The Companion

 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

As a child, thunderstorms terrified me. I have vague memories of clinging to my mother as she went around our home shutting all the windows as a storm rolled into our area. My mother said much later that she thought the reason that was so was that while in my crib as a baby a heavy storm suddenly came upon us and my crib was located right below an open window. When she got to me, I had been soaked in the rainwater as well as fully exposed to the sound and fury of the storm. She felt that my fear as a child sprang from that experience.

Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chole has a completely different memory of such storms. She said that as a small child, whenever a storm would approach, her father would take her onto their front porch and watch it approach together. The closer and more fierce it became, the more tightly and lovingly he would hold her. In that she learned two things. She learned not to fear the storm, and she learned how safe and secure she was in the loving arms of her father. She said, "In life, choosing who I'll spend the storm with makes all the difference."

I have no memory of my being in that crib, but I do know that at least for a few moments, I was alone in that storm. My mother rescued me, but in the time before, I was alone. I think, for me at least, that is what makes all the difference between how Chole looked at the storm and how I did.

Heavy storms will hit our lives. God makes it clear in Isaiah 42:3 that they will. The key is that we will not be alone when they do. If we are His, He will be with us. He will, as did Chole's father, hold us all the more tightly in the storm, protecting, comforting, keeping us safe and secure. Chole, in her own life storms,  would choose to not go through them alone. Whether she was aware of their approach, or they suddenly burst upon her, she would choose the company of her Lord and God. He would be her companion. For you and I, who will we choose to spend the storm with? In whose company will we choose to go through it? Chole has learned the power of intimacy with Christ. Have we?

Fear, anxiety, and a hundredfold other destructive emotions and thoughts cannot remain in His Presence. If we are living in His Presence, neither can they remain in us. Chloe learned to not fear the power of an earthly storm while held in the arms of her father. She later learned the same as she lived in the arms of her heavenly Father. May we join her there. He invites us to do so. Storms are coming upon us. For many of us, they're already here. Let us not only claim the promise of Isaiah 43:2, let us live it out. Let us live in deep safety of His loving arms.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Magoo Syndrome

 A popular cartoon character of the 1960's was a gentleman known as Mr Magoo.The running joke was that Magoo was extremely nearsighted, almost blind, but didn't know it. He would drive his old car, careening about and creating havoc wherever he went. He was rarely aware of this, but on those rare occasions that he was, he would blame it all on those who were affected by it. Driving down the wrong side of the highway, causing disaster everywhere, he would yell, "Roadhogs!" and continue on his way, oblivious to all the destruction he left behind. My question today is, "How much of Magoo is in you, and in me?"

Magoo's vision problems made him unaware of almost everyone else while remaining acutely focused on himself. Our spiritual vision problems do the same with us. When we lack the ability to see things as they really are, then everything becomes blurred, but we become so used to that the blurring seems normal to us, just as it did with Magoo. We're not blind, but we think everyone else is. They're roadhogs and they need to get out of our way. This is the life of the self-absorbed. They live traveling on the wrong side of the road, never realizing that the actual roadhog is....themselves. 

All of us, to some degree, are Mr. Magoo. All of us, to some degree, are roadhogs. The sin nature that we are born with makes it so. In 2 Peter 1, Peter writes about the spiritual fruit that will develop in a life given over to Christ. He lists the fruit as "self-control, patient endurance, godliness, love for other Christians, and love for everyone." In all of these we are to grow and we will grow as we live fully in Him. Peter then writes, "But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind...." Or, more to the point, they're Magoos. Card carrying, bona fide Magoos, creating havoc and chaos wherever they go. It's who they are. Is it who we are, in part or in whole?

I think in every aspect of the culture, and it's found its way into the church as well, we're seeing the effects of "The Magoo Syndrome," perhaps nowhere more than in the political spectrum. Our spiritual blindness has made Magoos of us all. 

One of the common endings of a Mr. Magoo cartoon was that after all the destruction and chaos that took place because of his blindness, the title character would exclaim with a note of triumph, "Oh Magoo, you've done it again!" May the Lord open the eyes of all of us who suffer from the Magoo Syndrome so that we may cease "doing it again" and always at such a cost. Open our eyes Lord that we may see. Not just others, but even more, ourselves.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Hymn

 In my prayer journal today I came upon the lyric for the powerful hymn, Jesus Paid It All, by Elvina Hall. This is a hymn I have sung more times than I can remember. You may be able to say the same. I wonder, in all the churches, choirs, worship teams and people where it has been sung and by those who have sung it, just how real are those lyrics to us? To you, and to me?

I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small; child of weakness watch and pray. Fine in Me thy all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin has left its crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Undeniably powerful words. How real are they in our daily experience?

I wrote the other day of A.W, Tozer saying that we use the language of power, but that our deeds are the deeds of weakness. I'm sure we don't see it that way. We feel like we're doing things with all our strength, and I'm sure we are. We just don't seem to grasp that all of our strength will never be enough to overcome the evil one and the fallen world we live in. In fact, we're so absorbed in taking on that world in our own strength that we can't even hear the words He speaks to us in the process. We don't want to admit that we're weak, so we never hear His voice telling us that we're too weak to prevail. So we wear ourselves out and never seem to really progress in our journey with Him. So the first thing needed in living out this hymn is to learn to hear His voice. Can we be still enough to do so?

If and when we hear His voice, almost always He will tell us to do nothing else but to "watch and pray." Yes, there will be a time to act, but we act only upon the direction He gives, and that direction comes as we are still before His Presence. Listening for His voice and His heart. As we listen, we also watch. When we do this, something miraculous and wonderful will take place. We discover in ways we never knew the infinite power and wonder of who He is. Something mystical happens. In the stillness He invited us to bring all that we to all that He is. He invites us, calls us, to bring all our ourself into all of Himself. It is then that we discover that He is our "all in all."

Why do so few of us seem to enter into this place? I think it's because we don't realize how sin has so completely permeated this world we live in. It has left its stain upon everything, including us. There is no way that we can rid ourselves of that stain. The sin that entered into the human race through the rebellion of Adam and Eve has left us with a debt that we can never repay. That's why the Father sent His Son, Jesus, to pay that debt though His death on the cross. And He sealed the victory won there with His resurrection to life from that death. He paid the debt we could not pay and He paid it all. Jesus paid it all. Yet somehow, we struggle to believe this. There must be something we have to add, and there is. We have to cease our striving and enter into the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's the only way to erase the stain of sin. Have you entered into that work? If not, will you not enter into it now?

We are lost without Him and all our striving will not help us. May we confess our weakness and the stain of sin in our lives, and then answer His call to enter into His life through the finished work of the cross.  May we know, finally, that He not only paid it all, but that He is our all in all.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Fireproof?

 "John answered them all saying, 'I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Luke 3:16

The martyred missionary Jim Elliot once wrote, "God makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable?"

That's a piercing question. It cuts to our very heart, the seat of all of our motives and desires. 

Everywhere in the professing church there is much talk and seeking of revival. We're calling on the Father to send the fire of His Holy Spirit upon the church, and then through His church, upon the surrounding culture. The desire for Holy Spirit revival has always been present in His church to varying degrees and I expect to some degree it is present in us. How "present" is that desire today? How deep is the desire?

I am convicted by Elliot's words. If the Father makes His ministers a flame of fire, and all those who profess to follow Him are to some degree His ministers, then how "ignitable" are we? Are our hearts and spirits so thirsty for the water of His Life that we can "catch fire" when He comes upon us, or are we so soaked in the sewer water of this world that we have been rendered "fireproof?" The condition of our hearts gives the answer.

I think within the heart of the church and the individuals who compose it are two elements that render us fireproof. The first is pride and the second is its cousin, and unrepentant heart. We recognize that the church needs revival, that the surrounding culture needs His Spirit powered transformation, but somehow, we don't feel that we ourselves need either for ourselves. We're proud and we're arrogant. We know very little of what it is to humble ourselves before Him. In ancient Israel the people cried out for their God to come and save them from the chaos taking place all around, but when the prophets He sent to them called them to repentance, to a humbling of themselves before Him, they refused. They wanted change to what was happening to them. They wanted none for what was going on within them. How like them might we be?

Scripture says, "When My people, called by My name, will humble themselves and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will come....." We like to talk of how wicked and evil the culture has become but we have grown comfortable with that very culture in the church. If there is to be any hope for a world trapped in death, it is for a church that is alive in His Holy Spirit, bearing the light and fire of His Spirit to it. A.W. Tozer once said, "Modern Christians use the language of power but our deeds are the deeds of weakness." This is so because we lack the power of His Holy Spirit coursing through the heart of His Church. Through the hearts of His people.

Let us cease offering language. Let us draw near to Him as He surely draws near to us. Let us come with humble, broken hearts and spirit, seeking all the fullness of His Life and power. Scripture says that our God is a consuming fire. May our heart prayer be, Lord, consume me, consume Your church, consume a lost generation, desperate for Your life. May we be fireproof no more.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Message

 For those who have spent much time in the church, there is a Scripture that is very familiar to us, and much loved at that. It's Matthew 11:28 and Jesus' invitation to "Come unto Me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It's a beautiful invitation and promise. A very true promise. So, why do so few of us really experience the wonder and beauty of the invitation? I think it's because we don't understand just what Christ invited us to do.

A very popular Christian band through the mid 90's and into the early 2000's was the group, Delirious. They sang some extremely powerful worship songs. One such was The Message Of The Cross. It has as a lyric, This is the message of the cross, that we can be free. To lay all our burdens here, at the foot of the tree. It goes on to the lyric, Let us rejoice at the foot of the cross, we can be free, glory to God. I think this truth is key to why we miss experiencing the wonder and beauty of His promise and invitation. We don't understand or else refuse to do that which opens the fullness of the promise to us. We don't understand that when Christ invites us to come unto Him, He is also ultimately inviting us to come to His cross. It's His cross that leads us to life, freedom, and rest.

When we lay all those things that weary us, hurt us, crush us, and in the end will destroy us, we don't just come to Him with them, we surrender them all to Him. We may willingly come to Him, but surrendering all to Him? That's another matter altogether. Perhaps the hardest transaction for any of us to make is the giving over from our hands everything in our lives into to His. It means we release control and ownership of all of it to Him. Our flesh demands that we cling to them. His cross commands that we die to that demand and yield them all to Him. We die to them all, and included in the "all" is our own will.This is a stumbling block for our flesh and our self-will. So much so that many, most, turn back from His invitation and never enter into the promise. His invitation remains before us and we love how it sounds. We don't love what it entails.

People have oftentimes asked me to pray for them that certain chaotic situations in their lives would change. I believe that they do want the change, but they never seem to grasp that all of my prayers or anyone's prayers won't matter until they themselves release the root cause of the chaos to Him....at His cross, and the root cause is always a refusal to surrender everything in their life to Him. So the chaos, the situation, the pain and the difficulty remain. They want to come to Him, but they stumble at coming to His cross and surrendering everything to Him. That's the essence of the message of the cross.

What are you doing with the message of the cross in your life? What you do will determine how you will live. You may have come to Christ for salvation, the forgiveness of your sin, the promise of heaven, for entry into His Kingdom, but have you come to His cross? Have you laid everything in your life, your very life itself, at "the foot of the tree?" Have you died to your will there so that you might live in His? The fullness of the message of the cross is the only path into the fullness of His rest, peace, joy, and abundance. May you, we, receive the message in full.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Nominal?

 Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Luke 12:34

Since the beginning of my ministry 40 years ago, A.W. Tozer has been a mentor and an inspiration. Today was a day that he was both.

In his daily devotional, Tozer asks, "Is the Lord Jesus Christ your most precious treasure in the whole world? If so, count yourself among 'normal' Christians, rather than among 'nominal' ones." Then he goes on to give a dictionary definition of the word "nominal." He writes that it is "Existing in name only, not real or actual; hence so small, slight, as to be hardly worth the name." He then writes, "I cannot understand how anyone can profess to be a follower and disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ and not be overwhelmed by His attributes."

He can't understand, yet each week, people come to gatherings that are called "worship" and aren't overwhelmed by much of anything, let alone the Lord Jesus. We file in, oftentimes 20 minutes late, take another 10 minutes to get "comfortable," and then try to focus on the last song being sung before the preacher comes to deliver the message. All the while our minds are more focused on what went on before we got here or on what awaits us when we leave. We bow our heads when asked to pray, stand up when asked to sing, and listen quietly (at least outwardly) while the pastor preaches. Then, at the end, we get up, head out to the parking lot, get into our cars, and then plunge into the rest of the day. But what has happened? What have we experienced? How have we changed? Did we encounter the risen Christ? Do we even know that we can?

The evangelist Vance Havner once said that living out normal New Testament Christianity in the modern American church will make one seem abnormal to the majority. So let's go back to the beginning of this writing. When you first read about normal and nominal, which did you consider yourself to be? As Francis Chan once asked, "When was the last time you read in the Book of Acts about the first century church and said, 'Wow, that's just like us?' " Could it be that in our day to day lives, in our corporate gatherings that we call worship, and in our moment by moment experience of Jesus Christ, we're far more in line with being nominal than being normal? We have treasure, and we know where it's buried, but little if any of it is buried in Him.

It's time for the church, both the individuals that comprise it and for the Body as a whole to have its spiritual pulse examined. Not by church growth experts or guru's, but by the Holy Spirit Himself. Perhaps the witness of our lives marks us as being far more nominal than normal. May we seek Him with such passion that we are overwhelmed by His response. May we carry that overwhelming experience in Him to our worship gatherings and behold Him to overwhelm His people. May we renounce all of our treasures that are not Him so that we can soak in the wonder and splendor that is Him. Let us dare to be so normal in Him that those around us who are not, just shake their heads and think us abnormal. Paul called it being a fool for Christ. Are you and I willing to be one?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Middle Life

Pastor and author Francis Chan told of a group within the church he pastored. He'd been preaching on the cross, commitment to Christ, and holiness of life. The group that came to him were alarmed. They felt that his preaching was "too radical." They feared he was becoming a fanatic about it all. They urged him to take a more "realistic" approach. They said that there was a "middle road" that he should take. A flexible road. A less threatening and frightening road. They asked for a road that Jesus Christ never made any allowance for. He still doesn't.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:14 that we're to enter into the narrow gate and to walk the narrow road. He said the other choice was to take the wide road. A road that would lead to the destruction of all who took it. We are conditioned, apart from Christ, to want the wide road. We see it as freedom. Freedom from all the rules and limitations that our flesh despises and we think will suffocate us. The flesh will never choose the narrow gate and the road it leads to. That comes only by the leading of His Holy Spirit. Here's the catch; the deception, if you will, of the so-called wide road. It doesn't lead to freedom at all. Invariably it leads to a life lived for the sole benefit of self. It wants more, demands more, consumes more. The wide road consumes us, and eventually, we are made captive to our desires, which so easily become habits and addictions. We discover, often too late, that we were never free at all.

Many sitting in church each week know this. They reject the wide road, but at the same time, they're very leery of the narrow gate. They're like the group who came to Chan. They want an alternative to both. So they create a middle road. Not so wide, in their thinking, as to lead to ruin, but not so narrow either so as to limit the realization of their goals and desires, many of which are totally centered on self. Somehow, they never see that Jesus never gave anyone this option. Ultimately, the middle road leads to the same place that the wide road does. Too many never realize this until it's too late.

How can this be? The answer isn't complicated. Middle of the road "believers" seek out middle road churches and pastors. Places where their flesh can be comfortable and not overly troubled by the call of Christ to take up their cross and follow Him. The question for each of us is, are we a middle roader and are we a part of a middle road church? If we haven't been confronted with this question, we will be. We are coming into days when the middle road will have disappeared. We'll find it was never there at all. We either walk His road and His way....or we don't. There'll be no third option.

May we die out to our fear of the narrow gate and way. To walk it does involve the carrying of His cross, which becomes our cross. But it isn't a way which restricts freedom. It bestows. It is, as one man put it, " a narrow road that leads to a wide life." On it we find the fullness of His abundance and presence. We find freedom from the obsession with satisfying our fleshly desires which are never really satisfied at all. They always want more. We find in Him the true riches that we were made for and have yearned for. We once thought the wide road led to what our hearts desired, but the narrow gate leads us to discover all these riches were always to be found in Him. Peace, joy, love, life, and infinitely more.

If you've not yet discovered the narrow gate, I pray that you will. Do not shrink from it. Enter in. Discover the life you were created for. Experience the narrow road that leads to the widest of lives.

Blessings,

Pastor O