Free Access

 A young brother stirred my heart last evening with something he said. He was talking of his love of the Old Testament and how much we miss by its neglect by so many in the church. He pointed specifically to the High Priests role of coming into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies in the Temple on the Day of Atonement. On that day he would represent the people and their sin before God and seek His cleansing and forgiveness through the sacrifice he offered. Only the High Priest could come into His Presence and only once a year on that day. The actions of the High Priest were representative of the future work of Jesus Christ on His cross, offering Himself as the sacrifice and opening the door not only to our sin and sins being forgiven, but of giving all who believed upon Him free access into the presence of the Living God. 

This is mind boggling if we dwell upon it, which most of us don't. We have no real understanding of the honor, blessing, and privilege He has given us through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. Think upon it. Before Christ, only one man had access into the presence of God, and that only once a year. The Holy of Holies was where God dwelt in His Temple. A thick curtain separated it from the rest of the Temple. So sacred was it that when the High Priest went in, he had a rope around his waist so that if he should die while within, the other priests could pull him out, for none of them had access to His Presence there. All of this changed when Christ died upon the cross. With his death, that curtain was literally torn, and not by men, but by God. This was symbolic that no longer was only one person allowed into His presence, but all people who believed upon Jesus Christ now had free access to the Presence of Almighty God. From the least to the greatest, there was no distinguishing between them with Him. By faith, we are welcomed into His Presence. Welcomed by the shed blood of Christ the King.

I know I'm failing to even come close to describing the wonder of all of this, that a completely Holy and perfect Father should welcome someone like me, like you, covered with the filth of our sin into His presence. Someone who openly rebelled against Him, denied Him, blasphemed Him. Welcomed because by our faith in Him, our sin has been cleansed. Not just welcomed, but loved to the extent that He wishes us to linger long in His presence, abiding in intimacy, being nurtured by His love and life. Words fail to describe the beauty of all of this, of the honor and blessing He gives us. It grieves me as to how little we honor Him in return, and how much we take for granted in all of it. How little we recognize not only His sacrifice, but how unworthy we are in ourselves to even be there.

I think of Wesley's lyric, "That God should love a sinner such as I, how wonderful is love like this." Do you know this wonder? Have you ever? May we each just stop and meditate on the glory He invites us to by faith, and all that He sacrificed that we might come at all, and all of it because of what Jesus Christ accomplished upon the cross. As the old hymn goes, "I can never repay the debt I owe." I can't. He did. Glory to His name forever.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Refrigerator Art

Something that is very common in most homes in our culture are kitchen refrigerators bearing the artwork of the home's children. Little ones bring them home from school or from their rooms to present as "gifts" to the mothers and fathers they love. If we're honest, just about all of these offerings are pretty bad. They're just scribblings on a refrigerator door, but they're treasured by the parents who receive them. They love them, and they want their child to know that, as well as any who would visit their home. There is teaching here for how the Father sees the offerings of His children that are given to Him.

So many of us are perfectionists, at least to some degree. We want what we do to be well received. We can also be our own worst critics, disparaging our works and efforts far more than anyone else. To us, they just don't seem good enough. I think that this can be especially true as concerns what it is that we do for Him, give to Him through our work in His Kingdom. I know it has been so for me. Whether it's a sermon preached, a lesson taught, a ministry performed, I too often have thought, with ample help from the enemy, that none of it is "good enough." Yet this is not how the heart and eyes of the Father see it. To the world, and even to some in the church, they may just be "scribblings on a door," but to Him they are precious. When offered to Him from a heart of love and worship, they are offerings and works comprised of silver and gold. Father God displays them with a heart overflowing with joy and love for the one who has given it to Him. He doesn't look at the skill level of the one who brings the offering, just at the heart and its motivation to lay it all before Him.

I remember a teaching by my theology teacher at Bible College. He used the example of a small child with dirty hands who brought their father a glass for cold water on a hot day. The child's face beamed with love for their father, but the cup of water was tinged with soil from their dirty hands. Yet the father never noticed the dirt. He was focused on the love of his child, and he drank it with joy. So it is with God. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When it comes to the eyes of Father God, all He sees is beauty in those things given to Him in love and worship. He doesn't see the human imperfections and limits involved, just the love behind it all.

Scripture says that whatever we do for Him, we're to do it with all our might and being. If we do so, whatever we give Him, no matter how humanly flawed or imperfect it may be, will find its way onto His "refrigerator door," and one day, when we come before Him, it will be seen by all. May we not forget that, and may we never cease to bring Him our scribblings, done with hearts and hands of love.

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

The Challenge

I've underlined a verse in the 4th chapter of Acts. Maybe you have as well. Underlined, but too often overlooked, even forgotten in the depth of its meaning. It's after the resurrection of Christ and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the church. The disciples have been ministering and the church is exploding. The Jewish religious leaders, who thought they'd dealt with the problem by having Christ crucified, are alarmed beyond words. They have two of the leaders of the church, Peter and John brought before them. Verse 13 says, "They recognized them as men who had been with Jesus." 

I wonder; how deep did the recognition go? Was it a recognition based merely on their having been seen in His company? Or, was it a recognition that came from their seeing in Peter and John's eyes, countenances, and spirits, the very same attributes they'd seen in Jesus Himself when He'd stood before them not long before? That question leads me to another, deeper and more convicting one; what do people recognize about me as concerns my relationship with Jesus? Is it based on them also seeing me "in His company?" I'm a pastor. I go to church. I read the Bible. Most people who know me at all know that. In that sense, I too keep company with Him. But do they see something more? Do they see in me what they would surely see in Him? His heart? His character? His life? Do they recognize me as having been with Him because of these? Do they recognize you for the same?

It's not difficult to be recognized as having been with Him when we leave a church service, a Bible study, or a prayer group. We've been at our best and in the best of situations there. What are we like at our worst, and in the worst situations? What is seen? What are we recognized for? How often are we found to be "beyond recognition?" No, we're none of us perfect and we all have a generous portion of flaws, but how easy is it for us to use our all too human frailty as an excuse for living in ways that make us unrecognizable as followers and lovers of Jesus? In our relationships, under pressure, when faced with deep and unmet needs? In the place of hard choices, places that call for deep sacrifice? In His call for us to take up our cross, fashioned in the likeness of His, and follow Him to our own Calvary?

The world has always had the right to examine the church, to examine you and me. Seen in His company perhaps. Seen as looking at Him, but not looking much like Him. As they do, can we bear up under the question of just what is the "Jesus recognition level" in our walk? When we stand in the midst of tough choices, hard places, and deep challenges, who do we look like? What are we recognized for? What do they see and more, what does He see? Challenging questions that need to be asked and answered. Our culture grows ever darker. People are desperate to see those who've truly been with Jesus and who look like Jesus. Not our idea of Him but His. It's a challenge. Will we rise to it or run from it?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

His Presence

 In Scripture, we are told we have full access to the Father through our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact, we're told that we can come "boldly" into the throneroom of God. It's a wonderful invitation, but I have a question; Why are we coming, and for what and who do we come?

Along with His invitations, so many issued by Jesus Himself, are promises. Many promises. Promises to find rest, strength, peace, joy, deliverance, provision, and the fulfillment of our life needs. This brings the above question into a deeper focus. Are these things, these promises fulfilled, representing what are our deepest desires? I ask this because of something I once read by Larry Crabb. A simple statement really, but for me, a deeply convicting one. He wrote, "Come to Him because you want Him." First and foremost, we want Him. Not the promised rest, provision, healing, or answer. Wanting these is not wrong, but wanting them more than Him is. Indeed, it is sin. Subtle sin, but sin nonetheless. Jesus said, "Come unto Me, and I will give you...." We have fallen into the trap of concentrating on the "I will give you," and bypassing the coming first unto Him.

In II Kings 19, King Hezekiah receives a letter from the King of Assyria promising Judah's destruction. He took the letter to the Temple and "spread it out before the Lord." God responded in a mighty way and the Assyrian king's desire was never fulfilled. For years, so much of my prayer life has consisted of doing the same. Coming into a need or needs, lists I'd composed, and like Hezekiah, I spread them out before Him. Now, none of this is wrong. We do need to bring our needs to Him, but slowly and subtly, these lists can come to take precedence over Him. I wasn't first coming to Him for Himself, though I was blind to that. I was coming first of all because I wanted the blessing of His answer. He so often met the need and desire, and richly, but I was missing what I most needed and what my starving soul most desired. Him. Just Him. His Presence. 

The things on the list had taken His place in my heart. My needs and desires had become idols, but I couldn't see that. Idols will always blind us to Him. Have your needs and desires, your lists, become idols to you? When you come to Him in prayer today, for what will you be coming for? The blessings that come from His hand or for the beauty of His Presence that flows from His heart? His invitation to come lies before us all. I expect we will come, but how, why, and for whom will we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Departure

 In the last two weeks, I have witnessed the passing of two great saints here in our church. Both were mighty in the Lord and living testimonies to His grace and strength. Both had lived long and active Kingdom lives. Both are now rejoicing in His Presence. Both are testimonies to Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4:7, "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Like Paul, these two lived out this witness.  Are we? We all will have our time of departure from this passing realm. What will be our testimony?

We tend to see this Scripture as one that pertains to the elderly. Certainly, as I well know, as we age, our time in this earthly realm grows ever shorter. We cannot stay here. We will be leaving. What will mark our passing? What will be our witness? Amidst these questions looms a greater reality. None of us will choose the time of our departure. That's in the Father's hands, and it is never limited to the old.

Our age in this matter is irrelevant. What is not irrelevant is the life witness we will leave behind. Young or old, can we proclaim as did Paul and so many saints before us, that we have fought the good fight of faith, that we ran the life race He set before us and all the way through, kept the faith? We'll each be called to account on this. What is our life testimony to this point saying? 

Someone said that only those who live with eternity in mind have any power to tell others about it. I fear that too many of us live as if we are never departing this realm. That this earthly realm is what is real to us and we cling to it. As a result, we've dropped out of the race He's called us to, having never really begun. We never really fought the good fight of faith because we're too busy making a life for ourselves here. Yes, we "believe" in God, His Son Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit, but it's far more a mental agreement than a living and growing relationship with Him. Paul's eyes were never off of the eternity and God that was His true home. Nothing in this world could hold him. How much of it holds us? How much of it holds you?

I am now in my 75th year. The last 46 of those years have been spent walking with my Lord Jesus. I know that my own departure draws ever nearer. I desire that my own testimony will be that of Paul's, and the two wonderful believers who have gone to be with their Lord. The accolades of this world and even the church will be meaningless. All that will matter is if He agrees that it is. More than all else, I want to hear His "Well done, good and faithful servant." Our time of departure is in His hands. How we live out our lives in Him is in ours. Beloved, may it be that when our time comes, we too may see that we've fought the good fight, have kept faith with Him, and finished the race He set before us. Someone said that where we spend eternity depends on what we do with Jesus Christ, but how we spend it depends upon how we live for Him. May we live well, very well, for Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Agreement

 Galatians 5:25 reads, Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Keeping in step with the Holy Spirit is something every believer should have as their priority, particularly in these days of ever growing deception. It's very easy to get out of step with Him, and so many  of us do. Maybe some part of our lives is out of step right now.

Walking in step with Him doesn't come naturally and it will come about as a result of our daily choices. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, I am the Vine and you are the branches, telling us that we are to abide in Him. This is a choice. It can't be done from a distance. It requires intimacy. When we fail to abide in intimacy with Him, the result will always be chaos and confusion, and eventually a drifting into unbelief.

How do we so easily get out of step with Him? A great deal of it is because we tend to base everything on what we're seeing, feeling, and experiencing in the moment, instead of on the the truth of what He's said and promised. John Eldredge in Walking With God puts it this way; We don't believe the Scriptures because they don't seem to align with what we're feeling right now.....People are clinging to their unbelief because that's what they're feeling in the moment....we're not at that moment experiencing what God says is true. So, if we're not feeling it or seeing it right now, it must not be true.

It will come down to our choices. Will we believe that what God has said is true, or will we believe what the enemy is saying in this moment is true? Either answer will involve agreement from us. We choose who it is we will believe. Our choices will then reveal if we are walking in step with the Spirit of Truth or completely out of step with Him as we follow the lie, and the lie will only grow more powerful in your life. Where do we walk right now, in the steps of the Father and His Holy Spirit, or in the crooked and destructive pathway of the enemy and his lies?

Both the Father and Satan are constantly issuing invitations to us. God invites us to agree with Him and believe, while the enemy invites our agreement with him and be deceived. The Lord's invitation most often comes with no frills, readily seen benefits, or emotional appeals. Just a bold calling to believe and trust Him. The devil's invitation will always be accompanied by a bombardment upon our emotions and reasonings, and an appeal to use our heads and be realistic. We'll agree with one or the other and eventually, it will become our life pattern. What's your life pattern today? Are you moving in step and in harmony with the leading of the Holy Spirit, or in the disharmony and missteps of the enemy? Just who is that you're agreeing with?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Darts

 We hear much but know little about spiritual warfare. Much of it, as Rick Renner says, seems like 

Christian Voodoo," with all kinds of formulas and even rituals to use against the enemy. Many exhort us to come against the high places of the enemy, but Renner says, "The high place we need to be most concerned about is the space between our ears." I think he's right. That's where the real spiritual war is waged. and it's there that the battle will be either won or lost.

In Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul exhorts us to "Put on the whole armor of God." Though we may be familiar with that passage, we can be totally ignorant about what is being said. A great part of that is that we don't know much about the culture and setting that Paul wrote these words in. Paul was speaking of ancient weaponry and few of us have much knowledge of that, and the impact of what he's saying is greatly reduced. So is its power to give us victory. In verse 16 he says, "In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery darts aimed at you by Satan." These darts were quite small and did not appear very threatening as they came towards the soldier. However, they were designed to explode in flames upon impact, and were deadly to an unprotected warrior. This is why his shield was central to his protection. It's no different in the spiritual realm. Much of what the devil throws at us appears insignificant in its approach. A word or words spoken to us. A thought, memory, temptation, or lie. Then they hit our brain and explode in deadly fire, seeking to spread throughout our spirit. It's a fire that can kill if we lack the faith/shield to deflect it.

Hebrews 2:3 asks, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" I think too many have reduced this great salvation to a small and powerless one. How can that happen? It happens in our minds, in our thinking, in what we believe. That salvation is meant by God to be our unbeatable defense. The 17th verse of Ephesians 6 says, "Put on salvation as your helmet." A soldier's helmet protected his head....and his brain, the place where his thoughts and beliefs dwell. The best equipped warrior will not stand if he goes into battle believing himself already defeated. Indeed, he IS already defeated. This is the case with too many of us. Is it the case with you?

Today and everyday, we'll all be in spiritual battles. The Father has given us in Jesus Christ, all we need to overcome and defeat every attack by the enemy. He has given us a great salvation. Where are we, where are you, neglecting it? Instead of overcoming, are you being overrun? Are his fiery darts exploding upon you, seeping into your mind and heart? The battle is the Lord's, but He's called us into it alongside Him. In Christ, we are, as Renner says, "dressed to kill." We have been given a great and mighty salvation. Let us walk in it with Him.....dressed to kill!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Inheritance

 "The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing." Psalm 23:1....."He is everything you need Him to be, but only what you allow Him to be in you." Chris Tiegreen

I believe the church is filled with those who are living far beneath their privilege in Christ. They have heard sermons, teachings, even seen demonstrations of who He is, what He does, and what He can be for them, yet they have experienced little or nothing of the reality of it all. Might you be one of them? We have also heard that when we have Him, we have everything we need, yet so many profess to have Him and yet feel overwhelmed by their needs. Are you one of these? How can we profess to know and walk with the One who is the Lord of all things and yet feel so empty, needy, and powerless?

I am now in my 41st year of ministry and one of the great heartaches of that ministry is witnessing so many of His people walking through life in exactly the place I speak of above. They profess to know a Lord who saves, heals, gives joy and peace, strength and hope, and one in whom we have all the riches of the Kingdom of God. A.W. Tozer said that he knew that one of the great regrets he will experience when he stands before his Lord is that he will see all the vast and infinite riches he had available to himself in Jesus Christ, and yet he lived out his life more as a pauper than as an heir of the Kingdom of God. I think his words are true to some degree for all of us. To what degree are they true for you?

The reason for all of this is found in the above quote from Chris Tiegreen. He really is everything we need Him to be in our lives, but He is only that to the level that we allow Him to be who He is for us. Healer, Restorer, giver of hope, joy, peace, and an abundant life. All of this is true. He will be these for each of us, but only to the degree we allow Him to be. To the degree we believe that He will be. The only limitations there are to the Lord Jesus Christ are the ones we have placed on Him.

This reminds me of another writing I saw in the wonderful devotional, Streams In The Desert. A man dreamed he was in heaven, and Jesus was revealing all its wonders to him. They came to a door and he asked the Lord what it led to. Jesus opened it to him and he saw within a room filled with wonderful and glorious blessings for his life on earth. They had been intended for him, but he had never received them because he had either not asked for them or believed he could have them. I wonder how large such a room would be for you and me?

I am not saying that we'll have a trouble free life of ease and happiness if we have entered into His Kingdom. Indeed, we will have a cross to bear, but we will also have been adopted as sons and daughters of Almighty God and heirs of that Kingdom. We are not orphans and we are not paupers, so let us cease living like we are. Lay hold of the riches we have in Him. Take title to our inheritance in Him. Freely He has given, let us freely receive. The riches of the Kingdom of God are ours.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Which Kingdom?

 I once heard a man pray, Father, may I be host to the Christ Spirit and not hostage to the spirit of the world. There are two paths before us. Will we be "hosts" to all the fullness and life of Christ, vessels of His Spirit and Life, possessing His mind and thought processes, or will we be hostage to the thought processes and value system of this world? A world we're born into but commanded to come out of. Commanded!

We like to think in terms of His calling or inviting us, because it leaves the matter in our hands, with no sense of urgency. A command is either obeyed or disobeyed. We'll be either obedient, or disobedient. That's a little too black and white for our flesh. We're more comfortable thinking it's more His suggestion, and that He'll be OK if we choose to ignore. Disappointed perhaps, but it passes. He is understanding, isn't He?

We may not be so blunt in how we actually put it all, but this is what we tend to do. How many times have we said that we heard Him speaking to us on a matter? If He's speaking to us once, His expectation is that He doesn't need to speak it again? To the degree we're hosting His Holy Spirit, He won't need to. To the degree we're held hostage to a fleshly spirit, He will. 

Philippians 2:5 reads, Let this mind (spirit) be in you that was also in Christ. The only way we can do this is to yield to that mind and spirit. When we do, that is when we truly begin to grow into the ways and image of Jesus Christ. We live, choose, respond, and act in the Spirit of Christ. We process everything through His understanding and not our own. Instead of our all too human reactions to the unexpected, unusual, and unloving, we take our thoughts about all of it into His Presence. In His Presence, He shows us what's real and what isn't. Where the source of it all is from Him and where it's from the darkness. We see things with His discernment. We are able to see beyond the surface of things. We see what is really happening and hear what He is saying. This is our taking every thought captive to Him instead of every thought taking us captive to the darkness, where we become hostage to the enemy who is behind it all.

In Christ's ministry and conversation, He always looked to see from which kingdom the words, thoughts, and actions were coming from, the kingdom of hell or of heaven. He looked to see which kingdom was being advanced. Each day, in our choices, words, and actions, which kingdom are we advancing? In our day to day lives and ways, which kingdom are we helping to grow? One or the other will consume us. One or the other will either lift us up or throw us down. One or the other. Which one for you and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Betrayal

 There is a wonderful old saint who has spoken much light and life into my walk. His name is RT Kendall. Today I share something that I heard not long ago.

Brother RT said that each of us who are fully committed to following Jesus will come to what he called, "The Betrayal Barrier." This is the place where we feel betrayed by the Lord we have trusted. The place where all His promises seem to lie in the dust at our feet. The place where we feel that He's abandoned us and left us to our own devices. In that place, brother Kendall simply says, "Don't give up or in. Press on." The Betrayal Barrier will be a part of every disciples journey. It will be accompanied by all of the enemy's whispered lies. Lies that say He has failed us, let us down, lied to us. It's a barrier to our faith and only one thing will guarantee our breaking through. We have to have determined before we ever reach this barrier that no matter what it looks like, seems like, or feels like, we will believe Him. We will trust Him. We will keep on keeping on.

The first such barrier that I ever faced was when I lived on a bleak and lonely church campground in the winter of 1990. All my circumstances were against me. My marriage had collapsed and with it my ministry. I had no money, almost nothing in the way of material possessions, and a future that didn't seem to promise anything but more days, weeks, and months of the same.Where was the God I had given my life to 10 years earlier? I felt like giving up. I wanted to give up.....but within me was a still small voice that whispered to me to keep on following hard after Jesus. He had promised me that He'd make a way "where there seemed to be no way." So I kept on. Step by step. Day by day. Week by week. What I discovered was that He hadn't betrayed me or left me. In His timing, doors opened, new opportunities came. He was making a way, His way, along my way. Thirty five years later, He still is.

Maybe you're at The Betrayal Barrier yourself today. If so, don't give up. Keep on keeping on. Trust not in what you're seeing or feeling, but in what He's said. What He's promised. If you will, you'll break through the barrier. Live in the truth of Psalm 18:30. "As for God, His way is perfect. All the Lord's promises prove true." That was written by David, a man who well knew the characteristics of the Betrayal Barrier. He broke through. So will you...if you don't give up.

Blessings,
Pastor O