Stale Bread

 "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." John 6:35

If you've ever eaten stale bread, you know how unsatisfying that is. It's dry, tasteless, and hard. Bread, made fresh and well, is really a pleasure to consume. Not so with that which is stale. We don't settle for the stale in our physical lives, why do we in our spiritual ones?

In one of my prayer journals, I came across a statement I wrote a few years ago; "Lord, I'm tired of stale bread." I don't remember what prompted me to write that, but obviously, I hadn't been getting His bread fresh and whole. Certainly He offers it fresh and whole. How can it become stale?

Fresh bread becomes stale bread when it's left out and is unused. I think it's the same in the spirit realm. We have ample sources through which He gives us His bread of life. Foremost is His Word through His Holy Bible. We receive it in our personal reading, through messages from the pulpits of His church, through songs sung in the Spirit, and through the whisper of His Holy Spirit into our hearts. Really, He has no limitations in how He may provide us His bread of life. Our problem is that we too often leave His bread out and unused. It becomes stale, tasteless and dry. This happens because receiving His Word is not our priority. Scripture says that man shall not leave by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We know the Scripture but that hasn't prevented us from trying to live by the junk food and soda pop of this world. Meanwhile His bread of life, so readily available to us, is "left out," uneaten and stale. We may have been reading His Word and listening to messages in His church, but we've not really "eaten and digested" that work in our spirits. It's not become part of us. What He means to be living and alive is instead stale and dry. It happens all the time and always so easily. Has it been happening to you?

The good news is that though we can mask our hunger for His fresh bread with our consumption of the world's junk food, we cannot extinguish the hunger for it. He created us to hunger for it. We grow weary of junk food and the staleness of unused bread. We hunger for the real thing. When we come to full awareness of that, He is right there, offering us His bread fresh, whole, and new, and it only takes but a bite to experience how delicious it is. How life giving it is.

Have you had enough of the world's junk food and the stale, second hand bread that you've left uneaten? Come and receive from His hand the bread of life, His life. Have it fresh and whole and as much as you like. He never runs out. He never will. Come. Eat and be filled.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Traveling Light

 There's a word spoken by the Father that can strike terror into our hearts. That word is "Go." Both the Father and Jesus have spoken it time and again to those who would follow them. The Father spoke it to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and all of the prophets. Jesus spoke it to Peter, Paul, and to each of His disciples. They speak it still today, to you and to me.

Following hard after God will always involve going. Yes there are times we're to stand still, but that is a temporary place. To those who would know Him and His intimacy, the call is always to go. If we're to be with Him, we must go with Him. And there will be risks, dangers, and yes, suffering. That's when the choice comes to us; will we go anyway?

Someone said that in order to go anywhere you have to leave someplace. And almost always, we can't take our "stuff" with us. Those who travel with Jesus travel light, and the journey will always take us well beyond our comfort zones. Our spiritual ancestors named above all lived lives that mattered. They dropped all that would weigh them down, hold them back, and they picked up His cross....and followed Him. If our lives are to really matter in eternity, we have to do likewise.

Scripture tells us that He's the God of all comfort but this is something different than having comfort as God. Too many of us have chosen the latter. Beth Moore said that when we choose comfort as god we cut ourselves off from the God of all comfort. Those who were the heroes of faith spoken of in the Bible lived in decidedly uncomfortable and dangerous places. Deserts, wildernesses, caves. Yet in these places they experienced an intimacy with God they would never have known in comfortable places. We read of these men and women in the Bible and want to live such lives of adventure and wonder as well, but then we realize the potential cost...and too often, we shrink back. Jesus said His disciples out with nothing, calling on them to depend upon God for all they needed. Great crowds followed Jesus....until He asked such of them. The majority melted away. Do we melt away as well with such a call to go with Him?

We may dream dreams, but we'll never realize them from our spiritual recliners. We want to go with Him, but we're too attached to where we are....and all our stuff. We'd like to launch out into the deep with Him, but we can't figure a way to take all of it with us, and the fact that He wouldn't allow us to anyway settles the matter for us. 

Where has He called you and to go? Is it into a place that looks hopeless? A ministry that offers nothing but His Presence? Is it to do the impossible? Frightening indeed. Yet He promises to go with us. Is that enough for us? Or do the chains of our stuff and our comfort bind us too tightly?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Tight Places

 Pastor and author Thom Gardner tells the story of the day he was called to the hospital as a result of his daughter's auto accident. The initial information indicated it wasn't serious but when he arrived at the scene  he learned that 1 person had been killed and 3 others, including his daughter, were badly injured and had been airlifted to a hospital 60 miles away. Gardner relates how through the next 60 hours he and his wife were numb with shock and desolate in spirit. He wanted to be a rock of strength, but he wasn't. When they finally saw their daughter, they were devastated by the extent of her injuries. She was expected to recover but faced a long and painful healing process. He writes that he was filled with the same questions as we would be. How could He allow this to happen? Why has it happened? We've been faithful, where were You? Where are You? Where is Your faithfulness?

Eventually he needed to come to grips with it all and wrote, "We humans are always trying to make sense of things in order to gain some kind of control over our lives. I am convinced that all of us waste so much energy trying to understand things that are not meant to be understood. To make sense out of the nonsensical." 

He went to the junkyard where his daughter's car had been taken. It was destroyed, but as he looked at the driver's area of the car he was amazed at how the entire front of the car had collapsed in on it. There was only a tiny space there. He wondered how she was not crushed and killed instantly. The Lord then whispered into his heart these words; I am abundantly available in tight places. 

They came from an interpretation he'd come across from Psalm 46:1. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. The original Hebrew translates, I am the God who is abundantly available in tight places. God then opened his heart to see how He had been so to his daughter from the very first. From the first responders through the paramedics and to the ER Doctors and nurses and surgeons who performed her surgery. He was made to see what we so often question about the goodness and faithfulness of God. That He is totally good and totally faithful.

We live in a fallen world. Evil is real and it is here. We have never been promised exclusion from its consequences. What we have been promised is His Presence and Person in the midst of all of it. He is a very present help in trouble and abundantly available in the tightest places of that trouble. He is Immanuel, with us in every way. 

Trouble comes in this world. It's part of what we call life. None are exempt and there will be many tight places. Trust Him. Discover that He will be and is abundantly available in all your tight places. Stop struggling to make sense of it all. Be still and know that He is God. Listen for His whisper. Look for His face. As Gardner writes, "The tighter the place the more abundant He is." Trust Him to prove to you the truth of that.

Blessings,
Pastor O

I Know

 Are you familiar with the phrase, "Yada, Yada, Yada?" The popular 90's comedy Seinfeld did an entire episode on it. It's actually a Hebrew word and its root meaning is "to know or to understand." So, if one uses the phrase "Yada, Yada, Yada," they're in effect saying, "I know, I know, I know." Anyone who's had a child knows that this is one of the first responses they learn to any direction their parents may give them. It certainly was mine. It was my go to answer and always spoken with a defiant accent. It's also not confined to children. The landscape of adulthood is teeming with members of the Yada, Yada, Yada tribe. The tribe of "I know." We use it in relationships with one another. We also employ it in our relationship with Him.

The word Yada suggests a personal knowledge. When we are confronted with the truth of what His Word is saying, our response is most often, "I know," but do we really? When Jesus dealt with people, He wasn't moved by their praise or exclamations of loyalty. He knew what was in their hearts. They loved His works but they were not so fond of His words. Oftentimes, more unspoken than not, their response to Him was, "I know, I know, or more correctly, "Yada, Yada, Yada." Can you and I dare to go to our own relationship with Him to discover just where we respond in the same way? His words pierce our defenses and rather than melt before Him and deal with the need then and there, we, like the defiant child, simply say, "I know! I know Jesus, I know." Yada, Yada, Yada.

We probably don't have to go very far to find the last place we did this. The recent sermon message we heard may be it. We may have filled a notebook with our jottings, complimented the pastor as we left,but what, if anything has penetrated our hearts? What degree of transformation has taken place? Have we yet again simply said to Him, "Yada, Yada, Yada?"  We've heard it before, we didn't listen then, we're not really listening now. We think we already know. Because we think we already know, we can't hear. It can be just as true of the shepherd as it is of the flock.

John 17:3 reads, "Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." This is life. Knowing Him. Not all the "stuff" and trapping of religion or doctrine. Eternal life is at root knowing Him. It's a knowing that worships Him. It's a knowing that can do nothing else but worship Him.

At some point today, He will speak to you. Will you hear Him? Are you looking to hear Him? If you do, how do you answer? Will it be the Yada, Yada, Yada of the flesh and of death, or will it be the Yada of reverence, wonder, and intimacy? Will you miss Him because you think you already know, or will you receive so much more because you do know Him and are embracing the opportunity to know Him even more?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Lion's Den

 "Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching." 2 Timothy 4:2....."The great need of the hour in the church of Christ is for Spirit filled, Christ centered courage." Alistair Begg

An evangelist named Paul Washer was recently asked what he thought the greatest problem in the church in America was. His blunt reply was simply, "Cowardly preachers."

Before I write about anything in that quote, I want to look at the Scripture from 2 Timothy and what it is actually exhorting, no, commanding His preachers and people to do. First off, we're to preach the Word. All the Word, that which blesses and that which brings heavy conviction. That which heals and that which cuts us to the quick. That which lifts us up, and that which takes us and our pride down. That which soothes, and that which hurts. Preach the Word, all the Word, and do it with the heart of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we're to be prepared to do so. This means we arm ourselves with His Presence and Power through prayer and intimate time with Him and His Word. We listen to Him and seek His guidance for what it is we're to proclaim. We may have an idea for a series or topic, but we are totally available to His voice to drop it all with just a whisper from Him/

Next, we're to proclaim His Word whether the conditions for doing so are favorable or not. It's not too difficult to preach Truth when we know the atmosphere of the fellowship is hungry for that truth. What about when it's not? What about when there's an element or elements within the congregation that do not want that issue brought up? What about when we know that there will be backlash if we do? What if somebody, maybe a number of somebody's leave the church if we do? We know it's the truth that needs to be proclaimed. His voice has told us so. The voice of fear says to be silent. His voice says otherwise. Who do we listen to?

We're then directed to do three things. Correct, rebuke, and encourage. The last comes easy, the first two do not. To do so anyway will bring a cost to us. Perhaps a heavy one. Do we proclaim His whole Word, no matter the cost, or do we not? How we answer all these questions will determine whether we stand in our pulpits or in the public square with courageous hearts or hearts of water. Whether we preach words that tickle ears or pierce to the very center of a listener's being.

I'm not asking these questions of you first. I'm asking them of myself. The church is in crisis whether we realize it or not. Things have been loosed in our culture that seek the destruction of His church and His people. God needs men and women willing to go into the lion's den and proclaim Christ and His Truth there. J.B. Chapman said that, "A lion's den with God is better than a castle without His Presence." He is seeking those that He may lead into that den. Will you and I be among them? Will we trust that He is Lord even of the lions?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Sound Bites

 One cannot live on snacks. Oh, we can get by outwardly, but inwardly our body's internal condition will deteriorate, and the cost will be "death" in the form of illness, disease, or even a literal death. In the same way, we cannot thrive spiritually by "snacking" on the word of God, though that is exactly what the majority of professing believers do. In fact, in the church, we don't so much as snack on His word as to depend on "sound bites" of it.

Sound bites are defined as "short phrases or sentences taken from a longer speech or interview." Too many in the church are getting nothing more than sound bites of His Word and Life. We get sound bites from the weekly message we hear from the pastor, or at least whatever part of it we may listen to. We get them from the songs we sing, or at least those songs that actually point to the heart of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We get them from the daily Scripture we receive in our email, or the devotional book we use that's designed for people on the run. We get a sound bite of His words, His mind, and His heart. We get sound bites of Him, but we don't get Him. We can't really realize Him or experience Him though the sound bites of our day. We need to soak in His Presence. We need to be saturated in His Word and His mind and His heart. We live life on the run and that leads to us to just simply run by Him as we do.

No one is immune to this. Pastors can be as guilty as anyone. I've listened to many a pastor confess that they didn't explore His Word in order to grow deeper in their relationship with Him but for the purpose of finding sermon topics to preach on. They depend on shortened excerpts of another's experience of Him. Someone said that the congregational flock will never be anything more than what their shepherd is. We have far too much evidence that this is so.

Are you depending on, living on sound bites of His words, mind, and heart? Are you trying to live an abundant, overcoming life in Christ by simply snacking on His bread of life? You can't. You will die of spiritual malnutrition and you will die by inches. Come to His bounty. Come to His table and dwell there. Partake of Him and His life. Listen to His heart. Turn away from sound bites and snacks and learn what it is to live in His abundance. Stop wasting away.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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