Missing Christmas

Have you ever heard the term, "hiding in plain sight?" That means that something is right before us or at least in our line of vision, but due to whatever blockages or distractions may exist, we don't see it. We miss it. I don't think that there is anyone or any place that this pertains to more than it does in the spiritual realm. Particularly as it relates to Christ and Christmas.

I don't think anybody expects to "miss" Christmas. Retailers certainly don't. They plan their year around it. Families, especially families with children don't. For them, as Andy Williams sang, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." Churches don't. Most every professing Christian church will be well decorated and even have a "hanging of the greens." Nobody thinks or expects that they will "miss Christmas." Yet I think most of us do, at least to some degree. All of our distractions and blockages pretty much guarantee it. Is it so with you and me?

Nothing new here, it's been so from the beginning. When the heavenly host proclaimed the birth of Christ, only a handful of shepherds were on hand to hear it. Christ the Messiah had come, in plain sight, but He was hidden from almost all even if He was in right there...in a manger....in Bethlehem. The huge difference factor here though is that millions upon millions have now heard that Christ the Savior has come and that Christmas is meant to be about Him. But somehow, they, we, continue to miss this. We continue to miss Christ and the meaning and depth of wonder that is Christmas. Again, our distractions and blockages make it so. We may have all our decorations up, the tree, the presents, the gatherings. We're not missing the surface things. We're just missing Him and the beauty that Christmas is and is to be for us. We celebrate a holiday about a Person we don't really know or know at all. 

Perhaps the greatest illustration I've ever seen of this was a Christmas day more than 30 years ago. I was out for a walk when a car containing a family of three parked in front of the house they were going to. As they got out of their car they were shouting at each other, cursing each other. They did this as they walked to the door, carrying gifts for whoever was inside. They were not missing the day....just the One that the day was all about. They were participating in what they knew as Christmas and completely missing it at the same time. Are we?

I've missed too many Christmases in my life because of those things that I've allowed in my life that keep Him hidden in plain sight. I seek to live so that I would not miss Him again. May that be our resolve and may that be, by His grace, our experience. May we, you and I, not miss Him, not miss Christmas this year....or any year, month, week, or day to come.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Always Hope

 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!  Psalm 42:11....."You cannot outhope the Living God." A.W. Tozer

One of my favorite scenes from The Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy is in The Two Towers, when Aragorn, the true king of Gondor is leading the defense of Helm's Deep, the fortress of the kingdom of Rohan. They are surrounded by the orc hordes of Saruman. A young boy, filled with despair, says to Aragorn, "The men say we will not survive the night. They say there is no hope." Aragorn asks for his sword, weighs its balance, and pronounces, "This is a good sword." He then hands it back to the boy with the words, "There is always hope." 

I have been in such places as the young boy and King Aragorn, surrounded by a seemingly endless horde of impossibilities. All of them pressing in upon me and all of them stealing my courage and hope. One such time was the Christmas morning of 1989. It was my first Christmas after the breakup of my marriage and having to resign my ministry. I was at the home of my childhood right outside of Pittsburgh. I remember awakening that day with my spirit matching the grey overcast skies above. I felt exactly like that boy, feeling that I too would not survive all that was happening to me. The enemy, through the seemingly impossible circumstances surrounding me, whispered into my heart, "There is no hope." I was on the edge of despair. Yet there was another whispering voice, infinitely stronger, infinitely loving, whispering into my heart and soul, offering infinite hope. It was the Holy Spirit, reminding me in the midst of the horde around me that there was always hope. There is always hope because there is always Him. His Life, His Presence, His Power, and His Love. The hordes of Saruman were routed and defeated. Rohan was saved, victory was secured. So too would be the army of threats, doubts, and fears surrounding and pressing in on me.

God didn't leave me in that grey place of despair. He led me out, rebuilt my life, restored to me what I had feared completely lost, lifting me from the miry clay and setting me firmly upon the Rock that is Jesus Christ. I discovered, as I would time and again yet to come, that He is a Living Hope, and that we can live in that Hope.

I learned then, as I would re-learn time and again, that you cannot every outhope the Living God.

The life of faith will take us to places like Helm's Deep. We will come to be surrounded by impossible circumstances. The enemy of our soul will whisper his lies into our hearts. Hear instead the whisper of His heart that is louder and stronger than all the fear and danger of hell. There is always hope because there is always Him. You may be going through hell, but don't stop. Keep pressing on. Keep walking, believing, trusting, and overcoming. The "orcs" of fear, anxiety, pain, and hardship will all fall before the One who sits on the throne. There is always hope my friend. There is always hope.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tamed

As a small child, I loved Christmas. I loved everything about it, the tree, the lights, the decorations that were everywhere in our house. I especially loved Santa Claus. When it came to him, I was all in. As my mother often said, I was a "true believer" when it came to Santa.

One of my earliest Christmas memories was a Christmas Eve when, going to bed, my grandmother said to me, "Make sure you listen for his sleigh bells when he lands on the roof." I tried, lying awake for as long as I could. I fell asleep, but I did so with full belief that what my grandmother had said would happen. She'd told me so, and she wouldn't lie. I knew he'd come, reindeer, sleigh, bells, and all.

I can smile at all that now. Why would Santa land on the roof, since we had no chimney? How would he get down if he did? Those thoughts never entered my 5 year old mind. I believed. With all my heart, I believed. Children find it easy to believe the impossible. Everything about Santa, his covering the entire earth in one night, his knowing exactly where each child was and what they wanted and how they'd been behaving, was an impossibility. But it wasn't an impossibility to a child who was simply willing to believe in him.

Heidi Baker is a woman ministering mostly in Africa and South America. She and her husband have detailed countless miracles of salvation and healing. She once said, "All children believe God can do miracles until some adult tells them He can't." In the places where she and her husband ministered, the people He sent her were not too "sophisticated," too educated, or too logical to believe in a miracle-working God. The Bakers simply told them of a God of miracles and they, gasp, BELIEVED in Him.

We all come to the place where we realize Santa Claus isn't real. At some point, someone tells us this reality. Has someone done the same when it comes to the miracle working God of the Bible? Has someone convinced us that He just doesn't move in that way anymore? That He no longer makes the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the dead to rise. Not literally anyway. 

In His Word He says, "I am the God who heals you." Yet who is it we first turn to in sickness? The Father or the Doctor? In His Word we read how Jesus fed 5000 with just a few loaves and fishes, yet how much sleep have we lost, how many anxiety driven days have we had where we were consumed with how we would make it through the week? Perhaps we once believed in a God who could do anything, would do anything, just as He promised, but somehow, other voices started to be listened to. We needed to be more realistic in our faith lives. Yes, He did work like that in New Testament times, but we shouldn't expect such works now. He's taken on a more reserved role. We don't so much say that as we live it. We have domesticated, tamed, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Have you still the faith of a child, or has your faith been tamed? Have you somehow "caged" the Lion that is Jesus Christ? Are you ready for Him, along with your faith, to be unleashed once more? Are you ready to be a child again in your faith, living for a God who has no limitations? He has told us that He is such a Father, that Christ is such a Savior, that the Holy Spirit is such a mighty presence. He has told us. Why don't we believe Him? Will we believe Him now?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Offended

 John the Baptist was a fascinating man and more than a little frightening. A hermit more than anything else, he wandered in from the desert wearing animal skins and eating locusts. He was bold, fearless, and powerfully spoke against the religious hypocrisy of his day and of the sin of those who professed to follow God but proved otherwise by the conduct of their lives. He was a mighty man of God and Jesus Himself said that among men, none were greater than John. We see in him the heart of a warrior and hero, but there's something more, not so evident but there nonetheless. In his great heart there was also present what resides in ours as well.

In Matthew 11, John is in prison. His great heart, courage, and boldness were what got him there. He knew he was staring death in the face, and likely also suspected that he would never leave that cell. A great man, and a very human one. From his prison he sends a message to Jesus. The same Jesus that he had said of not long before, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The man who declared that now asks this Jesus, "Are You really the Messiah we've been looking for, or should we keep looking for someone else?"

John had been the first to see who Christ really was, but now in the lonely darkness of his prison cell, wondered if what he believed he'd seen was really what he'd seen? That's where John in his circumstances was. Have you ever been there? Are you there now? Have the rock solid beliefs you've had about Jesus Christ now, because of the complete upheaval of your current life situation, brought this same question to you? Can you still trust Him, believe Him? Or, should you look for someone or something else?

Jesus loved John and surely was brokenhearted over his situation, but He didn't act on his behalf. John remained in prison. The prison where he would soon be beheaded. He sent this reply, "Go back and tell John what you've heard and seen, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him, God blesses those who are not offended by Me." 

John, like us, despite knowing the risks, wasn't fully prepared to deal with the consequences and unanswered questions of the catastrophe that had befallen him. Neither are we, especially when we, like John, have been faithful, and doing the work He's called us to. With our "why" and "how" comes the question John asked. "Jesus, are you really who we've believed You to be? Are you really all that you've promised You are, and if You are, why am I here?" To us He speaks just as He did to John. "In the midst of your darkness, look at who I have been, what I have done, and what I'm continuing to be and do....and trust Me!" He asks John if, even before your executioner, will you trust Me? Will he refuse to allow the unfairness of his situation to sway him from his steadfast trust and belief in his Lord? In John's darkness, he did. Can we in ours?

Where does He offend you today? Are you in an unfair place, a place you never thought you'd be, or that He would allow? Surrounded by darkness and filled with questions? He may not bring you out of there because He has deeper purposes at work, but He does send word. He remains who He's always said He is. Nothing about Him has changed. Your changing circumstances cannot change Him. Look not to another, look to Him. Trust Him. He calls us to trust Him. Even unto death, trust Him. Everything in this life is passing. He is forever. He will not fail you. He will not let you go. He never will.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Watchtower

One of the beautiful things about the Bible is that the humans in it are just that. Human. Very human. For instance, there is Habakkuk. In him I think we can see a great deal of ourselves. 

Habakkuk was an Old Testament prophet living in during the time of Babylon's rise to a world power. A time when the Babylonians would conquer Israel and take them into captivity. Habakkuk saw this coming. He was also aware of the spiritual state of the people of Israel. He saw the corruption, lawlessness, and evil that permeated every part of Israelite society. In the midst of it all, he wondered where God was. He then does something very human. He complains...loudly. Not just once, but twice in the first chapter alone. The book of Habakkuk is only 3 chapters long and the first is comprised almost entirely of his complaining. I think that's very much like what much of our own prayers to Him may be.

In verse 2, he says, "How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But You don't listen! Violence I cry, but You don't come to save." God's responds saying, "Watch and be astounded at what I will do. For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if I told you about it." For Habakkuk, who was very human, that wasn't enough. God was saying, "Trust Me!" Habakkuk wanted details and since he wasn't getting them, he complained some more. He asks, "Is it Your plan to wipe us out?" I've asked those kinds of blunt questions myself. I expect you have too. What Habakkuk does next though is something not many of us will do, for doing it will completely change our perspective. It's a lot easier to complain, accuse, and accept defeat. That's where we end up living.

In chapter 2, Habakkuk says, "I will climb up into my watchtower now, and wait to see what the Lord will say to me, and how He will answer my complaint. He would not stay down at ground level where his understanding and sight would be very limited. He wouldn't stay on the ground level of darkness, despair, and defeat. He would not just look at what was going on around him. He would fix his eyes upon his God.  He would watch for Him, but to do so he had to get above the sightline of the ground. He decided he would look above and beyond his circumstances and look to the promises and presence of God. He would climb the watchtower of His Word, His character, and His faithfulness. He would do so, and whether he immediately "saw" what God was doing or hear what he was saying, he would remain there and believe that he would hear from his Lord. He would come. He wouldn't fail him. He would keep His word. Habakkuk believed that. Can we?

While he was on the watchtower, he heard Him speak these words in 2:3, ".....Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place, it will not be delayed." He was still on the watchtower in 3:3 when he cried out, "I see God, the Holy One, moving across the desert from Edom and Mt. Paran. His  brilliant splendor fills the heavens, and the earth is filled with His praise." This is what Habakkuk heard and what he saw....from the watchtower. So will we....if we refuse to live at ground level, and refuse to be controlled by our circumstances and limited sight. They're real, but He is more real. He's the greatest reality of all, but if we're to know that, see that, we must climb our own watchtowers, all the while looking to and for Him. He will come, as He promised, and our circumstances, needs, and seemingly hopeless situation will fall to the One who "rides the heavens." 

Yes, it's very human to be overwhelmed by our circumstances, but He calls us to a life that rises above our human weakness and fear of those circumstances and our human weakness. We will find that life on our watchtower, as we fix our eyes on Him, Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our salvation."

Blessings,

Pastor O 

The Conversation

 "My heart has heard You say, 'Come and talk with Me.' And my heart responds, 'Lord, I am coming.' " Psalm 27:8....."When He says, 'Come and talk with Me,' He actually wants heart to heart interaction. And we have nothing to fear by giving it to Him. " Chris Tiegreen

In our day to day relationships we've likely said to someone at some point, "We need to have a heart to heart talk." When's the last time that we said that to Him? More, when was the last time He was able to say it to us? I've no doubt He has and likely more recently than we want to think. Could it be that our hearts are too dull and hard for us to hear and respond?

I think when the Lord calls us to come and talk with Him He's also calling us to come out of the place or places where we've been hiding from Him, running from Him. Places where we've been holding onto things, people, and practices that we know are harmful to us but that we cannot let go of. He would talk to us of these, not condemning us, but simply seeking for us to see the harm they're doing to us, and the wall they place between He and us. We've been hiding in dark places, and He calls us to come out of them and into His Light, bringing what we cling to with us.

I have been in dark places, clutching things, people, and relationships, and attitudes that were hurting me but that I could not release. In my heart, I knew it was so, but I held onto them anyway. In some cases, I didn't think I could go on without them. I am so thankful that His grace and mercy didn't leave me alone. He continued to call me, inviting me to come to Him. His grace and mercy drew me out, but oh, the pain I would not have had to endure had I only come to Him sooner.

A heart to heart conversation with Jesus Christ, if we enter into it fully, will result in two things. We will go more deeply into His heart and He will enter more deeply into ours. Every word that Christ speaks to us contains life changing power. Power that brings freedom, healing, and renewal. No one can encounter Him and remain unchanged. No one can talk with Him and walk away as the same person they were beforehand.

Where in your life is He calling to your heart? Where have you been hiding and to what have you been running to? What are you clinging to that in your heart you know is destroying you? His heart calls to yours, bidding you to come, to come with all of it and....speak with Him. Listen to Him, be made whole, new, and free in Him. 

Jesus has no fear of our questions, our anger and bitterness, or whatever sins we have committed. He just calls us to come to Him with all of it and.....reason together with Him. To talk with Him. The old hymn has the lyric, "Burdens are lifted at Calvary." At the cross. Come meet with Him at the foot of the cross. Bring all your burdens with you. Hear His voice and heart and share yours with Him as well. One thing I know; nothing will ever be the same again. All you need to do....is to come.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Fresh Oil

I recently heard Pastor and author Samuel Rodriguez speak about the life of King David of Israel. Beginning with his confrontation of and fight with the Philistine giant Goliath, down through his persecution by King Saul, to his being told by the Jebusites that he would never breach the walls of their city, he was consistently told that he was "not enough" to prevail in any of it. David knew that he was enough. Not in himself. He was enough, more than enough in Christ.

Rodriguez then pointed to the above verse, Psalm 92:10 as to why he was. David, who wrote the song of praise to the Father, said, "I have been anointed with fresh oil." Oil in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. David is saying that he had received a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his life. An outpouring that enabled Him to meet and overcome any and all obstacles the enemy or life's circumstances would place in his way, be they giants, strongholds, or powerful entities. David knew he wasn't equal to the task of slaying Goliath, overcoming city walls, or defeating Saul, but he knew that he was more than equal to doing all of it so long as the anointing and fullness of His Holy Spirit was filling him and flowing out of his life. Today, like never before, we must know that as well. We must know that our need for the fresh oil of His Holy Spirit is deeper than we have ever known.

All of us will be or are right now facing impossible situations. Situations where the enemy mocks us and tells us that we can't possibly prevail in this place. We face giants, strongholds with impenetrable walls, and people and situations far more powerful than we are. They will crush us....UNLESS we too are bathed in an abundance of the fresh oil of His Holy Spirit. Because David was, he slew Goliath, conquered the city, and took the kingship from Saul. He was more than a conqueror because he lived his life bathed in, immersed in, the fresh oil of His Holy Spirit. We can be as well. We must be as well.

Whatever you face today, wherever the enemy whispers to you that you're not enough, don't argue the point. You're not. But you may answer that within you lives the One who is and always will be more than enough. Seek His fresh oil. Be bathed in it. Step into His promise that in Christ, we are more than conquerors. His promise is that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We can because He freely pours out His fresh oil upon us. Where you are, where we are right now, may we receive that oil, and to the full.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Destroyed

 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6

I heard a woman named Susie Larson share 3 reasons why the people of God are lacking Holy Spirit power in their lives. That this is so cannot be denied. We, the professing church, do not seem to be any more successful in dealing with life's problems and needs than the unbelieving culture around us. This is completely contrary to God's will for us. We're to be overcomers in Jesus Christ, and that is the problem. Too much of our life is lived outside of the consciousness and presence of Christ. Larson gave three reasons for the demise of the victorious lifestyle of a believer. All of them center on the loss of our sense of awe at the works and character of God.

The first is that we, like the people of Israel, have lost our sense of awe and wonder at the miracles and works of God. We believe in miracles, but we rarely believe in them for ourselves. We have lost our sense of anticipation that He will work, and He will work in miraculous ways. We've either become so hardened in this that we miss the miracles He has wrought in our lives or simply forget them because we've failed to honor and glorify Him for them. May each of us begin to dwell and meditate upon all the wonders He has worked in our lives. May we go back with Him and remember the places where He intervened in an impossible situation, brought healing, deliverance, or provision. May we remember and give Him the glory. And may we repent and seek forgiveness for forgetting it all in the first place.

Secondly, we need to have a sense of awe and wonder at the abundance of mercies that He has bestowed upon us. Scripture says that His mercies are "new every morning," and that is something that I have begun expressing daily gratitude for. His mercy to me grows more amazing as I think upon how deep, high, and wide it is....and how totally undeserving of His mercies I am. All of us are, yet He lavishes His mercy and forgiveness upon us. Think of all the places in your life He's done that....and worship Him there.

Last, we need to have a sense of awe and wonder over His goodness. There are times I just stop and become overwhelmed at how good He has been to me. I've never deserved it and in fact, deserved anything but His goodness, yet He poured out His goodness upon me. That saying we use is so true, "God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good." Nowhere is His goodness seen more clearly than in the giving of His Son to all who would believe upon Him.

These are three simple but powerful remembrances that need to be fresh and new in our lives each day. If they're not, then we may expect what befell the nation of Israel to come upon us as well...that we perish. If not literally, then most certainly spiritually. May our personal experience and knowledge of the miraculous wonder of God, of His infinite mercies, and of His neverending goodness fill our hearts and minds. If so, I believe, as Scripture promises, that we will see the glory of the Lord in the land of the living.

Blessings,
Pastor O

But Christ!

16At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them. 17But Christ stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me..... 2 Timothy 4:16-17

This is the week of Thanksgiving which is also the beginning, despite the efforts of just about every retailer in existence, of the Christmas season. For many, it's a time of rejoicing, of gratitude for His blessing, of time with friends and family, and for the celebration of the coming of Christ to this world. It is the best of times. For others though, it can be the worst. Those others who are walking through the loss of a marriage, or the death of a loved one. Others who find themselves isolated from those they hold dearest or find themselves in the midst of familial strife and turmoil. For these, this season and time is one of pain and heartache. I've lived in such a time. Maybe you're living in it right now.

The Scripture that I share from 2 Timothy 4 is one that He made to come fully alive for me on a bitterly cold December night in 1989. My world had collapsed just 4 months before and everything I had known appeared to be gone. I was staying at a church campground that was empty of all life but for its caretakers. I had come "home" to the cottage I was staying in after a 40 mile commute from my job. I was discouraged, hurting badly, afraid of what the future might hold, and wondering what was to become of me. I felt totally alone.

In this state, as I came into the cottage, I sat down and opened my Bible. I always seek to read through His Word each year and at this time, I was in Paul's 2nd letter to Timothy, the 4th chapter. That's when the above verse literally leaped out at me. I was under an intense spiritual assault from the enemy and on the edge of total despair. I felt abandoned and forgotten, but as I read that verse, something mystical and wonderful took place. When Paul wrote that when he first came to stand in judgement before Caesar, all who had been with him had left his side. He was alone....until he realized that he wasn't. He experienced that the One he loved and served was right there beside him, standing with him, being his Advocate. Being the Lord Christ, just as He had promised He would be.

I remember it so clearly. As I sat in my chair with my Bible, I had a vision, for there is no other way to describe it, of me standing alone, at the mercy of the enemy, and then Jesus, in His role as the Lion of Judah, striding into the scene and putting Satan to flight. With that, a deep sense of calm and confidence came over me and I knew that this was not where I would end. I knew that He was with me no matter how I felt or what circumstances were saying. I knew that all was well in the midst of the chaos. There was peace and renewed hope and expectation in my heart, mind, and soul. I was held, not in the grip of defeat, but in the grip of Christ and His victory, which was also my victory. He had much more for me than this.

If you find yourself in a similar place today, where all seems lost and hopeless, remember two words from the above Scripture..."But Christ!" All that is happening to and around you must bow to Him. He is the final word on your life and His final word is always your victory and hope. He stands with you. He will never leave you alone. He holds you in His grip. Hold Him also in yours.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

The Place

 Pastor and author Francis Frangiapane tells of a time early in his pastoral ministry. He was part of a group where he was beginning to have questions not only about their doctrine, but the behavior of their leaders. He met with some of the leaders in the hopes of reconciling the situation. Instead, he was forced to resign. He was now without a ministry, income, or home. He began a 3 year journey through what he saw as meaningless, unsatisfying, and low paying jobs. Worst of all, he was frustrated in carrying out what he believed was his life call from the Father. Pain, frustration, and misery marked his life.

In the midst of it, he sought the Father for guidance, asking what he should do, what steps must he take to return to ministry? Back to the life to which he believed he belonged, where joy and fulfillment would be found. Yet God was silent. He would provide for Frangiapane and his family's needs, but the pain, heartache, and misery remained. He hated where he was at and what he was doing. He felt like a second-class child of God. He wanted out and he wanted to know what God was doing and where he was in all of it. One night, at his altar of prayer, the Lord whispered, "I want you to love Me where you're at." Simple words that we too often allow our circumstances to make us deaf to.

Walking with Him, we will end up in places we don't want to be. For me it was in Charlottesville, Virginia in the fall of 1989. My marriage had collapsed, I'd been forced to resign my ministry, and all that I thought defined me was gone. If I wasn't a husband, father, and pastor, what was I? I had to find work and that led me to where I was, on a Coca-Cola truck in Charlottesville at 6 AM. On the first delivery of the day, I sat in the truck, in the dark, and cried out to God, "How did I get here?" I hated where I was at and what I was doing, and I too would be staying in that place for longer than I wanted.

God's words to Frangiapane are His words to us as well. No matter where we are or how far from that place we want to be, He calls us to love Him there, even when "there" is where we'd never have chosen to be. Love Him not just with intellectual agreement, but wholeheartedly, impacting and permeating our minds, emotions, and spirit. Love that brings His fullness of joy even in the darkest place. Love that doesn't first seek a way out but seeks instead a way to Him. Ever deeper into Him.

Frangiapane discovered that God wasn't nearly as interested in what he did for Him as to who he was becoming in Him. He wanted Him to know that He loved him right where he was for who he was and for who he was becoming. The state of his circumstances didn't matter. The state of his heart did. Frangiapane discovered, as would I, that the insignificant place  wasn't insignificant to Him. He uses that place to mold us ever more into His image.

Jesus told Peter in John 21:18 that when he was old, "Others will direct you and take you to where you don't want to go." It won't be different for us as life takes us places we don't want to be. In the midst of it, He is there, working, molding, loving us. We belong to Him and not to the circumstances surrounding us. Where we are and what we're doing are not our final destination or reality. It's what we're being transformed into....as we love Him...right where we are.

Oh, and the Father didn't leave Frangiapane in that place. Nor did He leave me on the delivery truck. He may take us through the wilderness, but He won't leave us there. Our part is to love Him, trust Him, and keep on walking. He will take us to the place where He's purposed for us to be.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Obsession

 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  Matthew 22:37

I have a quote written down in my prayer journal from an unknown source. It reads, "I love hot coffee and donuts, but if they are the measure of a successful church, then we are lost. Jesus paid too high a price for this to be our obsession." It's a wonderful and true statement, but the word that took hold of me was "obsession." In our lives as followers of Jesus Christ, just what is our obsession? Who and what are we obsessed with?

What, in the average evangelical church is it that we are preoccupied, obsessed with? When boards and committees come together to plan ministries, what is it that they feel has to be present in order for them to be successful ministries? What is it we feel we cannot do without?

This is not a tirade against coffee bars, or multi-use sanctuaries, multi-faceted youth ministries, or a number of other features of the 21st century western church. I'm not advocating a return to how we did church a few decades ago or to do away with any of what I've listed above. What I'm asking is, when we come together, what place does Jesus Christ and His Presence, His worship, His Lordship and Majesty have?

I think we have become so obsessed with "designing" a church and ministry that contains all the elements we think will make it successful and well attended that we no longer have Christ at the center of it all. We are taking for granted that He'll be there and that He'll be pleased with all we've done to give people access to Him. We craft our ministries and our worship services with everything in mind but Him. We seek to create a welcoming atmosphere for people and miss the question as to whether this atmosphere is welcoming to Him. We've lifted what people may desire over and above what He does. We've become obsessed with doing this and we are missing Him in the doing of it. In the church, your church, what is it that you feel you must have and that not having it will make for a much lesser church experience for you? If we're missing all of the above amenities and all that remained to us was Jesus Christ and His Presence, would that be enough?

Matt Redman, a noted worship leader in the 90's felt that the church he led worship in had become more in love with the music performances than they were with the Jesus they were singing about. After talking with his pastor, they decided to forego any musical worship at all for several months. The fellowship came together, prayed, meditated, and proclaimed His word. There was no "performance" at all. All the focus was on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The result was a church re-energized in their love for the 3 in 1 God, and the writing by Redman of the classic song, The Heart Of Worship, which begins with the lyric, I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about You Lord, it's all about You. Perhaps you need, we need, our churches need to do the same. May we truly be all about You Lord. All about You.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Stale Bread

 "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." John 6:35

If you've ever eaten stale bread, you know how unsatisfying that is. It's dry, tasteless, and hard. Bread, made fresh and well, is really a pleasure to consume. Not so with that which is stale. We don't settle for the stale in our physical lives, why do we in our spiritual ones?

In one of my prayer journals, I came across a statement I wrote a few years ago; "Lord, I'm tired of stale bread." I don't remember what prompted me to write that, but obviously, I hadn't been getting His bread fresh and whole. Certainly He offers it fresh and whole. How can it become stale?

Fresh bread becomes stale bread when it's left out and is unused. I think it's the same in the spirit realm. We have ample sources through which He gives us His bread of life. Foremost is His Word through His Holy Bible. We receive it in our personal reading, through messages from the pulpits of His church, through songs sung in the Spirit, and through the whisper of His Holy Spirit into our hearts. Really, He has no limitations in how He may provide us His bread of life. Our problem is that we too often leave His bread out and unused. It becomes stale, tasteless and dry. This happens because receiving His Word is not our priority. Scripture says that man shall not leave by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We know the Scripture but that hasn't prevented us from trying to live by the junk food and soda pop of this world. Meanwhile His bread of life, so readily available to us, is "left out," uneaten and stale. We may have been reading His Word and listening to messages in His church, but we've not really "eaten and digested" that work in our spirits. It's not become part of us. What He means to be living and alive is instead stale and dry. It happens all the time and always so easily. Has it been happening to you?

The good news is that though we can mask our hunger for His fresh bread with our consumption of the world's junk food, we cannot extinguish the hunger for it. He created us to hunger for it. We grow weary of junk food and the staleness of unused bread. We hunger for the real thing. When we come to full awareness of that, He is right there, offering us His bread fresh, whole, and new, and it only takes but a bite to experience how delicious it is. How life giving it is.

Have you had enough of the world's junk food and the stale, second hand bread that you've left uneaten? Come and receive from His hand the bread of life, His life. Have it fresh and whole and as much as you like. He never runs out. He never will. Come. Eat and be filled.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Traveling Light

 There's a word spoken by the Father that can strike terror into our hearts. That word is "Go." Both the Father and Jesus have spoken it time and again to those who would follow them. The Father spoke it to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and all of the prophets. Jesus spoke it to Peter, Paul, and to each of His disciples. They speak it still today, to you and to me.

Following hard after God will always involve going. Yes there are times we're to stand still, but that is a temporary place. To those who would know Him and His intimacy, the call is always to go. If we're to be with Him, we must go with Him. And there will be risks, dangers, and yes, suffering. That's when the choice comes to us; will we go anyway?

Someone said that in order to go anywhere you have to leave someplace. And almost always, we can't take our "stuff" with us. Those who travel with Jesus travel light, and the journey will always take us well beyond our comfort zones. Our spiritual ancestors named above all lived lives that mattered. They dropped all that would weigh them down, hold them back, and they picked up His cross....and followed Him. If our lives are to really matter in eternity, we have to do likewise.

Scripture tells us that He's the God of all comfort but this is something different than having comfort as God. Too many of us have chosen the latter. Beth Moore said that when we choose comfort as god we cut ourselves off from the God of all comfort. Those who were the heroes of faith spoken of in the Bible lived in decidedly uncomfortable and dangerous places. Deserts, wildernesses, caves. Yet in these places they experienced an intimacy with God they would never have known in comfortable places. We read of these men and women in the Bible and want to live such lives of adventure and wonder as well, but then we realize the potential cost...and too often, we shrink back. Jesus said His disciples out with nothing, calling on them to depend upon God for all they needed. Great crowds followed Jesus....until He asked such of them. The majority melted away. Do we melt away as well with such a call to go with Him?

We may dream dreams, but we'll never realize them from our spiritual recliners. We want to go with Him, but we're too attached to where we are....and all our stuff. We'd like to launch out into the deep with Him, but we can't figure a way to take all of it with us, and the fact that He wouldn't allow us to anyway settles the matter for us. 

Where has He called you and to go? Is it into a place that looks hopeless? A ministry that offers nothing but His Presence? Is it to do the impossible? Frightening indeed. Yet He promises to go with us. Is that enough for us? Or do the chains of our stuff and our comfort bind us too tightly?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Tight Places

 Pastor and author Thom Gardner tells the story of the day he was called to the hospital as a result of his daughter's auto accident. The initial information indicated it wasn't serious but when he arrived at the scene  he learned that 1 person had been killed and 3 others, including his daughter, were badly injured and had been airlifted to a hospital 60 miles away. Gardner relates how through the next 60 hours he and his wife were numb with shock and desolate in spirit. He wanted to be a rock of strength, but he wasn't. When they finally saw their daughter, they were devastated by the extent of her injuries. She was expected to recover but faced a long and painful healing process. He writes that he was filled with the same questions as we would be. How could He allow this to happen? Why has it happened? We've been faithful, where were You? Where are You? Where is Your faithfulness?

Eventually he needed to come to grips with it all and wrote, "We humans are always trying to make sense of things in order to gain some kind of control over our lives. I am convinced that all of us waste so much energy trying to understand things that are not meant to be understood. To make sense out of the nonsensical." 

He went to the junkyard where his daughter's car had been taken. It was destroyed, but as he looked at the driver's area of the car he was amazed at how the entire front of the car had collapsed in on it. There was only a tiny space there. He wondered how she was not crushed and killed instantly. The Lord then whispered into his heart these words; I am abundantly available in tight places. 

They came from an interpretation he'd come across from Psalm 46:1. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. The original Hebrew translates, I am the God who is abundantly available in tight places. God then opened his heart to see how He had been so to his daughter from the very first. From the first responders through the paramedics and to the ER Doctors and nurses and surgeons who performed her surgery. He was made to see what we so often question about the goodness and faithfulness of God. That He is totally good and totally faithful.

We live in a fallen world. Evil is real and it is here. We have never been promised exclusion from its consequences. What we have been promised is His Presence and Person in the midst of all of it. He is a very present help in trouble and abundantly available in the tightest places of that trouble. He is Immanuel, with us in every way. 

Trouble comes in this world. It's part of what we call life. None are exempt and there will be many tight places. Trust Him. Discover that He will be and is abundantly available in all your tight places. Stop struggling to make sense of it all. Be still and know that He is God. Listen for His whisper. Look for His face. As Gardner writes, "The tighter the place the more abundant He is." Trust Him to prove to you the truth of that.

Blessings,
Pastor O

I Know

 Are you familiar with the phrase, "Yada, Yada, Yada?" The popular 90's comedy Seinfeld did an entire episode on it. It's actually a Hebrew word and its root meaning is "to know or to understand." So, if one uses the phrase "Yada, Yada, Yada," they're in effect saying, "I know, I know, I know." Anyone who's had a child knows that this is one of the first responses they learn to any direction their parents may give them. It certainly was mine. It was my go to answer and always spoken with a defiant accent. It's also not confined to children. The landscape of adulthood is teeming with members of the Yada, Yada, Yada tribe. The tribe of "I know." We use it in relationships with one another. We also employ it in our relationship with Him.

The word Yada suggests a personal knowledge. When we are confronted with the truth of what His Word is saying, our response is most often, "I know," but do we really? When Jesus dealt with people, He wasn't moved by their praise or exclamations of loyalty. He knew what was in their hearts. They loved His works but they were not so fond of His words. Oftentimes, more unspoken than not, their response to Him was, "I know, I know, or more correctly, "Yada, Yada, Yada." Can you and I dare to go to our own relationship with Him to discover just where we respond in the same way? His words pierce our defenses and rather than melt before Him and deal with the need then and there, we, like the defiant child, simply say, "I know! I know Jesus, I know." Yada, Yada, Yada.

We probably don't have to go very far to find the last place we did this. The recent sermon message we heard may be it. We may have filled a notebook with our jottings, complimented the pastor as we left,but what, if anything has penetrated our hearts? What degree of transformation has taken place? Have we yet again simply said to Him, "Yada, Yada, Yada?"  We've heard it before, we didn't listen then, we're not really listening now. We think we already know. Because we think we already know, we can't hear. It can be just as true of the shepherd as it is of the flock.

John 17:3 reads, "Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." This is life. Knowing Him. Not all the "stuff" and trapping of religion or doctrine. Eternal life is at root knowing Him. It's a knowing that worships Him. It's a knowing that can do nothing else but worship Him.

At some point today, He will speak to you. Will you hear Him? Are you looking to hear Him? If you do, how do you answer? Will it be the Yada, Yada, Yada of the flesh and of death, or will it be the Yada of reverence, wonder, and intimacy? Will you miss Him because you think you already know, or will you receive so much more because you do know Him and are embracing the opportunity to know Him even more?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Lion's Den

 "Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching." 2 Timothy 4:2....."The great need of the hour in the church of Christ is for Spirit filled, Christ centered courage." Alistair Begg

An evangelist named Paul Washer was recently asked what he thought the greatest problem in the church in America was. His blunt reply was simply, "Cowardly preachers."

Before I write about anything in that quote, I want to look at the Scripture from 2 Timothy and what it is actually exhorting, no, commanding His preachers and people to do. First off, we're to preach the Word. All the Word, that which blesses and that which brings heavy conviction. That which heals and that which cuts us to the quick. That which lifts us up, and that which takes us and our pride down. That which soothes, and that which hurts. Preach the Word, all the Word, and do it with the heart of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we're to be prepared to do so. This means we arm ourselves with His Presence and Power through prayer and intimate time with Him and His Word. We listen to Him and seek His guidance for what it is we're to proclaim. We may have an idea for a series or topic, but we are totally available to His voice to drop it all with just a whisper from Him/

Next, we're to proclaim His Word whether the conditions for doing so are favorable or not. It's not too difficult to preach Truth when we know the atmosphere of the fellowship is hungry for that truth. What about when it's not? What about when there's an element or elements within the congregation that do not want that issue brought up? What about when we know that there will be backlash if we do? What if somebody, maybe a number of somebody's leave the church if we do? We know it's the truth that needs to be proclaimed. His voice has told us so. The voice of fear says to be silent. His voice says otherwise. Who do we listen to?

We're then directed to do three things. Correct, rebuke, and encourage. The last comes easy, the first two do not. To do so anyway will bring a cost to us. Perhaps a heavy one. Do we proclaim His whole Word, no matter the cost, or do we not? How we answer all these questions will determine whether we stand in our pulpits or in the public square with courageous hearts or hearts of water. Whether we preach words that tickle ears or pierce to the very center of a listener's being.

I'm not asking these questions of you first. I'm asking them of myself. The church is in crisis whether we realize it or not. Things have been loosed in our culture that seek the destruction of His church and His people. God needs men and women willing to go into the lion's den and proclaim Christ and His Truth there. J.B. Chapman said that, "A lion's den with God is better than a castle without His Presence." He is seeking those that He may lead into that den. Will you and I be among them? Will we trust that He is Lord even of the lions?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Sound Bites

 One cannot live on snacks. Oh, we can get by outwardly, but inwardly our body's internal condition will deteriorate, and the cost will be "death" in the form of illness, disease, or even a literal death. In the same way, we cannot thrive spiritually by "snacking" on the word of God, though that is exactly what the majority of professing believers do. In fact, in the church, we don't so much as snack on His word as to depend on "sound bites" of it.

Sound bites are defined as "short phrases or sentences taken from a longer speech or interview." Too many in the church are getting nothing more than sound bites of His Word and Life. We get sound bites from the weekly message we hear from the pastor, or at least whatever part of it we may listen to. We get them from the songs we sing, or at least those songs that actually point to the heart of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We get them from the daily Scripture we receive in our email, or the devotional book we use that's designed for people on the run. We get a sound bite of His words, His mind, and His heart. We get sound bites of Him, but we don't get Him. We can't really realize Him or experience Him though the sound bites of our day. We need to soak in His Presence. We need to be saturated in His Word and His mind and His heart. We live life on the run and that leads to us to just simply run by Him as we do.

No one is immune to this. Pastors can be as guilty as anyone. I've listened to many a pastor confess that they didn't explore His Word in order to grow deeper in their relationship with Him but for the purpose of finding sermon topics to preach on. They depend on shortened excerpts of another's experience of Him. Someone said that the congregational flock will never be anything more than what their shepherd is. We have far too much evidence that this is so.

Are you depending on, living on sound bites of His words, mind, and heart? Are you trying to live an abundant, overcoming life in Christ by simply snacking on His bread of life? You can't. You will die of spiritual malnutrition and you will die by inches. Come to His bounty. Come to His table and dwell there. Partake of Him and His life. Listen to His heart. Turn away from sound bites and snacks and learn what it is to live in His abundance. Stop wasting away.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Companion

 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

As a child, thunderstorms terrified me. I have vague memories of clinging to my mother as she went around our home shutting all the windows as a storm rolled into our area. My mother said much later that she thought the reason that was so was that while in my crib as a baby a heavy storm suddenly came upon us and my crib was located right below an open window. When she got to me, I had been soaked in the rainwater as well as fully exposed to the sound and fury of the storm. She felt that my fear as a child sprang from that experience.

Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chole has a completely different memory of such storms. She said that as a small child, whenever a storm would approach, her father would take her onto their front porch and watch it approach together. The closer and more fierce it became, the more tightly and lovingly he would hold her. In that she learned two things. She learned not to fear the storm, and she learned how safe and secure she was in the loving arms of her father. She said, "In life, choosing who I'll spend the storm with makes all the difference."

I have no memory of my being in that crib, but I do know that at least for a few moments, I was alone in that storm. My mother rescued me, but in the time before, I was alone. I think, for me at least, that is what makes all the difference between how Chole looked at the storm and how I did.

Heavy storms will hit our lives. God makes it clear in Isaiah 42:3 that they will. The key is that we will not be alone when they do. If we are His, He will be with us. He will, as did Chole's father, hold us all the more tightly in the storm, protecting, comforting, keeping us safe and secure. Chole, in her own life storms,  would choose to not go through them alone. Whether she was aware of their approach, or they suddenly burst upon her, she would choose the company of her Lord and God. He would be her companion. For you and I, who will we choose to spend the storm with? In whose company will we choose to go through it? Chole has learned the power of intimacy with Christ. Have we?

Fear, anxiety, and a hundredfold other destructive emotions and thoughts cannot remain in His Presence. If we are living in His Presence, neither can they remain in us. Chloe learned to not fear the power of an earthly storm while held in the arms of her father. She later learned the same as she lived in the arms of her heavenly Father. May we join her there. He invites us to do so. Storms are coming upon us. For many of us, they're already here. Let us not only claim the promise of Isaiah 43:2, let us live it out. Let us live in deep safety of His loving arms.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Magoo Syndrome

 A popular cartoon character of the 1960's was a gentleman known as Mr Magoo.The running joke was that Magoo was extremely nearsighted, almost blind, but didn't know it. He would drive his old car, careening about and creating havoc wherever he went. He was rarely aware of this, but on those rare occasions that he was, he would blame it all on those who were affected by it. Driving down the wrong side of the highway, causing disaster everywhere, he would yell, "Roadhogs!" and continue on his way, oblivious to all the destruction he left behind. My question today is, "How much of Magoo is in you, and in me?"

Magoo's vision problems made him unaware of almost everyone else while remaining acutely focused on himself. Our spiritual vision problems do the same with us. When we lack the ability to see things as they really are, then everything becomes blurred, but we become so used to that the blurring seems normal to us, just as it did with Magoo. We're not blind, but we think everyone else is. They're roadhogs and they need to get out of our way. This is the life of the self-absorbed. They live traveling on the wrong side of the road, never realizing that the actual roadhog is....themselves. 

All of us, to some degree, are Mr. Magoo. All of us, to some degree, are roadhogs. The sin nature that we are born with makes it so. In 2 Peter 1, Peter writes about the spiritual fruit that will develop in a life given over to Christ. He lists the fruit as "self-control, patient endurance, godliness, love for other Christians, and love for everyone." In all of these we are to grow and we will grow as we live fully in Him. Peter then writes, "But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind...." Or, more to the point, they're Magoos. Card carrying, bona fide Magoos, creating havoc and chaos wherever they go. It's who they are. Is it who we are, in part or in whole?

I think in every aspect of the culture, and it's found its way into the church as well, we're seeing the effects of "The Magoo Syndrome," perhaps nowhere more than in the political spectrum. Our spiritual blindness has made Magoos of us all. 

One of the common endings of a Mr. Magoo cartoon was that after all the destruction and chaos that took place because of his blindness, the title character would exclaim with a note of triumph, "Oh Magoo, you've done it again!" May the Lord open the eyes of all of us who suffer from the Magoo Syndrome so that we may cease "doing it again" and always at such a cost. Open our eyes Lord that we may see. Not just others, but even more, ourselves.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Hymn

 In my prayer journal today I came upon the lyric for the powerful hymn, Jesus Paid It All, by Elvina Hall. This is a hymn I have sung more times than I can remember. You may be able to say the same. I wonder, in all the churches, choirs, worship teams and people where it has been sung and by those who have sung it, just how real are those lyrics to us? To you, and to me?

I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small; child of weakness watch and pray. Fine in Me thy all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin has left its crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Undeniably powerful words. How real are they in our daily experience?

I wrote the other day of A.W, Tozer saying that we use the language of power, but that our deeds are the deeds of weakness. I'm sure we don't see it that way. We feel like we're doing things with all our strength, and I'm sure we are. We just don't seem to grasp that all of our strength will never be enough to overcome the evil one and the fallen world we live in. In fact, we're so absorbed in taking on that world in our own strength that we can't even hear the words He speaks to us in the process. We don't want to admit that we're weak, so we never hear His voice telling us that we're too weak to prevail. So we wear ourselves out and never seem to really progress in our journey with Him. So the first thing needed in living out this hymn is to learn to hear His voice. Can we be still enough to do so?

If and when we hear His voice, almost always He will tell us to do nothing else but to "watch and pray." Yes, there will be a time to act, but we act only upon the direction He gives, and that direction comes as we are still before His Presence. Listening for His voice and His heart. As we listen, we also watch. When we do this, something miraculous and wonderful will take place. We discover in ways we never knew the infinite power and wonder of who He is. Something mystical happens. In the stillness He invited us to bring all that we to all that He is. He invites us, calls us, to bring all our ourself into all of Himself. It is then that we discover that He is our "all in all."

Why do so few of us seem to enter into this place? I think it's because we don't realize how sin has so completely permeated this world we live in. It has left its stain upon everything, including us. There is no way that we can rid ourselves of that stain. The sin that entered into the human race through the rebellion of Adam and Eve has left us with a debt that we can never repay. That's why the Father sent His Son, Jesus, to pay that debt though His death on the cross. And He sealed the victory won there with His resurrection to life from that death. He paid the debt we could not pay and He paid it all. Jesus paid it all. Yet somehow, we struggle to believe this. There must be something we have to add, and there is. We have to cease our striving and enter into the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's the only way to erase the stain of sin. Have you entered into that work? If not, will you not enter into it now?

We are lost without Him and all our striving will not help us. May we confess our weakness and the stain of sin in our lives, and then answer His call to enter into His life through the finished work of the cross.  May we know, finally, that He not only paid it all, but that He is our all in all.

Blessings,
Pastor O