Feelings

 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

Joni Eareckson Tada is truly a hero of the faith. She, as much as anybody I know of, has lived the life that has made her, "more than a conqueror." Recently I listened to her as she spoke about her great battles against depression. She said that there are times when her constant pain is so intense that she is tempted to, as Paul was, to "despair" even of life. She spoke not just of her thoughts, but of her emotions, and the power they held, as well as how the enemy works so effectively against us through them.

Emotions and thoughts are real, but they are often not the truth. As Tada said, "Depression, a product of mind and emotion, lies to you." We have become very much a feelings centered culture. We follow our emotions instead of His Words. That is a dangerous, even spiritually suicidal way of life. Our feelings and emotions may be real, but often, not the truth. His Word and Truth are more real and fully true. Feelings and emotions can enslave us and are powerful, but we can be free of their tyranny. We must take them to the cross, where, as Tada says, "their power over us is broken." 

We are not meant to follow our feelings and emotions, which so easily mislead us. Each of us can think of many instances when we acted upon them to our great regret. This is where Paul's exhortation in 2 Corinthians 10:5 is so powerful. In the leading and power of His Holy Spirit, we bring what we are feeling and thinking to Him, to His cross, and we "nail them" to it. We crucify the thoughts and feelings there. We "die" to their power over us and in exchange, take on the power of His Word. The power of His risen life.

There have been several times in my life where I battled deep depression and all the emotions that went with it. Because of it, I knew what it was to be held in the "miry clay" that David wrote about. There was help in counseling to a certain degree, but I found deliverance in my coming to Him in complete surrender, not only concerning the feelings and thoughts, but in the situations that gave rise to them. I'd been trying to control all of the situations and failed miserably. Freedom came when I repented of that, and at His cross, yielded it all to Him. 

Feelings and emotions will so often set themselves up against the knowledge of God. Living in the risen power of His Truth and Word will demolish their power and set us free from their tyranny. If you're living under their tyranny today, come to His cross. Nail them and their captivity to it. Live free, be free. Now.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Perfect Love

 I'm humbled by John 13, but, just how humbled am I? This chapter details Jesus' last meal with His disciples. So much takes place in the account, but nothing stands out like the detailing of Jesus washing His disciples feet. I, and most of us have seen the obvious of what Jesus is modeling; a willingness to serve in humility. Not seeing any task being beneath us. Service that is motivated by love. His love moving on and through us. 

There's one aspect of it that's easy to pass over. Judas Iscariot was also among those disciples. Judas, who had already agreed to betray Him. Judas, who seemed to hold contempt for many of His ways. Judas, whose heart Jesus knew, and whose actions of betrayal Jesus also already knew. Judas, whose dirt encrusted feet, Jesus took in His hands and....washed. 

The disciples were a human lot. They spent a great deal of time together. There were times of friction, disagreement, even open disputes. The Bible tells us it was so. Yet, they were bound together by their deep love and respect for their Master. All of them except Judas, and again, Jesus knew this. 

I don't think I would have a great deal of trouble washing the feet of Peter, John, James, and the rest. There may have been disagreements, but at heart was the bond that we shared. But Judas, who I knew despised me? He who sought to deliver me into the hands of my enemies. He who thought I was a great fool for the path I had chosen to walk and how I chose to walk it. Could I wash such a person's feet? Jesus did?

With His death rapidly approaching, His mind filled with apprehension about what He knew lay before Him, He could still give of Himself not only to the other 11, but to Judas as well. Judas, who was about to deliver the deep and painful blow of betrayal. Betrayal by one He loved. He took the dirty feet of the one who had hurt Him so deeply, and washed them just as lovingly as he did the other 11. Such wondrous love indeed. I hear the question of His Spirit to me. Does that same wondrous love abide in me? In the face of betrayal, mockery, rejection, even hatred, would I take the feet of my enemy, and in love, wash them? I want to believe that I would. I hope that I will, and I know it's what He calls me to. If you profess to be His, it's what He calls you to as well.

How do we answer that call today? Who has hurt us, used us, betrayed us. We can forgive them, but can we lovingly serve them? Where does anger and resentment still linger? Such feelings may be a "luxury" we allow ourselves, but He doesn't. The cross was His destination. It's ours as well. We can't really wash the feet of those who have hurt us most deeply apart from it. The cross is the symbol of the proof of His love and forgiveness. We cannot fully love and forgive apart from it. It is only by way of the cross that we may love and forgive those who in no way deserve that love. 

Corrie Ten Boom and her sister were sent to a Nazi concentration camp for hiding Jews in the occupied Netherlands. Her sister died there. After the end of the war, Ten Boom was at a Christian gathering when she, in shock, saw the man who was a guard at the camp. A man who had a part in the killing of her sister. He recognized her as well. He came to her and told her how Christ had come into His heart and life, transforming him. All she could feel was anger, even hatred. Her choice was to hold to it, or die to it. She chose death....at His cross. She chose forgiveness. Sometimes we think that's impossible, but at the cross, all things are possible. Even Perfect Love.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Darkness

 Sometimes it's hard to find God. When we need Him most, He often seems to be absent. When we need to hear His voice, all is silent. We cry out, but there's no answer. Where is He? Doesn't He care? Has He abandoned us? In the midst of it all, everything seems to be getting worse. What's happening? Why is it happening? 

We've likely heard the saying, "God works in mysterious ways." We may have shared with others going through difficult times, but when it's us going through those times, we want answers. Answers that make sense. In His Word He's given us an abundance of promises. I've never found any that say He will make sense to us. He promised to bring us through fire and flood, to protect us in the midst of danger, to enable us to slay giants and cast mountains into the sea. He's promised to make us overcome all the power of hell, but He never promised to make us understand what He's doing in the meantime. He just promised that, if we would trust Him, we would "see His salvation in the land of the living." This is a scary lifestyle, but it's the one that will overcome the world.

David knew something of this. He knew a lot. In 2 Samuel 22:12, he writes, "He shrouded Himself in darkness, veiling His approach with dense rain clouds." Where was God for David? He was in the darkness. He was in the heavy rain. He could not be seen, but He was there. It often seems like this is His favorite place to dwell. His, but not ours. Yet He calls us into it. Do we dare to go? In Exodus 20:21 we read, "As the people stood at a distance, Moses entered into the deep darkness where God was." The people never knew Him as Moses did. They feared the darkness. It didn't make sense to them. They couldn't trust and therefore, they couldn't know. Today, in the midst of circumstances, in our place of darkness with all the approaching rain clouds, who do we more closely resemble? The people, or Moses?

We fear the unknown and nothing is more unknown to us than what we can't see. Yet into that unknown He calls us, promising that if we will obey and trust Him, we will know. Even more, that we will be delivered. David writes in 2 Samuel 22:17, "He reached down from heaven and rescued me, He drew me out of deep waters. He delivered me from my powerful enemies." David, like Moses, entered into the darkness, and in it, like Moses, found light. He found Him. We can too, but we must dare to enter in. If the storms swirl about you today, don't run. As they come upon you, dare to trust and enter in. You'll meet Him there. Your God. Your help. Your deliverance and your answer. He calls to you. Enter in.

Blessings,
Pastor O

He Is

 Have you ever noticed in the Gospel stories of Christ's miracles, there is oftentimes a great deal of chaos going on around Him as He works them. Noisy, pressing crowds. Wailing, grieving people. And an ever present mob of doubters and mockers. Have you also noticed that Jesus never pays attention to any of it? That He's never affected or limited by any of it? Chris Tiegreen speaks to this in a very powerful way. He writes, "None of this is the truth of the situation. He is." 

I like to look at all of this with the thought that, what we call reality, all that is happening in the natural realm, is ruled by a greater reality. Jesus Christ. We may be cowed by it. He is not. We may see every obstacle in the way of His working. He does not. We may be intimidated, even paralyzed by the situations and needs before us, but He never is. In all of it, we need to focus on these two words, "He is!" He is present. He is able. He is working. He is sovereign ruler over all of it. He is Lord. He is the truth of every circumstance and need. He is the solution, the answer, the One.

We can know this. We can even say we believe this. But, is this truth, this reality, so deeply ingrained into our spirits that we cannot be moved by all the things around us that try to make us believe that He is none of these things? As Tiegreen writes, "We can fear or we can believe. We can't do both. We have to pick one."

Today, in the midst of your need(s). Which do you pick? What is the truth of your situation, circumstance, need? The enemy has seemingly unlimited reasons for us to not believe that He is. There is only one reason for us to believe that He is. He has promised that it is so. Is the realization of His promise your reality?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Going Home

 "But when he finally came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!' " Luke 15:17

Today's writing is a follow-up to my last, which was titled, "Coming Back."

I very recently heard about an interview Lee Strobel, a one time atheist, had with Charles Templeton. Templeton was once a very effective Christian evangelist and a close friend of Rev. Billy Graham. Sometime in the late 40's, he began to have doubts about his faith. He questioned the accuracy and authority of Scripture, the existence of hell, and even the deity of Jesus Christ. By 1959, he abandoned his faith completely, becoming first an agnostic, and then an outspoken atheist. 

Strobel, in the midst of writing his classic, The Case For Christ, interviewed Templeton. He asked him for his reasons for leaving the faith, and Templeton was blunt with his reasons, very assured, and very in control of himself. Then Strobel asked him what his thoughts about Jesus were. With that, Templeton's countenance softened, as he declared Jesus Christ to be the greatest man who ever lived, expounding on all of his virtues. As Templeton continued the softening did as well. It climaxed with Templeton saying, "I...I...I miss Him." As he said this, he began to weep, his shoulders shaking, his head in his hands. Finally, he composed himself, and returned to the interview, which shortly ended. The man who told this story said, "I don't know if Charles Templeton ever came home....but you can," and that is the most wonderful of promises to us. No matter how far from our home in Him we may have wandered, no matter how deeply into the far country we may have journeyed, we can come home....to Him.

Where in your life are you missing Him today? Where has the relationship been diminished? Where has it been lost? Where has the sweet fellowship you once knew with Him disappeared? Where, when you let down your guard, your doubt, your reasons for rejecting Him, do you too say, "I miss Him!" Where do you too weep over the loss. Can you believe that even now, you can come home. Only the Father knows if Charles Templeton ever did....but you can. If you too have wandered from His side, you can come home. He waits to welcome you back to His heart. The heart that is our, your, true home.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Come Back

 "Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel...Come back to Me and live....Come back to the Lord and live.' " Amos 5:4,6

This Scripture is much on my heart today. I believe it is the deep need of the church and His people, of this nation and all nations, as well as the heart cry of the Father. Do we hear it? Will we come? It really is a matter of life and death.

We are disintegrating on every level of culture both here and throughout the world. Society is breaking down. The myth of the human race evolving into a man made utopia is being proven as being just that, a myth. Sin has penetrated the heart of society, and in too many ways, the heart of the church. Has it penetrated the hearts of you and me?

Through Amos the prophet, God is calling back His people Israel to Himself. He has been doing so for a very long time. The people either ignore Him or cannot hear Him. They are careening to their own destruction. I believe this same thing is happening before our eyes, and not only in our nation and His church, but in our very lives, marriages, families, and ways as well. In each and all, He is calling to the deadness that has grown everywhere around us and in us. "Come back. Come back to Me....and live!"

The burning and pillaging of Los Angeles going on as I write, is a sight we've grown used to. It's a portrait of what I'm writing about today. Satan, our enemy, is burning and pillaging everywhere through these events. We are seeing individuals destroy themselves with addictions and habits, attitudes and anger. We are witnessing marriages being destroyed by infidelity, abuse, selfishness, and hatred. We are seeing families torn apart by these addictions, these pursuits of pleasure, this neglect of the very lives He has entrusted us to care for. Worst of all, there is both the ongoing slaughter of unborn children as well as the growing trafficking of children into virtual slavery as sex workers or forced labor.  We are dying by inches.

Scripture says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We seem to have no knowledge or understanding of what that means, but He does. He knows what He created us to be but He sees what sin and rebellion against Him have produced. We have ignored Him, rejected Him, drifted far from Him. We are destroying ourselves.....but there is hope. His heart continues to cry, "Come back to Me and live!" May we, the people of God, hear Him. May we pray that His church hears Him. May we pray that this sin darkened world hears Him. May our hearts burn as we hear Him cry, "Come back to Me and live....Come back to the Lord.....and live." Throughout the church and in a number of places right now, many are hearing that call. So many more have yet to. May husbands and fathers take up their calling as spiritual leaders. May husbands and wives come together in prayer and fight for the soul of their marriages and their children. May the church be the church, shining His light in the midst of the darkness. He has not left us. Where have we left Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

What?

 We can get really frustrated trying to figure out what God wants from us. We tend to put it in terms of "keeping score," doing more good things to make up for whatever failures that have taken place. Or we make it about keeping rules. God is big on giving directions. Didn't He give us the Ten Commandments? For some it's about living a life of denying ourselves things we might want. This shows Him how dedicated we are. Or, we try to "buy God" by making lots of generous financial offerings. Give lots of money and He'll be pleased. They're all wrong, and they're wrong because they focus on the foolish belief that we can please God by our own efforts and works.

In Hosea 6:6, the Father says, "I don't want your sacrifices. I want your love. I don't want your offerings. I want you to know Me." He's not after our effort. He's after us. He's after you. He loves you passionately, and He longs for your love in return. This is a reality too few of us ever realize. He longs for us. He longs for intimacy with us. Yes, He wants us to live well and to live right. To do right, but not out of a sense of duty, but from a heart filled with love for Him. Not out of a desire to earn His approval, but from a heart of gratitude and joy over knowing and experiencing His love. That His love is flowing through us.

Jesus came and announced that, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No one comes to the Father except by Me." We can't reach Him by our good works and sacrificial efforts. We'll just keep bumping up against a closed door. Jesus came to be the Door, to be the Bridge between a fallen human race and a holy God. He's an open door to every heart that yields trying to have Him by our own merit and simply throws itself upon His. 

We tend to look at the Old Testament as being focused only on the laws of God, yet it's there that we see His answer as to just what it is He desires from us. Micah 6:8 reads, ".....the Lord has already told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you, to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." We may be able to do what's right. We may even be able to show mercy, but we cannot walk humbly with Him apart from His grace, and it's His grace that enables us to both yield to Him and to truly love Him. It's not about rule keeping. It's not about trying our hardest. It's about wanting to be in His company, walking with Him, learning of Him, loving Him. His heart yearns for us, not our performance. He wants us. He wants you. 

Blessings,

Pastor O

Graveclothes

 Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." What a powerful promise. How much of a reality are these words for us?

It's been said, "If you don't know the truth, how will you ever recognize the lie?" Do we, in our day to day living, really know the difference between His truth and the enemy's lies? What is it that we really believe about the Father, the Son, His Holy Spirit.....and ourselves? Are we believing the truth....or a lie? Have we lost the ability to discern the difference between His truth and the devil's lies? Have we ever even had the ability to do so?

Jesus also made another potent promise: I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." There is no promise He makes that He's not able to bring to pass for us. Has He been able to bring this promise to pass for you? The abundance He promises is far more than material or financial. We can have an abundance of these yet still live barren,empty lives. If we are His, we're promised an overflowing supply of His spiritual riches. Joy, peace, strength, hope, victory, and on and on. If we lack these, could it be that we have accepted the lies of the enemy over the truth of His Word and life? Jesus called Satan a thief, one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, the father of lies. He ceaselessly seeks to steal, kill, and destroy the life Christ gives us. Life, hope, joy, dreams. Where has he robbed you? 

Freedom. Abundance. Two promises among hundreds, given and sealed by His blood. Why are they so absent from our faith lives? Why is the devil, the thief, so effective in getting us to believe his lies against the truth of Jesus Christ? Why do we exchange the truth for a lie?

I think a deep reason that we do is found in that while we know who He is, even what he's said, we don't know Him. We don't know His heart. The enemy has been very effective in slandering His name, not only to the lost, but even to those who say they follow Him. We don't really know Him so we never really enter into the fullness of His promises. We live on breadcrumbs instead of His Living Bread. We guzzle the stagnant water of the world instead of drinking freely of the Living Water of His Life. We just can't trust in the goodness of God. Satan practiced this deception in the Garden and it's been a very effective scheme ever since. How well has it been working on you?

In His earthly ministry, Jesus would often ask the ones He reached out to, "Do you believe Me? Do you believe what I say? Do you believe I am able to do this?" He still asks. He is asking it right now with you and me. When Jesus called Lazarus out of his tomb, He had his grave clothes removed. He'd been bound and couldn't move. He needed to be free of his graveclothes. Too many of us, though called to Him, still wear the grave clothes of our old life. Let Him cut them away. Come forth and be free. Be whole. Be His. Fully His.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Traveling Light

 I once read a story of a man driving a wagon along a country road. He came upon a man walking on the road and struggling under the weight of the load he carried. He invited the man to climb up beside him upon the wagon seat. The traveler gladly did so, but the driver noticed that he continued to shoulder the load. He said, "Friend, please feel free to lay that load down upon the wagon bed," to which the traveler replied, "Oh no sir. You've been kind enough to offer me a ride. I don't want to add to the load that you're already carrying. I'll just bear it myself." This may seem absurd to you and I, but would you consider how often we do the very same with the Lord?

Scripture exhorts us to "Cast your burden upon the Lord for He cares for you." We may give a hearty "Amen" to this, but how often do we go along with Him, all the while continuing to bear the heavy weight of our cares and needs? Jesus invites us, commands us to give them to Him, whose "yoke is easy and whose burden is light," but we go on shouldering them all the same.

In my life I've found that I have little trouble giving Him the great and crushing impossibilities to Him. I know that they're beyond my ability to carry and solve. I know I can't manage them and that He can. My stumbling involves my insisting on carrying the weight of those things that I think I can handle and manage. Things that, bit by bit, end up crushing me under the weight of their load. They're not the BIG troubles, they're the small ones. The ones I'm sure I can handle and figure out. We may know that the old saying, "God helps those who help themselves" isn't in the Bible, but that doesn't keep us from living like it's one of His foremost commands. So we go along, picking up the "rocks and pebbles" of life's stresses and cares one by one and dropping them in our journey bag. Their small individual weight eventually grows to a heavy and crushing one. We keep looking at them as small things, not really important enough for Him, Things we run all over, wearing ourselves out trying to handle them all, while right there with us is the Lord, wanting to take them all from our hands. Hands that have a death grip on matters seemingly insignificant in themselves, but that will bring about our own death, if not physically, then certainly mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They exhaust us.

There's a song whose lyrics really speak to me. It's titled "Traveling Light." It goes, I was doubling over, the load on my shoulders was a weight I carried with me every day. Crossing miles of frustrations and rivers a raging, picking up stones I found along the way. I staggered and I stumbled down the pathways of trouble, I was hauling those souvenirs of misery. And with each step taken, my back was breaking till I found the One who took it all from me."

There's another lyric, an old one that goes, "Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near." Come to One who has borne the weight of your sin and so is able to bear the weight of what concerns your life. We cannot bear our burdens, whether great or small, in our own strength. They'll destroy us. Come to One who calls you to Himself. Bring yourself, your cares....your stones and your pebbles,  and lay them at the foot of His cross. Burdens are lifted at Calvary.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Mixture

 In my prayer journal I have written down something I came across some years ago. I don't remember the source, but it is a sobering statement. A statement that confronts us as to our motives in ministry and in our lives for Him. It reads, "When we stand before Him, He won't ask, 'Were you accurately estimated? Were you appropriately recognized? Were you sufficiently applauded? Instead, He'll ask, 'Did you love Me? Did you love others toward Me? Did you obey Me? Did you submit yourself to My will and My word? Did you live for what I died for?" 

So much of our devotion to Him is a mixture. We sincerely want to have the right answers to the second set of questions, but at the same time, our flesh yearns for some part of the first to be realized as well. What determines which prevails in us? The answer is daunting, even terrifying. It's the cross. His cross. Without it, we'll always yield at some point to the allure of recognition and reward. It's who we are, and who we are will only be vanquished, crucified, at the cross of Christ. 

The first set of questions magnifies us. We're the focus. The second magnifies Him. He's the focus and center. The second set pierces us at the center of our being. We can't avoid or escape the truth they seek. Devoted love and obedience for and to Him, as well as to those He loves who at the same time can be exceedingly unlovely. Total surrender to His will and His way. It is the experience of what was written in Galatians by Paul; "For I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." That life is only lived out by way of the cross. 

The mixture I speak of happens when our kingdom collides with His. Scripture speaks of being double-minded and we see that clearly when our following and serving Him comes with a double motive; our being magnified along with Him. We're to live lives that give Him glory, not seek to share in it. We're born spotlight seekers. and we're not going to conquer that drive by our own strength. It will only be vanquished at the cross, and it will go there kicking and screaming. 

When John the Baptist saw that Christ's followers were increasing while his were diminishing, he said, "I must decrease so that He may increase." That will never happen by our own efforts. It happens when we surrender completely to Him and His glory and die to our desire for our own. That will never win the applause of men, but it will garner the praise of heaven. Which does our heart really yearn for?

Blessings,
Pastor O