How?

 "Amazing Love, how can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?" Charles Wesley....."No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good." C.S. Lewis...."Only those who know their lostness are eligible to be found." Chris Tiegreen

I have never liked the question, "Have you accepted Christ?" It makes it sound almost like we're doing Him a grand favor to allow Him (the honor) of coming into our life. Someone said the better question is how, in light of how black our sin, could He ever accept us? How could He accept me and how could He accept you?

Wesley's above hymn, And Can It Be, has long been the song I most identify with. I lose sight of its truth sometimes, and I need to be drawn back to it. I need to know again just how amazing His love is, and how amazing it is that He could not only love me, save me, and above all, die for me. Me! Someone who lived his life against His Life and Truth. Me, who in so many ways, mocked Him, used His name as a curse, and blasphemed that name in countless different ways. Me, who lived many years not caring at all about Him, His life, His love, and His sacrifice on my behalf. Me, who if the bare, horrible truth of it all were known, would have been standing in the crowd on that terrible day in Jerusalem shouting, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" I would have been there....and so would have you.

I've a pastor friend who, in his messages, often says to his people, "We're not the good guys in the story." It's completely true. The human race has a sin problem. We're born with that and we can't free ourselves from it. It sets us against God, and each other. It makes us His enemy. The beauty, the wonder, is that He is not our enemy in return. He created us for Himself and the sin of our human parents brought a separation that we could never breach. Our sin demanded justice. It demanded our death. We have been born under a death sentence that we had no ability to commute. The Father, in His love, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to accomplish what we couldn't. His death on a cross satisfied the need for justice. He broke the curse of sin and death for all who believe upon and follow Him. That's the Gospel Good News. Christ came, lived, died, rose, and conquered death for all will believe upon Him. I'm so thankful that I received that Good News and the Savior who brought it. I'll also never cease to be amazed, as was Wesley, that He would come for me, die for me, rise for me, and save me, when I lived so willingly against all that He is. How? How could He do it? How could He do it for me, and how could He do it for you? For a sinner such as me.....how?

Someone said that the truth and depth of our repentance is shown by the depth of our remorse for all the ways we have failed Him and sinned against Him. I, like the apostle Paul, am so thankful that I'm forgiven, but I cannot lose sight of how black the record against me was. That's why I need to hear and sing this hymn again. I cannot forget how undeserving I was and yet, in His love, He came...for me. For you. How?

How could He accept me, and you? I don't know, but He will. We need to own our lostness and our need. We need to own our condition. He, not us, is "the Good Guy." The Good Guy offers us life....and pardon. Have you received it? Can you sing the hymn? If you never have.....please, PLEASE, do it now.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Spirit Wind

Ancient seafarers went about in ships that used one or more banks of oars. This was because there were times when the wind was silent, and to continue onward, rowers, who were usually slaves, would propel the ship across the waves. However, they could only do this in spurts. At some point, they would exhaust themselves and have to stop and remain motionless in the water. For the sailors, wind filling their sails was treasured above all else. I hear the Holy Spirit speaking in this.

The church today has countless "rowers," but it seems, so little wind. Our rowers can get a lot done. We're busier than ever. We're constantly moving, going out in our witness to a lost culture. We build programs, craft strategies, write books, and hold and attend conferences. We seek to impact both ourselves and the culture with the reality of Jesus Christ. Yet in all of it, we are exhausted. Pastor's, pointing to burnout, are leaving the ministry in shocking numbers. Congregations are comprised of people who may hear His Words of Truth but who rely upon the remedies of the world for depression, addiction, anger, and emotional, physical, and spiritual lameness. We look for rest in the same places that it does. Vacations, 3 day weekends, or escapes into entertainment, sex, and sports. We claim to follow the One we call The Great Physician but have medicine cabinets filled with as many or more drugs as our unchurched neighbor. His Word tells us that the Government of all things is upon His shoulders, but we look to secular governments to care for us, becoming as dependent upon it as those who are without Him. I'm not claiming these are evil in themselves or that a believer can never use them, only that they have come to take the place of Him who is above all things, including these things. Because of it, we exhaust the limits of what we can do and end up "floating" listlessly, without the wind of the Holy Spirit. We've "rowed" with all our might and discovered we have gone nowhere.

Jesus, speaking with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John 3, talks of what it means to be "born again," made new in Christ. He says, "Humans can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. So don't be surprised by My statement that you must be born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." There lies the root of our problem. We want to be able to explain naturally that which is supernatural in origin. God's Kingdom is a supernatural one. We can do nothing by our own efforts to add to it or build it. There are books on how to bring revival to your church. There are ministries that guarantee they can bring in 100 new converts in the coming year. Revival and conversion are the result of the Spirit's work alone, and Jesus said that we cannot know or control the coming or movement of His Holy Spirit. All we can do is place ourselves in a state where we are ready to receive His fullness when He moves, and that state is one of emptiness so that He may make us full. 

Have we been at the oars long enough? Are we exhausted enough, empty enough for Him to now fill us? Have we had enough of human activity that takes us nowhere? Can we instead, in brokenness and at His cross, seek His face, His heart, and His Spirit until He comes, filling our long dormant sails, carrying us to we know not where? In all of it made new, renewed, transformed and empowered. The wind is blowing. Let it fill your sails.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Saturday

 I heard a pastor named J.D. Greear say that we live most of our lives on Saturday. He was speaking of the day between Friday, when Christ was crucified, and Sunday, when He was resurrected. Friday was the day of catastrophe for the disciples. They were shocked and traumatized. They had been promised that there would be a Sunday, a day when Christ rose. They had a promise that was yet to be realized....on Saturday. On Saturday they had to face the horror of what had happened, and all the questions of why, and the real doubts they had about the fulfillment of His promise to them. Greear says that in many ways, Saturday is where we live as we face the real horrors of what life in this fallen world can entail, especially when the happening of those horrors are so recent. We have questions and we have doubts. Maybe you're living there right now in your faith journey. If not, you will be.

Questions and doubts will happen in our journey with Him. Mary was the first to see the risen Christ. When she told the disciples, they didn't believe her...until they saw Him. Thomas wasn't there, so when he was told, he said, "Unless I see the nail imprints and  touch His wounds, I won't believe" Then Jesus appeared, and Thomas experienced the reality of His resurrection. Charles Spurgeon said that our doubts will either take us deeper into intimacy with Him, or further from Him. We will have doubts and we will have questions. Christ calls us to bring them to Him. We have to face them. He does not promise answers in them. He promises Himself as we walk through them. One day, He promises, we will understand. Right now, He is with us. Greear says that when Christ appeared to Thomas, Thomas got a revelation of who He was. This is what He will give us in all of our doubts and questions. He will come in the way we most need Him and He will give us a fresh revelation of who He truly is, as He comes. Greear says that the wounds of Jesus assure us that He will never leave or forsake us.

A friend made me aware of a family in their church who just lost their two youngest sons to a mysterious virus that attacked their brains and nervous system. It took their lives and took them quickly. We can only imagine the shock, pain, and trauma they are now experiencing. Surely they have questions and doubts. Where was He? Why didn't He heal them? Is He really good? How could He bring good from this? Friday has happened, and now they're living in Saturday. They have the promise of Sunday coming, but all they see right now is the darkness of Saturday. Yet Christ is there, and He will not leave them alone, comfortless, or without hope. Everything I've seen in this situation tells me that they are pressing more deeply into Him. In their sorrow and suffering, they trust and believe Him for Sunday. He is with them, suffering with them, and giving Himself to them in their suffering. Horrors happen in this fallen world. They cannot keep Him from invading them with Himself.

If you're living in Saturday right now, you surely have questions and doubts. Face them. He doesn't fear them. One day, He will answer them directly, but right now, He gives you Himself. Keep walking, trusting, believing His promise of Sunday. It will come. He is with you. He will not leave or forsake you. His wounds guarantee that.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Yesterday

 One of the greatest blessings I've experienced in my walk with Him is all of the wonderful people I have come to know. One of them is a brother and friend named Bob Yarbrough, and I want to share something that took place with him more than a decade ago. It still speaks to me, and hopefully to you today.

Bob is a former pastor and missionary, and we would often meet for breakfast or lunch. When we did, our talk often centered on the wondrous ways of our Lord. We would talk of the dreams and visions we felt we'd received from Him but had yet to be realized. We spoke of disappointments, and yes, our failures. Yet these times were not times of defeat but of a shared hope, a reaffirmation that what the Lord had promised, He would do. 

Upon leaving one of these meetings, Bob shared an exhortation from Isaiah 60:1. He said that he had learned to live each new day with the realization that yesterday was gone and that this new day was to be faced with the reality that the Father had already redeemed it, and was one that was filled with opportunity, promise, and yes, miracles. We could live in and with the truth of that verse, "Arise, shine, for your Light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Yesterday may have been covered in darkness. Yesterday may have been filled with defeat and failure. And Yesterday must be given to Him. If there is sin to confess and repent of, do so. If there is heartbreak and disappointment there, bring it to Him. If there are shattered and lost dreams there, place them in His hands. With Him is where all our yesterday's must be left. There may be things we cannot get past in a day, but we need not be held captive in the new day by what took place yesterday. We may still deal with the circumstances and effects, but we do so dependent upon the infinite resources of the One who is our Source. In each new day we can live in the fullness of His healing, wholeness, hope, and comfort. Regardless of what took place yesterday, we can arise, shine, and behold the glory of the Lord to shine upon us. 

Charles Wesley, in his hymn, "And Can It Be," wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay. Fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eyes diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." Let us come out of the dungeons of our yesterdays. Let us be free of the weight of our chains of disappointment, failures, fears, and our sins of yesterday. Let us arise. Our light, the light of Christ has come in this, our new day. The glory of the Lord has risen upon us. Let it rise upon you.

I write this on the morning of my new day. Is it your new day as well, or, do you remain in yesterday's chains? Bring your yesterday's, all of them, to His cross. Leave them there. This is a new day, filled with His light, love, hope, and power. Arise and shine. Your light has come. His glory has risen upon you. Leave the dungeon of all your yesterday's.....and come forth!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Splinters

 "Come unto Me......." Matthew 11:28

I think a passing rite of childhood is getting splinters in our fingers or hands. They hurt. So much so that we ran to our mother with the pain. We wanted help, and she wanted to give it. However, the remedy almost always involved pain. In my case, a pair of "tweezers," where she would lay hold of the splinter and pull it out. That hurt too, and I didn't like it. I always hoped there would be another way. There never was. I "ached," literally to have relief, but I feared the recipe for it. Mom knew best. She knew to leave it there would cause a festering, leading to infection. That small splinter could be deadly. They still are.

Life in this fallen world has a way of causing many "splinters," some of them large and deadly, to impale us along our journey. Physical ones for sure, but even more deadly, emotional and spiritual ones. They can and do happen at any age, but instead of running to Him with them, we fear what might, indeed, be His remedy. So we hold back. We try many kinds of means of self-medicating them in an effort to remove them, or just live as best we can with them. We fear the pain that likely will be involved in bringing them to Him. He will for certain remove them, but it is also certain that His doing will hurt. Sometimes, many times, a great deal. Healing is rarely easy.

Sarah Hagerty says that most of us have years worth of splinters that we've never brought to Him. We fear the various "tweezers" that He might use to remove them. The splinter hurt going in and it will hurt, even resist being pulled out. Our facing the many types of splinters we've gathered in this life can be just as, even more painful than the event that brought it about. So we hold on to them, and instead of the spinter being removed and the cut left being cleansed and made whole, they fester in our mind, heart, and spirit. They become infected, and the infection spreads throughout our being. And all the while, the ache and longing for healing and relief remains and grows along with the infection. We can feel it a hopeless state, but there is always hope with Jesus.

In those childhood memories, I remember one of those splinter times, on this occasion, with my grandmother. I remember the pain, just as I remember her gently taking my hand, speaking soothingly as shed did so, and with her tweezers, pulling the splinter out. It did hurt, but somehow, her soothing words eased the pain a great deal. In the same way, the Lord Jesus stands before us and call us to Himself. Our splinters hurt, but if we will come, His grace, like my grandmother's soothing words, will comfort us and saturate us as He as gently as He can, removes the splinters that have caused us so much harm. The splinters are gone and His healing and wholeness come. Whatever pain may be involved in the coming is far outweighed by what is gained by it. We gain not only His healing. We gain Him.

As I said, we all accumulate splinters in this life. What have you done with yours? What will you do with them right now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Call

 I once heard a genteel southern lady in her early 60's tell of how she'd felt led of the Spirit to start up a ministry in her home for recently released female prisoners as a means of helping them transition back into society, and at the same time, minister to their souls. She said the beginning years of this ministry were extremely difficult, far more than she'd expected. She'd always believed that the Father had a destiny for her, but found herself asking Him, "Lord, is this it?" If you're following what you believe is His call upon your life, I expect you've asked the same.

Pastors are leaving the ministry at a frightening rate. In articles about this, a number of reasons are given; exhaustion, depression, financial or family pressure, or just plain spiritual burnout. Ultimately, they come to the place of thinking they've no other choice but to step away, to resign. I make no judgement. A commitment to true ministry will require more sacrifice than anything else you could do. It's a 24/7 "job." There are no real "off days" involved in the calling, so I make no judgement. And there's another aspect to all this. You don't have to be a "professional" in terms of ministry and serving in His Kingdom to also be a part of this exodus of a life in and for Him. There are so many who want to "resign" their current state in life and all that goes with it. Their marriage, their family, their church, even their walk with Him. Turning away, turning aside, can seem like the only available option to one who feels they simply can't go on. Yet there is another, if only we'll allow Him to open the eyes of our heart to see it. Even in the midst of our deepest disappointment, discouragement, and despair.

Last week I wrote of the wounds I'd suffered in life and in His calling. I left out something I want to share today. After the collapse of my marriage, I had to leave my ministry and calling. The hiatus would last a little more than a year. In that time I discovered that there was something far greater, bigger, and more powerful than any wound, disappointment, or defeat that I could experience. I discovered the power of His call upon my life. The longer my time out of ministry lasted, the stronger the sense of His calling became. I longed to return to the very life that had brought so much pain. I could because His call so captivated my heart and life that nothing could turn me away from it. The wounds and pain were real. His call and Lordship were more real. In that year away He reminded me and rebuilt within me an understanding of the sacredness of His call. Like Jeremiah, I knew that I could not keep within me what He had placed there. I had to fulfill His calling.

In knowing that, I began to understand as well that my call was not about MY destiny and MY legacy. It was about being faithful and being obedient. It was about fulfilling His call no matter where it was He placed me and no matter what I encountered in that place. I learned anew that whatever the frustrations, disappointments and hurts were, His call, which also included His magnificent presence, would sustain me.

So often in the Old Testament, when God called a man and placed before him the seeming impossible, He promised, "and I will go with you." He doesn't simply call us to a task. He calls us to Himself.

Wherever you are in His call today, and there are none of His whom He has not called to some work in His Kingdom, may you re-discover the sacredness of the call. He has sent you out but not alone. He goes with you. He will sustain you. The results of it all have to be left to Him. Your part, our part, is to be faithful in the call. That is our true destiny. That's also our true legacy. Faithful to the call....to the very end.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Call Part 2

 "Many are called but few are chosen." Matthew 22:14....."Lord, we know we're among the called, grant that we're among the chosen." Eugene Peterson...."The three greatest virtues of men (and women) of God are: Humility, Humility and Humility." Martin Luther

Recently I wrote about the sacredness of His call upon our lives, not only concerning entering into full time ministry, but as concerns His universal call to be His witnesses and servants wherever we are. Some of my recent readings and devotionals have been centering not only our answering of His call, but our attitude towards it.

One of my Facebook friends recently posted a challenge asking, "How long can you talk about God without also saying I, me, or my?" This is a piercing question, because so much of what we call testimonies about His glory and work end up inserting ourselves into the center of the story. What I've heard too often is, "He enabled ME to do this," or "I prayed in faith and He worked a miracle." Intended or not, we give the impression that we were as much a key player in it all as He was and is. We may wish to lift His name up, but we lift up ours as well. God doesn't share His glory, especially with the spirit of pride, and pride works its way into our hearts in countless ways.

This is especially so in the lives of those that He has called into the ministry of preaching and pastoring. I will never forget something I read as a young preacher and which impacted me deeply. It was the story of a young man who was a candidate to come and pastor a church. He was fresh from seminary and was invited by the congregation to preach a message. As the story goes, he almost strutted into the pulpit, so confident was he of impressing his listeners with his knowledge and skill. He then commenced to stumble through his message and was anything but impressive. He almost slunk from the pulpit in humiliation. A wise old brother went to him, and in love said, "Young man, if you had entered the pulpit as humbled as you were when you left it, what might the Lord have been able to do through you?" How much humility is present in our answer to His call, on whatever level it comes?

Something I've seen in many through the years who have sought to enter into ministry, is a lack of awe and humility in the calling. I think too many miss the wonder, honor, and privilege he bestows upon us in His calling. It should overwhelmingly humble us and the humility needed in the call should only grow with time. Too many approach preaching, teaching, pastoring, as something they're entitled to, not entrusted with by the Creator of the Universe. I think this is a major reason so many begin but never continue in the call. Only the broken and contrite of heart and spirit will press on to the end.

I go back to Peterson's above quote. We are all of us called, but so few of us are chosen. Why? Could it be that we can never lose sight of ourselves in order that we may really see Him? John the Baptist said that he had to decrease in order that Christ might increase. How real is that attitude in us? Whatever it is He has called us to, what is our heart attitude towards it? Who is it that we really want to see glorified through it...Almighty God....or us? We may never enter a pulpit, but we will enter the call. How will we enter, press on, and end our calling in this realm? In humility or in pride? Only one receives honor from Him. Which marks you and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Longing

 I've done a lot of praying and thinking about just what true intimacy with God is. Psalm 37 tells us to "delight" ourselves in Him, but what does that really mean? What does it mean to us? How much of a delight is He really to you and me? James 4:8 says, "Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you." How do we do that? What keeps us from doing that? 

Psalm 37:4 reads, "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desire." How do we tend to read and understand that? Does our degree of delight depend much more on getting our heart's desire, most often a thing, situation, or relationship, than it does on being with Him? Sometime back, I was challenged in one of writer Larry Crabb's books to think about when I most sensed His presence in my life. And when I was most aware of His absence. This is what I wrote in my prayer journal; "I most feel His Presence when I come near to Him and give Him all of myself. My hopes, dreams, cares, ambitions, and fears......I most feel His absence when I insist on clinging to those same things and having some sense of control over them all." It's hard to focus on anything else when your arms and hands are full, trying to make sure nothing is dropped. It's impossible to draw near to Him when this is the case. I feel sure that this is the reason so much of our prayer life leaves us feeling disappointed, frustrated, restless, burdened, and joyless.  Crabb asks if we are "graspers" or "givers?" These things, these desires, even the deepest that we hold, do we bring them to Him, give them to Him, or do we grasp them, cling to them, keep them....to ourselves? Do we even want to come to a relationship place with Him where we enter into the deep enjoyment of His fellowship? A fellowship marked by our joy and delight in Him. A place where our desires, even the deepest of them, are not forgotten but neither do any longer hold us captive. We are immersed in Him and not our desire for them.

It was a phrase made popular in the 90's; Jesus Satisfies! This is true, but if we're not careful, if we don't guard our hearts, we can end up thinking that the satisfaction He promises is all about this life, and is found in this life. Found in the form of His blessings. We become blessing dependent people, not Christ dependent ones. The fullness of the satisfaction He promises will be realized in eternity, but we can begin to be immersed in His eternity right now. We'll always have a yearning for more, but it will not be for more things, more blessings, but for more of Him, His Life, His Presence. He becomes and is the desire of our heart.

So, when do you most feel His Presence, and when His absence? How are you responding to His call to draw near to Him, and if you come, with what are you coming? Do you come ready to give or determined to grasp? A blessing centered life offers only passing satisfaction. We always seek a new and bigger blessing. Someone said, "Aware of it or not, we all long for Him....even you." We will try to fill that longing with something.....only He will be the One who can satisfy that longing. Even in you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Worthless Worship

 "But the king said to Araunah, 'No, I insist on buying it from you! I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing." 2 Samuel 24:24

Back in the early 2000's, the financial situation of our church was such that I had to take an outside job to lessen the pressures. Since I had a long background in retail sales, I took a job with a major department store. Upon hiring me, they understood that I would not be able to work Sunday's, and they were agreeable. However, they did stipulate that once a quarter they opened for special hours on a Sunday evening for their preferred customers, offering a large variety of special sales. On one Monday after one of these, I had an encounter with a woman, a professing believer, that I'll never forget.

This lady walked up to me and questioned me about the special sale of the Sunday evening before. She told me that she was a Christian, and that she didn't go shopping on a Sunday. I respected that, but not what she said next. She demanded that she be given, on Monday, the same sale prices as were offered the night before. I remember telling her that I too was a believer but that I'd been present and working the night before. She then told me that I should have taken a stand and refused to work (or like her, shop) on a Sunday. I'll never forget her complete arrogance and self-righteousness in all of it. The Father enabled me to be gracious towards her despite the insult, but I've contemplated that encounter many times, and I think it paints an accurate picture of much of the church.

First off, I saw in this woman what I've seen in so many who call themselves His followers. Outwardly, she honored Him by refraining from doing business on a Sunday, but inwardly she demanded that this "sacrifice" would not cost her anything. Her heart coveted the deal offered on Sunday to be now given her on Monday. She offered a costless sacrifice coupled with a spirit of entitlement. 

Secondly, I wondered if this woman had ever won anyone to Him with the spirit she walked in. Her putdown of me was likely accompanied by many similar putdowns to others for this or some other reason. In her was no compassion or understanding for life situations that may have had working on a Sunday as the only option. Arrogant self-righteousness, a spirit of entitlement, and a strong desire that her faith, her "worship" if you will, be noticed by all but cost her nothing to exercise. We can be offended by her, but where in our lives are we guilty of the same? She was the classic "Pharisee" but where might we be as well?

I titled this writing "Worthless Worship," and I wonder just how much of what we think of as our worship of Him really is worthless in His eyes? What real cost to us is there in what we call worship? What, if any, real sacrifice is involved in it? We have become a culture dependent upon our "conveniences" and it's extended into our relationship with Him. Most of us have already set the boundaries of how far we'll go with Him and how much we'll give. When it becomes painful to follow and to give, we're more likely to drop out instead of press on, and though we may not be blatantly self-righteous as this lady was, we certainly can be just as prone to a spirit of entitlement. Entitlement marks the spirit of the age we live in and it's found its way into the church. Where has it found its way into your heart and mine?

In the OT, both people and priests had hearts that had drifted far from Him. They still went through all the sacrificial rituals, but what they offered for sacrifice was impure, crippled, worthless. The Father judged it and took them into a spiritual wilderness to refine them. I believe we are entering such a time as well. Someone said that in the wilderness we learn that it is Christ who is our nourishment. Whether new or for the first time, we too need to learn this. Our sacrificial worship is meant to be a sweet fragrance to Him. Is it? May it be so. May we offer Him the true worship that comes from the sacrifice of praise and honor to Him, a sweet fragrance in the nostrils of the Father.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Nonsense?

 I expect you've seen the recent ads operating under the title of "He Gets Us." They're designed to make those without Him more aware of Him and see in Him in a more appealing way than they currently might. I understand the motives behind them. Just as I understood an earlier attempt to do the same with the "Got Jesus?" campaign. Well-meaning as they both were and are, I have problems with the concept. I have some honest questions and concerns as well.

In the "He Gets Us" movement I would ask, though it is comforting to know that He does completely understand us, isn't it even more important that we "get" Him? That we come into real understanding of who He is, why He came, what He accomplished on the cross and in His resurrection? My problem with the ads is that they center on us far more than upon Him. In my prayer journal I've written down, "Is He our resource or our Source?" Is He Someone we can use to have a better way, a better and more successful life? Someone who can make us happy, secure, and content. Or is He our Source, the center of all of our life and all life. Scripture says that "In Him all things hold together." Jesus is not our Master Tool in our "How To Have A Good Life" kit. Can we face the honest question of whether or not that is exactly how we've been viewing Him?

I'm asking all this because it seems we're trying so hard to "market" Jesus Christ. To make Him more appealing to those who don't know Him. To help them see just how much good He can do for them. How much He can add to their lives. The choice then comes down to it not being about His Sovereign grace piercing the darkness of our hearts and convicting us of our lostness due to sin and desperate need for Him, but one of letting people know what a benefit He is. By helping them see how much sense it makes to have Him in their lives and then choosing to "accept" Him. Do I overstate? How often have we, myself included, presented Him as Someone who can really add onto our lives? Making them happier, more successful. We promote Him as a resource, not our Source. Worst of all, we invite them into a life that has no place for a cross. A life that has us at the center, not Him.

I don't know whether it was my thought or not, but in my journal I've written, "Instead of being absorbed into His life, we want Him to adapt His life to ours." In I Corinthians 1:23, Paul writes, ".....but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles." Paul preached a Christ who loves us too fiercely to ever be willing to merely adapt to our lives and become a helpful part. He preached the Christ who was sent by His Father to offer an abundant life, but a life that can only be realized because He went to the cross. A life that we can realize only by our going to that cross as well....and die there. Die, that we may live. Paul said that this Christ was a stumbling block and a folly. One Bible translation uses the word "nonsense." Coming to and following such a Jesus makes no sense, yet this is the Christ Paul invited people to, as did Peter, John, and the first century church. And the message turned the world upside down, or as one person put, "turned the world right-side up." It was supernatural message bringing about supernatural transformation. It still does and will today if we'll dare to proclaim it. 

A compliant Jesus adapting to our natural world, never disturbing our comfort zones will transform nothing. Christ crucified, victorious over death and sin in all of its form will. Do you know this Jesus, or does He continue to be a stumbling block, just plain nonsense to you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Secret

 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  John 2:19...."Earth's blackest and earth's brightest days are only 3 days apart." E. Stanley Jones

A precious soul in our church fellowship has been walking through some very hard times these past months. There have been tears, sadness, loss, and grief. The Lord had put them on my heart and I'd intended to message them to ask after their well being, but this past Sunday I saw them walking past on their way to go home. I asked how they were, and in their honesty, they shared their pain. We prayed. Not a prayer that rendered the heavens, just one that I think touched laid hold of His heart. Later that day I messaged them and they responded with some of what they've been walking through. In answering, the one thing I felt led to tell them was that in this pain, He was working His life, resurrection life, into them. They were experiencing their own "blackest day," but that His brightest day was assured to them. So it is to all of us who will follow where He leads, even when He leads us to His cross, which also becomes ours.

It's a hard truth that we come to know Him best and most deeply in the crucible of suffering. He's the Man of Sorrows, and in this fallen world, our sorrows will be, if we allow it, to be the doorway into the fullness of His resurrection life. A.W. Tozer said, "We want our Easter to come without the need for Good Friday." We want the wonder of resurrection life without the inclusion of the cross in realizing it. Someone said that we can't experience the resurrection without also experiencing the crucifixion. There is no shortcut into His life of abundance. We can't, as someone said, "Sneak around Golgotha." 

His Word speaks of entering into His "Secret Place." We only can by way of His cross. We can never lay hold of His heart and life in all the fullness He intends in any other way. This is the secret, and it's only a secret because our flesh hates this truth so deeply. Our flesh, that is, our self-life and will, will do anything to avoid the cross and its crucifixion. We run from it as we run from Him. As a result, we never really enter into that secret place of intimacy and knowledge of Him, and we suffer spiritual poverty because of it. J.B Chapman said, "When life is Christ, even death is gain." That's the secret. Do we know it? Do you?

Another Easter is upon us. Good Friday, Sunrise, and Easter Sunday services will abound. Sermons on the crucifixion and the resurrection will abound as well. How will they be received.....by you? Will both be religious terms that you know something about, or will they be what has been your spiritual experience? Maybe you're in the midst of your own "Good Friday," which seems anything but good to you. Let Him come to you there, minister to you there, and lead you to His cross there. The 3 days that the disciples weathered between His crucifixion and resurrection must have seemed an eternity to them. Suffering always does, but in an instant, the blackest day was turned to the brightest. In turn, He would lead each of them to their own cross and to their own resurrection. In the journey, they would learn the secret. He invites us as well. Do we come? Will we too learn the secret?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Whose Child?

 Jesus asked, and continues to ask this question: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" I'm coming to see that He asks this question of us each day. How do we answer it?

Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chole said, "Satan always invites us to exchange the eternal for the visible." Mark Batterson said, "We gain things that perish only to lose things meant to endure." Every day we have choices come before us, and every day our choices will either enrich us spiritually, or impoverish  us, bit by bit killing our souls. Chloe asks, "With what might Satan be tempting us to bow down and worship him? How does he entice us to forfeit our soul." Not eternally perhaps, but some part of us is given over to his ways, and we suffer great loss in doing so.

How does he do this? Is it through the offer of success, whether in ministry, business, affluence, or relationships? Is it through the offer of "good things" at the expense of the best and greatest? Is it through the offer of pleasure, comfort, security, and safety? Is it through the offer of a low-risk but high reward life? In short, he offers much increase to our lives at the expense of the shrinking of our spirit and soul. His way will always lead us against God's way, and what looks like profit is instead, great loss, and we have so little idea of what we are really losing. The rich wonder of His presence and power in our lives.

In my notes I've written, "Throughout our spiritual lives, there is only one temptation; to choose against God. Our disobedience is Satan's greatest prize." I don't remember the source of that statement, but there can be no doubt that its true origin is found in the Father's heart. Each day we're faced with a myriad of temptations and they have many different faces. Actually though, the only real temptation for us is whether we choose for, or against Him. We choose by the manner in which we speak, think, relate, and live. In all of these we'll be choosing either for or against Him. 

Years ago, a Jesus Movement group named Dogwood, sang a song where a father counseled his son as he stepped out into the world and all the choices it offered. He exhorted his son to "remember whose child you are." Not just who his earthly father was, but even more, who his heavenly Father was. We'd do well to remember that simple warning. When faced with the choice of losing a part of our soul or not, we must remember whose child we truly are. It's when we forget who we are in Him that we are in the most danger of bowing down to the enemy and his desires for us. 

Where will our choices take us today? What will be gained and what will be lost in them? Will the Father have His prize of our obedience, or the enemy his great trophy of our disobedience? Whose child will we most closely resemble today? 

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Wounds

"He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; He endured punishment that made us well; because of His wounds, we have been healed."  Isaiah 53:5

We live in a fallen world and all of us will, in some way, suffer wounding because of it. Many of these wounds are so deep as to have affected every aspect of how we live and behave. How beautiful that in Jesus Christ, healing for every kind of wound, spiritual and emotional, even physical, is offered. I am grateful beyond words for the healing blood of Jesus Christ in my own life, as He has healed my wounds and continues to heal them. I pray that you would know this healing as well. All you need do is come to Him, with your wounds, and allow Him to take your heart and all its injuries into His hands and make them, and you, whole. If you've never done so, would you do it now?

However, there is a wounding that may be the most difficult for us to bring to Him, and that is the wounding we've suffered in the church, His church. He knows of this wounding. He suffered it Himself. Scripture says that He was wounded in the household of His friends. He knows the deep pain of betrayal and mistreatment from those we trusted most. He knows how deep the wounding can go, and He realizes how far we can run from the church, and Him, because of it. Maybe you have run from Him yourself. Maybe you're running right now. He knows your pain. As do I and so many others as well.

When I came out of the world and to Him and His church, I discovered a love and beauty I never knew before. I could not fathom how anything but love and rich fellowship could ever be found within it. I could not believe that the deepest wounds and suffering I would ever experience could come from the church I had not only become a part of, but would answer His call to serve and give myself to. But, like my Lord, I too was wounded in the house of my friends. It was inevitable that I would be. The servant is not above his Master. The shock of it all was devastating, and the enemy's enticements to turn away from His people were real, yet His was a love that would not let me go, and I stayed in the house of my friends, because there were still abiding there, true friends, and part of my growing process was realizing the imperfections of His church, a church made up of very flawed people but built upon a perfect Savior...A Savior who heals even the wounds inflicted by our friends.

Alicia Britt Chole said that we cannot avoid being wounded in the church. It will happen. Some of the wounds will be severe. However, she said we can avoid those wounds becoming infected. Infected with bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, the desire for vengeance. Infection that spreads to every part of our being. An untreated wound will give rise to infection and there are so many who have never taken their wounds to Him. They've withdrawn from Him and from His church....and the infection has only festered and grown deeper. Lives, marriages, families have been shipwrecked in their faith because of it. They've made the great error of expecting from His church what can only be found in Him....perfect love. 

Without going into much detail, I was wounded deeply by some of His people. Used, betrayed, and had my character and integrity attacked. I can't really describe all the pain I walked through and it would have been so easy to walk away. But I couldn't. In all of it, He walked with me, and He taught me something of what it meant to share in the fellowship of His sufferings for a church and a people that He had called me to. A church and a people that He loved, and called me to love as well. I couldn't walk away from Him and I couldn't walk away from His call upon my life and to His people. As we walked together, He tended my wounds, and as He promised, bound up my broken and wounded heart. And He taught to look through the wounds that had come and still do come, and see Him. I served and followed not foremost for them, but for Him. And because I did serve Him in love, I could again serve those who had failed me in love as well.And in the woundings of some of my "friends," He led me to the richness of His people who have become lifelong friends, forever friends as some might say. I have found that, despite all its human flaws, His church is truly a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, "washed in the blood of the Lamb."

I don't know who this is for today, but if you've been wounded, know that your Lord suffers those wounds with you. Bring them to Him and allow Him to heal them. Don't run from Him or His people. Run to Him and to them. You will find, as I have, that whatever suffering has been involved, it cannot be compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing, walking with, and ministering with Him. We will find, as the old hymn says, that it really will be worth it all "when we see Jesus." And we, you and I, don't have to wait for the fullness of eternity to see Him. We can see Him now.....in the people He has sent us to and to be a part of.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Which Table?

 When I was growing up, a common warning from my mother as we neared suppertime and she saw my siblings and I sneaking snacks, was to tell us to stop so that we didn't "ruin our appetites." It was a fair warning because we were hungry, but instead of waiting for the food meant for our overall health, we wanted to gorge on that which held little nutritional value, but tasted so good. And doing so left us with little desire for the foods that did.

I see a great parallel to this in our spiritual lives today. We in the church are gorging ourselves on the junk food of this world, filling our lives and souls with "food" that has no eternal value yet leaves us with no appetite or desire for those "foods" that do. It reminds me of a case study I came across about severely overweight people who were literally starving to death. Their bodies were not receiving the basic nutrition that they were designed to receive. They devoured great amounts of food that instead of giving them life, was bringing them death. How overweight are we today with the food that doesn't last while starving to death for the lack of His food that gives life?

Isaiah 44:3 reads, "For I will give you abundant water to quench your thirst and to moisten your parched fields." As I saw it put, before one can be filled with the water of His life, he must first realize how dry and thirsty he really is. The soda pop of this world, which we've been guzzling, masks our true thirst, leaving us craving that which doesn't quench our thirst but makes us even more thirsty. The Father said that He would, "Pour water upon him who is thirsty," but life finds most of us hanging out at the various "soda pop" dispensers of this world. We walk right by His streams of Living Water to drink what only leaves ever more parched and dry, This is true of individuals, households, and churches. Have we ever become aware of how deep our thirst and hunger really is? How long will we keep running to the soda pop and junk void vending machines of this world, spending our lives upon that which is slowly killing us? And all the while He stands before us offering the water and food of life....without cost. 

Decades ago, Jesus Movement singer Keith Green wrote, "Asleep In The Light," which asked the church, "How can you be so dead when you've been so well fed?" Could it be because of our ruined appetites? We may faithfully attend to our daily devotions and our weekly home groups and church gatherings, and His Word may be faithfully placed before us. But it's not received, taken in, made to be a part of us. It can't be, because like my siblings and I, we've already gorged ourselves on our junk foods and soda pop that's to be found everywhere around us. The "dinner," no matter how lovingly prepared nor how sumptuous it might be, goes uneaten. We've been to His table but we've not partaken of anything. We're asleep in the Light, starving to death in the midst of plenty. 

What will this day, week, life hold for you and me? More unending visits to the pop machines and candy bar dispensers? Or will we feast at His table and drink deeply of His water? The world and the enemy spread their table before us.....and He prepares His. We'll be found at one or the other. Which will it be for you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Can You?

 Desires, hopes, wants. We all have them. And we're very vulnerable in them. It's in these that we are most severely attacked by the enemy. Jesus understood this. So often in His Word, He approached people in need, desperate need, with the simple question; "What do you want Me to do for you?" I think He wanted them to express not only their deepest desire, but even more, would they, could they, trust Him with that desire, that hope, that dream? He still wants that from us.

John 14:1 relates Jesus speaking to His disciples; "Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in Me." There seems no end of things we are troubled over. Money, children, jobs, ministries. Needs of every type and kind. Impossible situations and the real perplexities of everyday life. We have hopes and desires in all of them. There are results we're hoping and longing for. Jesus asks, "What is it that you want in this?" and, "Will you trust Me to bring it about?" In the way and time He sees best? 

Will we? Will we trust Him to work in the midst of our deepest desires and needs and really bring about His best for us? What desire is it that we hold closest to our heart, and will we trust Him with it? Will we trust Him with that treasure? I heard someone speak on this verse and they put a twist to it I'd not heard before. They said that Jesus calls us to trust both He and the Father, and that what we need to do is bring that desire, that treasure, and place it between the Father and Jesus.....and leave it there. In trust. Leave that person, situation, need, that deep and heartfelt desire....and leave it between Almighty God and the One who tells us He's the Author of Life. Leave it with Them. Trust it to Them. 

Hope and trust are so closely linked together. Dutch Sheets says that the Old Testament word for hope meant "cord." The root of the word he says is to "bind together by twisting." He writes, "Hope connects. It binds us together with God." When we bring our treasured desires and hopes to Him, leaving them with Him, between Father and Son, we don't just walk away. We stay bound together with Them, connected to Them. We are not alone and we for certain are not without hope. We are not troubled because we trust God and we trust Christ. 

Can you bring your treasures in whatever form to Him, to Them today? Can you believe and can you trust? Can you leave it with the Father and the Son and rest in the hope that connects you with both? God the Father and God the Son. Nothing can touch or harm that which is left there. It's safe. Trust. Believe. Have hope. Be at peace.....Be at peace....Believe God.....Believe Jesus....and.....trust.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Dust

The songs of Keith Green, a key figure in the Jesus movement of the late 60's and early 70's, have always spoken into my heart and spirit. One of these is his song, Rushing Wind, and the lyric, Rushing wind blow through this temple, blowing out the dust within....Holy Spirit, I surrender, take me where You want to go. Plant my by Your Living Water. Plant me deep so I can grow.

As I listen, I have to wonder how much "dust" may have accumulated in my heart. It doesn't take long, as anyone experienced with house cleaning knows. How much of my life truly needs the fresh wind of His Spirit blowing through it, blowing out the "things" that, like dust in our homes, has accumulated due to neglect or complacency? These things may even be what I've deemed to be precious, but when placed beside the surpassing riches of His life are nothing more than dust in comparison. Or as Paul put it, "dung." Either way, I need those constant blowings of His Spirit through mine, ridding me of the dust that clogs my heart and mind. In your heart, you know you do too.

It's so easy as we journey through to pick up a great deal of "traveling dirt." We can get used to it and come not to even be bothered by it. We just accept it as part of the walk. Green didn't know such a sentiment and wrote in this song, Separate me from this world Lord, sanctify my heart for You. Daily change me to Your image. Help me bear good fruit.

We don't hear much of the word "sanctify" in the church these days and we understand it even less. Do we even want to? I get that the church needs to speak to the world in language they can grasp, but that doesn't bring inner transformation when we are nothing more than outwardly clean versions of themselves. I've a quote in my prayer journal from an unknown source that says, "The world doesn't need a religious version of itself." It doesn't. It needs a holy one, walking and ministering in His Holy Spirit power, bearing good fruit and more, being the portrait of Christ to a world desperate for Him. We can't when the dust of this world has become so thick in us as to render us powerless. We need the rushing wind. We need it now.

The rushing wind Green speaks of is the wind that came upon the church at Pentecost as related in the second chapter of Acts. Every year churches commemorate Pentecost Sunday without really knowing or experiencing its reality. It's deteriorated into little more than a tired remembrance of what once was instead of a celebration of what it is in us right now. It reminds me of the picture of a powerful locomotive from years gone by and now sitting in a museum. It looks powerful and it has all the equipment that can make it run powerfully, but it lacks one vital thing: there is no fire fueling the engine. It's only a shadow of what is meant to be. So too is much of the professing church these days. We need the fresh wind of His Spirit restoring His Holy fire within us and His church. Blowing out all the dust within.

One more line of the son; Jesus, You're the One who set my spirit free. Use me Lord. Glorify Your name through me. We may know He's the One, but has He set our spirit, your spirit, free? Can He really use us? Are we living dust free lives that bring glory to His name? That is what a sanctified, set apart, filled with His Spirit life is all about. Is it what our life is all about? The winds are blowing. Will they blow through us?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Bush Dwellers

 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8

....."We will not emerge from behind our chosen bushes until we admit we are hiding. We can become very attached to our bushes." Dudley Hall

The need for transparency in the church is a deep one, yet transparency may be the most lacking trait in the people of God, including those who are His preachers. It's ingrained in us and it started with our "parents," Adam and Eve. Perhaps the greatest reason we are not is a mixture of two elements, pride and shame. Pride, because it is so hard for us to admit to anyone else that we've failed, don't have it altogether, and are just as imperfect, even moreso, than they are. Shame, because we condemn ourselves, with the enemy's help, that we failed, sinned, and fell short of what we believed He wanted for us, and we wanted as well. We see both elements in the actions of Adam and Eve. Their first response was to hide. To "hide" from each other by the use of the leaves to cover their nakedness, and then to seek to hide from their Father when He came to talk with them. They didn't want to come out from the bushes. We rarely do. As Hall said, we get very attached to them. Many of us have spent years hiding in them. I did.

Someone told me just this morning that they appreciated my transparency in my writings. I told them I could be so because the Lord allowed all the bushes I'd spent so much time hiding behind to die. My failures, real or imagined, were put on display for all to see. I told them that after going through the humiliation of it all, there was little I could do to keep hiding. In the end, it was a blessing. A painful blessing, but a blessing nonetheless.

What I'm talking about in this was what I walked through in the collapse of my marriage and the temporary loss of my ministry. My marriage had been steadily deteriorating almost from the beginning of my ministry. I knew that it was, and sought help through prayer, counseling, and so on, but I was paralyzed with fear that anyone should know how bad it was. I exhausted myself trying to keep the secret, and the mask I wore got more and more difficult to wear. In the end, everything collapsed upon me. My church, not just local, but district wide, saw the ruin. Added to that was that I was accused of behaviors that I was never guilty of, but at the time couldn't disprove. All I could do was trust Him for His vindication, and He did vindicate me, but in the meantime, just about everything was out in the open. My pride, my mask, my bush, no longer hid anything....and I was ashamed. Yet, He did turn the horror of this time to blessing. He restored my ministry, and my honor. And He showed me that I no longer needed to live in the bushes.

I'm not saying that we need to be open with everyone about everything. I am saying that we need to have trusted people in our lives that we can be transparent with. I'm also saying that we need to find true freedom from the fear of being "found out." God knew where in the bushes Adam and Eve were, and He knows where we are as well. He not only wants us to come out, but I believe He wants us to share with all those still hiding in their own bushes how they too can come out from them. Bush dwellers no more.

May we find freedom from the bondage of the bushes and the pride and shame that have kept us there. We were never fooling anyone anyway. They say that sharing the Gospel is a matter of one beggar telling another where to find bread. So too is it one of former bush dwellers telling current ones how to come out and be free. Let's leave the bushes and enter into His broad place of freedom.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Altars

 We've all experienced how near and dear the Lord is to us in our mountaintop spiritual experiences, but how distant from us He may seem in our everyday valleys. The reality is that life, especially our spiritual life, is often a lot more about living in the valleys than it is about living on the mountaintops. But our intimacy with Him need not be affected by this reality...but too often, it is.

I think we've tied our relationship with Him to what He is and isn't doing in our lives. When His actions bring blessing and the reception of what we've asked for, we feel close to Him. Loved, accepted, BLESSED! But when He leads us out into the desert and all those outward things can be stripped away, we start to question His love and care. We don't feel blessed at all. We suspect that He's let us down, forgotten us...failed us. He's shown us a way past all this, but like so much of what He's shown us, we tend not to see it.

Many today disregard the Old Testament as not relevant to the new relationship we have in Christ as shown in the New. We do ourselves great harm in that. In Exodus 20:24, He commands the people to, "Build altars in the places where I remind you who I am, and I will come and bless you there." Altars signify and number of things; consecration, sanctification, but above all, a place of worship. A place where we can truly meet with Him. God knew what desert times lay ahead for the Israelites. All the challenges and all the time spent in dry, waterless places. He knows the same about you and me. He never promised that we wouldn't know such times. If we're truly following Him, He promises that we will. What He spoke to them, He speaks to us as well. Remember who He is, what He's done. Worship Him, and in your worship, you will encounter Him. Worship Him not as a Sunday thing, or even a devotional time thing. Worship Him as your way of life. Worship Him, as Christ said, "In spirit and in truth." Even in the most barren places of life, He will send reminders of who He is, and sometimes in the most miraculous of ways. Our degree of experiencing this will depend upon whether we see "worship" as something we do, or go to, instead of it being what gives and sustains our lives. 

The altar is becoming a lost place in the church today, and I don't mean whether we do or do not have one in the church sanctuary. The altar, His altar, is where He calls us to live, with His presence always before us. When this is our life, worship becomes our moment by moment breath. We inhale and exhale the atmosphere of heaven, even in the most mundane and barren places. What's going on within us is greater and more real than whatever might be going on around us. 

This is the life He calls us to. It's the life I want to live. Do you? Building altars all along our way of life....all pointing to Him in worship. Experiencing Him moment by moment as He comes and blesses us there. Blessing us not with the things He gives, but with the new life, the new wine He pours into us moment by moment and day by day. This is the life, the victory that overcomes the world, every desert, and all enemies. He has commanded us to build these altars. When's the last time we did? When's the last time you did?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Limitations

 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:6

I've been mulling something I heard a woman named Sarah Hagerty speak of for several days now. She was talking of the tension that can exist between a Christ follower believing there are no limitations in living out what He has called us to and the reality that in our human condition, there really are stark limits that we live under. Grasping this and living in the full faith and hope that we have in Him while grappling with the very real limitations that can take place in our lives is one of our great faith challenges. God does allow things that do place limitations on what we can do and be. Coming to grips with that determines whether we will live as victors, or victims.

Clint Eastwood's iconic character, Harry Callahan said, "A man's got to know his limitations." None of us, man or woman, really likes to think in such terms. We want to believe in a life with no limits in Him, which makes it very hard to deal with the many limitations He allows entry into our lives. We have dreams, desires, even visions of that which we want to do and be in His Kingdom. And then circumstances enter in. Circumstances, limitations, that He allowed, that He could have prevented, but didn't. We wanted a life partner to enter into the dream with, but He never gave one. We wanted children to enjoy and love along the journey's way, but they weren't given, or worse, were given but lost. We wanted a wide vista of ministry opportunity, but instead, He placed us where we seem to be forgotten, unseen, and unknown. Where we are is not where we ever thought we'd be. What we're doing is something we never thought we'd be doing. Why? How? How could this be His will for us? How could He let this be?

We're in good company here. Job. Joseph. David. The apostles Paul and John. They all found themselves in places where the dream had died. Where they had severe limitations upon them and on every level. They had the same questions we do. I feel sure that all of them went through the process Hagerty described as I listened to her speak. You may be going through it right now. If you're not, the time will come when you will.

Hagerty said that in life, we will come to the place of death. The place where a dream, a desire, a loved one, a ministry, has died. The trauma that hits us is intense. It leaves us reeling. We are confronted with the fact of suffering coming to those that He loves with an infinite love, and what is happening to us doesn't seem like His love at all. 

From there, we enter into the next place, and that's the place of grief and suffering. We would never go to the place willingly, but if we enter in, we will discover His beauty there. We'll discover Him. Hagerty says that in this place, He comes and He enters into our suffering and grief. He grieves with us. This is a concept we struggle to accept. We see Him as standing apart in our pain. He doesn't. He enters into it with us. As we grieve and sorrow, so does He. We cling to Him as He clings to us. However long He must stay, He does. And then He leads us out.

This takes us into the last stage, resurrection. All that we learned of Him in the grief, in the suffering, in the loss, is now added unto our lives and we are now equipped to minister His life to those who come after us. He comes to others through us. We can be His vessels now in ways we never could before. All our losses and limitations, painful as they were, have revealed to us a Jesus we never knew as we do now. What we suffered in the "death" has yielded a life beyond limits. Our limitations brought about unlimited and abundant life in Him.

God uses our grief and our suffering to do His works of life in us. Hagerty spoke of our "grieving well." She writes "Jesus says, 'Come to Me with your ache.' Many of us have years of splinters we never brought to Him, and we wonder why hope is lost? Hope is never lost." In our grief, He does His deep work of healing and restoration. He not only heals the wounding of the immediate loss but if we will have it, He will remove all those splinters, causing all those small but ever bleeding wounds. The place of our pain becomes our gateway to the fullness of His life. We enter into our inheritance. The limitations He allowed and allows will lead us to experience an unlimited Savior. Our lives will experience the trauma and pain, the Friday and Saturday of pain, loss, and suffering, but so too, if we will trust Him, we will behold the Sunday that follows. Take hope. Take heart. Sunday has come!

Blessings,
Pastor O