When Jesus Dies

 Pastor and author Erwin McManus asks a penetrating question; "What do you do when Jesus dies right before your eyes?" All four of the gospels relate in some way the response of the disciples when Christ was killed. They fled. They hid. They prepared to go back to the life they had lived before knowing Jesus. They had invested all in Him and He was gone. What else was there for them to do?

If we profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ we believe that He has risen from the dead, that He's alive. What happens though when, in the midst of our following Him wholeheartedly, He "dies," and right before our eyes? Think about this question. You have a deep sense of the rightness of your path and of your being in His will. Your life, ministry, marriage, and livelihood. Or you've made a major life change, fully believing He is leading you. You're convinced of the rightness of the path and His call to you. He's been leading you step by step with a real and powerful presence. And then....suddenly, everything collapses around you. You can't sense His presence, He seems totally absent. He has "died," and right before your eyes. What do you do when the dream dies, when visible hope dies. Do we, like the disciples, have an overwhelming urge to flee? To hide? To go back to what we came from and out of?

I began to follow Him in August of 1979. He led me from a life that was all I'd ever known to a distant Bible College sitting at the foothills of the Rockies. Then, into a marriage I was sure was from Him and into a ministry assignment I was sure was His will in West Texas. There were difficulties, mistakes, and failures along the way, but there was no doubt that He still went before me, leading me to a ministry in a small town in Virginia.Then, in August 1989, almost exactly 10 years from when it all began, everything collapsed. My marriage failed, and soon after, my ministry was lost. Nothing was as it had been. Where was my Lord? My Jesus, so real and alive before, had "died" before my eyes. I now knew what must have been in the hearts of His disciples 2000 years before. I had countless questions but no answers. Yet in it was a ray of great hope. God is not put off by our questions. As McManus states, "Your questions will lead you to God." 

The Gospels relate the death of Jesus and the disciples' reaction. They also relate what followed. Jesus, risen and alive, appeared again and again. Like Thomas, they all had questions and even doubts. He may not have answered all as they had hoped but He did give them one indisputable truth. He was not dead. He was alive and still with them. He would continue to be with them all along their way. Where one dream had ended, another had begun. This is what I discovered in my own life and it's what I continue to discover.

That August of 1989 was not the last time I would experience the seeming death of Jesus in the midst of my following Him. But, and this is the victory that overcomes, neither was it the last time that I would experience His sudden appearance in the midst of all that seemed lost, giving new hope, a new dream, and a new life.He restored the years the locust had eaten. He continues to do so. Questions always arise, but I have found, as McManus says, they lead me to Him. 

Has Jesus died before you in some way? Have you deep, heart wrenching questions? Ask them, and without fear, for they will lead you to Him. The Jesus who still lives. Who will always live.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Home

 The late 60's and early 70's were a time of upheaval in America. I know. I was there. Morals and values that had been ingrained in the culture were being challenged and in many places, overthrown. Rebellion was a favorite word and activity. I know. I was a part of it. In the midst of all of it was something that seemed totally out of place and one would think would be ridiculed by most. Yet it wasn't. I'm speaking of a TV program called "The Waltons," about a 1930's depression era family living in Virginia. It centered on family, home, integrity, and very traditional values. Somehow, it became a hit series, and was so even among those who were railing against those very things.

At that time, I was in college, living in a notorious place known as the Edinboro Hotel. Every room was occupied by long haired, drug and alcohol partiers and counterculture wannabes. I had friends there that went by the names of Nutso, Monkee, and the Shark. We lived above the only bar in town but on many a Saturday night, the manager had to send notice to us that we were making too much noise. The crowd in the bar couldn't hear themselves. We called ourselves The Sewer Rat Mob, and we sought to live up to our name. Yet in all of it, there was something going on that would make no sense to those who knew us. On the night that it came on, almost all of us would gather, usually under the influence of some substance, and watch the Waltons. We loved a show that depicted a life none of us claimed to want. A show built upon love, safety, and the wonder of a real home.

I didn't think of it then, but I do now. In all of us is a desire and longing for home. A real home. The home we were created for. The home found only in the Father's heart. A home reached only through His Son, Jesus Christ. God speaks to this longing in Zephaniah 3:18-20, "I will gather you who mourn....I will save the weak and helpless ones; I will bring together those who were chased away....On that day, I will gather you together and bring you home again." 

Home. The place we've been looking for all our lives. It can never be found here though we seek it with desperation. Only through Christ can we enter into it. Abraham, father of the Jewish people, knew this. Hebrews 11:10 says, "He went out confidently looking for a city with eternal foundations, whose maker and builder was God." He found it in the heart of the Father.

In the midst of my rebellion my heart was longing for home. How I was living just took me further and further away. For my friends and me, the closest we could get was a nostalgic TV program. Yet, all the time, that home we longed for was standing before us in the Person of Jesus Christ. It took me five more long and painful years before my eyes were opened to "see" Him. I finally came home to Him. Have you? Will you? Wherever you are, no matter where that is, if you are without Him, you're wandering, homeless, yet searching for home. Are you ready for the search to be over, for Him to bring you home? Reach out to the One who is always reaching for you. Come home...to Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Cross

 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24....."We must do one of two things about the cross; flee it, or die upon it." A.W. Tozer

Tozer speaks some hard words, but Jesus speaks even harder ones. Both speak as to what makes up Christ's invitation to come and follow Him. It makes me wonder, what's involved in the invitations we give when encouraging someone to come to Jesus Christ? Just what kind of a relationship do we invite them to? Does it bear any resemblance to His invitation? In our particular fellowships, when people are called to come to Him, does the centrality of His cross ever come up? Is there really a cross in our walk with Him?

Jesus drew great crowds in His ministry. People loved the good bread and fish He gave out. They loved His miraculous healings and the wonders He performed. They followed Him wherever He went, but when He told them in John 6 that they must surrender all of themselves to Him and His Lordship, the crowds left. Not long after, the crowds that cheered Him were screaming for Him to be crucified. And He was. He went to His cross and He died there. It was His mission from the beginning. Yet His death led to His resurrection and this unleashed the power of His risen life to all who would come to Him. We all want that kind of life, but not many of us desire the cross we must also die on that comes with it. His resurrection life is only ours by way of His cross. 

I think we hear so little of His cross because of the truth of Tozer's words. Those who would follow Him must do something with the cross and there can only be one of two responses. We will either flee from it or embrace it and die upon it. Paul said He had been crucified with Christ and that it was no longer he who lived but Christ lived in Him and through Him. Paul was completely Christ's. His will was to do Christ's will. He had died to himself so that he could live fully for Him. Paul understood what was involved in the Lord's call to follow Him. We must as well. To truly be His disciple and follow Him, we must do business with His cross. Everything that constitutes life is nailed to it. Hopes, dreams, past, present, and future. Every desire and attitude is nailed to the cross. That's all involved in the invitation. Have we accepted it? Do we proclaim it?

As Tozer said, we must do something with the cross. Flee it or die upon it. Lloyd Ogilvie said one of his theology professors once confronted him about his commitment to Christ. He said to him, "You cannot sneak around Golgotha." Golgotha was the place where Christ was crucified and died. Many of us are trying to sneak around, flee from the cross that is there. Too few of us are willing to die there. Which marks your life and mine today? Do we flee our cross, or do we die upon it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The City

 Many things spoken and written by blind writer and speaker Jennifer Rothschild have ministered to me. What she relates here does. 

After losing her sight as a teenager, she began to be instructed in the use of a cane. She said she had to learn to live, not by what she couldn't see, but by what the cane told her was there. In the same sense, we need to learn to live not by what we feel or fear, but by what He says. By what He says is there. What is there is Himself. His total faithfulness and His abiding presence. This is the walk of faith.

In Hebrews 11:8, it says of Abraham, father of the Jewish nation, "By faith, Abraham when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place, which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going." I began my walk with Him in 1979. I thought I knew where I was going, but I had no clue. He kept leading me to places that I never thought I'd be. Physically for sure, but even more so in the realm of the Spirit. Too often, I wanted to stay in the realm of the known, but He kept calling me, leading me into the unknown. I didn't always go easily, but He continued to call, to lead, and to invite me into my own inheritance. To trust not in what I think may be there or even see that is there, but in what He says is there. Himself. His life. The land that He has for me. This call doesn't stop with age and it will not stop in death. The path He leads us on stretches into eternity, and though I've never "seen" that place, He tells me it's there. The fullness of my inheritance lies there but I can begin to live in that inheritance now. So too can we all.

Today we may be feeling like Rothschild must have when she was being taught the use of the cane. Our world may have been turned upside down, with circumstances, needs, and challenges that have rendered us, in a sense, blind. We can't "see" what to do next, but His call to us is to not live afraid of what we cannot see, but by what He says is. He IS, and He always will be. We may not know where we're going, but we know that we're going with Him. Faith is knowing that we're always going onward with Him.

Hebrews 11:10 says that Abraham was "looking for the city which has foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God." This is our destination as well. We are born with a yearning for it. We'll never find its fullness here, but here is where the journey starts. All along the way there will be places where we'll be "walking blind," except that we won't be blind at all. He's with us, leading us along. Our having to know all the details doesn't matter. He knows. He'll lead us into His city, to our inheritance. Designed and built by the Father, led there by His Holy Spirit, Home at last.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Baggage

 Anyone who's ever flown knows the ritual of checking your baggage at the flight counter. Since 9/11 this has gotten to be a very intrusive process as our bags are now opened and searched. I know few people who like this as it makes us feel our privacy is being violated. All of this puts me in mind of a spiritual reality.

All of us who have experienced life in this fallen world have accumulated "baggage" that we take with us wherever we go. This baggage can not only be cumbersome, but dangerous. To us, and to those we come into contact with.....and to those we love.

Sheila Walsh asks the question, "What would it look like right now if all your baggage became visible?" Few of us would care for that. Just as we don't like the idea of unknown agents rooting through our private things, so too do we not want the eyes of others seeing the invisible but very real emotional, mental, and spiritual "baggage" that we carry. Even if that someone is God. In fact, we can go to very great lengths to try and hide it from Him. Denial is usually our favorite means. Yet God, in His goodness and love is willing to violate all our privacy, or more correctly, secrecy, in order to bring it to light. Believe it or not, the means He uses to do so bears some resemblance to our airport experiences.

Our baggage can be very toxic. He knows this. If we're going to journey forward in Him, we will need to submit our baggage, check it if you will, at His "counter." His counter is His altar. We bring our baggage to His altar and we place it, all of it, in His hands. As He opens it up, He examines each "piece," and with His handling of it, heals and cleanses it. Wounds, failures, bitter experiences, disappointments, broken dreams, these and so many more are found to varying degrees in our bags. We carry these wherever we go, and  continuing to hide them only makes them heavier and more burdensome as we go. In truth, because of our baggage and the harm it does, we never really make progress in our journey. Our baggage blocks the way.

What's the extent of your baggage and mine? What has it cost you and what does it continue to cost you? Scripture tells us that everything about us is laid bare before His eyes. He knows what's hidden and He wishes to bring it to His light. Our flesh will see this as a violation, but in truth, it is His healing. Too many of us are "stranded at the airport." We're not moving in the direction He has for us. It's a baggage problem. How deep a problem is it for you? How weary are you of carrying it everywhere you go but always trying to conceal it from everyone around you? Jesus calls you to His altar of surrender. Release it all into His hands. Be healed, be whole, be free.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Bars

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philppians 3:13-14

Paul's above exhortation from Philippians is a powerful and true one. Why then is it so hard for us to do? To live out?

In my prayer journal I have a question asked by author and speaker Christine Caine. She asks, "Are we looking at life through the prison bars of the past? The Word of God comes to us, but we hear it through the bars." Obviously then, we can't live out this verse by sheer will power or by positive thinking. It takes the renewing work of His Holy Spirit. The renewing of our minds and even our memories. Not a wiping clean of the slate, but a breaking of those very bars from yesterday that diffuse the power of His Word in our lives and distort the face of Jesus. The prison bars consist of lies planted by the enemy. Lies that tell us that we're still subject to the things that have happened to us, and even more, that tell us we're the same person we were when these things took place. The prison bars keep us from taking hold of His truth that we are new creations in Christ, that all things are new. The old has passed, the new, in Christ, has come. This is what happens in the heart of every believer when He comes to Christ. Our great problem is that it can take time for that message of truth to reach our minds and our patterns of thinking. Especially as concerns how we see ourselves.

We live in a fallen world, polluted by sin. We're born into it and the pollution fills every corner of our being. We're powerless to change that, which is why we desperately needed the One who has all power, Jesus Christ. He breaks the power of that sin pollution in our lives but we have to step into the freedom that comes to us through faith in Him. Too many of us never do. Too many of us live like prisoners of war in a war that has already been won at the cross of Christ.

The Israelites spent 400 years as slaves in Egypt. God broke their slavery and led them out, but they never seemed to fully escape their slave mentality. Neither do so many of us. The Israelites kept hearing Him through the bars of their slavery. They couldn't fully grasp that they were free. Have you?

If you're seeing your life and His promises through prison bars, I encourage you to first confess that to Him and then ask Him to fill your mind with the truth of His Word and have those bars disintegrate before you. They disintegrate when the truth of His Word and promises lays hold of both your heart and your mind. Someone said that the truth of His Word dissolves the shackles that keep us prisoner. The shackles and the bars as well. Be free of a life that only sees through the enemies bars. Embrace His truth. Embrace Him. See everything clearly. See Him!

Blessings,

Pastor O 

What Remains

 "And be sure of this; I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 11:20

You cannot go through life, even as a believer, and not suffer loss. Sometimes devastating loss. Losses can traumatize, paralyze, and cripple us. Losses can hold us captive. They can form prison cells that we never leave. Yet, as one person put it, we can get past what we cannot get over.

In my prayer journal I have written down an exhortation from a source I cannot remember. It says in essence that in the midst of loss, even deeply painful loss, we must not be trapped in focusing on what we've lost, but must focus instead on what remains.

I think I have the "right" to speak on this as one who has suffered a great deal of loss in my journey with Him. All of it was painful, but not all of it was bad. Some things in our life need to go, to be removed. That's part of the journey of faith. However, there are other losses that seem to make no sense. Things that are cherished. The death of loved ones. Of professions and ministries. Of marriages and relationships. The pain can be crushing. We must grieve them, but we cannot be held prisoner by them. Too often, we are. I know. I was.

Perhaps one of the most crippling losses I suffered was in my ministry. I planted a church in 1992, and the first years were exhilarating, with growth and excitement. I had labored hard, but it was not my labor but His that brought it about. I was rejoicing in my ministry. Then, in 1995, it all began to change. I was in a highly transient area. Many of my people, very good people, were being transferred and moving to other places, and it was happening all at once. I had been harboring dreams of an ever expanding ministry, reaching more and more people. Now it all seemed to be crashing down, and I couldn't understand why. Why would the Lord, who had engineered it all, now allow all of this? I sank into a kind of despair, and I couldn't get my mind and heart off of what I'd lost. It lasted for nearly two years. Then the Lord confronted me with that quote from above. I was mourning what was gone, but I had no joy in what remained. I mourned the lost blessings but was oblivious to the blessings that remained.

What remained was a core of people dedicated to Him, to His church, and to my leadership. Yet, I had not seen this and I lacked gratitude for it. Worst of all, I realized that my despondency likely caused me to miss blessings that He had for me but that had gone unnoticed. With that, I began to heal over the losses and once more have hope over the future.

As I said, we will experience loss. It will be painful. Take the time to grieve, but don't end up living there. Rejoice in what remains. Rejoice that the greatest truth of what remains is that He, Jesus Christ, remains.

The wine only appears to be gone. His best wine is yet to come. Press on.

Blessings,
Pastor O 

God Permits

 Joni Eareckson Tada is truly a hero of the faith. Paralyzed as a teenager in a diving accident, she has spent the last 56 years in a wheelchair with a body that experiences many periods of great pain. Through it all, she has displayed a faith in Him that has ministered to all who suffer and ask why. Her life of trust in her Lord gives a powerful witness. Observing it, one would think she has always been so, but they would be wrong.

I heard Tada speak of her life before the accident. She was a believer, but one who struggled to live a life of obedience. She knew she wasn't living out what she professed to believe. In her struggles, she came to the place of telling Him that she could not live out a life of faithfulness in her own strength. She cried out to Him and His Spirit whispered Psalm 62:8; "O my people, trust in Him at all times." She claimed it as a life promise. The accident that devastated her life happened only a few weeks later.

In those first months in the hospital, she went through all the emotions and thoughts that we all would. Anger, bitterness, and questions. Why did it happen? What had He allowed it? Where was He? In the midst of it, believing friends surrounded and ministered to her. Their intimacy and faith impacted her deeply, especially that of one young man in particular.

In their conversations and amidst her questions, he shared something he had read. "God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves." He used as the prime example that of the Father giving His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us that we might have eternal life and salvation through faith in Him. The Father hated what Jesus went through to accomplish this but He loved what the fruit of that terrible sacrifice would be. Tada contemplated in her heart what her friend had said. His Spirit brought her back to her claiming of Psalm 62:8, that He called her to trust Him at all times. She asked Him, "Lord, even at this time?" He whispered, "Yes, even now." She prayed, "Lord, I have nowhere else to go. You have the words of life. Show me how to live." She then related, "For the best 56 years, He's been showing me how to live...and  how to trust Him."

There is no joy for Him in our suffering, but if He has permitted it, it is because He means to accomplish something beautiful in and through us. Tada has been used of Him to reach millions who never would have been reached apart from her accident. She has also become someone she would never have become apart from it. Suffering is real, but He is more real. Jennifer Rothschild, who lost her sight at age 15 said, "Today is short. Eternity is long." We live in a fallen world and we will experience sorrow. It isn't fair and it isn't how it was meant to be, but if we will trust Him, look to Him, even in the midst of the deepest suffering, He will show us how to live and how to trust Him more deeply by the day. Let Him accomplish His beauty in the midst of your pain. He will, and the most beautiful work of all will be what He does in and through you. That's a promise.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Starving God

 Are you starving God? I know that's an odd question, but it came to me as I was reading in Numbers yesterday. (No, it's not my favorite OT book either.) In 28:2, God tells Moses, "Give these instructions to the people of Israel. The offerings you present to Me by fire on the altar are My food, and they are very pleasing to Me." I know that this is the Old Testament and that we no longer perform this daily ritual, at least not literally. Yet, we do, even in the New Covenant, bring Him our offerings. Romans 12:1 calling us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice bears that out. We don't bring daily offerings of meat and grain to be burned upon His altar, but we do bring the offering of ourselves and all that we are and do, and they are still to be burned up upon His altar. Our God is a consuming fire. And they are still very pleasing to Him. Unless they're not.

In the Old Covenant before Christ, these offerings were a part of life, and symbolized the dedication and surrender of the people. That was the time of the Law and we now live under and in His grace. But that doesn't mean we have ceased to be called to bring Him our choice offerings, and what could be more "choice" than our own lives? Lives that we bring to His altar each day. Lives filled with needs, choices, desires, ambitions, and challenges. Lives that His Word tells us are not our own, but His. Lives brought to Him, surrendered to Him, and yielded to His holy consuming fire. Fire that may, and often does, burn up something that may be very precious to us.

In the midst of any day or week we're likely to be wrestling with something. Maybe many things. Marriage, family, work, finances, relationships, ministries. A host of circumstances and choices. What do we do with them? Do we continue to wrestle with them, or do we at the first, bring them to Him as an offering? Placing them on His altar, in surrender, to Him and to His fire. Before you answer, let me say you won't be able to without first bringing Him the ultimate offering....yourself. Until you have, placing your self life on His altar, allowing Him to consume you along with all your desires, hopes, and plans, you'll never be able to bring all these other things related to your life. You may have your daily "devotions," but it will mainly be a ritual, which is what this daily offering became in the life of Israel. The reality of what it represented was lost to the nation, and because of that, they were overcome time and again by their enemies. So too will we be when our offerings to Him are more ritual than reality. The Israelites just went through the motions. Are we guilty of the same? 

So I get back to my original question. If our offerings are His food, do they leave Him hungry? Is what we offer Him in the end, not only tasteless but useless? What do we really bring to His altar, and in the end, what do we really leave there? As we live before Him, is He starving?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Oasis

 I know I've written this before, but it bears repeating....a lot. There's a huge difference between knowing about Him and actually experiencing Him. Experiencing intimacy, power, victory, healing, and His abundant life. He has for those who believe upon Him, a "promised land," just as He did for the Israelites who He delivered from their slavery in Egypt. The unbelief of Israel delayed their taking possession of that land by 40 years. What keeps us from ours? I'll put forth three reasons: First, we have little understanding of what it is He promises us in Jesus Christ. The second is plain and simple, fear. The last is our tendency to settle for His good rather than laying hold of His best.

During the Israelites wandering in the desert, they came upon a place called Kadesh-Barnea. It was an oasis and a very refreshing change from the dreariness of the desert in which they'd been traveling. They were renewed and refreshed there. It was a good place and they wanted to stay. That was the problem. This good place was not His best place. It was not His place for them. It's not His place for you.

In the wilderness places of our lives, how often has He brought us to a Kadesh-Barnea, a place of refreshment in the midst of our journey? A place where we want to stay. We have been walking through places that He meant to use to shape and grow us in our walk with Him. Places meant to take us deeper into His life and heart. In His goodness He does bring times of refreshing and renewal, but those places are not meant to be our destination, but we fall in love with His blessings there. We want to live in that blessing. We don't want to leave. He has so much for us than this, but we can't see it. We love the good place and our hearts cease yearning for His best. 

Might you be living in Kadesh-Barnea right now? You've gone through some hard places and in His love and goodness, He's led you to a place of refreshing and renewing. It's a welcome oasis but you've fallen in love with it. You don't realize that it pales in comparison to the land of His promise. We can praise Him for those "oasis" places He gives us, but they are only temporary stops. We're not meant to live there. Kadesh-Barnea was not the promised land. We'll never know the wonder of the fullness of His promise if we stay there. The good will always be a poor substitute for His best. 

With the Father, His best is always yet to come. In John 2, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, the chief steward remarked in amazement, "Usually the host serves the best wine first...then when everyone is full and doesn't care, he brings out the less expensive wines. But You have saved the best until now." Kadesh-Barnea was not His best. Not for Israel, and not for you. Don't get stuck there. Your oasis is still surrounded by desert. Move out. Follow hard after Him. There's a land to be won, settled, and lived in. The promised land. His best...for you...and for me too.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Caves

 I Kings 19 tells the story of the prophet Elijah when, at a low point in his life, he sought to hide himself in a cave. God, as is His way, came to him there and asked, not once but twice, "What are you doing here Elijah?" Caves seem to be the place where we most often go in the midst of discouragement, heartache, loss, and failure. I've a lot of experience with them myself.

In my 20's I entered into a lifestyle of drug use. I spent most of my time high on something and was always seeking better and longer lasting highs. I started with marijuana but moved on to hash, mescaline, speed, and downers. I eventually discovered what I thought the best of all; cocaine. Yet the highs always left me the same way, disenchanted with my life and feeling isolated and hopeless. My own personal cave.

Then God, who never ceases His pursuit, brought an old friend and fellow partaker into my life. I thought he'd have some good dope to share. Instead, He shared with me about Jesus Christ. He told me of what He had done in his life and the promise of what He could do in mine. I disregarded his words at that time, but I couldn't get away from the transformation I saw in him. Neither could I get away from Christ Himself. I ran from Him, going deeper into my hopelessness and deeper into my cave, but He continued to haunt me. 

The cave had become my home but through events and circumstances woven together by Him, His pursuit continued. On a Sunday evening in August of 1979, in the dining room of the home I grew up in, He asked me a form of the same question put to Elijah. What was I doing here? Why would I stay here? That evening, I yielded to Him, came out of the cave, and was free. In the place where darkness and death had reigned, life and light came bursting in.

All things became new. The drug use ceased. I started attending church with my friend. I entered into His life with a whole heart and all went well for several months. Then one night, feeling discouraged and weary, some other old friends came by with a bag of dope. Joints were lit and passed around. When it came to me, I took it and continued to do so as it made its way around the circle. The effects were immediate, but strangely, though I knew I'd been affected, I felt very removed from all of it. I then heard the voice of His Spirit whispering to me. He asked, "Is what you're experiencing now in any way like what you received when you first met Me?" I knew it was Him and could only say in my heart, "No Lord, It doesn't at all. There is nothing here for me." With that thought, I was instantly sober and clear headed. I walked away from that gathering and never looked back. He'd come to my cave, again, asked what I was doing there, and I could only answer, "Nothing of any value Lord." I left my cave anew and came back into the fullness of His life.

There have been other caves since then. Emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Hiding from Him because of discouragement, disappointment, bitterness, unforgiveness, or feelings of failure. The caves were always dark, but He always found me there, asking His familiar question; "What are you doing here?" and always I had to reply, "Nothing that brings me Your life Lord." There was nothing there that could bring me what I had in Him. No cave, no matter how comfortable we may make it, offers what can only be found in Him.

What cave might you be hiding in today? Have you been so long there that it feels like home? Be sure that to that cave He will come and His question will be asked; "What are you doing here?" With the question will come His offer of light, life, and freedom. Your choice will be to take His hand and come out, or to shrink back into the depths of the cave. What will you do? He calls you out. Will you come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Inheritance

 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.  Romans 8:17  "God wants us to have everything He has." Dudley Hall

One of the great tragedies in Jesus' story of The Prodigal Son is the son's squandering of his inheritance. He took his father's riches but had no real understanding or appreciation for how vast and wonderful those riches were. His father had meant for them to sustain and bless him throughout his life, but in his ignorance and self-destructive behavior, all of it ran through his hands like water. He ended up a pauper, in a pig pen, eating pig food. 

Paul spoke much of the riches we have in Jesus Christ. Peace, joy, hope, and infinitely more. Romans 8:17 points to that with a beauty and wonder that all eternity will be needed to even begin to comprehend its depth. Yet, have we even begun to comprehend it? Are we, who are His sons and daughters by faith in Christ, living more like the prodigal, squandering, wasting, and losing those riches by our neglect, our waywardness, and our selfish choices? 

In my prayer journal I have written the statement, "Father, may we not let our wonderful inheritance slip out of our hands." I fear too many of us are doing just that. We're squandering our inheritance in Him by our behaviors, our attitudes, and our lifestyles. We have an inheritance of riches in Him meant not to just enhance and bless our lives, but the lives of others as well. The value of that inheritance can't be measured, but like the prodigal who had no understanding of what it was his father had given him, we also are ignorant of what it is we have been given in Jesus Christ. So we live in ways that more often than not lead us to our own kind of pig pen, eating the same kind of pig food. Our inheritance in Him slips out of our hands, squandered. Yet there is hope.

A man or a woman may recklessly throw away their earthly fortune and inheritance and have it irrevocably lost. It does not have to be so with our heavenly one. It was in the pig pen that the prodigal came to understand what it was he had done and what he had lost. In the pig pen, his heart went back to the father he'd forgotten and the life he'd had with him. In his suffering, he remembered the one who loved him beyond words. He began his journey home, willing to be a hired man in his father's household. Humbled, he expected nothing, but his father, whose heart had been seeking his return all along, ran to him, embraced him, and dressed him in a beautiful robe. He was restored. 

We're not told as to just how the restoration unfolded for him, but clearly, the son was restored to the household and would have access to all his father's wealth. I feel very sure that never again did he squander a bit of it. Never again did any of it slip out of his hands. In the pain of his suffering he came to realize the depth of the riches he had lost. Oftentimes, most times, it takes the same for us.

If you're a son or daughter of the King, you have an inheritance in Christ. All that He has is made yours as well. Are you squandering it? Is it slipping through your fingers through ignorance, neglect, and sinful choices? If so, the pig pen and its food awaits. It needn't be so. He lavishes His riches. Don't waste or miss them. Walk in the blessing. Be a blessing.  Know the depth of the riches to be had in Christ the King.

Blessings,
Pastor O