Who?

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” John 16:15 Jesus had just asked His disciples who the crowds believed Him to be. They gave a diverse number of answers while Jesus patiently listened. Then He confronted them with a question that had to be asked and that His disciples could not avoid answering. Peter, impetuous Peter, answered; "You are the Christ!" The Messiah. The Savior. Jesus blessed him, saying that Peter knew this because the Holy Spirit had revealed it to Him, and not the reasonings of men. I've been thinking this morning about how it seems so many who profess to have faith in Jesus Christ seem to know so little of who He is. We can recite who the Bible says He is, but if we're pressed to answer who He is to us, we often stumble. We know facts about Him, but we know little of Him. We know little because we have experienced so little of His reality. When we come into our times of crisis, we often flounder about because facts lodged in our heads have little impact upon what is going on in our hearts and in our spirit. We can "believe" that He is our Healer, Provider, Protector, Champion, Almighty God, and all the Bible says that He is, but we have never really experienced Him as such in our day to day lives. He's a historical figure whom we know is real, but He's never been "real" in our daily lives. The key to understanding all of this is found I believe, in Jesus' statement to Peter, that he was blessed because he didn't know this by his own reasoning but because the Holy Spirit, at work in his heart and through his experiences with Him, had revealed to Him who this Jesus was. And there was so much more knowledge and understanding yet to come for Peter and all the disciples. The Father, through the Son and His Holy Spirit, longs for us to know Him. For you to know Him....beyond anything you ever thought possible. In His Word He says, "I have so much more for you than this," but that so much more is too often not realized. We're satisfied with bread crumbs instead of bread, fresh and whole. We're satisfied with second-hand knowledge and second-hand faith, trusting in what others say about Him or have experienced in Him, but never really experiencing Him ourselves. We sit as paupers at the doorway to His riches. May we, wherever we are on our journey, constantly seek to know Him in ever deeper ways. Ask His Spirit to reveal to you deeper understanding and knowledge of Him. To shape you, transform you, to take you ever deeper into the reality of who He is. It can start with the simple prayer, "Lord, I want to know You. The real You, as You are, and as You wish to be with and in me." Ask for a burning passion for Him and be sure that He will answer that. I don't know how He'll respond to you in that, but I know this; when He asks "Who do you say I am," you'll be able to answer from your heart, because His Spirit will have revealed Him to you, and you can trust that He will never stop doing so. Never, ever. Blessings, Pastor O

Hearing, Seeing

 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.  Matthew 13:16

Jesus spoke these words to His disciples just after he had described the generation He had come to as having eyes and ears to see and hear, but they could not see and they could not hear....but His disciples could. I believe He speaks these very words to our present generation as well. Most especially those who would describe themselves as His followers. We cannot expect those who do not know Him to either see or hear the things of the Spirit. They have no ability to do so. Jesus wasn't speaking to a generation of people who knew nothing of God's Word. They did, yet they could not see or hear that Word as it was right before them in the Person of Christ.

Here in the 21st century church, we also know of His Word, and He is definitely working and speaking in the midst of all that is happening right now in our culture and in the culture of the church....I have written in my prayer journal, Father, we see but don't see, hear but don't hear. In the events unfolding before us, let us see what You're doing and hear what You're saying. Jesus was speaking to professing believers, but most did not hear what He was saying or see what He was doing. Where do we fit today? With the "most" who see and hear without seeing or hearing anything, or with that much smaller group that does?

I think what we're seeing unfold everywhere around us, as well as within the church itself, has deep ramifications for us on every level of life. For our nation, the nations, for ourselves and our families, and especially for the church. I have been praying for the Father to raise up a generation of "men of Issachar," men who recognize the times they are living in and know how to respond and act in those times. Most especially are such needed in the pulpit. The church is desperate for those who can bring forth the depths of His Word in the power of His Holy Spirit. Men and women who hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Those who move and speak with a holy boldness, fearless, whose hearts burn to share what the Lord is saying to them and to His church. Those who are willing to be "Watchmen on the wall." Those with discernment, wisdom, and understanding. It will be a lonely calling. In many ways an unpopular one. Those who love comfort and ease do not enjoy being shaken awake.

There is so much more that could be said. I simply close sharing with you the call I believe He has sent forth to His people. God never called the prophet Isaiah by name. He simply spoke, "Who will go for us?" Isaiah heard the call. Isaiah went, and Isaiah spoke. The need for a generation of Isaiah's of every kind is desperate. Who among us hears? Who among us sees? Who among us will speak up and speak out?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Invited

 Matthew 11:28. Most of us know it. Many of us use it to invite people to Him. "Come unto Me all you who labor and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." A powerful invitation, and a true one. But is it really true for you..for me? This invitation has a prominent place in most Bible believing churches. Does it have a prominent place in the hearts of Bible believing Christians? I'm not so sure.

The Book of Hebrews says, "there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." This is a rest that lives in the very center of His peace. It's a rest that too few of His people know anything about. Wesleyans have always seen this promise in Hebrews as His invitation into a rest that comes from a deep, all-encompassing surrender to Him. When He comes into a heart He does save, He does cleanse, and He does bring peace, but He doesn't stop at this. There is a deeper call upon us. A deeper surrender. A complete one. And the fruit of it is His peace, His joy, His abundant life. It comes from the complete laying down of our will and the full entrance into His. It's a scary invitation because to enter into that rest is to leave behind all our desire to control and direct our lives, which will always be accompanied by much stress and strife. To know the peace, He speaks of means we have to yield all to Him.

T. Austin Sparks said that we have no right to invite unbelievers into His rest unless we too know it, that His rest is "the practical outworking of the belief that He is Lord," and that His Lordship is struck at by "the unrest of His people." How often has His Lordship been "struck at" by my own unrest? By yours? How often have we allowed the stresses and pressures of life so fall upon as to harm the witness of the peace we say we have in Him? In so many ways, we in the church are as exhausted, stressed out, and worn down as the world around us that we're seeking to reach. This is so because we're still trying to work out our affairs in our own strength, wisdom, and understanding, and it's crushing us. Anxiety, irritability, frustration, and hardness of heart and spirit will always be the fruit of that. We're living outside of His heart and life, and it's obvious to all...except...too often to us.

Jesus describes Himself as a Door and a Gate that He calls us to come to and go through. We come to that Door, we even go through, but do we do so fully? Sparks wrote that, "The Door is essential, but it's what it leads to that justifies going in at all." On the other side of that Door is all the depth and wonder to be found in Him. Christ is the Door through which all the fullness of that Sabbath rest that remains is found. We have to leave our will, our self-life there to enter into that Sabbath rest that awaits us. Too many of us can never do so. We know the Doorway, but we don't truly know the depths of what the Door leads to. 

Satan, the thief, is always seeking to steal from us that which has been given to us in Jesus Christ. Our peace is one of his most prized trophies. Where is he stealing yours and mine? Where is our unrest? How much of that Sabbath rest is still unknown to us? His invitation does not just leave us at the door, standing with hat in hand. His invitation takes us into all the fullness of the life He has invited us into, and He goes with us through all of its depths. That invitation is given to us each day. May each day we accept it, as we journey ever deeper with Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Christ Crucified

 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I Corinthians 2:2

I'm heartsick. Beyond heartsick really. As I watch our nation, society, and culture continue to disintegrate, I grieve. It is clear that no matter where you might stand in the political spectrum, there will never be any kind of accord between the two views. We are past the point of "agreeing to disagree, agreeably." Our enemy, Satan, is gleefully at work on both sides, mixing in vast amounts of hate. Hate that begets violence. Violence the leads to death. I see no end to it.

There is only one hope for us. He's the only hope we've ever had, though most, even in the church, have been blind to it. Jesus Christ. The true and real Jesus Christ. The crucified Jesus Christ. The risen and alive Jesus Christ. In the midst of all the chaos, His church has been sleeping. Obsessed with comfort and pleasure, we have watched the disintegration with varying degrees of concern, but mostly, so long as it didn't affect us, we were not overly bothered. What has been needed, what we've neglected, is to be a church alive unto Christ. A church that has the message that Paul brought to the Corinthians. A church that doesn't claim to know anything but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.....and risen....and alive...and victorious. A church that takes this message of blazing light into the darkness and puts the darkness to flight. A church that does not fear to arouse the power of the darkness because it knows and experiences the infinite power of Christ.  A church that has ceased to argue about non-essential issues and has centered on the Good News of Christ the King. A church that hasn't chosen to stand on the right or the left, but on the side of Christ alone. On the side of the Kingdom of God.

I believe the Lord has already kindled the fire. The media that has managed to captivate so many will only show us scenes of mayhem and violence, will not show us the scenes of renewal and revival that are taking place everywhere. Let us, as real believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, commit ourselves to being those who claim to not be experts at anything but the knowledge of the crucified, risen and alive Jesus Christ. Jesus. Shepherd. Warrior. King. He is still the Savior of the world. Of our world. Let's lift high the name of Jesus and let's take Him with us wherever we go. Boldy, without apology, and in confidence. The church is waking up. Let us awaken with it.

Blessings,
Pastor O

A Way Home

 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  Isaiah 43:19

I've been battling sickness most of this week, and still am, but it's on my heart to get this out. Many within the church are heartbroken over loved ones who've walked away from the church. Others, myself included, grieve over loved ones who have never known Him. I have this prayer, related to the Scripture above, in my prayer journal. I share it with you today.....Father, for all those who have wandered away, make a pathway in the wilderness, that they may come home.

I encourage you to pray this with confidence. As a father, mother, brother or sister. As a friend. My confidence lies not in the prayer, but in the God to whom it is prayed. I believe that He will literally move heaven and earth to make a way for a lost soul to come home to Him. Despite what you see in their surface behavior, ask God to plant seeds through His powerful grace in their hearts. Pray that He continues to water that seed by His grace. Pray that He will bring that loved one home to Himself. It's His will that they should come home to Him, so believe that He will be faithful to act in response to your prayer.

Focus on Him as you pray. Ask Him for insights on how you should pray for these ones. Ask for words to speak  to them, for wisdom and discernment on when to speak to them. Pray in confidence of His hearing and moving, but pray also with all of it submitted to Him. Cast the burden you carry for them upon Him. You can't really carry it. He can and He will.

This is not a "guarantee prayer." Each of us does have a free will, but I believe when such prayers are lifted to Him, His grace and power are released in ways beyond our knowing. He pursues until the very last breath of that loved one. Commit them to Him, and trust Him to work. God works. Always God works.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Have We?

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  John 6:68

Peter and the rest of the disciples had just witnessed a devastating event. Great crowds had been coming out to listen to the preaching of Jesus, and to see His miraculous works. Especially the works. They loved what He was doing for them. They had less interest in what He wanted to do in them. This was proven in their response to His most recent words. He'd told them that no one could follow HIm who was not willing to completely die to themselves and their own desires and then follow Him to wherever He would lead. Scripture says that at this, many turned away and would follow Him no more. What had been many now became just a few. Jesus asked the remaining disciples if they would leave Him as well? Peter spoke for them all with his words shown above. Where would they go? He alone had the words of life they so desperately needed.

In my prayer journal, I've got the question, "Have we made the choice that, no matter what, we are going on with Him?" I don't believe we can truly follow Him until we've made that choice and answered that question. We're sure to be tested in it.The choice needs to be made before the crisis comes, and there will be a crisis. If our commitment to Him has yet to be made, it is unlikely we will go on. The crowd didn't. It's easy to be part of the crowd. It's far harder, impossible really, apart from His grace, to be a disciple. And our discipleship will be tested regularly. With loss, disappointment, sacrifice, failure. The pull of the fickle crowd will be there. Is our walk with Him so entwined with His heart and life that the pull of His heart far outweighs that of the disposition of the crowd?

I've shared often about the hard places of my life. Many of them were devastating beyond words. Yet, I never considered turning away from Him. I knew there was no place to go if I did. I knew that going back to what my life was without Him would be far worse than anything that might come with my life in Him. I knew that death was all that awaited me in my turning away. Scripture talks of those who would rather have the riches found in Him than to own all the treasures of this world. I knew in my heart that the lyrics of the old hymn were gloriously true; It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus. One look at His dear face, all sorrows will erase. It will be. It is. 

Losses and crosses will mark our lives on this side of eternity. Have we made the choice that none of that will deter us from following after Him? Have we? Have you? 

Blessings,

Pastor O 

The Goods

 I have a question in my prayer journal, asked by A.W. Tozer. He asks, "Are we silencing the scoffers? We'll only do it by being what we are created to be, by being in possession of 'the goods.' We're to embody His rest, peace, strength, and presence." 

That's a really convicting and piercing question. Who are we in the midst of the pressures of life? How do we deal with the unexpected crisis? How do we respond to suffering, loss, and....failure? When we feel disappointed, especially by God, what do we do? We live in a fallen world, so all of us who take the name of Christ will experience these things. What do the witnesses of this world see when we do, especially those who scoff at and ridicule our faith? Do we exhibit peace in the storm? Maybe we've told some of them that they can have His peace in their life storms. Do they see us to be in possession of that peace? The same goes for having His joy, His strength, and the grace that allows us to experience it all with a dignity only He can give us. How we walk through our own dark valleys will be the only means we have of shutting the mouths of the lions of this world. The scoffers, the mockers, the unbelievers.

Then there is another crowd of witnesses. Hebrews speaks of the great cloud of witnesses in heaven who are beholding the living out of our faith. I confess that I don't fully understand what that "looks like," but I like to think that they are somehow cheering us on, exhorting us to stay the course, finish the journey, and do so by bringing honor to His name. If this is so, in the hard places of our lives, are we giving them anything to cheer about?

The last witness is the One who matters most, our 3 in 1 God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What are they witnessing? Are we glorifying them in the midst of our personal struggles and pain, or do we diminish them in our complaining, anger, and resentment of our trials? I believe it was Augustine who said that the chief end of man was to glorify God. It's in the hardest places that we have the greatest opportunity to do so. Are we?

Like I said, these questions convict and pierce us. Will we close mouths by how we live for Him in the midst of the storm, the darkness, the trial, or just add to their scorn, making them think, by our actions, that our God isn't real? Because we don't really have.....the goods.

Blessings,
Pastor O