rescue plan." She said that He was not going to take her out of her nightmare but walk with her through all of it until He brought her out onto the other side of it. And when He did, she would not be the same person. Her rescue plan was an escape that changed nothing. His was a journey and relationship that would change her forever.

I know exactly what Walsh speaks of. I remember so well the deep darkness I walked through more than 30 years ago in the midst of my own nightmare. I remember the pain, the fear, the despair I felt. I never contemplated taking my own life, but I deeply wanted Him to. I wanted out of my nightmare. Like Walsh, that was not His rescue plan for me, and like Walsh, He meant to walk through all of it with me and when He had brought me through, I would not be the same. I would know myself more deeply, but best of all, I would know Him in ways I never thought possible. I would know Him in ways that could never have been discovered apart from His joining me in my nightmare, and bringing beauty in the midst of it and out of it. 

None of this should ever surprise us. Jesus Christ came to rescue a human race lost in its sin. If Christ were like us, He would have demanded that God just make all the sin "go away," so that He would never need to suffer the agony of the cross and its death. But the Father didn't just want to save a lost race, He wanted a deep and rich relationship with us. One based on surrendered faith, trust, confession and repentance. He wanted us to be aware of our lostness, our need for a Savior, and the terrible consequences of our sin. His rescue plan for us was Christ and His cross. No other plan could have dealt with our sin problem. As Scripture says, He endured the cross for the glory set before Him. We must realize the glory we will see and bring to Him when we allow Him to take hold of us in our nightmares and step by step, lead us out of them. 

Maybe you're in the midst of your own nightmare right now. Maybe you're simply in a place you desperately want to escape. Maybe you've been praying that one way or another, He'll end it, and help you escape. Dare to look to Him there. Dare to trust Him there. Dare to lay hold of Him as He lays hold of you and allow Him to bring you out to the other side. To the other side where you will enter into a richness of life you never dreamed possible. Sheila Walsh knows something of that. So do I. So do countless others. You can as well. Yield to His rescue plan for you. You will never regret it, and like Walsh, like me, you'll thank Him that He didn't just snatch you away, making you miss all that you gained in the journey.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Aliens

 For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; our days on the earth are like a shadow." I Chronicles 29:15

Aliens are among us. I'm one of them. Are you?

Now, before you start asking me if I've been to the Mothership or had conversations with odd looking creatures with huge eyes and oddly shaped heads, I am not speaking of such beings at all. I am identifying with the above Scripture. My life, the way I live, the values I hold to, the way I view people and the surrounding culture and its worldview, is to be alien to all of it. The people of God are to live like, as a friend put it, "like we're not from around here." I hope my life looks like that. As one who is in Christ, it should. If you make such a confession as well, yours must too.

The Israelites were known as Hebrews. The word Hebrew means "alien." From Abraham onward, they were aliens in every land they lived in. They were always pilgrims, passing through the lands but never taking root. God, through Abraham, had called them to be a people apart from every other race and people. This was the case until He led them out of the slavery in Egypt and into the land He had given them as their inheritance. In that land, they were to embody the Kingdom of God. They failed. They were not to become a part of the surrounding pagan nations or adopt their ways and values. It was God's desire that instead, they would used of HIm to bring them to Himself. That they would become part of His people, His Kingdom. That never happened. At first, they embraced all the ways of those unbelieving peoples and departed from their God. Later in their history, they returned to Him, but now they completely rejected all other people, seeing them as unclean and living in isolation from them. Both were destructive responses, and both completely missed the heart and will of God. I think we modern day believers continue in their blindness.

Christ and His ways were alien to all those He ministered to, especially to all the religious Jewish leaders of His day. He invited all people to Himself and proclaimed to all of them that the way to God was not through good works, or keeping rules, or avoiding evil people. It was through faith in Him alone. It was through a renouncing of the ways and values of the world and an embracing of the Kingdom He preached and invited them into. It was and remains His Kingdom, founded on His grace, mercy, and love. The door into it was opened by His sacrificial death on the cross and in His resurrection from the dead. It was His Kingdom of Light and Life. A Kingdom that had and has conquered all the power of darkness and death. Its citizens are transformed into people that more and more reflect their Lord Jesus. The ways of this fallen world are alien to them, and they are alien to this world. I know. I once lived in the dark kingdom, and those I met from His Kingdom were certainly alien to me. Strange strangers. Then the day came, so long coming, when I heard and answered His invitation. Before, the Kingdom that is eternal was alien to me. Now, the fallen kingdom of this world that is passing away is even more so. This can only happen through the entrance of Jesus Christ into my life as both Savior and Lord. I now live out the words spoken by the blind man whose sight Jesus restored, "Once I was blind, but now I see." Not by the works of men or reason, but by His entrance into and transformation of my heart.

So, I come back to my question: Are you an alien? Which kingdom are you most at home in? Whose "citizens" seem most alien to you? Which are you most comfortable around? Are you a pilgrim passing through this world, or are you so attached that you have no desire to ever leave? Are you not from around here, or are you very much "here" right now? Oh, and isn't it strange that throngs of people long to meet an extraterrestrial, an alien, but give almost no thought to meeting the One who is truly not of this world, Jesus Christ?

Blessings,

Pastor O

If You're Real

 I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.  Job 42:5

I recently heard the story of author and speaker Cristina Baker when she told of her journey from deep darkness to life in Jesus Christ. She related how she had grown up in an abusive and atheistic family. In her early teen years she turned to a lifestyle of drug use that led ever deeper into hopelessness and despair. She had a child and a job, but her drug use was only increasing, and she became suicidal. She said she was sitting at her workstation one morning and decided that later that evening, she would take her own life. She felt that everyone, including her child, would be better off if she were gone. Soon after she felt a tap on her shoulder, and a co-worker said that he felt led to invite her to a prayer gathering he and other employees would be having during lunch break. She went, and when she got there, she saw people engaged in prayer. Truly engaged in prayer. She said her first thought was that if there really was a God, these people must surely know Him. God was working. Though she made no move towards Him, she decided to not take her life.

Some more time passed, and her life only became more broken. In her brokenness, she cried out to Him, "God, if you're real, please help me." She related how she just had the sense in her spirit of the Father speaking to her saying, "I have been waiting for you to give Me such an invitation. Let Me show you how real I am." She said that immediately she felt a supernatural presence of life and power enter into her being. Christ had come into her life and the heavy chains of drug addiction and suicidal thoughts were broken. So began her journey from darkness, death, and despair, into light, life, and wholeness. Like Job, the God she had heard about became visible to the eyes of her heart and spirit. He had answered her prayer. He was real. He is real. Do you know that? Do you know it now?

I tell all that story because there are so many, both among those who profess to believe in Him, and those who are living far from Him, who, spoken or unspoken, want to know if He is real. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe life has gotten to the place where everything is against you, nothing makes sense anymore, and all you want to do is give up. You may not wish to take your own life, but you've decided to stop trying to live. You'll just live waiting to die. But in the midst of it all is that question for Him, "If You're real...." 

As He stood before the life of Cristina Baker, He stands before you. In the midst of your doubts, your fears, your disappointment, your despair, He waits for your invitation for Him to prove to you how real He is. He delights in doing so. He won't respond to arrogant demands that He prove Himself, but He will always reveal Himself to the broken and seeking heart. To your heart and to mine. Would you, in your brokenness, invite Him to show Himself real to you right where you are today? His Word says that He gives us a hope that will not disappoint. The miracles He worked in Cristina Baker's life, in my life, and in the lives of countless others who cried out to Him from the darkness, will be worked out in yours as well. All you need to do is extend the invitation. He will do the rest.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Power

 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

A young woman in our church shared something she'd heard a preacher say recently. She said as he went before his congregation, he told them that he'd just purchased a book on witchcraft and that it was filled with various spells to cast on people. He said he thought the fellowship might be interested in hearing what was contained in those spells. The young lady went on to say that the preacher then said that he saw the countenances of his congregation change to those of fear and dread. They didn't want to be exposed to those words of darkness and evil. With that he told them he had bought no such book and that he would never expose his people to what such a book contained. He told them that he did wish to make a strong point with them though. He said that when he presented the idea of the book and the reading of its words, the people were immediately afraid of what those words could do to them. He asked them, "Why are you, we, so willing to give credence and power to the words of the devil and his kingdom, and yet we seem to have so little confidence and belief in the power of the Words of the Almighty God we say we believe and follow? Why did they? Why do we? Why do you?

Somehow, a great portion of the western church has drifted from the place of being anchored in His Word. If we are not outright denying great portions of it, we are living as if it had no impact or power in our day to day lives. We are putting more value and trust in the words of men than in the Word of our Creator. We are more and more resembling that generation Paul spoke of who have a form of godliness but deny the power of God and of His Word. We have Bible quizzing for our children and youth but are we modeling and teaching them a reliance upon the words they memorize. If we should claim a promise of God do we really have any expectation that the promise will come to pass? What words of His are we currently standing upon? What Scriptures would we consider to be our "life verses," words from His heart that we have entrusted our lives to, our families, and all that concerns us? What does it say about us that the words of men and of the present age are more real to us than His words? Hundreds of thousands of people attend church services where they hear the Word preached and give it passive agreement, and then go away each week with no intention or belief that what they have heard can actually be lived out in their life situations. Lord, give us an awakening to the power of Your Word and words.

To be blunt, the church in America is for the most part stagnant. In most places church growth is just a matter of people moving from one congregation to another. Why are we not reaching a culture that is dying before our eyes? Could it be that we are living a powerless faith that has no attraction to a people trapped in despair and hopelessness? Yet, in cultures outside of America where poverty, disease, and death are a constant presence, the church is growing rapidly. Great throngs are coming to Christ. The greatest part of the reason is that they are seeing a real Jesus, a real God, and a real Holy Spirit in the and through the lives of His people. They live in a power greater than all that is against them, and they come to the Christ that these ones model and live out. May it be that we live in such power, modeling such a life. May it be so in you, and may it be so in me.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Second Chances

 Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”  Mark 16:7

Mark 16:7 is a beautiful Scripture, particularly for those who have at some point, failed Jesus....and that is all of us....The angel of the Lord had appeared to Mary Magdalene and two other women as they had come to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. He proclaimed to them that "He is not here. He has risen!" He then instructed them to tell the other disciples, "including Peter," that they were to go to Galilee where the risen Christ would meet them. 

"Including Peter." Peter, who had failed Christ at his trial, even denying that he even knew Him. Peter had failed Him, and he likely felt that he'd be the last person Jesus would want to see or meet with. Yet Christ made it a special point that the women should specifically let Peter know that He wanted him there. The meeting wouldn't be complete if he wasn't. Tell the disciples, "including Peter." Where can you and I insert our name into that command? Where have we felt, are we feeling now, that our failures in our faith walk have rendered us unwanted in His eyes? Jesus knew all about Peter's denial. As He was being led to his trial, His eyes had locked upon Peter's as he was warming himself at the enemy's fire, denying that he even "knew the man." Can there be a worse failure, one deserving of total rejection? Yet Jesus wanted him to know that He wasn't turning him away. He called him to Himself.

Ann Graham Lotz said, "He is the God of the fat chance, the slim chance, and the no chance." All of this is true, and knowing it is true should lift our hearts beyond any impossibility we face. I have it written in my prayer journal, but I have included my own words, "and the second chance" to it. He is the God of second chances. Of endless chances. Of the chance to choose life instead of death, hope instead of despair, victory instead of defeat, and love instead of hate. The world spirit would have discarded Peter after such a betrayal. Christ called the betrayer to His heart. Scripture calls Judas, "the betrayer," and such he was, yet in my prayer journal, I have the question, "How often have I been 'Gary the betrayer?' " How many times have I betrayed His trust, His command, His reputation? How many times have you? I'm not writing about a lifestyle of failure and betrayal. That wasn't what marked Peter's life and it can't mark ours, but if we should fail Him, we can know that He has the door of His heart open to us. The key to entering in is our confession and repentance. All the disciples, not just Peter, had failed Him. All were broken in their failure. All found welcome in their brokenness. He doesn't turn the broken away.

Let us give glory to the Lord of the Second Chance, and if that is what you need from Him today, He calls you to it. The chance is offered, openly. May the chance be taken. He will never be the One who turns away in the offer. Will you turn away in rejection?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Unchanging

 "I am the Lord, and I do not change." Malachi 3:6...."Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Hebrews 13:8....."God has not changed. The Bible has not changed. God's truth has not changed. The blood of Jesus has not changed. God still has the solution to our problems. Thank God that has not changed." A.W. Tozer

God has not changed. Christ is the same, remains the same now and through eternity. We read this, we hear this, and we say we believe this. Do our lives look like we do?

I often wonder what the first century church would have made of the message coming from most western pulpits these days. Indeed, what would our brethren in places like China, the Middle East, and many parts of Africa make of that message? What would they say about our view of the God we say we worship? Would they be attracted to the God and Christ we're speaking of? I remember reading the sobering words of an African believer who'd been brought to America by well-meaning friends who wished to "rescue" him from the difficult life he was leading in his village. After nearly a year here, he expressed his desire to return to that village. He feared that his faith life was dying due to the spiritual environment he was in and the "worship" he was experiencing. God was not real to him here. I ask, is He truly real to us?

I know that God doesn't limit Himself to only one way of relating and revealing Himself. He has infinite ways of doing so, but there does seem to be a common response when He does; people are overwhelmed by His presence, left speechless, unable to move or even remain standing in he awesome wonder of His presence, His holiness, His might and power. In response to all of this people were left trembling with awestruck fear, or simply fell on their face in worship. Scripture says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. We tend to think that speaks to having to face Him in judgement, but I believe it covers every true encounter with Him. Paul was struck blind on the Damascus Road when Christ appeared to him. John fell on his face before Him when Christ appeared to him on the island of Patmos. I am not saying that He has to do the same with us, but really, do we ever expect Him to come to us in such a way? When was the last time we were overwhelmed with awe by an encounter with Him in worship, be it corporate or personal?

Someone pointed out how we in a culture where we lack so little, have such a small idea of God, while those who are surrounded by need and want in less advanced cultures, have a steadfast belief in their God who they know beyond all doubt, can and will do all things and anything on their behalf. Could it be that in their simple yet powerful faith, they believe He really is the unchangeable One, that the Jesus they follow is the same for them that He was 2000 years ago? They believe that the God who parted the Red Sea is as alive and mighty for them this day as He was for the Israelites on that day. Why is that so hard for us to believe? Why have we tried to domesticate a God, a Christ, a Holy Spirit who cannot be tamed? Who will not be tamed.

If God has not changed, then we must face the truth that we have. Someone said that we have not sought to keep Him in a box, but in a leatherbound gilt lettered Bible. He will not be held there. He is Almighty God, wild and free. May we learn this anew, or perhaps for the first time. Come upon us Unchangeable God. Change us and forgive us for trying to change You.

Blessings,

Pastor O