Beyond Hope?

I watched a teaching by Francis Chan this morning that really impacted me. He was speaking about the passage in Exodus 34:6, where Moses passionately desires to see God. In the translation Chan used, he said that "the Lord descended and stood beside Moses," saying, "I am the Lord, merciful and gracious." There is so much to say about what is happening here, but what moved my heart so strongly was that of Almighty God coming down to where Moses was and standing right there with him. It was what Moses desperately wanted and needed, and God, in His gracious mercy, came to Him. No, it was not a bodily presence, but a spiritual one. Moses beheld the glory of God. This moved my heart to think of all those who need such an encounter with Him today. All those who need the God and Savior who comes down to us in our deepest darkness, valley, and need. Christ came down to us that He might live for us, die for us, and rise for us, but He has never ceased to come down to us wherever we are, whatever our need, and whatever we've done or has been done to us. There is something so powerful about this truth, and the instances in His Word where it happened abound; when Paul stood before Nero, the Roman emperor, alone and abandoned by all, but "Christ stood with me." He comes, wherever we are, whatever the need. He comes as He is and nothing can keep Him away...if we truly desire His presence. Joni Eareckson Tada said that, "Jesus goes where no medicine, no surgery, no counselor can go." We may be in the place considered to be "beyond hope," but it will never be beyond Him and His ministry to us. Beyond His promises to us. God is a merciful and gracious God, and He shows it perfectly in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. Wherever you are today, however deep or seemingly hopeless your situation, He will come down to you. He will stand with you. He will go where no one and nothing else can go....and He will minister His life to you there. Call upon Him. He will come....and leave the means of His coming to Him. There is no place that is beyond our hope in Him. Blessings, Pastor O

Disarmed

No weapon forged against you will prevail and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. Isaiah 54:17 I have written before about my time during the first months of my marriage failing and having to step out of ministry, and of my living on a deserted church campground for a time. The campground was the property of my denomination, and a cottage had been graciously offered for my use. It was also where I had been ordained just two short years before, as well as the place where our District churches gathered each year to report on the just ended year and about how God had been moving. I was thankful for a place to go, but it was a hard place for me to be. The enemy's assaults on me made it even more so. To get to the cottage I was staying in, I had to walk every day past the Tabernacle where I'd been ordained and where the churches gathered each year as a District. Each time I could "feel" the mocking laughter of the devil. He reminded me that this holy place was one that I would never again stand in as a pastor. One I would never really have a place in again. I can't tell you just how real all that was to me. Everything that was happening in my life seemed to undergird the enemy's words. I could not see a way where I would ever be standing in that place again. Yet, I decided I wouldn't walk on my feelings or appearances. I believed that He had promised me that I would, so I did the only thing I could do. I kept on, though I had no idea of just where I was going. A year later, while working at a bank, He began to move in amazing ways in my life. A former classmate at the Bible College contacted me. He said the Lord had put me on his heart, and that he should call me to his church to be his associate. A door opened and I went through. I spent two years as a bi-vocational pastor on his staff, and then the Lord moved again, and again through a former Bible College classmate. His church had lost its building due to debts, but there was a small group from his congregation that wanted to go on as a church. They would not be able to support a pastor and his family, but they could support a single pastor. The Lord put me on his heart and he contacted me to see if I would come. Another door opened and I went through once more. Planting a new congregation is anything but easy. The challenges were immense and it was in Northern Virginia, a graveyard for church plants. The trials and hardships were many, but in all of them we were overcomers. We pressed on. Moreover, we thrived. No, we didn't become a megachurch, but we reached people who likely would never have been reached otherwise. We impacted many, many lives. What I remember best is what took place at the end of my first year, right back at that campground and that Tabernacle. Back at that District gathering once more. I remember almost nothing from my report that day except my final words. I gave glory to God saying that I rejoiced to be back standing in the place the devil said I'd never stand again, doing what he said I'd never do again. All the weapons he'd thrown at me through seemingly endless sources had failed. He couldn't keep me from the purposes the Father had for me. I pastored and led that fellowship for 27 years. I not only saw Him move in miraculous ways, but I came to know Him in ways I never dreamed possible. Truly, He restored for me all the years that the locusts had devoured. No, I never became a "name" in our denomination. I never kept company with those who were. That was never His purpose for me anyway. Keeping company with Him was. He'd been completely faithful. Satan lost...again. The Father, through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit was victorious again...as He always will be. So, if you find yourself in a barren place today, hearing the voice of hell in your ear, press on. Expect and believe for the miracles that He'll do in and through you. Blessings, Pastor O

He Comes

Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you." There are so many paintings of Jesus Christ coming and saving those who are in desperate need of Him. I think my favorite is the one that shows Him reaching down to one who is underwater and drowning, with the intent to rescue them from certain death. It comes nearest to reminding me of my own saving experience with Him, and I've a life experience to compare to it. In my childhood, there was a lake in a western Pennsylvania state park that my family would go to every summer. It was always a great time. The lake itself had a rope stretched across the swimming area, preventing non-swimmers like me from going further out into deeper water. I would always go to it with the intent of testing the limits. One time, as I was walking along the rope, I stepped into a hole. I was immediately underwater and didn't know how to get out of it. I floundered about, getting my head above water, and then sinking again beneath it. After several repeats of this, and in near panic, the lifeguard, who was not far away, saw me and dove into the water to save me. He brought me to shore, and I knew he had saved my life. I've thought often of that day, 47 years ago this month, when Jesus Christ came to a floundering, drowning young man, and saved me. I don't have any memory of even noticing that lifeguard who before he jumped into the water to save me, but he was there. He was looking all about him. There were other people around, but none of them saw me. He did. He came. He saved me. It was much the same in my spiritual experience. All my choices had led me to a place where I was slowly but surely drowning. Like my childhood self, I was floundering, sinking, becoming more and more unable to keep my head above water. I remember being in a room full of people, partying as usual, yet feeling lost, broken, hopeless. None of those around knew it or saw it. Yet Jesus, who I hadn't really been aware of for many years, was there. He saw me, and He came in the midst of me floundering about to save me. My drowning went on for a couple more months, but all the while He was there, guarding me, leading me to Himself, till the August evening, when in the dining room of the home I grew up in, I came into His saving embrace, and He lifted me out of the hole that was destroying me, and took me safely to the shore of His Kingdom. I have been with Him, and more, He has been with me ever since. I don't know where you're living this day or how long you've been there. I don't know what enemy, obstacle, danger, or threat comes against you. I don't know how deep the hole is that you are trapped in. What I do know is that He sees you and He comes to you. When that lifeguard came to me, I didn't fight against him as panicking people are prone to do. I allowed him to embrace me and take me to shore. Jesus comes to you where you are right now. Enter into His embrace. He has come to save you from whatever it is "killing" you. Let Him. Cease fighting. Cease running. The Lord who reaches down to where we are in order to lift us to where He is, has come. Let Him save you. Blessings, Pastor O

Deeper Surrender

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. Phillippians 3:8 There's an old hymn that I love with the lyric, "Deeper, deeper, in the love of Jesus, daily let me grow." Something I've learned is that He will seek to see if we will live out all those songs and verses that we say we love. I remember so well a true crisis time when He sought to see if I would. Our church had lost the first lease we'd ever signed. A printing company wanted our space and would pay more than we ever could. We had to find a new place to worship. It was a bad time for this to happen. Rents had risen dramatically, and we would have to pay double what we had been paying. Our leadership and I prayed and sought Him and His will. We felt that a space I'd found would work for us, but it would be challenging financially. Going into our previous space had also been so, and had also required a step of real faith, trust, and dependency upon Him. We signed a lease, and then everything seemed to come together to obstruct our way. Several families chose this time to leave the fellowship, though they had never talked to me about it. I had believed they would be part of the ministry going forward. Some others had job transfers that took them away. In the end, we lost a great deal of the financial base, a base I had been counting on. Our resources began to dry up, and though we were attracting new families, our resources were not increasing at the rate we needed. By the end of our first year, we were in a very hard place. Paying our rental obligation was becoming not just difficult, it had begun to look impossible. I not only couldn't see how we could do all that was needed, I wasn't seeing Him. I had lost Him in the midst of the need. Yet I would find out He was there all the time....waiting for me. I always considered myself a man of faith and one who trusted God, but my response to the need was to take it upon myself to try and make up the monthly shortfall. I began to do cash advances to meet our rent. Month after month I did this. The pressures upon me mounted. I cried out to Him for help, but no help seemed coming. Finally, after months of this increasing unbearable pressure, I broke. I was exhausted. I was in despair. I couldn't go on like this. I was at the end of myself. I was also at the beginning of God, but I wouldn't realize that for a bit. My leadership had been faithful in this as well. They were good givers. We made some decisions. We would tithe 10% of our income regardless of what our monthly expenses were. That was good and God honored that, but that was not what opened the door for His miracles. That came when I reached the blessing of releasing what I thought was my responsibility, seeing that all was taken care of, and turning it all over to Him. All of it. Not just the need, but the pressure, the worry, the anxiety over all the "what if's" that the devil would throw at me. He had taken me to the place of a deeper surrender to Him, to His Lordship. To His faithfulness. To His promises. I would surrender my place of trying to provide for His church. I would surrender to His promise to do so. From that moment, everything began to turn around. The challenges were still there, but I never had to do another cash advance. I realized that my doing so had been my telling Him that I didn't trust Him to take care of His church. His church, not mine.We were there three more years. We paid all our obligations in full. Both Kingdom and secular ones. Through my deep need and pain, I had found a deep Lord and a deeper grace. It was a lesson I would never forget, but one He has had to refresh me about more than once. As He seeks to do a deeper work, He also seeks to bring us to a deeper surrender. Maybe He's doing that in you right now. Yield to Him. He won't fail you. He never will. Let the chains of self-reliance go. Find the victory that can only come from our surrender. Blessings, Pastor O

41st Day

I watched a wonderful teaching video today. You may have heard this before, but even if you have, it's worth a revisit. The person speaking listed a number of events in the Bible that dealt with the number 40. Moses spending 40 years in the backside of the desert. Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Goliath taunting the army of Israel for 40 days. Jonah preaching in Nineveh for 40 days. Jesus going without food or water for 40 days in the wilderness. These are just a few of the examples of happenings around the number 40. What is the core significance in all of them? All of these events contain hardship, suffering, danger, impossibility. All of them went on for a lengthy time with no seeming change coming. More, all of the events had been directly or indirectly ordained by God. Those in the midst of it all had two choices; they could either press on, persevere, obey, and trust, or they could give up. Sometimes they knew that the Father had brought all of it about, at other times, these things had come upon them. Either way, their choice was the same. Either keep walking forward, even though it appeared they were going nowhere, all the while trusting and obeying, or simply stop, give up, and turn back, and this is where the teaching becomes so powerful and clear. No matter how many days, weeks, or years were involved in the number 40, in every case, there was also a number 41. For Moses, in the 41st year, God appeared to him and commissioned him to lead his people out of slavery. On the 41st day, David faced Goliath and slew him.On the 41st day of Jonah's preaching, Nineveh repented, and a mighty move of God swept the entire city. In the 41st year of Israel's wandering the wilderness, God brought them into the land He had promised them, and on the 41st day of His temptation, Jesus caused the devil to flee from Him.....and none of it would have happened if any of them had given up on the 41st day, week, month, or year. That's the lesson, encouragement, and promise for each of us. No matter how long our wilderness trial has been going on, despite the pain, the cost, the danger, press on. Don't give up. Your 41st day will come. He will not fail you. How many of us, when we stand before Him one day, will be shown those places where He had purposed to bring us glorious victory and the laying hold of cherished promises, but we never had them because we gave up on the 40th day? Hold on. He will not fail you. There is a 41st day for each of us....if we do not give up. Blessings, Pastor O

One

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. John 17:21 It's been said, many times in fact, that this is the one prayer of Christ's that has never been fully answered. Jesus prayed (and still prays I'm sure) that His church would be one in Him and His Father. This means unified in the Holy Spirit. As we honestly examine not only our local church, but our particular part of the Body of Christ as to its relation with the rest of the Body, can we agree? He tells us in His Word that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit, yet we consistently do so, and nowhere perhaps so much as how we relate to one another in Him. I have pastored divided fellowships (an oxymoron perhaps?) and suffered at their hands, along with many another pastor and person. How deeply we have grieved His heart with the ways we treat one another. It has always been so to varying degrees. I believe in these days that may well be the last days, that it is only getting worse. For some time now, I have been witnessing the people of God devouring one another. I have watched and listened to many good brothers and sisters being attacked, labeled as heretics, purveyors of witchcraft, rebellion, false doctrine, being wolves in sheep's clothing, and much more. All because they may hold to a doctrine that is at odds with theirs. I believe in having sound and correct doctrine and beliefs, but as Lisa Bevere, who herself has been accused of being much of what is listed above said, we are never going to agree on every point in our particular doctrines, but we must, absolutely must, center on being in agreement in the core beliefs of the Bible; the Personhood of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Original sin and the truth that all are lost and that Jesus Christ is the only path to the Father. The authority of Scripture, the cross of Christ, the resurrection, and holiness of life. There will be differences, such as how we see the gifts of the Spirit, eternal security, healing, and hearing the voice of God. None of these are central to our faith. The fact that we are human means we will differ on some points, but we cannot differ on that which is central to our faith. In these we are to be immovable, but as John Wesley, on all other things we are to show love towards one another. What is going right now is anything but loving. Every time I see an article or hear someone preach against others who do not agree with their particular doctrine, my heart grieves. I can't begin to imagine how it must grieve the heart of God. Jesus prayed that the world would see our unity, a unity based upon holy love for each other, so that they might believe the Father had sent Him. How many do not believe because all they have seen is a church at war with itself, and what part have we played in that war? Where heresy and false teachings are being spread, we need to counter it with His Truth, and strongly, but we do so in love, not with attacks and name calling. Let us gather around what is essential to the faith, and show tolerance and lovingkindness in the areas where we may differ. Let us do so that we may bless and bring joy to the heart of Christ, and in the opening of the eyes and hearts of an unbelieving world as it sees how much we love Him, His people, and them. Blessings, Pastor O

His Song

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Psalm 134:7 A friend of mine regularly sends me his writings. They're a blessing. One of his most recent closed with an exhortation that we, the followers of Christ, would not cease singing His "song" as we walk through this "strange land." An increasingly strange land. The above Psalm was written during Israel's Babylonian captivity, with the psalmist asking the question of how could the people sing of Him and to Him in this land of bondage and pain? It's a fair question. One many of us are asking even now. How in the land of our affliction and heartache, can we be expected to sing songs of praise and gratitude, of His glory and greatness in the "land" we are walking through. Today I attended the graveside service of a man who recently died from the disease of cancer. His father, my friend, sat at the graveside. 10 years earlier, almost to the day, he had buried his daughter in this same cemetery. His only two children, both taken too early by a hateful disease. How could he sing the Lord's song in this land he found himself in? How could the man who just a week ago received a letter from his wife's lawyer, initiating divorce proceedings? How could the young husband, who tomorrow will bury his lovely wife, also a victim of cancer? How can any of us who walk through the darkness that surrounds us? The answer is not easy to come upon, but it is real, and it is true. I heard Joni Eareckson Tada speaking this morning on suffering, something she is far too well acquainted with. She spoke of the furnace experience of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's furnace experience at the hands of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. They had refused to bow to the godlike image of himself he had made. He ordered their execution in a blazing hot furnace. They didn't die. Instead, as the king looked on, he saw not just the three men walking about in the fire unharmed, but a fourth who was with them. That one was Christ Himself. Tada said that in the midst of the white hot flames they came into a union, and intimacy with Him more wondrous and glorious than any words could describe. It's what she has discovered in her own suffering. It's what He would have us discover in ours. This is how, even in the strangest land of deepest sufferings, we may still sing His song, even though we sing it with tears. In the flames, we find the sweetness and intimacy of Christ. To be a follower of Christ is to be a stranger in a foreign land. This is not our home, and this land we walk through on the way to that which is our home, is filled with loss and pain. We will enter into the furnace more than once, but in it, we will discover an intimacy with Him the flames and heat cannot touch. If you're there, look for Him, because He is there with you, and if you let Him, He will give you His song, and you will sing it, even if you sing it with tears. Blessings, Pastor O