Bumper Sticker Faith

 From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.

Galatians 6:17

In 1979, when I first came to Christ, bumper stickers were all the rage for Christians who wanted to "promote" both Christ and their faith. I had one myself, "Smile! Jesus Loves You!" Young believers like me seemed to favor them most. The problem was, those stickers told people who we said we were, but too often, our day to day behavior said something else. Thich brings to mind a story my Bible professor told. He'd witnessed a traffic altercation that took place at a congested intersection. There was a lot of honking of horns. One car in particular had a bumper sticker on it. It said, "Honk If You Love Jesus!" Someone right behind him did, and the driver/owner of the sticker jumped out of his car and berated the one who'd honked at him. 

This brings to mind what I once heard someone call "bumper sticker faith." It was what my professor was talking about. You can carry lots of logos and sayings. You can know Scripture inside and out. You can find a large number of ways to "promote" Jesus, and maybe yourself as well, but it takes more than bumper stickers to prove who it is we belong to and who it is we serve and follow.

The apostle Paul was often under attack not only from both Jew and Gentile unbelievers, but from the very church he loved and served as well. His authority and authenticity was often called into question. This was happening in the church in Galatia, which led him to exclaim, powerfully, that he'd had enough. He didn't need to prove to anyone who and whose he was. The scars he bore were all the proof he needed. Scars suffered at the hands of those who sought to oppose him, oftentimes violently. Scars from prison stocks, lashings, stonings, and more. All suffered willingly for the sake of the Gospel. For the sake of the One who was the Good News Himself. Just as Christ showed His disciples the scars He bore from the crucifixion, so did Paul's scars, physical, emotional, and spiritual as well, prove the reality of the One he lived for. He didn't have a bumper sticker centered faith. He had a scar centered one. How about you and me? Which one do we show forth?

I've said this in an earlier writing and I say it again. Scars will be the mark of the one who follows and walks with Christ. The one who bears the cross they've been given. The one who has decided it is Christ to whom they belong and no one else. The one who says that there is no boundary line in the matter of the cost of being completely His. Such a one will surely bear the scars that mark them as Christ's. They need no bumper stickers or T-shirts. The marks of Christ, of Christ Himself show through their lives. They see the scars not as a by-product of following Him. They see them as marks of honor. They mark them as bondslaves of Christ.

Someone said that there will be no scars in eternity save for the ones on Christ's hands and feet. Totally true, but until then, the proof that we are fully His will lie in the marks, the scars we bear in answer to His calling. A calling that always leads by way of the cross....and marks and scars. There will be no scars in heaven. There'll be no bumper stickers either.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Joy

 When my daughter Kim was a little girl, she was a true "fountain of joy." Not just to me, but to all she came into contact with. Always smiling, happy, fun. I was constantly told how special she was, and how beautiful. I'd ask her why she was always smiling, and in her sweetness, she'd answer, "Cuz I'm a happy little girl." Joy. She was filled with it. It came from the fullness of a little heart given to Him.

The coming years were to bring many things upon her life that she didn't ask for. Things that left her tiny heart crushed, trampled, beaten down. Those things led her to dark places and terrible choices. They led her from the Source of her joy, the One who first gave it to her. I believe she spent most of her teen years and adult life seeking to find it again.

To some degree, we all know something of this. Times when we too brimmed with great joy, love, and innocence. And then those things and circumstances we never asked for came upon us. Brokenness, abandonment, abuse, and neglect. We were left broken and empty and, in our search to regain it, we made our own bad choices, helped along by the enemy of our souls, the devil. All the while in our search, He who is Joy itself is seeking us. With a heart beating with His love.

The prophet Daniel, in a time of fear and unknown, cried out to His Father and in return received this answer through the messenger angel Gabriel: "Don't be afraid, for you are deeply loved by God." That message still seeks us out. Seeks you out. You, your heart and your life are His treasures. He knows where you are, how you got there, and what it has done to you. He offers not just His love and life. He offers Himself.

What have you lost? What has been squeezed out, dried up, used up in you? His Word says, "Jesus came to seek and save (give back and restore) that which has been lost." I have seen it happen in countless lives. I have experienced it in my own. We live in a fallen world and our hearts will continue to be under assault from the enemy of our souls, but we have a Hero, a Champion who stands between us and that enemy and the world system he operates through. Jesus Christ, who with a word, puts him to flight.

The brokenness of that little, joyful girl, eventually led to alcoholism which in turn, took her life two years ago. But that is not the end of the story. Before she left this life, she returned to the One who first gave her life.....and her joy. The Lord restored what the enemy had stolen. The beautiful little girl came back to Life as she stood at the end of this passing one. In all her seeking she was finally found by the One who never stopped seeking her. Billy Graham once said that sometimes we take the long way home. Kim certainly did, but she did come home, and her joy has been made full. May we trust and believe, may you trust and believe, that He will do no less for you. And you don't have to take the long way home. Come straight to His heart. Right now.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Suddenly

Pastor and author Dutch Sheets made this point in one of his books. He notes that in Genesis, "God begins each day of creation with darkness. The process of God always involves night.... Spiritual birthing begins at night." He goes on to say that we need to expect God to bring light out of the darkness, even if they may be the darkest places we have ever known.

There's a beautiful example of this in the 12th chapter of Acts, verse 7. Peter had been arrested and thrown into prison. A clear fact about the prison cells of the ancient world is that they were devoid of light. Peter was not only in darkness, but securely chained between two armed guards. The only thing darker than his cell was the appearance of his circumstances. Yet verse 7 tells us that, "Suddenly there was a bright light in the cell." Another Bible translation puts it, " Suddenly the cell suddenly flamed with light." What I see here is that there is no degree of darkness that can block one of God's beautiful "Suddenly's." 

Going back to the creation account in Genesis, it says, "And there was darkness, and there was light." Our lives will have times of darkness. Sometimes deep darkness. We have to hold fast to the One who tells us, promises us, that He is Light. If we trust, if we expect, we will behold Him to bring the light, His Light, into the midst of whatever "cell" the darkness has tried to hide us. Expectation is the key. We must expect Him to come, in His way and time, and bathe our situations with His Light. A Light that will pierce and banish even the thickest and deepest darkness. He will do it suddenly. We need to believe, you need to believe, that He has a suddenly for us, for you.

Have you come to your own "dark cell," what is your expectation? Can you believe He is at work through the process, "birthing" something beautiful in and through you there? In the darkness of his cave, Elijah met God, and found new hope in place of his despair. From the darkness of the hole his brothers had thrown him into, and through the slavery and prison cell he unjustly found himself in, emerged Joseph. Joseph, used of God not only to preserve his own people, but Egypt's as well. There is no cave, no cell, no place where, if we will see through the dark with eyes of faith, become inflamed with His Light. 

In his cell, Peter could not move. He was powerless to affect anything. His God was not. His Light, as Keith Green wrote in one of his most beautiful songs, "broke through." Scripture calls Him, "the God who breaks through." He will do so suddenly, and all that accompanies the darkness, fear, anxiety, discouragement, despair, will suddenly be put to flight. What remains is Jesus, the Lord of Light. The Light that pierces all darkness.

Blessings,

Pastor O  

Gentle

 Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.  Isaiah 46:4

Something I like to regularly do is walk through our local shopping mall. Besides browsing the "goods," I like to observe the people passing by. The other day I was deeply moved by a scene that has stuck in my mind since. An elderly couple was sitting on one of the mall benches. Actually, he was sitting upon it while she was seated right next to him in her wheelchair. It seemed very obvious that the dear woman was in some stage of dementia, yet the loving care being exhibited towards her by her mate was moving beyond words. I watched as he caressed her thinning hair and gently kissed her many times. Then he fed her from a cup he had brought. It was hard to know how aware she was of all he was doing, but that didn't matter to him. He simply loved her, gently, beautifully, powerfully. In this scene I saw a picture of the true and deep love of God for His people. A love not dependent on how able we are, or even how able we might be to return it. He loves because He is love itself. Always and forever.

This connects well with a story I read recently. The writer related a conversation he had with an elderly pastor whose wife was experiencing the beginning of dementia. The pastor told him that his wife's greatest fear was that she would one day forget Jesus, that she would no longer remember Him. He told her that she needn't worry. The important thing was that her Jesus would never forget her. I don't know if the wife in the mall any longer remembered who her husband was, but that wasn't important to him. He remembered who she was and he loved her. Gently, beautifully, powerfully. So it is with the love of Christ for you and me. The husband's love for his wife saw far past her current state and limitations. He loved her simply because it was his heart to do so. So it is with Jesus. He sees beyond our feebleness, our limitations, our failures. This will be so until the very end of this life and then into the life to come. He has made us and He will carry us, just as the Scripture promises.

In Christ's great invitation to come to Him in Matthew 11:28-30, in the center are His words, "I am gentle....and lowly." In his book, "Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ For Sinners And Sufferers," Dane Ortlund writes, "This is who He is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Understanding." Gentle, and lowly, and loving. As Ortlund says, "Not a mushy and frothy love," but a strong and powerful one. As I watched that husband with his wife, I saw a man of great strength hold his frail wife's hand and minister to her in a way of love that to me, most reflects how He ministers to us. Especially to we who have wandered away or are walking through the desert of suffering. Wherever you are and whatever you're walking through, this is the Jesus who is with you, who seeks you, who is there, who will not forsake you. Jesus Christ. Exalted King with a name above all names, who is yet gentle and lowly.....to you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Agreed

 I think the hardest part of being a pastor is watching people continue onward to sure destruction, knowing all the time that it needn't be that way. That in fact, they could be moving steadily onward into abundance and wholeness. The pain that this causes is best seen in Matthew 23:37, where Jesus, looking upon Jerusalem, cries from the depths of His heart, "How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let Me." They wouldn't let Him. Countless more still won't let Him. Maybe in some way, many ways, you won't let Him.

Why?

Why do we resist so mightily that which is obviously for our good? Why do we run from Him, avoid Him, deny Him? Is it fear? If so, fear of what? Losing control? Having to face some stark realities about ourselves or our situations? I think that's part of it. I think it's also a fear of the unknown. The known, miserable as it may be, can be very comforting to us. At least we know what to expect there. We know the rules. The unknown? Well, it's just that: Unknown. The unknown can't be controlled or managed, so why go there? Still, it's into the unknown that Christ calls us. Our choice is either listen to Him and follow, or.....run. Hide. Avoid. Deny. 

I heard a writer named David Terry say recently that, "Our journey with Him is a process we need to agree with." Agree with and yield to. Surrender to. Leave in His hands and keep out of ours. Few of us seem able to do this. We give lip service to His Lordship, but we're very reluctant to agree to the process of the journey He calls us to join Him on. We want details. Where are we going? How long will it take? Will there be rest stops? What are the dangers and what level of comfort can we expect along the way? Most of all, how much sacrifice will be required? If His answers are satisfactory, then we'll "agree" to it. He rarely, if ever gives any answers to those questions. Since we fear going forward without them, we run, hide, avoid, and deny. So we continue onward on our sure path of, at best, mediocrity, and at worst, disaster, with the latter most likely.

Throughout my ministry I've watched life after life and household after household continue on with such a path. I'm watching both do this as I write. I long to see them run to the protection, power, and abundance of Jesus, but instead, they run away. The Jesus who offers an abundance of life stands before them with arms wide open, desperate to give them that life, but they won't allow it. His heart breaks. My heart breaks. In the end, their hearts break. In the end I'm left with my original question that I still have no answer to. Yet I do have an answer. It is, it will always be....Jesus. He continues to call them, you, me, us, into His life. By His grace, I'll continue to call all to His life too. I'll grieve over those who reject it, but I'll keep reaching as He keeps reaching, knowing that some will respond to that call and join Him on the journey. To agree to accompany Him wherever He leads. Jesus calls with His heart and arms wide open. Make the agreement and enter in.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Scale

 Oftentimes were asked questions that we avoid giving the answers to. This is especially true when the question comes from the heart of God. One morning, a morning I remember well, He asked such a question of me. It wasn't a new one. I'd had it written down in my prayer journal for a while. I even had an asterisk beside it, which signifies to me it's importance. The question comes through the writings of Larry Crabb. "If we were to put all the blessings we desire on the right side of a scale, and then place the blessing we're told to desire above all other things, intimacy with Him, on the left, do we believe what is on the left, Him, will truly outweigh what is on the right?" I said I have an asterisk beside it and for so long I avoided giving a clear answer. I've had and have so many desires. Good ones. Beautiful ones. Weighty ones. Was I willing to answer? Was I willing to see on which side the scale did tip? Are you?

There are some Scriptures that come to mind in the pursuit of our desires. The first is that we're told that He'll give us "the desires of our heart." We love that truth. I love it. The second comes from the mouth of Jesus Himself. He tells us to "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and ALL THESE things will be added unto you." I accent these things on purpose, for we are likely to do the same in our hearts. We can become very skilled at denying the truth of this. Seeking Him first can become nothing more than a spiritual formula for getting what we want, what we most want from His hand. I've been there too often. I can still be tempted to be there now. Can you?

I'm in the homestretch of my life. Much of what I desired when I was younger has passed by, but I haven't forgotten how strong they could be, and how, no matter how "good," they could pull me away from Him. I have long professed Him as the deepest desire of my life, and sincerely believed He has been, but too often, the scales of my life desires tipped precariously away from Him. It's this reality that brings me, and you, back to Crabb's question: What has our hearts? Our desire for "these things," or our desire for Him?

We need to understand that He doesn't seek to take our desire for the good away from us. He seeks to take us away from a desire that's so strong that it controls us, and as a result, has more power over us than He does. He seeks to deliver us from an obsession over having lesser things and missing the best thing. Him. His fellowship, His heart, His love. If we miss Him, we miss everything. In gaining something we end up with nothing.

His desire and pursuit of us is infinite. There is no need for a scale to weigh His heart in that. There is for us, and He places the scale before us. On which side does it lean?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Holiness

 Some time ago, I "finished" a book by Henry Blackaby entitled, "Holiness." I encased finished in quotation marks because I haven't finished it at all. It still speaks to me, loudly and strongly. It's been said that we don't "read" the Bible, that it reads us. This book was much like that.

It's barely 100 pages long, but it took me some time to read it. Anyone who's read anything by Blackaby knows that he writes and speaks to the heart. His words are powerful and convicting. At various time of the week, many of us will attend some kind of spiritual gathering and do so in His name. We'll rejoice in His victory over death and sin on the cross. We'll celebrate in various ways His resurrection. Sermons and teaching will abound, a number may even be listened to. Many types of music will be played and songs sung, and then.....we'll go home. But how much of the life He came to give us do we leave with? How much of it is really ours? On the cross He cried, "It is finished!", but has it really been finished with and in us? Are we experiencing and living out all the life He gave us on the cross and in His resurrection?

I have been a pastor in a denomination that is considered a "holiness" group, part of the holiness movement. A movement that His Word calls all who follow Him to. His Word tells us, "Without holiness, no man will see the Lord." It is not a lifestyle that follows a rulebook but a Person. Following that Person, that Jesus Christ, will always mean carrying our own cross to our own Calvary. It will mean following His heart and life into His holiness. A holiness that is much more than a manageable list of do's and don't. It's a way of life. His life. It's a lifestyle saturated by His life and His holiness. It will affect every relationship and how we speak, think, see, and choose. It doesn't just observe the life, death, and resurrection of Christ,, but participates in it. The question for us is, have we been mere spectators of that life, watching from a safe distance. Or, have we been consumed by His life, immersed in Him and all that His life offers and is?

In the 6th chapter of John, Jesus has called His followers into wholehearted commitment to Him, His life, His walk, and His holiness. Verse 66 says, ".....as a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. I don't believe they just turned and walked away. I believe they were greatly torn, gazing at Him with longing. Part of them wanting to continue on, but the greater part afraid, unsure, and seeing at the same time, all that He was asking of them. Calling them to.They were willing, yet unwilling. I think this is so for many of us when it comes to walking with Him in all of His ways. Willing....yet unwilling.

I'm reminded of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9:24, who when told by Jesus to believe said, "Lord, I do believe. Help me in my unbelief. I think we need to take our torn hearts to Jesus and cry out, "Lord, I am willing to follow you into all the depths of Your life. Make the parts that of me that are unwilling, that want to turn back....willing." 

He calls to us. He calls us to come out of our areas of compromise, self-justification, and conveniently overlooked waywardness, and come to the cross, to His life, to His holiness....to Him. Lord, I am willing. Help in those areas where I am so unwilling.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Scars

 After saying this, He showed them His hands and His feet.  Luke 24:40

Luke 24:40 is part of a passage of Scripture where Jesus appears to His disciples after His resurrection. When they saw Him, they were greatly frightened, even thinking He was a ghost. He spoke peace to them, told them that it was really Him, and as proof, invited them to look upon His scarred hands and feet. Marks of His crucifixion and proof that it really was Him. In this passage, I see something that speaks both to pastors and to all those who are devoted followers of the King. One does not become either without coming to bear the marks, the cost of being a shepherd of the King as well as a sold out disciple. It takes more than a degree, a license, or a certificate of membership in a church. Paul said that he bore on himself "the brand marks of Christ." So must every true pastor and every true disciple of Jesus Christ.

As pastors are rightly honored this month, in the midst of all they may be honored for, may they be most honored for the price they have paid for following, obeying, and above all, being crucified with Christ. To be a pastor, a true pastor, is to bear scars of wounding. It was predicted of Jesus that He would be "wounded in the house of His friends." He was, and so too will be those who give their lives to service in His Kingdom. Oftentimes wounded severely, and by those that they love and have given themselves to. Oftentimes not intentionally, but sometimes, tragically, with full intention. The King's shepherd will, like Paul, bear upon himself the brand marks of Christ. There will be scars to show for it, but for the ones who oversee the flocks of His people, they are scars gladly borne. They are the marks of devotion, of dying to all self interest so that they may live for His interests. That they will, as He did, lay down their lives for His people. Protecting them from the wolves without, and especially, the wolves within. When you look upon your pastor, you'll likely not see visible scars, but if they are His pastors, the scars are there. To be a pastor, to be completely His, is to undertake a life that cannot be lived out apart from His grace, presence, and power. It's an impossible life without Him, but it is a life unmatched by any other when He is with you. In their wholehearted devotion to you, look for the scars. The eyes of faith will see them. The scars are the proof of their calling.

This month, may we honor pastors everywhere, from the most visible of places of service to the most unseen. Honor them for all they do and for all they give, but most of all, honor them for their scars. They bear upon themselves the brand marks of Christ.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Call

 "If I say I'll never mention the Lord or speak in His name, His word burns in my heart like a fire. It's like a fire in my bones. I am weary of holding it in." Jeremiah 20:9

"The Call to preach!." That's what it was called when I first felt His heart speaking to mine about His call to give all of myself to Him in service. I do think that preaching is the central aspect of His call, but it isn't the only one. One doesn't have to be a preacher in order to give all of themselves to Him in full time devoted ministry and service. It is that "call" that I want to write about today, and I think this month, October, which each year is designated as "Pastor Appreciation Month," is just the right time.

I do think people appreciate their pastors, or at least the majority do. But I don't think many really understand the intensity of the call or the life. How it literally consumes the one who's called. Despite the hardness of the way, and the way is hard, nothing else can quench the fire He places in the heart along with His call. So what I write today I write not only for every pastor walking that hard road, all the while carrying the cross that Christ has given them, but also for those who are being led, shepherded, and loved by these ones. I hope some of my experience might speak to all.

My pastor and friend, Stephen Willis, did me great honor in a post he placed about me on Facebook. He said, "Very few have overcome so much to accept His call and continue on in that call." I don't know if that is so, but the words bless me. I did face seemingly insurmountable obstacles in living out His call to ministry. Divorce, false accusations by my former mate, and just the general atmosphere in the church concerning a divorced and single pastor at the time rendered it extremely unlikely I would ever return to the pastorate. The Father never spoke such to me, but it was not just that kept me holding onto hope. It was the fire He had originally placed in my heart as well. In the years when I was out of the ministry, that burning that Jeremiah spoke of in Jeremiah 20:9, never left me. Though the experience of the pastorate had wounded me deeply, those wounds could not quiet the strength of His call. My absence from the pastorate only deepened His calling on my life. I believe that is the case with every one who is truly called of Him to labor alongside Him in the building of His Kingdom. Nothing else can take its place or quench the fire. I believe this is what is the central mark of one called by Him. A burning that cannot be put out or turned aside. Those who are called know it, and those who they serve must know it as well. If they do, they will begin to see their pastors in a new light. They will see them as the Father sees them.

I hope this helps those who have answered the call but may be in a very hard place, wondering if they can go on. You can. You must. By His grace, you will. You will because His call and your life are bound together and the bond only grows tighter through the years. There will be blood spilled, mostly yours. Sweat and tears as well, but the glory of knowing the crucified Christ in ways you never dreamed really does make it worth it all. Indeed, they really are "momentary and light afflictions" in comparison. I also hope it helps those being served to understand all that goes on in their pastors life and ministry so that they may pray and lift them up as well as support and follow them. There can be no greater way to show deep appreciation and love than that.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Beginnings

 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  Revelation 22:13

So often, we dread endings. Ending can mean pain, heartache, and loss. There is so much in our life that we don't want to end, but it does. Oftentimes, something ends and there is nothing we can do about it. It is beyond our control. Death, divorce, and unexpected tragedies. We see "the end" as being permanent. We can never envision us getting past it. And so we go on living in our endings. Yet God would have us understand that out of our endings, even the most painful of them, He can bring a new beginning.

More than 30 years ago an ending came to my life that I didn't seek and didn't want. I should say endings because I faced not only the ending of my marriage, but of my ministry, and of just about every aspect of life as I had known it. I was crushed and reeling from all that had taken place. In the midst of all this, I found myself on our district campground. A campground mostly abandoned through that time of the year. In desperation I phoned my pastor and in despair, terrified that this end would be permanent, asked him what was I to do if none of what had happened was reversed? I remember him saying, "You'll have to make a new life for yourself." I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want a new life. I wanted what had been my old life back. I was trapped in my "ending."

I never got that old life back. Separation led to divorce in my marriage, and ministry appeared over. There were more than a few people who, whether with a good spirit or not, were willing to confirm that I would not see my ministry restored. If this was my new life, if this was the unfolding of His beautiful plan for me, I wanted to opt out. I couldn't see how He was making a new beginning for me in any of it. But He was.

My pastor had said that I'd need to make a new life for myself, but he didn't mean that I'd do so on my own. He meant that through the work of the Father, a new life, a new beginning would be given to me. I would discover that He really does give beauty for ashes, even the most ugly of ashes. He never ceases to specialize in raising to life that which is dead. Dead hope. Dead dreams. Dead futures. I couldn't see it then, but that campground, as desolate as it was and felt, was the place of my "new beginning." If we will trust Him, obey Him, keep going step by step with Him, He will make a new beginning out of that which seems to be a complete ending. That's what He did for me. I didn't stay at that campground as He began to open a series of doors, all of them leading to restoration. Not just the restoration of my ministry calling, but a restoration of hope, joy, and deep expectations in Him. Here, all these years later, the doors continue to open and the restoration continues to take place.

I have found life can have so many beginnings and that those beginnings can happen in the darkest of places. Maybe you or a loved one are in such a place now. May you know and experience that He is Lord at what appeared to be the end, and He is Lord at what is now your new beginning. He is Lord over all that will take place as you journey on in new beginning after new beginning and all the endings that may take place along the way. He is the Alpha and Omega, and what He speaks in the second part of verse 6 is powerfully true: "To all who are thirsty, I will give the springs of the water of life without charge." Your beginning right now may be the most desert-like wilderness you've ever known. He is the ruler there. For you He will pour out His water of life without charge. Drink, because He knows the end He will bring from this beginning. All you need do is trust....obey.....and drink to the full.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Blood

 Victory is a much talked about but too little realized state in the Body of Christ. We pray, preach, and sing about it, but to what extent is it being realized in our lives? If we have, as the powerful old hymn says, "Victory In Jesus," then why are so many of His people living in defeat? Someone said that we believe He can save us from our sins but not our situations. We believe He can defeat death but not our circumstances. We trust in a victory that will get us to heaven, but not in one that will lead us into the fullness of His life today.

Pastor Che' Ahn says that ultimately it comes to our asking ourselves this pointed question; Do we really believe that Jesus Christ totally defeated the enemy on the cross and in His resurrection? Do we? Do you? Can we believe that the forces that are attacking our lives, marriages, children, livelihoods, and ministries, were defeated, not partly but totally at Calvary? That every plan and scheme the enemy can assault you with has already been thwarted at the cross? Can you believe that even if your greatest fear were to come to pass, that even in the midst of that, you have not been defeated, but have and will come to fully realize ultimate victory?

I wrote down these words from a pastor who had lost his only son to suicide. "I have seen the bottom and the bottom is solid." At the bottom of his life he found the solid rock of Jesus Christ. As Beth Moore says, "Whether it be an extreme high or low, no one can join us there but God." Whether you sense it or not, wherever this day finds you, in whatever emotional and spiritual state may be, He has joined you where you are right now." Can you believe that whether you "feel" it or not?

One of the biblical names for Satan is "The Destroyer," and he lives up to that name in countless ways. How much destruction has he wrought in your life and in the lives of those you love? Do you really know and believe that he cannot destroy that which is "in Christ," that is covered by Him, covered by His blood? Somehow, we have lost the wonder of this truth, that there is power, unlimited power in the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 7:17, talking of the ministry of Christ, the perfect High Priest, says that He doesn't fill this office by merit of being of the tribe of Levi, "but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed." If His life cannot be destroyed then that which is His life cannot be either. His life and blood cover us, cover you. Can you dare to believe this, even when your circumstances scream at you that it isn't so?

The Destroyer has been destroyed by Him at Calvary....at the cross...and at the tomb with His rising. Not in part, not mostly, but completely. Our belief and trust in this will be tested. Perhaps you're being tested in it now. The worst may come, but in it, we stand on the Rock of Christ. In Christ we have Victory. Believe it. Completely. It will be as Moore says, "WIth blood, sweat, and tears. His blood, our sweat, and the tears of us both." All because we trust in the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. A life He has secured for us and calls us to. The Destroyer has been destroyed. Now....walk in the truth.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Breaking Point?

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship  Job 1:20...."Pain comes in clusters and brings friends along." Benjamin Windle

There's a popular saying that goes, "God never gives us more than we can handle." I've come to reject that and not see it as true at all. First off, I don't believe He gives pain and suffering. Pain and suffering are the fruit of a fallen world held in the power of sin. They are companions to some degree of all of us. Instead of Him giving us these two, I see it as what He allows to touch our lives. Sometimes very deeply. Such was the case with Job. Secondly, if He only allowed what we could handle, then our strength would be sufficient to deal with it. Anyone who has walked "through the valley and the shadow of death" knows this is not so. He sometimes allows hardships beyond our ability to deal with.....but not beyond His. And He wants us to know that.

Verse 1:20 in Job comes after several verses describing terrible events that had befallen him. The great loss of property, crops, health, and finally, of his children. All He could do at the final report was to fall on his knees before His God. Pain had come, and it had come in clusters. And it brought many friends with it. Some tangible, such as Job's "comforters," and others not, but even more painful to deal with. Have you been there? Are you there now? Take heart. Press on. It's not His destination for you.

The first year of my walking through the desert of my divorce and having to step out of ministry was the most painful time of my life, particularly over a several month period. I was hit with wave after wave of hardship and heartache. Financial, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Like Paul, I was "tempted to despair even of life. Pain, and more pain had come. In clusters. And it had brought seemingly endless friends.

I can't describe to you how dark and hopeless everything seemed to me. I didn't see how I could bear it all. In fact, I knew that I couldn't. So, I had a choice. I could just stop pressing on in faith and  lie down on the side of the road that life had put me on. That's what I wanted to do. It is not what He would let me do. He hadn't authored what had happened to me, but He had allowed it, and He would, if I would trust Him, turn it for good. So, I didn't stop there. Though my spiritual legs and feet felt like they were encased in the enemy's cement, I went on, one laborious step at a time. But in His strength, I did go on. Pain and its friends were real. He was more real. Yes, there were times I questioned, even doubted His goodness, but each time, He brought me back to Himself. In worship. And I kept walking.

I thought I had reached my "breaking point" and I was sure I'd gone as far as I could. I was to learn that in Him, I have the grace and strength to get past even what I believed was my breaking point and press on with Him and into Him. So do you. The next months didn't get easier, but the sense of His presence grew ever greater. And He worked in the midst of my life wreckage. Doors that I believed shut for good opened. His works of restoration steadily developed. I was discovering what it meant to be able to do "all things in Christ." I had always believed He was Almighty intellectually, now, in the darkness, I was experiencing that He truly was, and who and what He remains. Chris Tiegreen says that "in the dark, Job trusted what he'd learned in the light." In the places of desolation that He may allow, in the deep darkness He may lead us into, we must dare to trust all that we learned of Him in the light. By His grace, we can. You can. Pain comes in clusters and brings friends. They mean to break you. He means to make you. He will. Press on. One step at a time. He will take you to where He leads you. His best and deepest quality of life always begins with your next step....with Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O