Crucified

Sadly, though Christ and His cross are central to our Christian faith, we seem to know little of what the crucified life entails. Paul said in Galatians 2, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in (and through) me. Paul's letters are filled with descriptions of living out a crucified life, a life where we have died to our own will and are completely surrendered to and live for His, yet we seem largely ignorant as to what it all means to us personally. When Christ calls us to Himself, He also calls us to His cross and go to our own Calvary. A.W. Tozer gave a powerful description of what is entailed in the crucified life. I share it with you today. The Romans were highly skilled at putting people to death and had many cruel means of doing so. Crucifixion was among the worst, if not the worst. Tozer listed three things about crucifixion that apply to everyone who comes after Jesus Christ..... The one being crucified could face in only one direction. When we follow after Him, we go in only one direction; where He leads. We're not to be concerned about any other. Where He leads we follow, regardless of the danger, the cost, or the place. This must already be settled in our heart and will. If it hasn't, we will always be looking for a way out of our following, or we will have set pre-determined boundaries as to how far we will go with Him. With the crucified life, there can be no reservations. The one being crucified can never turn back. The old hymn comes to mind here; I have decided to follow Jesus...no turning back, no turning back. Again, those who have chosen the crucified life have already made the decision that there would be no turning back in their journey with Christ. They would not lag behind and they would not run ahead. They don't ask the Lord for details about what lies ahead, they simply trust that He knows the way and that He leads in a direction that will bring us our ultimate good and blessing. The hardness of the way, the pain that may be involved, the losses that may be incurred, none will deter them. They will not turn back....ever. The one being crucified no longer has any plans of their own. The one condemned to crucifixion was under the complete control of those who'd nailed them to the cross. Those who live the crucified life have yielded all control and all the details of their life to Jesus Christ. They may talk with their Lord, ask of their Lord, and have hopes in their Lord, but all of this is completely surrendered to Him. Their attitude is like that of their Lord in the Garden when He asked the Father to remove the "cup" of the crucifixion from Him, but said in the asking, Nevertheless, not my will but Your will be done. This is the crucified life. Is it yours and is it mine? There is no such thing as a casual follower of Jesus Christ. That's an oxymoron. We should tremble even thinking that it's possible to be such. Jesus said that Where I am, you shall be also. That promise entails riches untold stretching into and throughout eternity, but it also includes a cross. Yours and mine. The cross will always lead us to the tomb of our old carnal flesh life, but it will also yield the wonder of His resurrection life. May we meet Him at His cross. Our flesh will fight it, but our hearts will yearn for it. Which wins out in you and me? Blessings, Pastor O

Persuaded

Jesus asked, 'Do you finally believe?' John 16:31 Written in my prayer journal is the simple question, "What will I believe today?" I don't remember what prompted me to write it, but it's a question we should hear from the Holy Spirit every day. What is it, in the midst of the day's challenges, heartaches, disappointments, and defeats, that I will believe? What will I believe about the Father? Is He Almighty, all knowing, filled with compassion, mercy, and love. That's what I've always said of Him. Now, today, when everything seems to suggest that He's none of these, what will I choose to believe? The same question is asked of me, and of you, about the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the truth of Scripture and His promises. I have come to see that none of us will really be able to say we believe until that belief has been tested in the fire. Jesus asked this question of His disciples after they had proclaimed their belief in Him. The key word in the question is "finally." They'd professed their belief and trust in Him before and He'd witnessed their wobbly faith. Their belief would soon be tested in the fire, the fire of Pentecost. They, the ones of wobbly faith, would emerge from the flames of the test with their belief in Him established. They could say, as Paul would eventually say, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He will keep that which I've committed unto Him." Are you and I persuaded? Has our belief in Him ever truly been tested? Has our faith really gone through the fire of adversity? It will be, and more than once. That's why the question about what we will believe today is so pertinent. Each day is a new day with new giants, mountains, and valleys containing the shadow of death awaiting us. We can't depend upon what we believed yesterday, but we can resolve that we will believe it is so today. Our tendency is to take He and His promises for granted, and this makes us vulnerable. We need to face the day with a Holy Spirit empowered resolve to once again, believe and trust Him. A resolve salted with Holy Spirit fire. Do we finally believe Him? The answer will be found in what we believe about Him today. Will what we believe stand the test of fire? Blessings, Pastor O

Peace Treaties

Today, I want to expound on some quotes I have in my prayer journal. It's easy in an unholy world to make peace with unholiness Paul Tripp We, the professing church, know that this fallen world is unholy. It always has been. So much so that I believe the depths of depravity that we're seeing in every corner of society are succeeding in hardening our hearts and conscience towards it all. To what degree have we, you and I, made peace with it? How much of what is happening all around us doesn't really bother us all that much? No, we may not indulge in it, but neither are we much offended by it. It invades our hearts, our minds, our homes, and even our churches. Have we just decided to co-exist with it? Worse, are we, His church, His holy church, actually participating in it all to varying degrees? Where have we signed peace treaties with the world? We keep lowering the bar of what's acceptable Paul Tripp This quote should make us all squirm, because we know it's true. In many corners of His church, we just look like cleaned up versions of the world around us. It didn't happen all at once. It never does. Satan is far too subtle and sly for that. He slowly increases his depravities in the world, and we slowly acquiesce to them. Things thought unthinkable just 25 years ago have dug deeply into the church. The word "holiness" is disappearing in the teaching and preaching of the church. It is not only a central attribute of Almighty God, it was a central doctrine in the church. It may still be found on plagues and wall hangings in the church. Is it found in the heart of the majority of our people? We are tolerating things in ourselves, things we should be confronting. Lisa Bevere When we "sign" peace treaties with the world and the flesh, we give ourselves permission to cease asking Him to search our hearts for "any sinful and hurtful ways." In short, to make straight that which was crooked in our behaviors and thinking. When this happens we grow ever more tolerant of and at peace with things we would once have given no place to. By His grace, we confront the issues He has pointed out, but our compromises have ended that. The result is that we grow ever more blind to our inner corruptions and ever more "at peace" with them. Have many such peace treaties have we signed? Do we realize that they bring no real peace at all, and eventually, the enemy will destroy us through them. May the standard of His holiness be lifted up in our midst. May we cease making treaties with the enemy that only end up surrendering more and more of our heart to him. May we refuse to tolerate the very things within us that put Jesus Christ on the cross. Blessings, Pastor O

Alone

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But Christ stood with me and strengthened me." 2 Timothy 4:16 I recently watched a 40 plus years old interview of Billy Graham. He was asked what the greatest problem facing people might be? His answer surprised the one doing the interview, and likely most who watched it, both then and now. He said he believed it to be loneliness. I agree with him, and if it was so then, how much more is it now with technology and social media isolating us from one another to a degree that brother Billy could not have envisioned? Loneliness has invaded every corner of our culture. Husbands, wives, children, friends. All of us know it. We are seeing a frightening number of suicides by all age groups, but especially among teens. Most, in the notes they leave behind, speak of feeling utterly alone, uncared for. It is so in the world, and it is so in the church. How many of those that we "welcome" each week, leave our gatherings feeling the deep pain of loneliness? How many enter through our doors each week yearning to be noticed, accepted, loved, and then left unfulfilled? I realize that this is not completely on the church, but how hard do we really try to bring people into our life communities? There is a wide difference between being a welcoming church on the surface and one that really seeks to bring people into an authentic Christian community. At a church I once attended in Richmond, Virginia, there was a greeter everyone called "Pop." He was a large, gregarious man. He was not well educated, or distinguished looking, but every week, as people came in, those who were in his vicinity were swept into his embrace, as he said, in words you knew were true, "Welcome! God loves you, I love you." The pastor of that church said he asked a man who was attending for the second time why he had returned. His reply was that he wanted to be embraced by Pop once more. He wanted to be told that he was loved. How many like him are we not seeing? Not just in our church gatherings, but in our everyday affairs, in our everyday encounters with the people who are all around us? Somewhere, if it still exists, is a photo of me at one of the endless parties I once lived for. All around me are people, yet I saw in my face what I knew then was in my spirit. I felt totally alone. Surrounded by people, but alone. I knew when I looked at it that I'd reached the end of myself. I knew I couldn't live like this anymore. All of us have felt abandoned, isolated, and betrayed. The pain is great. We know, like Paul, what it is to have no one "stand with us" in our heartache. Yet there is one thing that will be true if we will allow Him. He, the Lord Jesus, will come and stand with us, to strengthen us, lift us, comfort us, and love us. He will never fail to do so. Little more than a month after seeing the photo, He came to me, entered my heart, and nothing has been the same ever since. Since that time there have been a number of places where I felt the pain of betrayal, abandonment, of being forgotten. We will all experience the loneliness that these things bring, but we don't have to experience them alone. He will come. He will stay. He will not leave. You may feel that no one sees you or knows where you are. It's a lie. He is the One who sees you. He knows right where you are. Call to Him. He will come. His guarantee is written in His blood. Blessings, Pastor O

Red Dot

"Then the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?' " Genesis 3:9 Have you ever found yourself in a mall or an airport trying to get your bearings? You can see what's all around you, but you don't really know where you are in relation to everything else, and particularly in relation to where you want to get to. Then you come to that large stationary layout with a floor plan. There is always a prominent dot, usually red, that tells you, "You are here." All that brings me to another question for each one of us. Where is our "red dot?" Where are we really at? In relation to others, in relation to Christ? We can see what's around us, but does what we see really tell us where we are spiritually? Do we even know? Where are we in our walk with Him? Where are we in our marriages, families, friendships, and ministries? Do we have a sense of where we want to be but don't really know how we're to get there? How do we really "get our bearings?" How do we get to where He wants us to be? To where He is? I think it starts with His words to us in Scripture; Be still and know that I am God. Busyness is the great enemy of intimacy with Him. Distractions keep our attention on everything but Christ. There are plenty of "roadside attractions" to sidetrack us from Him. Our red dot can be found in so many places He doesn't want us to be, but we won't know that until we stop, be still, and tune our hearts to Him. We won't discover who He really is or where we're really at, until we're still before Him. How does our "dot" get so removed from Him? There's more than one reason, but I think the greatest is that we're hiding from Him, and we find unending ways to do so. Sinful behavior is certainly at the top of the list, but we can hide in plain sight in so many ways. Jonah has plenty of company in his running from God in order to avoid His will and call. He ended up in the belly of a fish. Where and to what has your running and hiding brought you? Here's the beauty in it all. If your red dot is now in a place you never thought you'd be, a place you never intended to go, don't panic. Stop running and hiding. Simply be still, listen to His whisper of grace. Surrender where you are to Him. Call out His name, and He will come. He will come and take you to where He wants you to be in all aspects of your life. Your red dot and all that comes with it has to be surrendered to Him, otherwise you'll keep running, keep hiding, keep wandering, and always going nowhere. There's only one place your dot needs to be; right in the center of His heart. When that happens, you'll never need to ask where you are because your know where you always are. At home in His heart. Blessings, Pastor O

Sing

God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, Job 35:10 I think we all have those days and times when we don't "feel" like praying, praising, singing, or reading Scripture. Our emotions are leading us. If we follow them, they'll take us ever further from His Presence. In these times, in these desolate places, we need to believe that He is the God of desolate places. At root, we need to choose to believe He is who He says He is. We need to surrender to His Truth and not to our emotions. Maybe you're in such a place right now. Nothing about your circumstances, needs, or what seems to be points you to Him. It all points away from Him. It is here that we're faced with a choice; will we run towards Him, or will we run from Him? Don Moen is a worship leader that I listened to a lot back in the 90's, a time when He was reshaping what I believed about worship. I began to learn how He was able to lift me above what I might be feeling and into the realm of where He was. It was then that I began to understand what John had gone through on the Island of Patmos, a prison island. His emotions, feelings, and spirit had to have been at a low ebb, but he heard the Holy Spirit calling him to look up, not down or around, but up....to Him. As He did so, he saw a door opened into the throne room of his God and Father. He saw everything from the perspective of His throne room. Things as they really were and not how they seemed to be. True reality is not found here in this passing realm, but in eternity. In that which never passes away. I just watched a video featuring Moen, singing a song simply titled, "I Will Sing." His song spoke to all I've just written. Despite his heartache, his questions, his crushing emotions, and his fading desire to go to his Father, he would sing. He would pray. He would praise, and because he would, he, like John on Patmos, would also see that door unto His throne room opened as well. So will we. He knows we, like His Son, Jesus Christ, will enter into desolate places. He wants us to discover that He is Lord of the desolate place. How we feel at a particular time doesn't change that. He challenges us to believe, to trust,.....and to sing, to pray, and to praise. When we do, if we will, we will see Him, and when we see Him, the words of the great hymn will come true for us; It is well with my soul. My friends, it is well because He is with us. You may be in the desolate place. Take heart. He's the Lord of every desolate place. Even yours. Blessings, Pastor O

Rise

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” John 11:43....."The blessings of salvation began the day Jesus blew the door off a tomb." Chris Tiegreen I heard a song the other day where the lyrics, based upon the above Scripture, have the Lord Jesus calling Lazarus to "rise and come forth." Rise seems to be a word Jesus often used, with cripples held captive by their mats to the dead, or like Lazarus, held captive by his tomb. All it took to break the power of the disease, the chains, even death and its tomb, was a word from Christ. Nothing has changed in the last 2000 plus years. He's still speaking those words to those who can hear them. Can you hear them? Will you hear them? As a pastor for more than 40 years now, the hardest part of ministry has been seeing people remain on their "mats," held captive by addictions, the past, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and every sort of wound that has never been healed. I have seen people, even His people, who still have much of their lives still entombed by things that they have done or have been done to them. To all of them, to all of us, to you, He speaks and calls, "Rise, and come out!" In those words, in His invitation, is infinite power. All of it focused on us, on you. I love that quote from Tiegreen. He literally "blew the doors off" of His tomb, Lazarus' tomb, and our tomb if we will have it. All the power of death in all of its forms is rendered powerless by His risen life. A risen life that He offers to us. Not just in some future time, but right now. Right here. Death could not keep Him, and it cannot keep us. Tomb life is no life at all, so why do we stay there? The darkest and most terrifying tomb we could ever imagine cannot keep His voice and His presence out. He will penetrate it and His words, if we will listen and receive them, will snap every chain, put to flight the deepest darkness, and blow the doors off of the strongest tomb. All we need do is to, by His grace, rise, and come out, come forth. I know what it is to be crippled by what has happened in life. I know what tomb life is like, along with all the hopelessness and despair it brings. I'm well acquainted with deep dark places. I tell you, His voice, His call, can be heard there. The devil may have convinced you that all is beyond hope and help. It's a lie. All you need do is call upon Him, for He has been calling upon you. He stands at the immovable stone, the doors of your tomb, ready to blow the doors off, already calling you forth. All that needs be done has been done. Leave your mat, your tomb behind. Rise, go forth, and follow Him......Someone said that in the place of total desperation and helplessness, all you need to do is cry out from your heart, "Jesus, come and save me." It's true. I did, and He did. Lose the mat. Lose the tomb. He calls to you. Rise up. Come out....to His risen life. Blessings, Pastor O Blessings, Pastor O