Trying Or Trusting?

 In His book, In Pursuit Of His Glory, Gerald Fry writes of the difference between trying and trusting. He says, "Believe me, it's the difference between heaven and hell." He says that each of us must come to a place of surrender where we say, "Lord, I cannot do it, therefore I'll no longer try to do it." This is the place of consecration, where we really place all things into His hands. It's a decision for life and a decision for each day. Have you made this decision, or are you still trying?

In Mark 9:23-24, Jesus tells the father of a demon possessed boy that, "Anything is possible if a person believes." The father, struggling to do that, says, "I do believe. Help me in my unbelief." How like him are you and I in our life matters that require the deepest trust? Those things that are precious to us; marriages,  relationships, children, futures, finances, ministries. All that makes up our lives. We do trust Him, but we also can't let go. Pastor Mark Buchanan says that we tend to trust to a degree....and then we don't. We just can't let go. Somehow, we feel that if we're given enough time, we'll figure a way through or out. We'll work with and manipulate the circumstances and people involved to bring about the result we're looking for. We feel if we just have enough time, but time is running out, or already has. In my prayer journal, in response to Fry's words, I've written, "I know I can't. Help me to put all my trust in Your, 'I can!' " 

The father of the demon possessed boy pleaded with Jesus. "Do something, if You can." Jesus, in effect told the father, "I can." Here was the father's struggle. He'd been trying to find deliverance for so long. Could he stop trying now? Could he trust? Could he believe? Can we? Where in our lives have we been mightily trying....and failing? Trying to straighten what's crooked? Repair what's broken? Make right what's wrong? Yes, there are definite steps we can take in this, but the response of people or circumstances, and the dealing with the impossibilities involved, is not in our hands, but His. They have to be given over to Him. We must cease trying and simply trust. 

Today, where are you trying but not really trusting? Your answers are found in where the stress, anxiety, and fear is found in your life. The father believed, but desperately desired help in where he struggled to believe....and trust. Jesus took his despair and defeat and turned it into joy and victory. He gave his son back to him whole and free. Can you bring that thing, that situation where you've been trying so hard, to Him, and then trust Him? Will you say at last, "I can't do it anymore. I won't try to. I put my trust in Your 'I can?' " We can't. Jesus can. This is truth. This is freedom.

Blessings,

Pastor O

When Jesus Dies

 Pastor and author Erwin McManus asks a penetrating question; "What do you do when Jesus dies right before your eyes?" All four of the gospels relate in some way the response of the disciples when Christ was killed. They fled. They hid. They prepared to go back to the life they had lived before knowing Jesus. They had invested all in Him and He was gone. What else was there for them to do?

If we profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ we believe that He has risen from the dead, that He's alive. What happens though when, in the midst of our following Him wholeheartedly, He "dies," and right before our eyes? Think about this question. You have a deep sense of the rightness of your path and of your being in His will. Your life, ministry, marriage, and livelihood. Or you've made a major life change, fully believing He is leading you. You're convinced of the rightness of the path and His call to you. He's been leading you step by step with a real and powerful presence. And then....suddenly, everything collapses around you. You can't sense His presence, He seems totally absent. He has "died," and right before your eyes. What do you do when the dream dies, when visible hope dies. Do we, like the disciples, have an overwhelming urge to flee? To hide? To go back to what we came from and out of?

I began to follow Him in August of 1979. He led me from a life that was all I'd ever known to a distant Bible College sitting at the foothills of the Rockies. Then, into a marriage I was sure was from Him and into a ministry assignment I was sure was His will in West Texas. There were difficulties, mistakes, and failures along the way, but there was no doubt that He still went before me, leading me to a ministry in a small town in Virginia.Then, in August 1989, almost exactly 10 years from when it all began, everything collapsed. My marriage failed, and soon after, my ministry was lost. Nothing was as it had been. Where was my Lord? My Jesus, so real and alive before, had "died" before my eyes. I now knew what must have been in the hearts of His disciples 2000 years before. I had countless questions but no answers. Yet in it was a ray of great hope. God is not put off by our questions. As McManus states, "Your questions will lead you to God." 

The Gospels relate the death of Jesus and the disciples' reaction. They also relate what followed. Jesus, risen and alive, appeared again and again. Like Thomas, they all had questions and even doubts. He may not have answered all as they had hoped but He did give them one indisputable truth. He was not dead. He was alive and still with them. He would continue to be with them all along their way. Where one dream had ended, another had begun. This is what I discovered in my own life and it's what I continue to discover.

That August of 1989 was not the last time I would experience the seeming death of Jesus in the midst of my following Him. But, and this is the victory that overcomes, neither was it the last time that I would experience His sudden appearance in the midst of all that seemed lost, giving new hope, a new dream, and a new life.He restored the years the locust had eaten. He continues to do so. Questions always arise, but I have found, as McManus says, they lead me to Him. 

Has Jesus died before you in some way? Have you deep, heart wrenching questions? Ask them, and without fear, for they will lead you to Him. The Jesus who still lives. Who will always live.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Home

 The late 60's and early 70's were a time of upheaval in America. I know. I was there. Morals and values that had been ingrained in the culture were being challenged and in many places, overthrown. Rebellion was a favorite word and activity. I know. I was a part of it. In the midst of all of it was something that seemed totally out of place and one would think would be ridiculed by most. Yet it wasn't. I'm speaking of a TV program called "The Waltons," about a 1930's depression era family living in Virginia. It centered on family, home, integrity, and very traditional values. Somehow, it became a hit series, and was so even among those who were railing against those very things.

At that time, I was in college, living in a notorious place known as the Edinboro Hotel. Every room was occupied by long haired, drug and alcohol partiers and counterculture wannabes. I had friends there that went by the names of Nutso, Monkee, and the Shark. We lived above the only bar in town but on many a Saturday night, the manager had to send notice to us that we were making too much noise. The crowd in the bar couldn't hear themselves. We called ourselves The Sewer Rat Mob, and we sought to live up to our name. Yet in all of it, there was something going on that would make no sense to those who knew us. On the night that it came on, almost all of us would gather, usually under the influence of some substance, and watch the Waltons. We loved a show that depicted a life none of us claimed to want. A show built upon love, safety, and the wonder of a real home.

I didn't think of it then, but I do now. In all of us is a desire and longing for home. A real home. The home we were created for. The home found only in the Father's heart. A home reached only through His Son, Jesus Christ. God speaks to this longing in Zephaniah 3:18-20, "I will gather you who mourn....I will save the weak and helpless ones; I will bring together those who were chased away....On that day, I will gather you together and bring you home again." 

Home. The place we've been looking for all our lives. It can never be found here though we seek it with desperation. Only through Christ can we enter into it. Abraham, father of the Jewish people, knew this. Hebrews 11:10 says, "He went out confidently looking for a city with eternal foundations, whose maker and builder was God." He found it in the heart of the Father.

In the midst of my rebellion my heart was longing for home. How I was living just took me further and further away. For my friends and me, the closest we could get was a nostalgic TV program. Yet, all the time, that home we longed for was standing before us in the Person of Jesus Christ. It took me five more long and painful years before my eyes were opened to "see" Him. I finally came home to Him. Have you? Will you? Wherever you are, no matter where that is, if you are without Him, you're wandering, homeless, yet searching for home. Are you ready for the search to be over, for Him to bring you home? Reach out to the One who is always reaching for you. Come home...to Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Cross

 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24....."We must do one of two things about the cross; flee it, or die upon it." A.W. Tozer

Tozer speaks some hard words, but Jesus speaks even harder ones. Both speak as to what makes up Christ's invitation to come and follow Him. It makes me wonder, what's involved in the invitations we give when encouraging someone to come to Jesus Christ? Just what kind of a relationship do we invite them to? Does it bear any resemblance to His invitation? In our particular fellowships, when people are called to come to Him, does the centrality of His cross ever come up? Is there really a cross in our walk with Him?

Jesus drew great crowds in His ministry. People loved the good bread and fish He gave out. They loved His miraculous healings and the wonders He performed. They followed Him wherever He went, but when He told them in John 6 that they must surrender all of themselves to Him and His Lordship, the crowds left. Not long after, the crowds that cheered Him were screaming for Him to be crucified. And He was. He went to His cross and He died there. It was His mission from the beginning. Yet His death led to His resurrection and this unleashed the power of His risen life to all who would come to Him. We all want that kind of life, but not many of us desire the cross we must also die on that comes with it. His resurrection life is only ours by way of His cross. 

I think we hear so little of His cross because of the truth of Tozer's words. Those who would follow Him must do something with the cross and there can only be one of two responses. We will either flee from it or embrace it and die upon it. Paul said He had been crucified with Christ and that it was no longer he who lived but Christ lived in Him and through Him. Paul was completely Christ's. His will was to do Christ's will. He had died to himself so that he could live fully for Him. Paul understood what was involved in the Lord's call to follow Him. We must as well. To truly be His disciple and follow Him, we must do business with His cross. Everything that constitutes life is nailed to it. Hopes, dreams, past, present, and future. Every desire and attitude is nailed to the cross. That's all involved in the invitation. Have we accepted it? Do we proclaim it?

As Tozer said, we must do something with the cross. Flee it or die upon it. Lloyd Ogilvie said one of his theology professors once confronted him about his commitment to Christ. He said to him, "You cannot sneak around Golgotha." Golgotha was the place where Christ was crucified and died. Many of us are trying to sneak around, flee from the cross that is there. Too few of us are willing to die there. Which marks your life and mine today? Do we flee our cross, or do we die upon it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The City

 Many things spoken and written by blind writer and speaker Jennifer Rothschild have ministered to me. What she relates here does. 

After losing her sight as a teenager, she began to be instructed in the use of a cane. She said she had to learn to live, not by what she couldn't see, but by what the cane told her was there. In the same sense, we need to learn to live not by what we feel or fear, but by what He says. By what He says is there. What is there is Himself. His total faithfulness and His abiding presence. This is the walk of faith.

In Hebrews 11:8, it says of Abraham, father of the Jewish nation, "By faith, Abraham when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place, which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going." I began my walk with Him in 1979. I thought I knew where I was going, but I had no clue. He kept leading me to places that I never thought I'd be. Physically for sure, but even more so in the realm of the Spirit. Too often, I wanted to stay in the realm of the known, but He kept calling me, leading me into the unknown. I didn't always go easily, but He continued to call, to lead, and to invite me into my own inheritance. To trust not in what I think may be there or even see that is there, but in what He says is there. Himself. His life. The land that He has for me. This call doesn't stop with age and it will not stop in death. The path He leads us on stretches into eternity, and though I've never "seen" that place, He tells me it's there. The fullness of my inheritance lies there but I can begin to live in that inheritance now. So too can we all.

Today we may be feeling like Rothschild must have when she was being taught the use of the cane. Our world may have been turned upside down, with circumstances, needs, and challenges that have rendered us, in a sense, blind. We can't "see" what to do next, but His call to us is to not live afraid of what we cannot see, but by what He says is. He IS, and He always will be. We may not know where we're going, but we know that we're going with Him. Faith is knowing that we're always going onward with Him.

Hebrews 11:10 says that Abraham was "looking for the city which has foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God." This is our destination as well. We are born with a yearning for it. We'll never find its fullness here, but here is where the journey starts. All along the way there will be places where we'll be "walking blind," except that we won't be blind at all. He's with us, leading us along. Our having to know all the details doesn't matter. He knows. He'll lead us into His city, to our inheritance. Designed and built by the Father, led there by His Holy Spirit, Home at last.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Baggage

 Anyone who's ever flown knows the ritual of checking your baggage at the flight counter. Since 9/11 this has gotten to be a very intrusive process as our bags are now opened and searched. I know few people who like this as it makes us feel our privacy is being violated. All of this puts me in mind of a spiritual reality.

All of us who have experienced life in this fallen world have accumulated "baggage" that we take with us wherever we go. This baggage can not only be cumbersome, but dangerous. To us, and to those we come into contact with.....and to those we love.

Sheila Walsh asks the question, "What would it look like right now if all your baggage became visible?" Few of us would care for that. Just as we don't like the idea of unknown agents rooting through our private things, so too do we not want the eyes of others seeing the invisible but very real emotional, mental, and spiritual "baggage" that we carry. Even if that someone is God. In fact, we can go to very great lengths to try and hide it from Him. Denial is usually our favorite means. Yet God, in His goodness and love is willing to violate all our privacy, or more correctly, secrecy, in order to bring it to light. Believe it or not, the means He uses to do so bears some resemblance to our airport experiences.

Our baggage can be very toxic. He knows this. If we're going to journey forward in Him, we will need to submit our baggage, check it if you will, at His "counter." His counter is His altar. We bring our baggage to His altar and we place it, all of it, in His hands. As He opens it up, He examines each "piece," and with His handling of it, heals and cleanses it. Wounds, failures, bitter experiences, disappointments, broken dreams, these and so many more are found to varying degrees in our bags. We carry these wherever we go, and  continuing to hide them only makes them heavier and more burdensome as we go. In truth, because of our baggage and the harm it does, we never really make progress in our journey. Our baggage blocks the way.

What's the extent of your baggage and mine? What has it cost you and what does it continue to cost you? Scripture tells us that everything about us is laid bare before His eyes. He knows what's hidden and He wishes to bring it to His light. Our flesh will see this as a violation, but in truth, it is His healing. Too many of us are "stranded at the airport." We're not moving in the direction He has for us. It's a baggage problem. How deep a problem is it for you? How weary are you of carrying it everywhere you go but always trying to conceal it from everyone around you? Jesus calls you to His altar of surrender. Release it all into His hands. Be healed, be whole, be free.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Bars

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philppians 3:13-14

Paul's above exhortation from Philippians is a powerful and true one. Why then is it so hard for us to do? To live out?

In my prayer journal I have a question asked by author and speaker Christine Caine. She asks, "Are we looking at life through the prison bars of the past? The Word of God comes to us, but we hear it through the bars." Obviously then, we can't live out this verse by sheer will power or by positive thinking. It takes the renewing work of His Holy Spirit. The renewing of our minds and even our memories. Not a wiping clean of the slate, but a breaking of those very bars from yesterday that diffuse the power of His Word in our lives and distort the face of Jesus. The prison bars consist of lies planted by the enemy. Lies that tell us that we're still subject to the things that have happened to us, and even more, that tell us we're the same person we were when these things took place. The prison bars keep us from taking hold of His truth that we are new creations in Christ, that all things are new. The old has passed, the new, in Christ, has come. This is what happens in the heart of every believer when He comes to Christ. Our great problem is that it can take time for that message of truth to reach our minds and our patterns of thinking. Especially as concerns how we see ourselves.

We live in a fallen world, polluted by sin. We're born into it and the pollution fills every corner of our being. We're powerless to change that, which is why we desperately needed the One who has all power, Jesus Christ. He breaks the power of that sin pollution in our lives but we have to step into the freedom that comes to us through faith in Him. Too many of us never do. Too many of us live like prisoners of war in a war that has already been won at the cross of Christ.

The Israelites spent 400 years as slaves in Egypt. God broke their slavery and led them out, but they never seemed to fully escape their slave mentality. Neither do so many of us. The Israelites kept hearing Him through the bars of their slavery. They couldn't fully grasp that they were free. Have you?

If you're seeing your life and His promises through prison bars, I encourage you to first confess that to Him and then ask Him to fill your mind with the truth of His Word and have those bars disintegrate before you. They disintegrate when the truth of His Word and promises lays hold of both your heart and your mind. Someone said that the truth of His Word dissolves the shackles that keep us prisoner. The shackles and the bars as well. Be free of a life that only sees through the enemies bars. Embrace His truth. Embrace Him. See everything clearly. See Him!

Blessings,

Pastor O 

What Remains

 "And be sure of this; I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 11:20

You cannot go through life, even as a believer, and not suffer loss. Sometimes devastating loss. Losses can traumatize, paralyze, and cripple us. Losses can hold us captive. They can form prison cells that we never leave. Yet, as one person put it, we can get past what we cannot get over.

In my prayer journal I have written down an exhortation from a source I cannot remember. It says in essence that in the midst of loss, even deeply painful loss, we must not be trapped in focusing on what we've lost, but must focus instead on what remains.

I think I have the "right" to speak on this as one who has suffered a great deal of loss in my journey with Him. All of it was painful, but not all of it was bad. Some things in our life need to go, to be removed. That's part of the journey of faith. However, there are other losses that seem to make no sense. Things that are cherished. The death of loved ones. Of professions and ministries. Of marriages and relationships. The pain can be crushing. We must grieve them, but we cannot be held prisoner by them. Too often, we are. I know. I was.

Perhaps one of the most crippling losses I suffered was in my ministry. I planted a church in 1992, and the first years were exhilarating, with growth and excitement. I had labored hard, but it was not my labor but His that brought it about. I was rejoicing in my ministry. Then, in 1995, it all began to change. I was in a highly transient area. Many of my people, very good people, were being transferred and moving to other places, and it was happening all at once. I had been harboring dreams of an ever expanding ministry, reaching more and more people. Now it all seemed to be crashing down, and I couldn't understand why. Why would the Lord, who had engineered it all, now allow all of this? I sank into a kind of despair, and I couldn't get my mind and heart off of what I'd lost. It lasted for nearly two years. Then the Lord confronted me with that quote from above. I was mourning what was gone, but I had no joy in what remained. I mourned the lost blessings but was oblivious to the blessings that remained.

What remained was a core of people dedicated to Him, to His church, and to my leadership. Yet, I had not seen this and I lacked gratitude for it. Worst of all, I realized that my despondency likely caused me to miss blessings that He had for me but that had gone unnoticed. With that, I began to heal over the losses and once more have hope over the future.

As I said, we will experience loss. It will be painful. Take the time to grieve, but don't end up living there. Rejoice in what remains. Rejoice that the greatest truth of what remains is that He, Jesus Christ, remains.

The wine only appears to be gone. His best wine is yet to come. Press on.

Blessings,
Pastor O 

God Permits

 Joni Eareckson Tada is truly a hero of the faith. Paralyzed as a teenager in a diving accident, she has spent the last 56 years in a wheelchair with a body that experiences many periods of great pain. Through it all, she has displayed a faith in Him that has ministered to all who suffer and ask why. Her life of trust in her Lord gives a powerful witness. Observing it, one would think she has always been so, but they would be wrong.

I heard Tada speak of her life before the accident. She was a believer, but one who struggled to live a life of obedience. She knew she wasn't living out what she professed to believe. In her struggles, she came to the place of telling Him that she could not live out a life of faithfulness in her own strength. She cried out to Him and His Spirit whispered Psalm 62:8; "O my people, trust in Him at all times." She claimed it as a life promise. The accident that devastated her life happened only a few weeks later.

In those first months in the hospital, she went through all the emotions and thoughts that we all would. Anger, bitterness, and questions. Why did it happen? What had He allowed it? Where was He? In the midst of it, believing friends surrounded and ministered to her. Their intimacy and faith impacted her deeply, especially that of one young man in particular.

In their conversations and amidst her questions, he shared something he had read. "God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves." He used as the prime example that of the Father giving His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us that we might have eternal life and salvation through faith in Him. The Father hated what Jesus went through to accomplish this but He loved what the fruit of that terrible sacrifice would be. Tada contemplated in her heart what her friend had said. His Spirit brought her back to her claiming of Psalm 62:8, that He called her to trust Him at all times. She asked Him, "Lord, even at this time?" He whispered, "Yes, even now." She prayed, "Lord, I have nowhere else to go. You have the words of life. Show me how to live." She then related, "For the best 56 years, He's been showing me how to live...and  how to trust Him."

There is no joy for Him in our suffering, but if He has permitted it, it is because He means to accomplish something beautiful in and through us. Tada has been used of Him to reach millions who never would have been reached apart from her accident. She has also become someone she would never have become apart from it. Suffering is real, but He is more real. Jennifer Rothschild, who lost her sight at age 15 said, "Today is short. Eternity is long." We live in a fallen world and we will experience sorrow. It isn't fair and it isn't how it was meant to be, but if we will trust Him, look to Him, even in the midst of the deepest suffering, He will show us how to live and how to trust Him more deeply by the day. Let Him accomplish His beauty in the midst of your pain. He will, and the most beautiful work of all will be what He does in and through you. That's a promise.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Starving God

 Are you starving God? I know that's an odd question, but it came to me as I was reading in Numbers yesterday. (No, it's not my favorite OT book either.) In 28:2, God tells Moses, "Give these instructions to the people of Israel. The offerings you present to Me by fire on the altar are My food, and they are very pleasing to Me." I know that this is the Old Testament and that we no longer perform this daily ritual, at least not literally. Yet, we do, even in the New Covenant, bring Him our offerings. Romans 12:1 calling us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice bears that out. We don't bring daily offerings of meat and grain to be burned upon His altar, but we do bring the offering of ourselves and all that we are and do, and they are still to be burned up upon His altar. Our God is a consuming fire. And they are still very pleasing to Him. Unless they're not.

In the Old Covenant before Christ, these offerings were a part of life, and symbolized the dedication and surrender of the people. That was the time of the Law and we now live under and in His grace. But that doesn't mean we have ceased to be called to bring Him our choice offerings, and what could be more "choice" than our own lives? Lives that we bring to His altar each day. Lives filled with needs, choices, desires, ambitions, and challenges. Lives that His Word tells us are not our own, but His. Lives brought to Him, surrendered to Him, and yielded to His holy consuming fire. Fire that may, and often does, burn up something that may be very precious to us.

In the midst of any day or week we're likely to be wrestling with something. Maybe many things. Marriage, family, work, finances, relationships, ministries. A host of circumstances and choices. What do we do with them? Do we continue to wrestle with them, or do we at the first, bring them to Him as an offering? Placing them on His altar, in surrender, to Him and to His fire. Before you answer, let me say you won't be able to without first bringing Him the ultimate offering....yourself. Until you have, placing your self life on His altar, allowing Him to consume you along with all your desires, hopes, and plans, you'll never be able to bring all these other things related to your life. You may have your daily "devotions," but it will mainly be a ritual, which is what this daily offering became in the life of Israel. The reality of what it represented was lost to the nation, and because of that, they were overcome time and again by their enemies. So too will we be when our offerings to Him are more ritual than reality. The Israelites just went through the motions. Are we guilty of the same? 

So I get back to my original question. If our offerings are His food, do they leave Him hungry? Is what we offer Him in the end, not only tasteless but useless? What do we really bring to His altar, and in the end, what do we really leave there? As we live before Him, is He starving?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Oasis

 I know I've written this before, but it bears repeating....a lot. There's a huge difference between knowing about Him and actually experiencing Him. Experiencing intimacy, power, victory, healing, and His abundant life. He has for those who believe upon Him, a "promised land," just as He did for the Israelites who He delivered from their slavery in Egypt. The unbelief of Israel delayed their taking possession of that land by 40 years. What keeps us from ours? I'll put forth three reasons: First, we have little understanding of what it is He promises us in Jesus Christ. The second is plain and simple, fear. The last is our tendency to settle for His good rather than laying hold of His best.

During the Israelites wandering in the desert, they came upon a place called Kadesh-Barnea. It was an oasis and a very refreshing change from the dreariness of the desert in which they'd been traveling. They were renewed and refreshed there. It was a good place and they wanted to stay. That was the problem. This good place was not His best place. It was not His place for them. It's not His place for you.

In the wilderness places of our lives, how often has He brought us to a Kadesh-Barnea, a place of refreshment in the midst of our journey? A place where we want to stay. We have been walking through places that He meant to use to shape and grow us in our walk with Him. Places meant to take us deeper into His life and heart. In His goodness He does bring times of refreshing and renewal, but those places are not meant to be our destination, but we fall in love with His blessings there. We want to live in that blessing. We don't want to leave. He has so much for us than this, but we can't see it. We love the good place and our hearts cease yearning for His best. 

Might you be living in Kadesh-Barnea right now? You've gone through some hard places and in His love and goodness, He's led you to a place of refreshing and renewing. It's a welcome oasis but you've fallen in love with it. You don't realize that it pales in comparison to the land of His promise. We can praise Him for those "oasis" places He gives us, but they are only temporary stops. We're not meant to live there. Kadesh-Barnea was not the promised land. We'll never know the wonder of the fullness of His promise if we stay there. The good will always be a poor substitute for His best. 

With the Father, His best is always yet to come. In John 2, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, the chief steward remarked in amazement, "Usually the host serves the best wine first...then when everyone is full and doesn't care, he brings out the less expensive wines. But You have saved the best until now." Kadesh-Barnea was not His best. Not for Israel, and not for you. Don't get stuck there. Your oasis is still surrounded by desert. Move out. Follow hard after Him. There's a land to be won, settled, and lived in. The promised land. His best...for you...and for me too.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Caves

 I Kings 19 tells the story of the prophet Elijah when, at a low point in his life, he sought to hide himself in a cave. God, as is His way, came to him there and asked, not once but twice, "What are you doing here Elijah?" Caves seem to be the place where we most often go in the midst of discouragement, heartache, loss, and failure. I've a lot of experience with them myself.

In my 20's I entered into a lifestyle of drug use. I spent most of my time high on something and was always seeking better and longer lasting highs. I started with marijuana but moved on to hash, mescaline, speed, and downers. I eventually discovered what I thought the best of all; cocaine. Yet the highs always left me the same way, disenchanted with my life and feeling isolated and hopeless. My own personal cave.

Then God, who never ceases His pursuit, brought an old friend and fellow partaker into my life. I thought he'd have some good dope to share. Instead, He shared with me about Jesus Christ. He told me of what He had done in his life and the promise of what He could do in mine. I disregarded his words at that time, but I couldn't get away from the transformation I saw in him. Neither could I get away from Christ Himself. I ran from Him, going deeper into my hopelessness and deeper into my cave, but He continued to haunt me. 

The cave had become my home but through events and circumstances woven together by Him, His pursuit continued. On a Sunday evening in August of 1979, in the dining room of the home I grew up in, He asked me a form of the same question put to Elijah. What was I doing here? Why would I stay here? That evening, I yielded to Him, came out of the cave, and was free. In the place where darkness and death had reigned, life and light came bursting in.

All things became new. The drug use ceased. I started attending church with my friend. I entered into His life with a whole heart and all went well for several months. Then one night, feeling discouraged and weary, some other old friends came by with a bag of dope. Joints were lit and passed around. When it came to me, I took it and continued to do so as it made its way around the circle. The effects were immediate, but strangely, though I knew I'd been affected, I felt very removed from all of it. I then heard the voice of His Spirit whispering to me. He asked, "Is what you're experiencing now in any way like what you received when you first met Me?" I knew it was Him and could only say in my heart, "No Lord, It doesn't at all. There is nothing here for me." With that thought, I was instantly sober and clear headed. I walked away from that gathering and never looked back. He'd come to my cave, again, asked what I was doing there, and I could only answer, "Nothing of any value Lord." I left my cave anew and came back into the fullness of His life.

There have been other caves since then. Emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Hiding from Him because of discouragement, disappointment, bitterness, unforgiveness, or feelings of failure. The caves were always dark, but He always found me there, asking His familiar question; "What are you doing here?" and always I had to reply, "Nothing that brings me Your life Lord." There was nothing there that could bring me what I had in Him. No cave, no matter how comfortable we may make it, offers what can only be found in Him.

What cave might you be hiding in today? Have you been so long there that it feels like home? Be sure that to that cave He will come and His question will be asked; "What are you doing here?" With the question will come His offer of light, life, and freedom. Your choice will be to take His hand and come out, or to shrink back into the depths of the cave. What will you do? He calls you out. Will you come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Inheritance

 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.  Romans 8:17  "God wants us to have everything He has." Dudley Hall

One of the great tragedies in Jesus' story of The Prodigal Son is the son's squandering of his inheritance. He took his father's riches but had no real understanding or appreciation for how vast and wonderful those riches were. His father had meant for them to sustain and bless him throughout his life, but in his ignorance and self-destructive behavior, all of it ran through his hands like water. He ended up a pauper, in a pig pen, eating pig food. 

Paul spoke much of the riches we have in Jesus Christ. Peace, joy, hope, and infinitely more. Romans 8:17 points to that with a beauty and wonder that all eternity will be needed to even begin to comprehend its depth. Yet, have we even begun to comprehend it? Are we, who are His sons and daughters by faith in Christ, living more like the prodigal, squandering, wasting, and losing those riches by our neglect, our waywardness, and our selfish choices? 

In my prayer journal I have written the statement, "Father, may we not let our wonderful inheritance slip out of our hands." I fear too many of us are doing just that. We're squandering our inheritance in Him by our behaviors, our attitudes, and our lifestyles. We have an inheritance of riches in Him meant not to just enhance and bless our lives, but the lives of others as well. The value of that inheritance can't be measured, but like the prodigal who had no understanding of what it was his father had given him, we also are ignorant of what it is we have been given in Jesus Christ. So we live in ways that more often than not lead us to our own kind of pig pen, eating the same kind of pig food. Our inheritance in Him slips out of our hands, squandered. Yet there is hope.

A man or a woman may recklessly throw away their earthly fortune and inheritance and have it irrevocably lost. It does not have to be so with our heavenly one. It was in the pig pen that the prodigal came to understand what it was he had done and what he had lost. In the pig pen, his heart went back to the father he'd forgotten and the life he'd had with him. In his suffering, he remembered the one who loved him beyond words. He began his journey home, willing to be a hired man in his father's household. Humbled, he expected nothing, but his father, whose heart had been seeking his return all along, ran to him, embraced him, and dressed him in a beautiful robe. He was restored. 

We're not told as to just how the restoration unfolded for him, but clearly, the son was restored to the household and would have access to all his father's wealth. I feel very sure that never again did he squander a bit of it. Never again did any of it slip out of his hands. In the pain of his suffering he came to realize the depth of the riches he had lost. Oftentimes, most times, it takes the same for us.

If you're a son or daughter of the King, you have an inheritance in Christ. All that He has is made yours as well. Are you squandering it? Is it slipping through your fingers through ignorance, neglect, and sinful choices? If so, the pig pen and its food awaits. It needn't be so. He lavishes His riches. Don't waste or miss them. Walk in the blessing. Be a blessing.  Know the depth of the riches to be had in Christ the King.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Mighty

 I've a powerful verse to share today, one that I think we've barely scratched in understanding its truth. It has the power to transform and revolutionize our lives. It's likely one you've heard many times before, think you "know," but have never really sought Him in.

Henry Blackaby, speaking on the promises of God said, "If they are in your head only, they will not change anything in your life. They have to hit your heart." In Revelation 1:8, Jesus says of Himself, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I am the One who is, who always was, and is still to come, the Almighty One." You may have heard or read this verse many times. Has it hit your head but missed your heart?

We will never understand the fullness of this verse, this side of eternity and even into it, but I do believe there are three areas of its power that He means to open to us and for us to live in. The first is that He is the Almighty One, the One who is. The One who is greater, mightier, than anyone or anything that could ever come against us. There is no limit to His might and power. Whether we face crippling fear, loss, heartache, affliction, fiery trial, or overwhelming flood, HE IS GREATER! Today, everyday, in the midst of the deepest darkness, need, or danger, He is Lord over all of it.

Secondly, no matter what's happened or been done to us, and no matter what haunts us from our past, it is powerless against He who was and who has always been. We can take what has been, what has happened to He who is Lord over all our yesterdays and receive His healing, deliverance, and freedom. That which has marked our lives and doggedly followed us for years, even decades, is overcome by the One who not only forgives the past but cancels its power and tyranny over us. 

Last, there are some of us, perhaps many of us who face an ominous and terrifying future. The unknown can fill us with dread. So much in our marriages, families, livelihoods, and ministries may be very unsettled right now. Still, that which is yet to come must yield to Him who is still to come. The Almighty One as concerns are past and present will continue to be so in all of our tomorrows. Whatever our future may hold, we can rest in Him because the One who was mighty before, is mighty now, will be mighty then. He was so from the beginning, He is so now, and He will be so to the end. 

This is truth. Has it hit your heart? Do you "know" it's reality there? The book of Revelation is called a "mystery book," but the power and truth of this promise needn't be a mystery to us. He is Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end...to the end.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Debris

 Hosea 4:6 reads, "My people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge." True then, just as true, perhaps even more so now.

We have a distinct lack of knowledge about the things of God. His character, His ways, and His Word. Much of how we relate to Him, if we can even use that word, is through hearsay. Other people tell us about Him but we never seek Him in order to know if what we've heard is what is true. In a world of fast food and grocery store express lines, super high speed internet, and EZ pass toll booths, this is an easy path to take. We can get soundbites and tidbits about Him here and there. We may grab a verse in the morning and run with it, but in truth, we're running on empty....and it's destroying us. Another translation of Hosea 4:6 says, "My people are perishing (dying)" as a result of this lack. We are as well.

There are seemingly endless reasons for this, but I think a very apt one is found in 2 Kings 22. Josiah has become the king, following the godless reign of his grandfather Manasseh and his father Amon. The Temple, the center of His Presence, has fallen into disrepair and unuse. Josiah orders work to begin on its reconstruction. In the midst of this, the priests find the book of the Law, which had been hidden under much debris. It was brought to Josiah, who ordered it read to him.The Scripture he heard was from Deuteronomy 28, where God told the people of all the blessing that would be upon them if they would heed His word and will and follow Him, but all the misfortune and hardship that would be theirs if they refused.

This pierced the heart of Josiah, and he began to order his life before God and His words, he ordered the nation to do so as well. As a result, Josiah and the people were blessed. God's words, buried under all the debris, had been unleashed in the life of the king and the nation. The question for us is, how much debris covers and hides His Word from us and from our hearts and minds? How much has accumulated?

The debris of busyness, jobs, family, relationships, and our agendas, even the agenda of ministry. All of these cover and keep His Word and life from us, The witness of too much of the church is that we're being destroyed, perishing because of it. In the center of the life of the nation, the Temple, His Word lays hidden. No one, king, priests, or people knew that. They were unaware of His Words and worse, unaware of Him. How close to that reality are our lives, churches, and ministries? We miss His blessings for sure, but worst of all, we miss Him. 

Is it time for a restoration project in your life, your church, your ministry? Time to excavate that which has for too long been buried. Clear the debris that covers His word and presence. In the Bible, Satan is often called "The Destroyer." One his favorite weapons is using our own ignorance of the things and ways of God to destroy us. We overcome and destroy the Destroyer with His Truth. Let us clear away the rubble, raise up His Word, and cease perishing. Let us live....to the full!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Digging Wells

 "So Isaac moved to the Gerar Valley and lived there instead. He reopened the wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham's death." Genesis 26:17-18

God had given this land to Abraham, and he had dug wells upon it, sealing his permanent ownership. When he died, the Philistines filled them up. They no longer functioned as life-giving wells and were for all intents and purposes, forgotten, but not by God and not by Abraham's son, Isaac. They were never meant to cease their function.

I see a correlation with much of what has happened in the church. I believe that there are spiritual "wells" that need to be redug by the church. Wells that the Father never intended to be "filled in" and forgotten but nonetheless were. I want to share just a few that need to be reopened and in many areas of the church, are being reopened.

The first is the well of holiness. Holiness is a word many churches want to avoid. It brings negative feelings in people they say. Small wonder because the message of holiness is always bad news for anyone who wants to live in and rely upon their flesh. Holiness is not an exercise in legalistic rule keeping but rather an adventure into the heart and mind of the Father. Holiness is living in His purity, joy, peace, and goodness. It is living saturated in His love and loving as He loves. It is also a despising of sin in all of its forms while at the same time, loving those ones held captive by sin. There needs to be redigging of the well of holiness resulting in a fresh, powerful message of holy life and living.

Then there is the well of repentance. You can sit in a large number of churches in the west and never hear this word. Like holiness, it offends our fleshly pride. It means that we are walking on a path that is not of Him and indeed is leading us away from Him. Away from Christ. It is a path leading to destruction. Repentance is our admission that we have been living in the opposite direction in which Jesus Christ walks and lives. Repentance is a complete turning away and around from this path and joining Him on His. Repentance confesses we have been wrong and He is right. Our pride will always fight this and run from this, which is why so many churches tread so lightly here.

The last well is the well of supernatural power. Holy Spirit power. Someone once said that the church admits it is held together by His Holy Spirit while at the same time being terrified of the Person of the Holy Spirit. We have been afraid of the unleashed fullness of His Holy Spirit in our midst. So, we've crafted "worship" services that are far more oriented toward human control than the control of His Spirit. We grieve and suffocate His Holy Spirit and to our own great harm.

These are not the only wells we need to redig, just the ones on my heart today. We need to also redig the wells of generosity, compassion, faithfulness, and servanthood to name just a few. Is the fellowship of which you're a part redigging these? If not, would you dare to speak up and out about it? You may be alone at first. That's okay. Every well begins with someone putting their shovel into the ground. Be that one. I feel very sure that the Lord will soon surround you with others. The church is dying for the waters of these wells to spring up and give life once more.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Three Prayers

 I have three prayers in my journal inspired by the writings of Oswald Chambers and Watchman Nee. The first two are from Chambers, and the last from Nee. I pray them for myself, those in my church fellowship, and for you.

"Father, may You always be able to help Yourself to our lives." Think on what this prayer asks. It is more that just being available to Him. It is an invitation for Him to take any part of as well as the whole of our life. To do so at any time and in any way. No reservations and nothing held back. In season and out of season, or more directly, whether the time is right or convenient or not. It is the living out of the truth that we are not our own, but are His. Wholly, completely His. Can He do this with you and with me? Can He "help Himself" to us at even the most unexpected time? Or, have we set up boundaries and limitations upon Him? Are we really completely His?

"Father, expose the areas of our lives that 'shuffle their feet' in Your Light and Presence." Chambers gives the impression here of being very uncomfortable under the searching gaze of God. That's seen in the picture of one shuffling their feet while under His gaze, unable to be still before Him as He looks into our soul and heart. What areas of our lives do that very thing? Where, in the shining of His light upon our desires, motives, habits, attitudes, and behaviors does the shuffling exist? Are we willing to have them exposed and confronted by His Holy Spirit, or do we want to keep them hidden in the darker recesses of our lives? Are we willing to live out the Scripture found in Psalms to "Search me O Lord, and see if there be any hurtful, to myself, others, and to You, way within me." How welcome is His Light in our lives?

"May we live in such a way as to be a thorn in Satan's side." Satan is a master strategist. His unholy desire is to bring wreckage and death to the human race God loves and most especially to do so to His Church. The followers of Christ are to be those who in the power of His Holy Spirit stand against him. Are we living in such a way that our lives and fellowship thwart and hinder his plans and operations? Do we live in such a way that draws his attention and willingly risks his attack? Do we recognize his work and counter it with the power of God working through our lives? Are we such a presence of Christ in this world and in His church that we literally cause pain to the prince of darkness? The Bible tells the story of a man who tried to exorcise a demon by using the name of Christ and of Paul, His servant. The demon asked him, "Christ I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" Does Satan ask the same concerning you and me?

Three prayers. Do we dare to pray them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

No More?

 The story of Jesus turning the water into wine in John 2 is widely known, even by unbelievers. Jesus is at a wedding, and the wine for the guests has run out. This is a terrible embarrassment for the host. Christ's mother comes to Him with the problem. "They have no more wine," she said. I came across a great comment on this that said, "There needed to be more when there was no more." Perhaps in your life today you're facing something similar. There needs to be more where there is no more. More love, more forgiveness, more healing, more understanding, more patience, more joy, more hope.....but there is no more. Like the wine jars at the wedding, we're empty. We need more, but there is no more.

The thing about an empty wine pot in that day is that at first glance you would not know it is empty. They were tall and held about 30 gallons. You'd have to get very close in order to know. It's the same with you and I except that when we're empty of the above fruits and graces, the last thing we want is to allow someone to get close to us, especially if that Someone is Jesus. So we just keep moving on, keeping our distance, looking like a full pot to the casual observer, but inside, we're empty. We need more, but there is no more. And so, relationships die, hope dies, faith dies, our spiritual life dies. We become empty pots. In the story, what had begun as a wedding celebration was about to take on the atmosphere of a funeral. For some, that may be an apt illustration of what their walk with Him has become. It is not what He would have for us, and it is not where He will leave us. But we must bring our emptiness to Him.

Jesus' first response to His mother's request seems like a refusal, but she said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you." This is the key. When all has run out in our lives, when we're face with lack and emptiness, can we, will we, do whatever it is He tells us? This is the key to restoration, renewal, and healing. Jesus told the servants to fill the pots with water. This would make no sense to them and often, His leadings make little sense to us, but they obeyed. The pots, empty of even an inferior wine, were miraculously filled with the choicest of wine. This is the way of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He specialized in blessing and adding on to what seems to be not enough. Giving more where it seemed there was no more.

Where in life today is there no more but you know you desperately need more? Much more. Right before you is the One who has the means, the power, and the desire to fill your emptiness. If only you'll do as He says. He gives more where there is no more. 

The chief steward at the wedding upon discovering the new wine, said to the bridegroom, who moments before had none, "You have kept the best wine until now." With Jesus, the best wine is always yet to come. Trust Him in this. Bring your empty vessel to Him. Experience His more where there is no more. It will be His best. It is always His best.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Life Song

Not many people have neutral feelings about Beth Moore, but I have often heard His voice and heart in many of her writings and teachings. One such time happened more than a decade ago when I heard her speak of an instance. She was in her ministry offices when she began to hear loud singing and dancing in the lobby. She went to see what was happening and upon arrival the celebrants told her of how God had moved in a powerful way in response to a deep need that they had been taking before His throne of grace. The lobby was visible to anyone passing by, and one lady who was walking by looked to be dumbfounded by what she was seeing. Moore opened the door and explained to this woman that God had just miraculously answered prayer. The woman gave her a puzzled look and moved on. Moore returned to the celebration. A few moments later the woman returned and with her was a lady with tears streaming down her cheeks. Moore opened the door once again and the woman asked, "Can you pray for my friend too?" The ladies brought them in and covered them in love and prayer. Of this Moore said, "We need to invite people to dance to the song He's given us." I wonder; what is the song of your life and mine? What are we inviting people to dance to?

Years ago, Casting Crowns asked in their lyrics, "Let my life song sing to You." To Him and to the watching church and world as well. We all sing a life song but our hearts determine the sound of the notes and music. Are they notes depicting peace and harmony with Him and with others? Are they notes of joy, hope, and blessing? Songs that come from the fullness of His life? Or are they notes and songs of bitterness, anger, despair, and hopelessness? Songs and notes that sound like they're being played backwards. The world and the church as well is longing for a new song. Are we singing it, or is it the same old song of this world? 

Psalm 40:3 says, "He put a new song in my mouth." Has He done so with you? Are you singing it? No matter where we are or how dark the place may seem, He can give a new song, for He is the One who gives songs in the night. Psalm 42:8 says, "And at night, His song is with me." His sweetest songs often come at night.

Many will pass by our lives this day. Will we have a song that invited them to come and dance and rejoice with us in the wonder of His love? What we have in Jesus Christ demands a celebration, not a funeral. This world may be fallen but even in its midst we have unlimited things to sing about. The passersby would love to hear that song...if they could only hear the music. What music do they hear from us?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Shadowlands

 The Bible speaks both to living in the the darkness as well as living in the light, His light. While there are many who have chosen to live in one or the other, I think there may be even more who live in a place found between them. The Shadowlands.

Shadowlands isn't a place of total darkness. Some light does break through, yet not enough to see things clearly. It's a place where one's sight is hindered, especially to the eyes of our heart. Most things appear very murky and ill-defined. Nothing is really as it seems to be. We're easily fooled there, or as the Bible calls it, we're deceived. That's life in the Shadowlands and far too many professing believers dwell there.

There's a Scripture in Matthew 4:16 that's based on a prophecy from the book of Isaiah concerning the coming of Christ. It says, "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined." All who are without Christ are people sitting in darkness. We're born into it. When we receive Christ in faith, the Light of the World has come to us. He leads us out of the darkness and into His Light. Christ came to take us out of the land where death casts its shadow. A land we cannot free ourselves from. What happens to too many is that somewhere in that journey into the fullness of His Light and Life, we stop. Something from that land of darkness, foul as it is, tries to lure us back. We end up living in a netherworld, neither dark nor light. The Shadowlands.

Has some part of you taken up residence there? Does something of the darkness still have a grip on you? Hindering your following Him, keeping you from going forward? Unhealed wounds? Habits, no, addictions that we can't seem to be free of? Attitudes, bitterness, unforgiveness? Unfinished business with others? With Him? Whatever it is, it's keeping us trapped there. Trapped in a land where we can't see clearly and are easily deceived. Where all is not what it seems, and what it seems is not what it is. It's the Shadowlands. More dark than light and more death than life. It's not His place for you and you can leave it. How? By giving that "thing" that thing that holds you there to Him. Completely to Him. Confessing it, offering it, surrendering it to Him, and so breaking its power over you. This is your ticket out of Shadowlands. You've always had it but till now, have not had the faith to use it. Paid for by His blood, shed for you and for me on the cross. His cross. 

Are you ready to come out of the land where death casts its shadow? From the shadow of death into the Shadow of Christ. Psalm 91:1 says, "Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the Shadow of the Almighty." This is the dwelling place we were created for, that you were created for. It is found at His side, all along the journey, as we dwell in His Presence. As we dwell with Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Our Eyes

There's a Scripture I've gone to so many times in my life. Times when I've felt overwhelmed by my circumstances, needs, challenges, and impossibilities. I still go to it. It's 2nd Chronicles 20:12. The armies of three different nations have come against the people of Judah. Their king, Jehoshaphat, knowing his tiny army had no chance of defeating them cried out to his God saying, ".....they have come to throw us out of Your land, which You gave us as an inheritance. O our God, won't You stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army which is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You." 

I have often found myself in the same kind of place as Jehoshaphat, Places where I was surrounded by things that were crushing me by inches. Places where the situation was beyond desperate and I had no idea as to what I should do. As we have recently witnessed through the awful devastation that has befallen those regions devastated by the floods that have washed away lives and property, and the wildfires that are doing the same in southern California, the events of life can bring unbelievable destruction upon us. Rich and poor alike are rendered powerless by forces completely beyond our control. Massive amounts of human aid and provision through both the church and government has been rendered, but still the victims of it all remain overwhelmed. For them, life will never be the same again. No amount of aid or provision can restore much of what has been lost. 

Such devastation can come upon us in so many different ways, sweeping away all that we hold dear. In their wake, hopes and dreams vanish and all that is left is brokenness and emptiness. We are made aware of how powerless and helpless we are, how little control we really have. We don't know what to do and we don't know where to turn. In the midst of all of this there is One, unseen and unnoticed by most, who cannot be lost to us. One who is Almighty and has no limitations upon Him. One who can make a way through the impossible and do the impossible. One who is able to deliver and will deliver those who put their hope in Him.

We live in a fallen world and the Father has not promised to keep us from all the effects of that world, but He has promised to be with us and in us as we walk through all that makes for this world. We will at times be overwhelmed and we will often have no idea what to do. He is not overwhelmed and He knows the way we take. We can trust Him. The One who gave us His Son to die for us, can be trusted to do all we need as He leads us in His way because He is the Way. Trust Him. Believe Him. Cling to Him. In Him, Jehoshaphat had victory over the seemingly invincible armies before Him. In Christ, so do we. He will not fail you. He is our victory.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Three Places

 I have in my prayer journal the comment, "Every person lives in one of three places: Egypt, The Wilderness, or Canaan." I don't remember the source of the statement, but I believe it's true. It refers to the journey of the people of Israel from their captivity as slaves in the kingdom of Egypt, through their wilderness wanderings of 40 years, and then their eventual entering into Canaan, the land that had been promised them by their God. All of us, I believe, at various stages of our life will live in some part of these. Too many, far too many, will never leave Egypt.

Egypt represents the life of captivity and slavery. All of us were born into Egypt through the sin that holds us captive. This captivity shows itself in almost unlimited ways. Addictions, dysfunctional behaviors, violence, sexual promiscuity and perversions, racism, and hatred to name just a few. We may have some success in overcoming the symptoms of our captivity, but we cannot free ourselves from the bondage we are born into. This was why Jesus Christ came to all those locked in the slavery of sin. He offers a way out, a way into the freedom only He can give. Many have received that offer and entered into His promise of freedom. Many, many more have refused it, either through defiant unbelief or ignorance. They remain in Egypt and they will die there unless they surrender to Him. This is the great tragedy of the human race.

The Wilderness is what the people of Israel entered into because of their unbelief and rebellion against the ways and Lordship of their God. It didn't need to be so, but they rebelled against the commands and guidance of the Father, and as a result, what should have been a journey of a few months at best, turned into one of forty years. Until the rebellion of the people had been purged. Sinful rebellion, even in His people, will always lead into living in a spiritual, emotional, even physical wilderness.

There is also the wilderness that He leads His people into so that there they may know Him more deeply than they ever could have outside of it, and themselves as well. He led, through His Holy Spirit, His Son Jesus into the wilderness and Christ emerged fully ready to undertake His earthly ministry. If He has led you into the wilderness, know that it is to train, equip, purify, and prepare you that His purposes for you may be realized.

The last state is Canaan, the promised land. For the Israelites, it was a physical place. For you and I, it is a spiritual one, but one every bit as real. It is a place of abundance in Him. Abundant life, peace, joy, strength, hope, and wonder. It is not dependent on anything around us, it flows from the fullness of His life within. The wonder of it is that it can be experienced even in the wilderness because the conditions of the wilderness cannot affect the beauty of His life within. In fact, they serve to increase them. We will experience the fullness of this throughout eternity.

In which place are you living? It is His desire and heart longing that no one perish in Egypt. Please, if you're there, hear His call to come out and live. If you're in the wilderness, His desire is to lead you through and out. Listen, obey, and follow. He will bring you through. Canaan is what you were created for. Enter in part now, and to the full in eternity. It is His dwelling place. May it be yours as well.

Blessings,
Pastor O