Faith Is....

 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1...."Faith is living in the light of what God has said, resting in what He has done, and entrusting the future to His care." Paul Tripp

If someone asked you to define for them what real biblical faith is, chances are pretty fair that you would, if you've been a professing part of the church for some time, give them some form of Hebrews 11:1. To do so would be giving a correct doctrinal and theological view of what biblical faith is. But what if they asked you to make it personal, real, and based upon your own life experience? Paul wrote that we are to live ready to give anyone who asks the "reason for our hope." Multitudes, in one way or another, are searching for a reason to hope. We who call Him Lord are supposed to know the reason and joyfully share it. Can we? Can you?

I've written Paul Tripp's definition of faith in my prayer journal. It's my desire that I live out that description each day. To understand what it means to do so. That it would be my day to day experience. An experience I can share and point others to Jesus Christ with. So, how do I go about doing so?

First, what does it mean to "live in the light of His Word?" Christ is the Light of the world. His Word is a Living Word, and in it we find His Light. He is Truth. His Word is Truth. In Him and in His Word there is no darkness. There is power in His Word. There is Life in His Word. To live in the light of His Word is to live in the Light of His presence. That means we are "rooted and grounded" in that Truth. The Truth is a part of who we are. It is not just a mental agreement with that Truth. It is a day by day living experience of its Life and power. Because of it, we can say with Paul, "I know Who I have believed in, and I am persuaded that He will keep everything I've committed unto Him until that day." And beyond that day. That is what it is to be born into a Living Hope. Is living in such a hope your life experience?

How about your resting in what He's done? Has His faithfulness to you yesterday given you peace in your today? In this tumultuous world, is your heart and mind truly at rest because you have settled the question as to whether you can trust Him? He promises to keep us in His perfect peace. Are you experiencing the truth of His promise? What is more indicative of your spiritual life. His peace or the world's unrest? Someone said that we can not talk about His rest unless we are truly living in it. Are you and I talking about, offering to the world a rest that we don't really know much about or experience in any meaningful way?

Last, has the rest we live in today yielded a complete trust in Him for all the unknown that is found in our tomorrows? Can we really leave all the unanswered questions, all the unsolved mysteries, all the "what if's" that are found there in His care? Can we trust Him with all of them? Or, is our assurance under constant assault because of fear that constantly gnaws at our hearts and minds? We can verbally define faith, but those who hear us will be able to tell whether we actually live in it or not. What do they see and say when they look at our faith lives?

We'll each have opportunity this day and every day to define faith and hope for a world desperate for it. Will we be convincing in our witness, or will we leave them still hoping and still searching?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heavenly Worship

 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.  Deuteronomy 6:5...."True worship liberates us from ourself."  Jack Hayford

The other day I was listening to a Passion Conference CD. These CD's always contain a lot of great worship songs, but there's one on this one that I've never been comfortable with. The singer is trying to paint the picture of what it will be like when all of His people gather to Him on that great day when all who are His are brought into His presence. His main lyric was, "We're gonna party!" Now, I get where he was coming from, and I know he was singing to a mainly young crowd. I also know that when we do come before Him, there will be much celebration, but even so, I think the premise behind this song speaks to much of what is wrong with modern worship. It is far too much about us, and far too little about Him.

Revelation shows us the picture of worship in heaven. Every part of those around His throne is given over to complete worship and adoration of Him. They fall on their face before Him, worshiping His holiness, giving Him glory and endless praise. They are consumed with this. Every fiber of their being is directed towards Him. A.W. Tozer wrote, "How can I, a son of ignorance and night, come into the holiest of holies in heaven and encounter God? Only by bowing in humble reverence to this awesome Holy One." It's not about a party. It's not about how much we're going to enjoy Him, how much pleasure we will encounter in Him. It's simply all about Him. It's not about us. We have deceived ourselves into thinking that the worship of the church is at least as much about us as it is about Him. Perhaps more.

How so? Look at the effort we go to construct our gatherings to attract people. Lighting, various kinds of visual effects.....smoke machines? What of all this points to Him and what points to us? Who are we really trying to please? Who are we playing to, singing to, even preaching for? Who really is being given the most honor in what we call worship?

I know this comes across strongly. I think it needs to. I spent time at too many conferences and seminars where I was told what I needed to do in the modern environment the church now found itself in. Being relevant became more important than being broken before Him. Being comfortable became a greater priority than being in awe. Being told what "props" I needed to do effective ministry became more important than cultivating the awesome presence of a Holy God. Somehow, the props became more important than His presence. To some degree, all of us, including me, came under the sway of this approach. We need to return to the true root of worship. It's not too late.

Too much of what we're doing resembles entertainment more than worship. Tozer said entertainment is what the church resorts to when His joy has departed from it. People overflowing in the joy of the Lord need no props or prompts to worship Him with all their hearts. I recently watched a video of an African congregation gathered in a barebones sanctuary displaying an exuberance in worship unseen in most western churches. No praise band. No line of singers. No effects. Just His presence and them in it. It was more than enough. It is always more than enough. May it be that we have the courage to at least bring before Him with surrendered wills, all that we do in what we call a worship service. Letting Him examine, reprove, and correct where needed. On that great day when I do come before Him, I don't want to be among those looking for props, parties, or smoke machines. I just want to be looking at Him. How about you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Weeds

 "And other seed fell among the  thorns (weeds), and the thorns came up and choked them out." Matthew 13:7

....."The only thing you have to do to let weeds thrive is nothing. And nothing is a choice." Alicia Britt Chole

Anyone who has ever planted a garden knows the wearisome task of constantly having to "weed it." You can grow beautiful things in a garden, but always, if left unattended, those beautiful plants and flowers will be invaded by and eventually strangled by the always encroaching weeds. Doing nothing is a choice, but it's a choice that brings death. So it is in our spiritual lives as well. The "weeds" of this world and of the enemy are always seeking to invade our hearts, minds, and souls. Where are they taking root in your life and mine?

In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, Jesus was talking about good seed, seed that bore fruit, and seed that bore no fruit at all. The latter type of seed failed to produce for various reasons; shallow soil, rocky ground, and the above mentioned thorns and weeds. When the human race fell through the sin of Adam and Eve, a world that was not meant to experience these "weeds" came into being. The ability to plant and bring forth fruit remained, but now the Adversary, Satan, would actively oppose the fruitfulness of the human race God had created. Man would have to produce the fruit by the sweat of his brow. God could and would bless, but it was up to the man to tend his "garden." How are we tending ours?

God is constantly planting His "seed" into the hearts and lives of His people. He means for that seed to bear much spiritual fruit. Fruit that produces ever deepening knowledge of Him. Fruit that yields joy, peace, strength, and His abundant love. But those seeds must be tended to, cultivated. The enemy of our soul does not wish that any of these things be realized in us, so his many kinds of "weeds" are planted all around our hearts, seeking to choke out the life He has given us. They take the form of many different things, some of them quite beautiful. His weeds often don't look like weeds at all, but the reality is, anything in the garden of our heart that pulls us away from Him is a weed, no matter how lovely it may appear. What "lovely" weeds have been appearing in your garden? How much of His life in you are they choking out?

The evangelist James Robison once said that the Lord got hold of him and whispered, "There are too many rocks and weeds in your garden." Too many other "things" were choking His life in him. He was being told that he needed to tend his garden......and tend it immediately. What do we need to tend to immediately? What weeds and rocks need to be removed from the gardens of our heart? Where are they increasing while His life is diminishing? 

There's been a popular program that details what the earth would be like if the human race vanished. The remarkable thing is that huge cities would quickly be overrun by a nature that would be relentless in claiming ground it had surrendered to the workings of men. What had once been bustling centers of human life were now dead, empty, jungle covered shells. Sin is like that in the heart left untended. It chokes out and destroys that which had been His. May we be vigilant that we hear His voice, heed His commands, and tend the gardens of our hearts.....before there is no garden left to tend.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Friends

 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.  James 2:23.....".....but I have called you friends." John 15:15......"You do not choose to be a friend of God. That's by invitation only." Henry Blackaby

There was a popular chorus a few years ago titled, "I Am A Friend Of God." I'm wondering if maybe it was a bit presumptuous on the part of the one who wrote the lyrics. It gives the impression that it is we who choose the relationship of being a friend of God. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Henry Blackaby writes, we can only enter into friendship with the Creator by His invitation, not by our initiation.

To be a friend of God, of Jesus Christ, we need to have shown ourselves to be trustworthy of such an honor and blessing. If we have no real understanding of what it means to truly be a friend, then it is very unlikely that we will be invited into real friendship with Him. Part of the proving ground of that is how we have treated and interacted with those we call "friends" here on earth. Especially as to how we have treated them within the church.

I loved the 90's comic strip, "Calvin and Hobbes." In one of the strips, Calvin's uncle comes to visit. He remarks on Calvin's relationship with his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. Calvin's mother replies that Calvin likes to spend time with an imaginary friend like Hobbes instead of actual boys and girls. The uncle responds, "Sometimes I think all my friends have been imaginary." True friends, lasting friends, are difficult to find, even in the church. Social media has further reduced the idea of friendship to the most frivolous level. It means almost nothing....even in the church. We drop, forget, betray, and walk away from people more easily all the time. It seems like friends come and friends go....and they mostly go. Jesus knows nothing of such friendship, and He won't accept such from any of us. He looks into our hearts and if He sees a longing for something real, something beyond what this world can offer, it is to such hearts that He offers His friendship, that He invites into friendship. He knows He can trust Himself with them. Does He know such about you and me?

Have we been nothing more than imaginary friends to Christ? Does He see the same shallowness in our hearts that is so present in the world? Can He trust Himself to us? We love to sing, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus," but can He sing such a song about us, about you and me? Today, as we allow Him to examine our hearts, does He see that which would make us His friend? Does He see a life He can entrust Himself to? Or, does He just see someone who will take advantage of the blessings He offers, the works He can do for us, and the ways He can help us....and then move on? As Blackaby says, no one chooses friendship with God. It's by invitation only. Have we received the invitation?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Come Up!

 Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.”  Revelation 4:1....."In worship, He calls us beyond the limitations of where we are." Jack Hayford

The late Jack Hayford was called "the pastor to pastors." He certainly impacted my life and ministry in many ways. One was through his teachings on worship. In one of his books, "The Reward Of Worship," he speaks to the circumstances of the apostle John on the prison island Patmos, and specifically to Revelation 4:1.

John has been exiled to the island. He is isolated from the churches and people he so deeply loves. He is severely restricted in what he can do and where he can go. His limitations are beyond harsh. Yet, as Hayford points out, none of these conditions can in any way limit his access to God. John writes that he was "in the Spirit" when all of the visions began to be shown to him. He was worshiping the Lord. In his worship, none of the constricing circumstances could keep him from encountering his God. As Hayford says, his worship of the Lord called him beyond his limitations. It can and will do the same for us. If we are truly worshiping.

Hayford also gives a fresh take on Revelation 4:1. He paraphrases it as, "Come up from where you are and enter into all I have for you." This is His call to each of us. No matter where we are, or what we're going through, He calls us up into all that He has for us in that place. Nothing of our circumstances can keep us from Him. No place, not even a prison rock that was Patmos, can keep us from the One who "calls us up." So why do so few of us ever really enter into all that He calls us to?

I think a great part of the answer is that we have little idea as to what real worship is. We identify it as something we come together for once a week at our church fellowship, but even if it was just that, most of us miss out. We tumble in, often halfway through the start of the service, and by the time we have any kind of focus at all, we're coming to the end. We leave as we came, and with all the same baggage we brought. We've not encountered Him to any degree. Too often, we've not encountered Him at all. And when next week comes, we do it all over again.

We fall into this pattern because we don't know how to worship Him when it's just He and us. In all our busyness, with all our concerns and cares, we feel good about the few verses we may have read, and the short or long list of requests we present to Him. We call it prayer, but it really isn't that, and it will never qualify as worship. He opens His door and He calls us up, but we're blind to the door and deaf to the call. We remain on our own Patmos with all its limitations.

The Father is always calling His people to worship, and never more so than now. Our limitations have kept us in chains for too long. We need to gather ourselves before Him, seeking His face, His heart, and His life. When we do, we'll see the open door and hear the upward call. The chains and limitations of our various Patmos' will be broken. In worship, we will have no limitations.

Today, on your Patmos, will you enter into true worship? Will you look for His open door into His presence and hear His upward call to your heart and Spirit? There will always be limitations upon us physically, but there are none in the Spirit.  His door is open. Come up!

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Unless

So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  John 20:25....."In our preaching, hearers need to see our Lord Jesus and touch Him."  Watchman Nee

I recently saw an article from a Christian ministry that was centered on all the people who have left the church, why they have left, and what needs to be done to bring them back. The article sprang from the writer asking a cross section of these people the above questions. I was amazed. Not because we shouldn't be aware of why people leave, but that we go to people to find out what it is they want from the church, and then try to figure out what the church can do to bring them back, to bring them in. This reminds me of something Henry Blackaby said about how many churches were polling the unchurched people around them as to what it was they would like a church to be about if they were to attend a church. Blackaby asked, "Why should the church go to the world to ask it about what the church should be?" Why do we always think the answers are in the ideas and attitudes of people? Why do we so easily go to them and not to Him?

This is not to say that the church is not without fault. It carries plenty of that. But our faults are not going to be rectified by finding new and pleasing ways to attract a crowd. That's a temporary fix that will always soon require an even better one a short time later. The church's problem is that in far too many ways, we have not presented a God, a Son, and a Holy Spirit that is real to those who come. We've resorted to fleshly means to attract people, means that the world always does so much better than us. They soon become bored and need something more stimulating. Something that the church down the road does better, or they just simply find it out in the culture. How can it be that in all our hand wringing over how to draw the people, we never seem to uncover the truth that is right before us? That the reality of the Living, Risen Christ in the midst of church provides an eternal attraction that nothing in all of creation can match. We keep building "ladders" in order to reach Him when His Word tells us that when we proclaim His glory, when we "lift Him up," He will, as His Word says, "draw all men (and women) to Himself?"

What would happen if in the church, a generation of preachers would be so saturated in His presence, so alive unto Him, that they could proclaim a risen Christ so real, so vibrant, so alive, that people could spiritually "touch and see Him?" Thomas said that he would not believe unless he saw Christ's wounds and touched them. When Christ appeared before him and he could do so, all Thomas could say was, "My Lord and my God." It will be the same when He "shows up" among us, and He will where we are committed to lifting Him up, proclaiming His glory, and offering no props, ladders, or attractions that are nothing but cheap tricks beside He who is the glory of God.

Anne Graham Lotz wrote a book entitled, "Just Give Me Jesus!" May we do so. May we give people Jesus, the real Jesus. We need nothing more.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Holy God

 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  Exodus 3:5..."For it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy." I Peter 1:16...In this day of watered-down, sentimental Christianity, we have lost the sense of the holy in the church." A.W. Tozer

Holiness, whether the holiness of God or the personal life of holiness He commands us to live out, has never been a popular preaching point in the church. Even in those churches that are considered "holiness churches." Tozer, writing a generation ago, was correct when he said the church had lost the sense of the holy. I think he'd be shocked to see how much further along we are in that were he still living.

I get that holiness of life has been mis-taught, promoted gross legalism, and become a bondage to many who came under such teaching. However, His command to us is clear. We are to be holy, living lives of righteousness, because He is holy, and fully, completely righteous in Himself. True, biblical holiness is not the result of trying to keep and live up to man-made standards solely by our own effort. True holiness emanates from a heart sanctified, set apart, and made pure by the work of His Holy Spirit. This is a work of grace, and the result is a life and heart that is drawn to a Holy Creator, and has at root, a desire to live for Him, to please Him, and to bring Him glory. In your fellowship, can you remember the last time a sermon was preached, let alone a series of sermons, that centered upon the holiness of God and what holiness of life really is? Has sanctification and the sanctified life ever been explained and proclaimed? There are more than a few preachers who don't want to go there. It's dangerous ground, especially for those in the congregation whose faith lives are being lived out in the flesh and not the Spirit. Or not lived out at all.

I went to a holiness Bible College, and I had a professor named Charles Baldwin. He was the most demanding and difficult professor to please that any of us would ever have. He was a true holiness preacher. I remember his saying that in the average "holiness church," you could preach against smoking, drinking, dancing, movies, and other external behaviors, and would be greeted with choruses of amen's. But, he said, begin to preach on integrity of character, gossip, unforgiveness, jealousy, honesty in business dealings, in short, purity in our thoughts and motives, and you'd soon be getting phone calls from the flock strongly suggesting that you needed to lighten up on all of that. The flesh hates hearing of a heart calling that can only be lived out when it is crucified with Christ. We can't live in inner purity until the old sin nature that abides in our heart has been crucified, so that the new nature of Christ may rule our hearts. 

Tozer made a very "in your face" statement when he wrote, "The Holy One only allows in His presence, holy creatures, holy beings."

If we will allow Him to search our hearts and lives, just how much of our life would be allowed into His presence? I know. It's Christ who makes us acceptable to Him. But, can Christ be present, can He be Lord in lives that willingly engage in what is unclean? And yet, we come before Him week after week persisting in unrepentant behaviors and attitudes that He abhors but that trouble us little, if at all. I echo the likes of Paul and Peter in the Bible and ask, "How can these things be?"

I'm not promoting the living out of a perfect life. I don't have that either. We have fallen bodies and minds living in a fallen world. But we can have perfect hearts, fully surrendered to Him, dying daily to self, growing each day in righteousness and closer and deeper in Him. If, as you read this and you think that you don't really understand what I've been writing about, or that you've been taught or believed something different, I simply ask you to take that to Him and ask Him to reveal to you what His command to "be holy as He is holy" really means and is. I promise you, He'll reveal that to you. Can you dare to do it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Guest

 I've been writing these devotionals for nearly twenty years now, and today, for the first time, I'm presenting one that doesn't come from my heart. There's a young lady in our fellowship named Dee Jones who truly has His hand and Spirit upon her life. Today, she wrote this on her FB page, and I thought it so anointed that I needed to share it with you. Be blessed and challenged by her words.

One of my biggest ministry cheerleaders and mentors shared his books with me. It takes me a while to get through them mostly because there is so much to marinate and chew on. It’s taken me 4 days to get past the first 5 pages of this one.

Tozer wrote these thoughts years ago, but I am watching it unfold in real time. Factions of The Church have become very sick and diseased and are collapsing on itself. My heart breaks and aches over what seems so very obvious to me and the collateral damage that will ensue... for generations.

How did we get here?? We not only stopped looking at the world and every aspect of our lives and the things that touch it through the lense of Jesus, but we took our eyes off Him completely. We have traded the truth for feelings, so much so that in many ways The Church has become so intertwined with the world, that to look at the two side by side one cannot tell the difference between them. This is not how it was or is supposed to be. We were and are called to change the culture, not the other way around. To negotiate or compromise the truth leads to spiritual lethargy which leads to spiritual garbage.

My prayer over these past few days and into the coming days is that the Church and the people of God would wake up and become plagued with holy desire and "hearts hungry for something only God could provide," (Tozer).

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It's been my prayer and deep desire that more and more within the church would have their hearts inflamed with a hunger for all of His fullness and life. I believe that is happening. May our tribe grow.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Just Enough

 "But He said to him, 'A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.' But they all alike began to make excuses."

Something that amazed, grieved, and frustrated me through my years in ministry is that the majority of professing believers seem to be very content with "just enough Jesus." Just enough Jesus that He's available when we get into trouble. Just enough Jesus to grant us blessings, keep us safe, and provide for not only our needs, but our wants. Just enough Jesus to give us some warm "spiritual fuzzies" when we attend church services. Just enough Jesus to make us feel like we're really following Him, even though.....we're really not.

In so many ways, we're just like the invited guests in Jesus' parable about the rich man and the banquet he gave for his invited guests. He had prepared a feast, and all was ready for them to come and partake of it.....but they all came up with reasons why they couldn't. If they were people he wished to be present, they must have had importance to him. Yet he, and his feast, had little importance to them. They found reasons not to come. They were unaware of not only all he had prepared for them, they were unaware of how they dishonored him in their excuses. He had prepared a feast they were not hungering for. How like them we are.

In Christ, the Father has prepared a feast of life and blessing for those who believe upon Him. All is ready and laid out before us. He invites us to partake, to enter into His fullness. We, like the invited guests, do not partake of it because our hearts do not hunger for it. They don't hunger for Him. We're oblivious to all He has given us in Christ. Worse, we have little if any idea of how we dishonor Him in our apathy to it all. We're very familiar with the Scripture that tells us that He "gave His only begotten Son," but we don't have a real understanding of the cost to Him and of the infinite value of the gift He offers us in Christ. We're satisfied with sips and nibbles of the Bread and Living Water of His Life. We have just enough of those to keep us going and to give us what we think of as contentment. All the while we're starving for Jesus. Starving to death an inch at a time.

Where are we refusing His bounty in our lives today? Where do we stay away from Him? Where, in our worship, our service, our ministry, does the cheapness of what we give and receive dishonor Him? Where have we, are we, devaluing the One who is infinitely beyond any treasure the world has ever known? 

This day, He has prepared a banquet that offers an unlimited abundance of His life. He has made all things ready to partake of it. What do we do? Send in our excuses, or come to Him, run to Him, hungering and thirsting to partake?

Blessing,
Pastor O

Persuaded

 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.  2 Timothy 1:12...."Belief is a truth held in the mind. Faith is a fire in the heart." Chris Tiegreen....."It was not what Abraham believed but who Abraham believed that truly counted." A.W. Tozer

It's very important that we believe Scripture, the correct doctrine, and all other things pertaining to true faith. However, all of these beliefs can be held in our mind yet do nothing to inflame our heart. We may place Scripture promises on our wall, write them in our journal, and have them everywhere about us, living in total agreement with them, yet still miss what He intends for us to have. 

I spent four years preparing for the ministry. I believed in the God that led me out to Colorado to prepare for that ministry. After graduation, I spent five years proclaiming His gospel message, also believing that which I proclaimed. Along the way, much of what I learned, believed, and proclaimed was tested, and my belief also became my personal experience and possession. Then, in August of 1989, my world collapsed, along with my marriage and ministry. Now, my great challenge would be, would all that I had been preaching and believing to this point be held onto by me as I walked through this deep darkness? Would my belief become more than words in a Bible and notes in a sermon? He was about to take me from a firm belief in a truth held in my mind, to a fire that burned in my heart. My belief and my faith would be melded together. This would happen because I would come to "know" Him in deeper ways then I had ever thought possible. So deep that in the midst of the darkness and beyond, I could say, "For I KNOW Whom I've believed, and am PERSUADED....."

This is the goal of belief and faith, that we come to know, personally and intimately, the God we believe in. Someone once said that the Pharisees didn't recognize Jesus the Messiah when He came among them because "they didn't believe the God they said they believed in." They didn't know Him and so they didn't see Him. I can think of no more tragic way for a professing believer to go through life than to be unable to recognize the God they say they follow. Where might that be happening in your life today? Where has your belief in Him fallen short of becoming a fire, kindled by experience and knowledge, in your heart?

If He has allowed you to come to the place in your life where you too are being tested in your beliefs, don't run from it. The darkness and pain of the place will be real. He will be more real....if you hold to Him and allow Him to draw you more deeply into Himself. You will come out of it all, and you too will be able to proclaim with Paul, "I KNOW Whom I've believed, and I'm PERSUADED....."

Blessings,
Pastor O