Precious Grace

 I know Facebook can be a real quagmire, but at the same time, there can be some very worthwhile posts as well. I saw one of them just today. A street preacher was interviewing young people at a very popular and somewhat notorious nightspot. Among them were a pair of young ladies. He probed them as to their spiritual state and who it was they believed and trusted in. Both affirmed that it was Jesus. More, both knew the message of the gospel, the cross, and the salvation Christ invited us to. Both also affirmed that they considered themselves His followers and were committed to Him. He then asked them why they were out and taking part in what was going on in the club they were about to enter. Their answer was along the lines of, "We're young, we want to have fun and enjoy ourselves." He didn't hit them with judgement, just truth, emphasizing the need for believers to come apart, to live holiness lifestyles, to be in the world, but not of it. Both young ladies became very quiet. They had no response. The video ended.

I recognize that there's a long history of legalism and self-righteous judgement in a segment of the church. It's wrong, and I won't adhere to it, but there is also a long history of the abuse of His grace, often referred to as "hyper grace." I don't adhere to that either. Both are deeply damaging.

Chris Tiegreen writes, "SIn is disastrous and grace is precious. Neither should ever be taken casually." Shouldn't be, but so often are. We can be so casual about both. Churches are filled with those who are. The result will always be disastrous.

A.W. Tozer, speaking of the infinitely great cost to the Father in the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ, said that how we live in response to that cost must be a "very great scandal in heaven." Our hearts have been dulled both to the seriousness and terrible consequences of sin as well as to the immeasurably great gift of His saving grace. Tiegreen also writes, "Grace was given to free us from sin, not to free us up for more of it." A truly grace filled lifestyle knows this and lives accordingly. Not a legal, rule keeping lifestyle, but a holy one.

Jesus was the friend of sinners. He went to where they were, but he didn't "go clubbing" with them. He didn't partake of their lifestyle. He invited them into His. The two young ladies weren't where they were to extend that invitation. They were responding to the invitation of that place to enter into what was happening there. To what degree are we doing the same?

In my particular segment of the church, we have an old, but powerful hymn titled "Called Unto Holiness." All who call themselves His are called unto that holiness. His holiness. Not rigid rule keeping with the focus on the external, but a desperate love of Him, his holiness, and the hatred of sin and its awful effects upon the human race He so loves and gave Himself up for. Indeed, sin is disastrous, and grace is precious. May we cease to take either casually ever again. He shed His precious blood that He might offer His precious grace.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Beginning

 British preacher and writer T. Austin-Sparks said, "For Christ, the cross was an end. For us, it's the beginning." John Bevere says, "We've preached resurrection promises without preaching the impact and decision of the cross. There is no discipleship without the cross." All this is true, yet you can attend a very great number of fellowships in the west and never hear anything of substance concerning the cross of Christ and the believers call to it. How can that be?

The cross and the subsequent resurrection of Christ was the focal point of Christ's coming. Everything about the Christian faith is centered on these events. Yet, what Bevere says is frighteningly true. We proclaim to eager listeners all the blessings of the resurrection life while at the same time omitting the cross that is the only route to experiencing them. We know the cross was necessary for Christ to complete His ministry. Necessary for Him.....not for us.

This is the greatest reason why so much of the witness and ministry of the church lacks real Holy Spirit power. Preachers are calling people to a faith that includes no cross. Simply believe on Jesus and all will be well. He paid the price, we reap the benefits. We call them to an abundant life in Christ, but we leave out the cross that leads us into it. The apostle Paul said, "I preach Christ, and Him crucified," and "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." In the modern Gospel of the west, there is no cross, no death to self and self-interest. Just an invitation to add Him to your life and enjoy all the improvements He'll bring. We come as we are, and we remain as we are. Yet, Jesus doesn't bid us to come so He can make some improvements in our lives. He calls us, as someone said, "to come and die." He is not about making our lives better. He is all about totally transforming us. There is only one place where that can happen; at the cross.

Sparks says that for us, the cross is the beginning. That puts me in mind of the old hymns lyric. "At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my sin rolled away." That was the beginning of an endless life of wonder and abundance. It begins and remains at the cross. Has it begun, really begun, for you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Do You?

 In my prayer journal, I have a quote from writer Chris Tiegreen. He says, "We're to believe what the Word of God and the Spirit tell us, regardless of the witness of the clouds." 

Casual faith and a casual relationship with Christ will not get you very far into a life with Him. Scripture says that whom He loves, He disciplines. We see discipline as a negative, His response to something we've done wrong. He sees it as love, using the realities of life to deepen and strengthen our relationship with Him. He allows hard things but means to use them to grow and shape us in Christlikeness. He tests our faith and our trust in Him.

In Matthew 9:28, two blind men came to Jesus, asking for sight. Their blindness was real, and in that day final, yet they came to Him for healing. He asked them a simple question; "Do you believe I can do this?"
They answered that they did, and He gave them sight. Being blind at any time would be an oppressive state, but so much more so in Christ's day. Yet, they dared to believe He could heal them, despite "the witness of the clouds." There are things, oppressive things, that He will allow in our lives. Do we dare to believe Him, even in the midst of the darkest and most threatening clouds?

My world came crashing down in August of 1989. My wife left me. I had to leave my ministry. A total unknown lie before me. Yet, I believed that somehow, He would restore my life and my ministry. I didn't find a great deal of support for that. Not very much in the church and not very much even among family. My belief was tested, and though it weakened more than once, I never let it go, and He did bring into my life those who did believe with me and encouraged me. The road was hard but He walked with me and lived within me every step of the journey. He did restore my life and my ministry, and my witness today is of His faithfulness and His glory. The thickness of the clouds that surrounded me could never stop His Light from piercing them and breaking through to me.

I am not saying that everything you want will take place if you just believe. I am saying that what He has spoken to your heart will come to pass if you refuse to give up and keep pressing on in Him. Clouds, thick and dark clouds, will be a reality in our lives. He will be a greater reality. Trust Him. Hold to Him. Believe Him. He is faithful. He is Light and Life greater than any cloud and any storm.

Blessings,
Pastor O

How Near?

 In Scripture we're given the promise, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." The question that comes to my mind is, "Just how near to Him do we want to be?" 

I once borrowed a book from a friend, and in the margin, where this promise had appeared he wrote in response, "Draw near to Him, He draws near to us. Good news/Bad news." He's on target, for it surely is both good and bad news. Good, because when we come near we have the opportunity to see, hear, and know Him in ways we never believed possible. It's bad news though to our inward desire to center upon ourselves, to be our own gods. That fleshly self-life cannot stand in His Presence. His character and Person are far too intense. That's bad news for our flesh.

We sing songs and make declarations that we want to have more of Him, to have all of Him that we can. Are we really prepared for what that means? If we're to venture into the deep of God we had better be prepared, if indeed we even can be, for an intense encounter. There is nothing shallow about Him, though there certainly can be much that is shallow about us. As Scripture says, it's a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. He is, as His Word says, a consuming fire. A fire that will consume every part of us that lifts up our self-life at the expense of His life.

I'm saying all this not to deter us from coming to Him. That's exactly what He desires. He craves intimacy with us. He yearns for our company, but we need to understand this is not some casual thing. He is a holy God, His Son, Jesus Christ, is a holy King. When Peter got his first glimpse of who Jesus was, he cried out, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." His holiness reveals how unholy we are, but this is not something to flee from because His desire is to cleanse, heal, and deliver us from all that pollutes our heart and spirit.

As a young believer, I remember listening to my pastor preach on Jesus' exhortation to the disciples to "launch out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." He spoke on venturing out into the deep of God. I still remember how my heart burned at that. I wanted to launch out. I wanted to partake of the deep things of God. It has been both wonderful and terrible. He has grown me, stretched me, and purified me in His fire. He is still doing so. It's been very hard on my flesh, but a blessing beyond description for my spirit. He continues to invite me to draw near, and you as well. It is a fearful thing and a wonderful thing. Will you dare to find out just how much? All you need do is draw near....if you dare.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Altars

 Altar..... : a usually raised structure or place on which sacrifices are offered or incense is burned in worship 

—often used figuratively to describe a thing given great or undue precedence or value especially at the cost of something else......"And Abram built an altar there to commemorate the Lord's visit." Genesis 12:7b

I think in the modern, western church, altars are something we associate as being related to the Old Testament, the Law, and the offering of sacrifices by the Levitical priests. This is very sad because the altar and its significance was never meant to lose its place in the church. It's not meant as a verdict against the 21st century western church, but in many of the newer sanctuaries, altars, once a regular feature, have disappeared. Again, not a verdict. Altars are spiritual before they are physical and one can build one in their heart and offer the sacrifice of worship upon it. Still, I have to ask if their absence literally has allowed people to allow their absence spiritually?

Chris Tiegreen wrote, "Everyone has an altar." This is the total truth. If you ask online "what is an altar," you will receive not only the meaning, but an abundance of different kinds of altars used for worship by a multitude of religious beliefs. They are a place where worship, sacrifice, and offerings are made to the object or "god" that we have chosen to give ourselves to. That is seen in Webster's definition above. Don't miss these keywords; "a thing given undue precedence or value at the cost of something else." For the one who calls themself a follower of Christ, that "something else" will always be Almighty God.

As Tiegreen says, everyone has an altar. So, what is yours? Where is yours? You can attend thousands of "worship services" and never worship Him. Yet everyday we do worship something or someone upon the altars we build at His expense. The ancient Israelites never did away with His holy altar or Temple, but they raised seemingly infinite altars to the various "gods" that they gave their hearts to. Those gods had names like Chemosh, Dagon, and Baal. Today they have names like Pleasure, Money, Success (even in ministry), Family, Children, and an abundance of others. In themselves none of these are evil, but when pursuit of them pushes Him from His throne within our hearts, when we now worship having them above having Him, we have sinned against Him, at terrible cost to ourselves.

Has His altar disappeared from your life and heart? It can happen so easily. I believe He is calling us back to His altar. That altar can be made anywhere, and right where you are. The old hymn asks, "Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?" Is your all, all of who you are and wish to be, offered up to Him on His altar? Has everything that has sought to remove Him from His throne in your life been removed so that only He remains?  As Tiegreen says, we all have an altar. Is yours and mine found in Him, or in something or someone else?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Chain Gangs

 There was a time when prison movies were a Hollywood staple. Classic actors like Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson were usually the stars. One of the greatest of these was a movie entitled Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman.

The central character of this movie was named Luke, who was a member of a prison chain gang. He and the other prisoners were routinely taken from their prison camp and put to work maintaining and clearing roads. They did this while having their legs in shackles, chained together, literally living in chains. 

I heard an evangelist once say that too many believers live and look like they're a member of a chain gang. He was referring to their countenance, the looks upon their faces, but our faces only reflect what is happening in our heart and spirit. The great tragedy in the church today is that the very ones Christ came to bring life and victory to are continuing to live like members of a chain gang, going about their day to day lives shackled by burdens, cares, addictions, and wounds of the past that have rendered them living their life in chains that seem unbreakable. Are you one of them?

Let's return to Luke, the central character of the above movie. The desire of the warden and guards was to break the will and spirit of the prisoners they controlled, never letting them forget that they were prisoners. Prisoners in chains. Luke possessed a spirit that was stronger than the chains, and soon that spirit captured the other men. Try as they might, the warden and guards could not break his desire to be free. They could not make him live like a prisoner in chains. 

Luke was a Hollywood character, but the apostle Paul was a living, breathing person who wrote 2 Timothy 8-9 from a prison cell. He wrote, "Never forget that Jesus Christ was....raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach. And because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and chained like a criminal. But the Word of God cannot be chained." Paul was in prison and in chains, but he was not a prisoner. His heart and His spirit were free. He wouldn't and couldn't forget that the Lord he served was risen, alive. Death could not hold Him, and so, neither could it hold Paul. If death could not keep Him in its chains, then no literal prison cell and its chains could hold Paul. Not Paul, and because He is risen, not you or I either. 

What chain gang might you be held in today? What shackles and chains has the devil managed to fit you with, formed as a result of your past, your fears, your wounds, and your sins? He seeks to be your warden, and these things are what he uses as your "guards." The Good News for all of us is that Satan's strongest chains cannot shackle the power of His Word, nor the power of His risen life. Christ, the Living Word is alive and He is risen. This is the reality that Charles Wesley wrote of in his great hymn, And Can It Be. "My dungeon flamed with light....my chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." It's true. It's real. Can you believe it? Will you believe it? Leave the chain gang. Let your chains fall off at His Word. In Christ, we are free. Let us live free.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Finding Him

 "When you walk through the waters, I will be with you." Isaiah 43:2...."There's nothing more heavenly than finding Christ in your hell." Joni Eareckson Tada

Whenever I read her writings or listen to her speak, I am always humbled by the faith and witness of Joni Eareckson Tada. Those who are merely casual listeners tend to think she's a superhuman woman of God who has overcome all the mountains and giants in her life. Yet we so easily forget that what she has already walked through, she still walks through. Pain and extreme difficulty are daily companions in her life. Giving up is a temptation she deals with by the day. It is not herself that sees her through all of that. It's her Jesus. Her Lord and her Savior.

I think that we who are true followers of Jesus Christ, people created for an eternity in His Kingdom, find, in the midst of their suffering, some understanding of the awfulness of hell. Suffering comes upon both the unbeliever and believer alike. For the unbeliever the only outcome is despair, but for the one who belongs to Him, we can discover a great part of the beauty of heaven in the midst of it. How? Because He enters into it with us. He is within us, and at the same time beside us, above us, and beneath us. It is in those times when we feel that we are "going through hell" that His companionship is most rich, and also the place where He reveals ever deepening truths about Himself....and about ourselves as well.

Tada says that "Everyday, God is ready to reveal more about His Son Jesus Christ." Most often this happens in the darkness. In the fires and floods and losses of life. The pain is real, but if we will be looking for Him, He will be more real. 

The other day I watched an old video of a dear elderly and saintly woman. She said that she had been praying and worshiping Him but feeling so inadequate in the effort. She told Him, "Lord, in eternity we will worship you forever for who You are, yet here, I am out of things to praise and worship you for in 5 minutes." She said He then whispered into her spirit that heaven for her, for all who believe, would involve His revealing to her an infinite amount of knowledge as to who He was. An eternity of knowing Him more deeply. A never ending and glorious hope. Our valleys and floods are but a taste of that. May we not miss that taste. 

Thank you Father, that for the one who trusts and follows you, there is no end to the wonder of knowing you. In our present fires and floods, may we discover ever deeper precious truths about You. May Your heaven never cease to enter our journey here, even when the journey leads through hell.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The God Who...

 We have just celebrated another Resurrection Sunday, and in our fellowship, as I'm sure it was in yours, it was a beautiful time of giving glory to the Father for His Risen Son. It puts me in mind of seeing Him as the Lord who came, the Lord who lives, the Lord who died for us, and the Lord who rose and lives forever. It also puts me in mind of the Father, who gave us His Son. Jesus said that "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." 

The wonderful writer Chris Tiegreen, in one of his devotionals, dealing with the Prodigal Son, gives a picture of Father God as, "the God who waits, the God who runs, and the God who celebrates." I want to explore a bit as to just how He is all of those, and more.

Briefly, the story of the Prodigal Son is that of a rebellious son who demands his inheritance from his father, wastes all of it in riotous living in a distant country, ends up living in a pigsty and eating pig food.

He comes to the end of himself and decides to return home, believing he could no longer be a son, but could be a servant, even rehearsing what he would say to his father. In the actual reaction of his father, we see the heart of God the Father.

He's the God who waits. I, we, cannot begin to understand the patient waiting of God upon we who are rebels by birth. We reject Him, we waste His blessings, and we seek to live as far from Him as we can. Yet all the while, He waits, searching the horizon for the ones His heart longs to see come home to Him. I, a rebel by birth, experienced this first hand. He reached out to me so many times as I wasted my life running from Him. All the while He waited, continuing to reach out for me. He should have given up on me, and on you as well. He never did. He kept waiting and watching, till His grace laid hold of my heart, calling me home.

The God who runs. When the prodigal appeared in the distance, his father ran to meet him. I remember so clearly the Sunday evening in the home I grew up in, living in the midst of the sty I had made for myself, living on a diet of earthly pig food, turning to Him in desperation. His response was immediate. He who had been waiting came running. He met me and swept me into His embrace even before I finished the prayer. He met me, one who smelled of the pigsty, dressed in the filthy rags of my sin. He came running and took me into His love and care.

The God who celebrates. I didn't truly sense it all then, but I have grown to since. He didn't just celebrate my coming home to Him then. Indeed, Scripture says all of heaven rejoices when a lost sinner comes home, but I've learned that the celebration only begins at that moment. It goes on for the rest of our life here and then forever into eternity. A celebration for one who had been His enemy. One who had mocked, blasphemed, even hated. It continues on right now. I rejoice in the celebration today, and look forward eagerly to when I will enter into the celebration in eternity. I am so grateful for the God who waits, who runs, and who celebrates. I've never deserved it and neither have you. May we rejoice in this not just once a year, but in every day of our lives. The God who, in His Son, Jesus Christ, welcomes us home.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Questions

 Luke 2 gives the account of Jesus and His parents going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. At its conclusion, His parents, Mary and Joseph, join the crowd of fellow celebrants on the road home. At least a full day goes by before the realize Jesus is missing. This brings me to a question for each of us; how much of a day, how many days can go by before we realize He's missing? Individually and corporately. In the midst of the carrying out of our everyday lives (and ministries), how much time can pass before we realize His absence?

When Mary and Joseph did notice, they quickly returned to Jerusalem. After 3 days of searching, they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers. He was astounding them with His wisdom and understanding. They rebuke Him. "Why have You treated us this way?" they ask. This brings another question. Have you ever noticed how, when we're in a place where He seems absent, we also ask, "Why are You doing this to me?" In fact, many of our questions to Him in that place aren't really questions at all. They're accusations. Why have you done this? Why haven't You done that? Where were You? Where are You? Why aren't You where I want You to be, doing what I want You to do? Don't You care?" These questions were also asked by His disciples. He answered His parents, just as He answers us. 

Most translations render His reply as, "Why is it you were looking for Me? Didn't you know I had to be in My Father's House?" We've often used this verse to get people into church on a regular basis, but the original language says something much deeper. In effect He says, "Didn't you know that I am all about My Father?"

His life wasn't all about being in church, reading His Bible, or tithing. These are excellent things, but they were not His focus. He was totally centered on joined to His Father. Where the Father was, He was. Where the Father was, He was. What the Father did, He did. He was surprised that His parents didn't realize that. How surprised must He be that so many of us don't realize that either.

We're in a time when those who call themselves His followers are very willing to be involved with Him, but being in-volved with Him is not the same as being IN Him. Being involved keeps everything under our control. Being in Him surrenders all control to Him. We are not our own. We are His. It's here that we come to understand what Paul meant when he said, "It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Paul lived in two worlds, the temporal and the eternal. His physical life was here, and he was aware of that, but his mind, heart, and spirit abide in the Kingdom, and he was fully aware of that as well. No aspect of his life was unaware of it. He could say, as did His Lord, "I am all about my Father." In Him. Fully in Him. 

One day, when all of this world has passed away, we who profess to follow Him will give account for how we have lived for Him. Many may have words and thoughts as to how we have lived for Him and with them. I hope that their testimony for me will be a good one, but really, only the words of the Father will matter. How will I have lived for Him? Where did my life most often find me? In Him, or merely around Him, at times most convenient for me? What will my life have been all about? What will He say about yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Messengers

We are in the midst of the Easter season. For professing Christians, this is a time celebration, of the telling again and anew the story of Christ's death on a cross and His resurrection from a tomb. Churches and pastors everywhere are preparing for Easter Sunday, expecting perhaps the year's biggest crowd. Surely there are so many expectations. What are yours and what are mine?

I'm moved to write on this because of quotes I came across from Leonard Ravenhill, one of the great revivalists of the 20th century. He said, "Once people went to church to meet God. Now they go to hear a sermon about Him....It takes living men (and women) to deliver the Living Word." For all those that we have such great hopes and expectations of seeing in our services on that great day, what are our expectations for them? Do we expect them to hear another message about the factual events of those three days during Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. A message they heard in some form the last Easter they attended? Or, do we expect them to encounter a living, risen Christ? Do we expect them to exclaim, as did Mary upon seeing Jesus in the Garden, "I have seen the Lord"? Do we expect them, and not only them, but all of the people present to excitedly tell anyone who will listen, as did the disciples, "The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed!"

I write this because I well know how easily we can get caught up in providing a great Easter Sunday experience for all who are present, one that will encourage them to return, and totally lose sight of ushering in the opportunity to experience, encounter, meet with the risen, living Jesus. To be preachers and people so immersed in His presence that His Spirit seems to overwhelm all who come together that day.

Am I being unreasonable, even foolish to ask these questions? Or is it even more unreasonable and foolish to think that these could never be? What is the key or keys for this to be our reality and experience? I think the greatest part is found in Ravenhill's latter point. It takes living messengers to proclaim His Living Word. Messengers alive with His Presence and Life. From the pulpit to the platform, to the sanctuary floor and out into the foyer and the very grounds of the fellowship, may His Holy Spirit come upon all who enter. May we be, in all of our fellowships, living messengers of the Living Word. 

Is this too much to expect? Too much to hope for? Yes, if we only hope to tell stories about something that happened 2000 years ago. Here's the truth. The glory of what happened then, His resurrection from the dead, is still unfolding 2000 years later. He's as real and alive and glorious as He ever was. May we be immersed in and behold His glory for ourselves. Then may we display His glory to each other and all who join us. And not just on Easter Sunday, but on every day of our lives. Living men and women sharing His Living Word wherever we are and wherever we go.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Rearview Mirrors

 I once heard a pastor speak on a book he'd written entitled, The Windshield Is Bigger Than The Rearview Mirror. He details his moral failure in both his marriage and ministry. He doesn't minimize or excuse his sin, but his emphasis is not on his failure, but on restoration. The restoration of both his marriage and ministry. Failure was not final. His life wasn't held by what appeared in his "rearview mirror," but rather in the view the Father had for him in the "windshield" He placed before Him. He seeks to do the same for us.

How many right now are moving through their life with their eyes fixed upon the rearview mirror of their past? Rearview mirrors are essential in keeping us aware of what's behind us, but if our focus is there, we will surely invite disaster by our being ill-prepared for what lies ahead. In the same way, if we're held by always looking at what has been, at what we've been and done, we'll never enter into what He has for us and invited us to.

It's not that our pasts have never happened. The fact is too many try to deal with the past by trying to bury it. Somehow though, it always finds a way to crawl out of the grave we've dug for it, and usually in destructive ways. We need to face our past at the cross. At the cross, He dealt with our past, our sin, our wounds, and our failures. Colossians 2:12 says that God nailed all of that to Christ's cross. ALL of it. On the cross, Christ canceled our sin and all the failures and wounds that come with it. Their power is broken, canceled. The work has been done at the cross.....but has it been done in you?

The quality of our lives comes down to what we believe, think, and the attitudes we have. Many may believe upon His name, but never really come to believe in and upon His Word. Someone said that we act out of what we believe to be true. What do you believe to be true about you, about Him, about your life and its possibilities in Jesus Christ? Ephesians 4:23 says, "There must be a renewal of your thoughts and attitudes." This is a work that can only be done through His Holy Spirit and knowing that His Word is a healing Word. A Living Word bringing true life. A Word that sets us free from the captivity of the rearview mirror. A Word that brings us to the wide open vistas of the abundant life of Christ.

How are you living out your journey today? Are your eyes locked on that tiny rearview mirror, holding all the past with all its wounds, failures, sins, and lies? The lie that what lies ahead will only be a repeat of what has gone before. Or, have you received His Living Word and its truth, found only in the Kingdom windshield He's placed before you? It's true that Christ redeems all that lies behind us, but what has been is not where He dwells. He dwells and lives in the hearts of His people. He is with us right now and yet is already there at what lies ahead, leading us into His new day. The windshield really is bigger than the rearview mirror, isn't it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Feet

 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing?  John 13:12

We love to embrace the character traits of Jesus. His love, His mercy and compassion. His kindness, His strength, His purity. I could go on and on. There really is no end to the make-up of His character and personality. However, I think there is one aspect of who He is that we easily overlook and really aren't that anxious to emulate. His humility. We see that best in the above Scripture. He washes the feet of His disciples. 

The washing of feet was a great part of middle eastern culture. Every visitor to a household was honored with his feet being washed by a household servant. Always the lowliest of the servants. That's the role Jesus took upon Himself. It's a role He calls us to as well. How well do we answer right now? 

Author Chris Tiegreen makes some compelling points about this act of the Lord Jesus. He said as Jesus washed His disciples feet, He knew exactly where those feet would soon be. The feet of Judas would be in the dwelling place of the Pharisees, selling his Lord for 30 pieces of silver. The feet of Peter would be in the courtyard where His trial would take place, as he denied, with a curse, that he even knew Him. The feet of all the others would be found fleeing His presence upon His arrest. Their feet were made unclean by far more than the dirt and dust of the landscape of Israel.  Yet, He was on His knees before them, washing their feet, displaying His love, in complete humility.

Someone said that we'll discover just how much of a servant's heart we have when others begin to treat us like a servant. Servants aren't much noticed and rarely honored. Servants bring no attention to themselves and have as their desire putting all attention upon the ones served. This is hard on the pride within every heart. Can we be honest enough to say it would be hard on ours? That it is hard on ours? Especially if His call to be one involves the washing of the feet of those who have betrayed us, denied us, and abandoned us. I think this is a great reason why humility is not a virtue that we preach and teach a great deal on. Not many of us want to live very deeply in it.

I, like the disciples, have had my feet washed by Him. I, who once rejected Him, who denied Him, mocked Him, ran from Him. So have you. He would have been right to drive us from His presence, but He didn't. Instead, He comes to us with a towel and a basin, and offers to wash the filth of our sin from our souls. Jesus, the King, majestic and glorious, takes on the place of the suffering servant, and washes the feet of those who have been His enemy. Such love, such wondrous love.

As I dwell on all this, I realize how much pride remains in my heart. I realize how little I resemble Him in this. There's still, in too many areas of my life, far too much of me and far too little of Him. Can you say the same? I think you can.

Lord, may you give to me, to us, the heart of John the Baptist, who, when confronted with the ascending of Jesus' ministry and the diminishing of his own said, "I must decrease so that He may increase." Lord make it so in us. May I, may we serve You in humility, with the towel and the basin you call us to.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Maneuvering

 In his book, Shattered Dreams, Larry Crabb says, "We're more prone to maneuver our way through life than abandoning ourselves to Him." I think he's right. In my own life, I can think of too many times when faced  with a pressing need or problem, my first response was to try and figure a way out. What could be wrong with that? Didn't He give us minds to think and wisdom to make choices? He did. Our problem is that we tend to do so apart from Him. Far apart. We relegate Him to a kind of "interested observer." We do this at great risk. Someone said, "Whatever parts of our lives that are not invaded by Him, we invite the enemy to wreak havoc there." We've experienced this, yet we continue our maneuvering. Why? Crabb says that churches are filled with "worshippers" who've reached the conclusion that there's no real help in God. "He's left them to make it on their own, as best they can.

How can such a conclusion be reached? A reason could be that we tend to see Him as some kind of vending machine. If we put in the proper "currency," be it formula prayers or formula living, we'll get from Him what we want. It took me time to learn He can't be known or reached through formulas and 5 steps to abundance programs. He can only be known through faith, and real faith works best in the dark. In places where there is no light to maneuver, or no space if there was. We can only abandon ourselves to One we trust and believe. You can't have that kind of relationship with a vending machine or through a formula. We'll never see Him on those roads, but we try. After all the disappointments, we come to the conclusion Crabb speaks of; God may have great power, but He doesn't seem much interested in using it on our behalf. We have to make it as best we can.

Throughout His Word, He tells us that He is cloaked in mystery, but it's a mystery He longs for us to enter into. When we do, piece by piece, the mystery becomes knowledge. Formulas will never work and neither will manipulations and maneuverings. We'll only discover Him by abandoning ourselves to Him, casting both our cares and ourselves upon Him. Upon His mercy, goodness, and love. He promises that He is these things and more, but we can only know it through abandonment to those virtues. 

Paul said that He knew who it was that He'd believed upon. That He was completely convinced that He was fully able to keep all that he'd committed (abandoned) to Him, until that day. For Paul, all maneuverings were over. Are they over for us? Or, do we go on maneuvering and manipulating through life, doing the best we can? Darkness and mystery may be all around. Don't fear it. He's in the midst of it. He calls us to enter into it, to abandon ourselves to Him, and discover that all He has promised to be, He is and will be. He will keep it all. To that day......and beyond.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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