The Curse

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as, the curse is found. From the hymn, Joy To The World. I saw a video recently of a woman who had a ministry among the prostitutes of Los Angeles. She said that she simply walked among them offering to pray, talk, and present Jesus Christ and His love in any way she could. She said there was one woman in particular who was beaten down and very hardened by the life she had been living for so long. This woman wanted to know what the "chaplain," for lack of a better word, was doing here. She shared about wanting to minister His life to them. The weary lady contemplated this for a few moments and then asked, "Can you break curses?" She replied, "I know the God who has broken every curse." While this was happening, others around them were listening, a number of them pressed in, each wanting to know could the curses they were living under, knew they were living under, be broken? Again, she affirmed His truth. She ended up praying with each of them that the vast array of curses that had held each of them in bondage would be broken by the blood of Christ. His blood shed for their sins. For the curse that befell the human race when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden. Sin is the curse that every member of the human race has been born under. It hasn't just fallen upon prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics. It covers us all and the curse reveals itself in seemingly infinite ways. It shows up in the labels that have been assigned to us. Failure, worthless, unloveable, rejected, ugly, stupid, and a host of other things the devil and the world have said we are. Curses that have convinced us we can never be free, that we will always be held in captivity to them. This is the enemy's biggest lie, for the curse of sin over the human race was broken on Christ's cross on Calvary. What we have been labeled, the life we have fallen into, or even chosen of our own accord, its power is broken. The prison door has swung open. The curse, just as the beautiful hymn says, has been broken for as far and as deeply as it has affected the human race He loves. As far as it has affected and held you in its sway. A number of those prostitutes found freedom from their lives that day, because the God one woman knew showed forth His power to break every curse they had been enslaved by. Has He done so for you? The power of the curse runs deep, and it affects us spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. His blood and His grace go deeper still. Wherever we are and no matter how dark and deadly the curse, He stands and bids us come to Him and receive Him. The curse is broken. All you need do to see it broken in you is to come, believe, receive, and be free. The captivity of sin is replaced by the freedom and Lordship of Jesus Christ. All you need to do is to repent, to turn from the curse you've been living in, to the life He now calls you to. By His grace, you turn from what has been for you and step into His "what will be." The curse of sin has tainted every one of us to some degree. We have no power to free ourselves from it. That's why He came. Whatever that curse looks like in your life, don't gaze at it, but to the One, Jesus Christ, who broke its power on Calvary, and invited us to step out from under the curse and into the blessing and abundance of His life. That blessing goes far as the curse is found, no matter how far from Him you may feel. It comes to you. The blackest curse of sin is powerless against the power of His blood and the freedom it brings. Please. Discover how true that is for you. The door of the cell that holds you is open. He stands before you, calling you to come to Him. Come. Just come. Blessings, Pastor

Unworthy

He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” John 1:27 A.W. Tozer said something to the effect that the church has lost its sense of the holiness and majesty of God, and he said this more than 70 years ago. I often think that in our efforts to present Him and His Son Jesus as accessible, welcoming, and loving, we have somehow demystified Him, and removed the awe, wonder, and majesty associated with His glory. The above words, uttered by John the Baptist, are timely for all of us. John was speaking of Jesus, and he certainly had that sense of wonder and of his own unworthiness before Him. Untying the sandals of a visitor was a role reserved for the most lowly of household servants, yet John, who Jesus said that there was never a greater man than Him, did not believe himself worthy of doing even so menial a task in His presence. How much of that kind of humility that was in John is within you and I in our coming before Him? In our day to day relationship with Him and in our corporate gatherings before Him? Have we made Him so familiar, so accessible, that we no longer notice His glory, His majesty, and that He dwells in unapproachable light? I remember the first time I became aware of all this. I was in my first year at Bible college. Some friends and I were talking about drawing nearer to Jesus and what our initial realization would be in that process. I remember hearing myself say, and to my own amazement, that I would realize just how unworthy I was to be so near to Him at all. This insight was given to me by Him and was not of myself. David asked who was man that God took such notice and care with him? I think we in the 21st century church no longer ask that question. It's been replaced by our sense of entitlement. We mistake His welcoming us into His presence with thinking He's obligated to do so. We're blind to the truth that it's only by the blood of Christ that we may come at all, and that without His blood covering us, we would be destroyed by His Holy Light. Chris Tiegreen writes that "Sin is disastrous and grace is precious. Neither should be taken casually." Yet I believe we have. I don't think we really think our sin is all that bad or that His grace is that precious. Our sin would forever keep us from Him were it not for the blood of Christ and His grace that applies it to us. Our sin has made us totally unworthy of Him and the blood of Christ and grace of God are our only means of coming before Him. This should humble us. It should break all our elements of pride and self-sufficiency. Has it done so in you and me? I am so thankful that He welcomes me into His Presence, but may I never lose sight of the infinite cost to Him to do so. May I have burned into my heart and spirit the reality of His majesty, His glory, His holiness. May I never forget that I too, and you as well, are not worthy to come near Him on any level but that of Christ, His blood, and the grace of the Father's forgiveness. May it never cease to humble us, to bring us to our knees. Blessings, Pastor O

Hell Walk

There's a saying I've used before, "If you're going through hell, don't stop." It's wise advice. We have to keep going, keep pressing on, regardless of how we feel or what our emotions and feelings are trying to tell us there. Feelings are rarely, if ever, the truth. I also love a statement by Joni Eareckson Tada. She said that there was nothing more wondrous than finding Jesus in the middle of our hell. Our feelings and emotions tell us that He's not there, but His Word and His Truth promise that He will never leave or forsake us....even in the depths of our darkness and pain. Even in what seems like hell to us. So many feelings and emotions are not the truth, though the enemy will speak through them, trying to convince us that they are. A wise pastor friend of mine once said that how we "feel" and the state of our emotions and mind do not and cannot alter in the least His truth and His promises. Or the reality of His Presence. They are just as mighty and powerful in the deep valley where all view of Him seems lost. This is what we must hold on to. In our losses, defeats, and sorrows, though all give rise to feelings and emotions that bring great pain, they do not change the reality of who He is, what He's said, and His power. He will be all that He promised to be and do all He has promised to do....if we will hold onto our hope in Him. Even if that hope hangs by a thread. A thread made unbreakable by Him. Maybe you're walking through hell right now. As you do, your feelings and emotions are assaulting you with scenarios that will conflict with His truth. Do not focus on the feelings and their false message. Put your eyes on Him and what He has promised you. You are not alone. He is with you, and He will meet with you even in the hell you are now walking through. Cling to Him. Nothing you are feeling or experiencing changes His truth and promises to you. Press on. He's with you, and all of the power of hell does not diminish Him or Word in the least. Sometimes, our personal hell is so intense, so dark, that we really feel it impossible to say anything to Him at all. In that time, and that time may be yours right now, just say His name. Over and over again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Behold how real He becomes to you and watch as He puts all the power of hell to flight. That's a promise written in His blood. Blessings, Pastor O

Prepared

A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3 If we're to receive the powerful presence of God, we must prepare ourselves. Henry Blackaby We tend to dismiss the Old Testament these days, which is to our harm. There is so much teaching and power in those Scriptures. They foreshadow the coming of Christ the King and they have so much to teach us. One of these is found in how the priests were instructed to prepare themselves for their coming into the inner court to minister to Him. Preparation had a central part in all of their worship. What part does preparation have in ours? How we prepare ourselves for corporate worship speaks loudly to how we prepare ourselves for our private times with Him. How often do we stay up late on the night before our corporate gatherings giving ourselves over to entertainment and a host of other activities that do not prepare the soil of our hearts for meeting with Him, but distract and take us further from Him? As a result, we're disjointed, distracted, unfocused as we come into His sanctuary. Worship leaders will tell you they spend a good part of the service trying to get the attention of the people gathered before them. We're not prepared to meet with Him. We are not treating Him as Holy. Our bodies may be present, but our hearts and minds are missing. The worst part of it is that we're not much bothered by it. We've made a kind of peace with it. We expect to have to "work" at getting the people's attention. This results in a lot of flesh centered efforts to stir hearts. Sadly, emotions may be touched, but hearts rarely are. We've come unprepared and we leave unchanged. How do we prepare? It's not in trying harder or having music and preaching that stir the emotions. Blackaby says that there is only one real way to prepare to come into His Presence, and that is in repentance. That's an ugly word to our flesh, but if we dwell on what it means, a turning away from the direction we've been going and unto the direction where He's found, it's a wonderful exercise. The enemy, working through this world, is fully committed to taking all of our attention away from Jesus Christ. He has seemingly limitless ways of doing this and he is often very successful. We need Him to cleanse us from all that has pushed Him aside in our lives in both our individual and public worship. We need to confess where we've allowed other things to come between He and us. We need to turn from all of it, be emptied of it. We need clean hearts, empty of all the things that are not of Him and have found their way in. When we have, we are prepared to meet with Him. To encounter Him. In the Old Testament, the priests needed to be ceremonially clean before ministering to Him. So must we. This is how we prepare. We empty ourselves of all the spiritual clutter so that He may now come and fill us with Himself. This is worship, and we can only experience it when we're prepared. How will you prepare to come to Him today? How will you prepare yourself to meet with Him when you gather with your fellow believers this Sunday? Will you come before Him distracted, disinterested, and leave Him no different than when you came before Him? Or will you come with clean hands and heart, empty of all the trash the enemy and the world have tried to fill your life with, and simply worship and adore Him? Will you, will I, be prepared? Blessings, Pastor O