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