Moving

 I saw a wonderful video on Facebook this morning that blessed my heart and spirit. A young man approached an elderly woman and asked her if she believed in Jesus. She immediately said with great joy that she did. Then she gave a small testimony of how this had come about. She said in her youth during the late 60's, she had been heavily into drug use along with her boyfriend. She was descending ever deeper into darkness....but the Lord was moving. She said one evening, as her boyfriend was shooting up in the bathroom, in brokenness, she cried out to Christ. She said immediately there was a powerful presence that came down upon her and she was filled with a peace and joy she had never known before. She left that place and that life and never looked back. Now, as a woman coming to the end of her life, she sang a hymn of praise as she and the young man prayed together, her joy and peace still full and vibrant. She was radiant with the beauty of it all.

As I think on this I'm also thinking of all the tragedy, pain, and suffering we're witnessing in this world.There is the devastation of the Los Angeles fires and Carolina floods. Of the Florida hurricanes as well as the destruction taking place in Russia and the Ukraine and in Israel and the Middle East. Add to this the misery and suffering of all those lives enslaved in the sex trade. Everywhere I look, where we look, there is pain and sorrow. Yet what I also see is Him, Jesus the Savior, moving and ministering in the midst of it all. It is who He is and what He does. I have seen it first hand throughout my ministry and in the current ministry of the church I'm a part of and serve in. He is moving upon lives heretofore trapped in darkness and hopelessness. He is moving here and all across this nation. People of every age, social strata, and occupation. Celebrities and unknowns alike are being found by Jesus wherever they are, no matter how great the darkness of that place, and coming out of their captivity and lostness. 

The enemy is at work. That can't be denied, but the King, Jesus Christ is at work as well, through His Holy Spirit. Where sin abounds, grace abounds more. Everywhere, miraculous life transformations are happening. People, once spiritually blind have received their sight. Healing, miraculous healings are happening everywhere. The devil would have us be paralyzed with fear at his works. Refuse to give in to that fear. The Lord is moving....everywhere. Look for Him. Expect Him. Intercede for all those trapped in darkness and believe that He is answering....because He is. No matter how deep the darkness, it can never stop it being pierced by His wondrous Light.

Blessings,
Pastor O

This Thing

I write a lot about trust in these offerings. That's because going ever deeper into our trust in Him is a lifelong journey. There is so much I have come to trust Him completely in and with. There is just as much or more than I continue to learn of what trust in Him really is. This is a journey we cannot avoid if we wish to truly step into our destiny with Him.

In Deuteronomy 1:28-32, Moses is speaking to the people upon the return of the 12 who'd been sent out to explore the land God had given the Israelites. Two of the 12, Caleb and Joshua, urged the people to step out and take possession of this wondrous land He had given them. The key phrase here is, "He had given them." It was already theirs. The remaining 10 were gripped with fear at the prospect. Danger and risk were everywhere. Obstacles abounded. The hearts of the 10 and those who heard them melted with fear. Moses confronted them in it. He related to them all the miracles God had wrought in bringing them to this place. In verse 32 he says, "But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God for this thing. Two questions must be answered: What events have brought you to this place and, what is this thing for which you cannot trust Him?

For me, there have been too many of these things that I struggle to give to Him in trust. The Hebrew understanding of the word "trust" is that it is "something that is known in the head and felt in the heart." For our own particular "things," we may mouth the words of trust from our heads, but our hearts seem to know nothing of it. In these places with these things, our hearts are heavy and weary. The deeper the mistrust, the more heavy the load and the more weary we are. We need healing. We need to be healed of our determination to do in our lives what only He can do. The pressure of this will always crush us. In the end, it will destroy us.

How did we get to where we are in our faith journey thus far? What have we seen from His hand and more, what have we seen and experienced from His heart? What is "this thing," these things which bring us such heaviness? What keeps us from trusting Him with them. All of them? What area of our heart and mind needs His healing so that we can release them to Him?

We have come to this place. What things do we still carry? What things keep us from enter into the fullness of His life? What keeps us from these words from Proverbs, where we "trust Him with all our hearts, leaning not to our own understanding, acknowledging Him in all our ways?" Release this thing, these things, all things to Him. Let us enter into the rich lands of His promise. He has brought us to this place for that very purpose. Let His purpose be fulfilled in each of us.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Kingdom Come?

 "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10

The Lord's prayer. In the church, we learn it as children in Sunday School. It's prayed by so many in both our large and small group gatherings. Most of us in the church have memorized it. We could pray it in our sleep. Maybe that's the problem. We've been asleep as we pray.

When we ask for His Kingdom to come, in what time frame do we mean that? I think for the most part, we mean it for a future realization. We know one day, with His return, He will usher in the fullness of His Kingdom. That's true, but does this mean that He doesn't also intend that we realize His Kingdom life right now? Right here?

Chris Tiegreen writes that, "Jesus' desire is for the earth to look like heaven." He asks what would be the result if we believed that literally, right now, and not just "put it off into some future time?" I think we in the church are guilty of doing just that. We know that the fullness of His Kingdom is coming, but we lose sight that it has also already come. It is here. Jesus said that the "Kingdom of God is among you." For those who have believed upon Him, it is within them, and Jesus means for it to spread and grow. The Kingdom of God can be realized in part, a real and great part, right here and right now. Even in the midst of a fallen world.

We need to get swept up in that reality. Our prayers, and particularly this prayer, need to be infused with His Holy Spirit and a holy expectation. We need to pray this with fervor and expect to see it being fulfilled in this present time. No, we are not going to see sin, evil, corruption, and all the fruits of darkness disappear from this world, but we can see them blunted and pushed back. This will be the result of His Kingdom expanding, one soul and life at a time. Kingdom light shines ever brighter with each life that is brought to the saving grace of Christ. The darkness shrinks at the same time. All the above fruits of darkness may remain, but their power is diminished as His power and presence grows through His church and people.

It has been seen in the world and in this nation before. It needs to be seen and experienced anew through Holy Spirit revival. In the great Welsh revivals of the 19th century, God so moved upon hardened, blasphemous miners and their families that the very donkeys that were used in the mines had to be re-trained because the only commands they'd ever heard had been foul cursing's and blows. Drunkenness and all manner of vile behavior in the streets of London was horribly rampant but the city and all of England was impacted deeply by the Wesleyan revival of the 19th century. These outbreaks spread to America and have continued. The last being the so-called Jesus Revolution of the 60's and 70's that laid hold of a lost generation, of which I was a part. The Kingdom that had already come, came in reality for a generation. It must be so again.

May it be that we, the people of God, would in heartfelt fervor and desire, cry out once more for His Kingdom to come upon this nation and this world, and, upon us. The evidence for that need is everywhere. May His Kingdom come and invade every aspect of our culture, including His church.  The church first, but also the government, the legal system, the economy, our schools and universities. Let us pray big prayers and expect great answers. His Kingdom has come. May we behold to come anew....right now and right here. In us, and through us.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Severe Mercy

 "Lord, I thank You for Your ministry of the night." A.W. Tozer

Joni Eareckson Tada is one of my greatest spiritual heroes. Paralyzed by a diving accident at the age of 17, she has been wheelchair bound for 55 years as a quadriplegic. She lives with intense pain every moment of her life. She is deeply acquainted with suffering, and through it, even more deeply acquainted with Christ.

Recently in a video, she spoke words that, as always, pierced my heart. She said of her suffering, "What a severe mercy, but what a sweet one. It has made me get to know Him better." C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled, "The Problem Of Pain." The problem of pain and suffering has been a stumbling block for so many in their thoughts on God. How could He allow it in the lives of those He says He loves. Tada has discovered something in hers that few of us ever do. She has come to know that the God who allows pain and suffering in our lives will use that for a very divine purpose, that of growing ever deeper in knowledge and intimacy with Him, with Jesus Christ our Lord. Severe mercy leading to sweet knowledge.

Tada said that sometimes her pain is so intense that she cannot put two words together in a prayer. In those times, she says that the hymns she has grown to love and cherish will come to mind and their words will flow through her mind and spirit. One of these has the lyric, "Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side." In her suffering, she has come to know the truth of that lyric. In this fallen world where suffering will come to us, we can know that in the midst of the deepest pain and sorrow, He is on our side. Loving us, keeping us, sustaining us, leading us home. And revealing to us ever deeper aspects of who He is. That is His severe mercy that is at the same time, sweet and tender mercy.

In one of my own times of dark pain and sorrow, I read the classic book by Paul Biltheimer, "Don't Waste Your Sorrows." I only partially understood what he spoke of then, but the years and the dark passages I've walked have taught the deeper truth of what He was saying. I have learned more of Him in the darkness than I ever could have in the light. The way of suffering will always reveal more of Jesus, the Suffering Servant and King,than could ever be realized in soft places. The Man of Sorrows reveals Himself in our own sorrow.

As I said, Tada is a hero. She has walked through the darkness bearing more sorrow than I could ever deal with. She knows Him in ways I never have. Her life inspires me to not waste my own sorrows, but to use them as bridges to an ever deepening walk with Him. To understand the severe mercy she speaks of. May that be the result for you as well. In the world we will have tribulation, but we can be of good cheer. He has overcome all the suffering we could ever walk through, and in Him, we do as well. Because of her suffering, Tada can take the hand of her fellow sufferers and help them home. May we, in our own small ways, allow Him to use our pain to do the same. 

Blessings,
Pastor O

Broken Dreams

 Has your dream died? Maybe all your dreams have died. How do you reconcile that with a good and loving God? A God we're told has a "wonderful plan for our lives." How can dead dreams fit into that promise? Could it be that it comes to just what our dream is all about?

I love Psalm 37:5. "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." It has been a life verse for me. I've preached it, taught it, and prayed it. Yet as I claim this promise I also learn the great depth that it holds, and how easily we miss that. At first glance it would seem that all I need to do is to give Him my way and He'll bring about the desired result for my way. Isn't that what it says, or does it?

I continue to learn that if I commit my way to Him, it is no longer my way. It's His. It's owned by Him. Controlled by Him. He's the Lord of it and I'm not. I'm told to trust Him with it. Author Larry Crabb asks, "If we're trusting Him, we must ask, 'For what?' " Most of us have taken this promise and made it very much about our way. We loan it to Him but with the understanding that He will do things and work things that are in agreement with what we think our way should be. He will bring to pass the results that we desire. When we do this, we fall into what Crabb says is the next step; disillusionment. That's not a bad thing. To be disillusioned means we've been set free from the illusion, and believing that the Father will lead us into anything but His best is certainly an illusion. We're willing to settle for what's good. He means for us to enter into His best, even though the journey often doesn't look like it. 

In the Gospel of John, the first words Jesus speaks are, "What do you want?" We want a lot of things, but how deeply have we thought about His question? We want good things. Good marriages, children, jobs, and ministries. Yet for so many, those dreams are broken, never realized. We gave them to Him, we trusted Him, where is He? Why didn't He come through for us? We've seen Him do these things for others, why not us? What's wrong with Him? What's wrong with us?

We need to go back to Crabb's question. What are we trusting Him for? Do we really desire His best? Job said, "Though He slay me, I will trust Him." That's radical trust. In the midst of his pain, disappointment, disillusionment, and loss, He would believe God for who He said He was, and would be, regardless of the dead dream. The Father meant for Job to realize that He was to be His dream. He desires that He be ours as well. In His goodness, He gives so many good things, but He never promised to give us everything. Yet He has promised to give us all of Himself. The good things we want so badly are passing away. He desires that we have His best, Himself. Being one with Himself. In the midst of our broken dreams, He's there, inviting us to come and experience Him, know Him. The gift of Himself. A gift that stretches through all eternity. 

I don't know why He allowed your cherished dream to die or mine, but I do know that for us He has a greater one. If we'll trust Him, He'll bring it to pass. It won't resemble what our original dream was, but once we've laid hold of it, of Him, we'll never let go. Believe Him, trust Him, lay hold of Him. Out of your dead broken dreams will come His dream, and His dream will be infinitely greater than any of ours. Don't miss it. It only grows more beautiful.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Milk & Honey

 I once heard speaker, author, and actress Priscilla Shirer ask this question; "Will we know about Him, or will we experience Him?" She went on to say that the goal of the Israelites coming out of the bondage of Egypt  was to come into the land of abundance, the promised land. The Bible calls this the "land of milk and honey." She asked, "Is there milk and honey in our lives?" How we answer her second question hinges on how we've answered her first. Do we just know about Him, or are we experiencing Him intimately in our day to day living? 

I believe Genesis 28 speaks to this. Jacob, fearing for his life after threats from his brother Esau, is fleeing to Haran and the protection of his mother's relatives. He makes camp for the night and in exhaustion, falls into a deep sleep. As he sleeps, God comes to Him in a dream and says to him, "I am Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you, and I will give it to you and your descendents." God goes on to elaborate on this promise and then says, "What's more, I will be with you and protect you wherever you go.....I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised." In the 16th verse, Jacob awakes and exclaims, "Surely the Lord was in this place and I wasn't even aware of it." Jacob's grandfather and father had both known, followed, and experienced God on an intimate basis. Jacob had grown up hearing and knowing about that God, but had never experienced Him. Till now. How like him are we?

Shirer says that the goal of coming out of bondage is to enter into abundance. To enter into the lifestyle of milk and honey. Sadly however, too many of us never really enter into the fullness of His abundance or partake of His "milk and honey." We never really experience and come to know the beauty of the God we say we believe in. We hear stories of Him. Our hearts are pulled towards Him, but our "knowledge" rests mostly in hearsay, not personal experience. 

I think there are two reasons for this. First, we have flawed ideas of what the land of milk and honey contains. We make it all about material things. An abundance of earthly riches. The Father certainly does give us good things, but this land will not be found until we first enter into it from within. Our full inheritance in Him is found in the inner riches of His peace, joy, rest, contentment, and strength, to name a few. The second reason is that we simply fear to enter in. It's estimated that about 2 million people left the slavery of Egypt. Of that number, only 2, Joshua and Caleb, did take possession of the land. The rest died in the wilderness. Two out of two million. Which group would you and I have been part of? 

Jacob began his journey with a solid knowledge about God, yet that night, as he lie down to sleep, he did so oblivious to His powerful presence in that place. When he awoke, it was with an experience of the God he'd only heard of. Are we ready to awake as well? Are we ready, at last, for the true milk and honey of the God we profess to follow? He offers such a land to us. Are we ready to enter in, or, do we remain in our wilderness?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Intoxicated

"And do not be drunk with wine...but be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18....."When a man becomes Spirit-filled, he literally becomes God-intoxicated." Jack Taylor

To say someone is intoxicated is not a praiseworthy statement in almost all places. We almost always will go directly to the picture of someone reeling about, fully under the influence of either alcohol or some other type of substance. We use terms like "drunk" or "loaded" to describe them. They are literally at the mercy, leading, and in the control of whatever they've been drinking or ingesting. I know. Before Christ, I spent a great amount of my time as an adult in just such a state. Alcohol had little place for me, but if you could smoke it, swallow it, or snort it, I was your guy. I knew full well what it was like to be intoxicated, fully under the influence of what I was using. 

When the disciples who were in the upper room at Pentecost had the Holy Spirit come upon them, they immediately went out to proclaim what the Spirit had done. So filled with His Life and Spirit were they that onlookers thought them to be drunk with wine. What they were was totally under the control and influence of His Holy Spirit. They were preaching, by the direction and power of His Holy Spirit, the crucified and risen Christ, and they were doing so in the power of His Holy Spirit. It was He who had fallen on them. It was He who had led them out into the city, and it was He who gave them the message that they now proclaimed. They were filled with His Spirit, fully led by His Spirit, and compelled by His Spirit. Pentecost and its fruits is to be the experience of a believer. However, is it the experience of you, of me? Of your church fellowship and of mine?

Theologian Jack Tayor writes, "The tragedy of the church is that there seems to be everything evident but POWER!" Think on this. Deeply. Do our lives bear witness to the power of His risen life? Does the life of the fellowship we are a part of? Does Holy Spirit power mark our ministry and the ministry we belong to? Has our life been radically transformed by His Life? Do we live a life that is clearly led not by our desires but by His? Is what we define as "worship" more man-centered or Christ-centered? We are called, as individuals and fellowships, to believe the impossible, to do the impossible, and all by the power of His Holy Spirit. Are we living out that call? Are we a God intoxicated, Christ intoxicated, Holy Spirit intoxicated people and church? Is everything evident in our gatherings but Holy Spirit power?

In John 20:22, we're told that Jesus breathed upon His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." One thing I know for sure, Jesus Christ is still speaking, still breathing, and still giving His Holy Spirit to His church, and to you and to me. May I be, we be, His church be, those who are God-intoxicated in all of our ways and in all of our ministries for Him. May we walk, minister, and live in the fullness of His Spirit. 

Blessings,

Pastor O