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

Where?

So Jesus asked the Twelve, "Do you want to leave too?" Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe that You are the Holy One of God." John 6:67-69 There have been places in my life where I spoke the same words to Christ that Peter did. Two come to mind right now. The first was early on in my walk. My first year with Him was a lonely one. I'd left my lifestyle of parties, drugs, chasing women, and all that goes with that. Some of the disengagements came easily, some much less so. Though I had left the lifestyle, the lifestyle was still all around me, especially where I lived. One evening the people who lived where I lived opened up a bag of grass and began rolling joints. They proceeded to pass them around. It came to me. I can't say even now why I partook, but I did. The weed was particularly potent and I felt the effects immediately. Here's the thing; I was high and I knew it, yet my mind was clear, and in the clarity, I heard the whisper of His Spirit. He simply asked, "Is what you're feeling now in any way as wonderful as what you experienced when you first met Me?" It wasn't. I knew it wasn't, and my heart melted before Him. With that, the effects of the grass left immediately. I walked away from that gathering and from the counterfeit "high" I found there. I never went back. I knew that no high the world could offer could ever compare to the beauty of knowing Him. Like Peter, where could I go? I knew He had the words of life. I'd experienced them. How could I ever leave Him? The second time took place years later, in the midst of my divorce and my having to step out of ministry. Life was hard, confusing, terrifying, and I had no idea how it could have gotten like this. I was a follower of Jesus Christ. How could this happen? Into this the accusations of the enemy screamed at me. How could I follow a Jesus who'd allowed this? Where was He? Why didn't He stop it? Why didn't He immediately put an end to my suffering? If this was what life in Christ was, wasn't I better off in what my life was without Him than I was now? Each time, I would hear the whisper of His grace. This was not the end. This was not where He would leave me. I did have a future and a hope. At root, like Peter, I knew that there was no place else for me to go. I knew He had the words and ways of life. I had experienced that truth many times over. By His grace I would trust Him. By His grace I would press on. If you are truly following hard after Jesus, such times will come upon you. Times when the pull of turning back is powerful. Maybe you're in one now. If so, focus on who He was to you when you first knew Him and who He has continued to be. Press on, believing, trusting, obeying. He is with you, regardless of what the enemy is saying through it all. I close with this story about Annie Herring, one of the foremost Jesus Music people. She was living in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco during the hippie centered summer of love. She had hopes of being a rock star and had just been offered a big record contract. She had also recently come to Christ as her Savior. She said she was faced with a choice, and in the choice, she heard the voice of the Spirit, saying to her that she could have everything she ever wanted if she signed the contract.....or she could have Him. She must choose. She said she answered Him with, "Lord, after knowing You, I don't want anything else." That choice will come to each of us, many times in fact. How do we choose? For Annie Herring, there was no other option but Jesus. How about for you and me? Where do we go if we don't go after Him? Blessings, Pastor O

The Room

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24 Perhaps you've heard or read a description of how, when a believer comes before the Lord in eternity, they'll be shown a room where all the blessings the Lord wanted to shower upon them were stored. Those blessings never came, the story says, because they lacked faith, trust, and so on. It's a good illustration and a valid one. It will be a tragedy to see the contents of that room. Yet, I believe there is a much greater tragedy concerning a much lesser known room. It's the room that contains the cross that Christ called us to take up and bear, as we follow Him wherever He leads, yet we never did. How many of us may have such a room, yet aren't even aware of it? I think we have a skewed understanding of what it means to bear our cross and follow Him. I think many of us point at a particularly difficult and painful situation, a crumbling marriage, a ministry that costs us, prodigal children. All of these and more are very painful, but they alone don't make for our cross. Our cross is the same one Christ bore. Our cross is our surrender to everything in our lives that could happen or will happen. Our cross is all that is involved in our complete surrender and submission to whatever He leads us to and through and His purpose for us in it. No matter the cost, no matter the way. Like Christ in Gethsemane, we have already determined that nothing He asks, commands, or requires is off limits in our lives. Wherever He leads and whatever the fruit of His leading may be for us, we've already determined we will follow, no matter how heavy the cross coming out of our decision may become. The Roman crosses left nothing alive and neither does the cross of Christ. At least nothing of the self-will. Self has been died to and Christ's will is what we live for. This is what a disciple is called to with no exceptions. Jesus made this declaration to a large crowd that was following Him, All but His chosen disciples turned back. Such is the cost of the cross, and such is the reason so many rooms that are symbolic of the cross He has called us to....still contain our cross. Do you and I have such a room? I have no desire to experience the scenario of the first room I write about. I want to receive every good thing that He has for me. I want His everything, but I tremble to think of having to face Him about the second room. The one that contains the cross I never had the courage to pick up and carry, and as a result, caused me to never completely follow Him. We will give an account for how we lived in Him, made use of His gifts, and our obedience for His call to His cross. We will lay the spiritual treasures we have accumulated in this life at His feet. I like to think that perhaps our greatest offering to Him will be the cross we bore in His name. I hope I have one to offer Him. I hope mine is not still sitting in a room. How about you? Blessings, Pastor O

Silence

Scripture speaks a good deal about how God hides Himself from us at times. He doesn't do so out of cruelty but He does so with the hope that the seeming silence is nothing more than His invitation to seek Him out, to hear His voice, and in His voice, His heart. Sadly, for too many of us, our seeking is short lived. If He doesn't begin speaking within an already set time by us, with pull away in frustration, in anger, in defeat. What riches we miss. Jesus said that we have ears to hear but don't hear, and eyes to see, but we don't see. In His silence, in His seemingly total absence, Jesus has given us a directive. We're to seek and keep on seeking. To ask and keep on asking. To knock, and to keep on knocking. He has so much to say to us. So much for us to see, but He does so to those who seek Him, look for Him, with a passion. It's to such that He reveals His heart and to whom He shows Himself. Have we such fervor for Him, or are we more in sync with the background noise of this world? He doesn't offer soundbites and video clips of Himself to us. He offers the treasures of eternity, but we can never come by them cheaply or with ease. We come by them not by how hard we work at reaching Him, but how desperately we desire Him. Real desperation for Him will not be put off by the obstacles that the world and the enemy tries to put between He and us. It will press on, pray through, and lay hold. We will hear Him who never really stopped speaking and see Him who really was always there. Truly, when He seems to not be speaking, He speaks the loudest, and when we think He isn't there, He's standing right before us. Blessings, Pastor O

Marinate

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 "We need to marinate in the darkness and process that we're walking through." Katherine Wolf Marinate is a word most of those familiar with cooking know. It's usually used in connection with meat or poultry and involves taking a cut of meat and allowing it to soak in various mixtures of herbs, oil, or some other mixture for the purpose of adding flavor. The "character" of what the meat is soaking in permeates the meat and it becomes a part of it. Do we ever think of what it is that the Father desires for us in our being still before Him and in Him? It isn't just to calm us, bring us peace, or slow everything around us down, though those are all good things. As we're still, we're to soak in, marinate in Him. In the stillness, we're to soak up as much of His life and character as we're able. As we're still, who He is is becomes a real part of who we are, yet how many of us ever actually experience this? In the stillness, He wants to communicate with us, teach us, deepen us. He wants to fill us to overflowing with the flavor of His life and personality. For me, Wolf's quote is filled with meaning. The deepest most revealing times in my life were when I was traveling through the darkness He'd allowed and having to process through communication with Him what it was He was seeking to say and do in me. Too many of us miss this. We just want to get through. It's been said that the first thing we ought to ask Him in any wilderness or darkness that He leads us into is, "Lord, what are you wanting to say to me here?" How often have we ever asked Him that question. I surely didn't the first time I entered such darkness. I just wanted out. I wasn't seeking for what I could learn or become, I just wanted it to be over. It was quite a while before I began to learn what it really meant to be still. One thing is certain for the true follower of Christ; there will be times of darkness in the journey. Don't waste them. Soak in His presence. Listen for His heartbeat and voice. Take on the flavor of who He is. Become more and more just who He created you to be. God will waste no one's time. In our stillness, He works. May we not waste the time. Blessings, Pastor O

Another Sort

love the story of the twelve spies, sent out by Moses and told in the 13th chapter of Numbers. They were sent to spy out the promised land of Canaan, to see what was in it. The twelve men were each a leader in their tribe. They entered into the land and traveled all about it. When they returned, they told of the wonders they had seen there. Ten of them reported that it was indeed a wonderful place, but they were focused on all the dangers they saw there, not the least of which was a race of giants. They said they felt like grasshoppers next to them. Two, Joshua and Caleb, dismissed the obstacles, and centered on the fact that God had promised them this land and His presence as they took hold of it. The words of the 10 melted the hearts of the people, and they refused to enter in. Someone said that Joshua and Caleb were "men of another sort." Men who had the faith to believe for the impossible and the courage to trust God to bring His promises to fulfillment. The church has always needed men and women of another sort in its midst, never more so than now. In my journal concerning this, I've written, "Do I have the courage to be a man of another sort?" I hope that I have been. Do I still? Do I still, now that I have come into my old age? Can I, will I, still risk all for Him, trusting in His promises and His presence? In my increasing weakness, can I still see His infinite strength? The church is filled with those whose outlook is in line with that of the ten. They were leaders in their tribes, yet they were unable to lead their people in this time of risk and challenge. There was a heavy price to pay for their disobedience; forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Every one of the 10 died in that wilderness. Joshua and Caleb did not. They entered into His promise, but they lost all those years because of the fear of the 10. Are we living in such a way as to inspire, encourage, and challenge those around us to trust, believe, and obey Him? Men and women of another sort can and do. Can we be among them? The church, this nation, and all nations, desperately need people who are of another sort. God has raised such up throughout the history of the church. He is still doing so. Will you and I be among them.....or will we be found among the ten? Blessings, Pastor O

The Calling

The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you. Judges 6:12 "What God has said must become a greater reality to you than what you see in the mirror." Paul Washer Most professing believers know the story of Gideon. Even a number of unbelievers may know something of his story. He was a man who considered himself the least member of his household and his household to be among the least of the families of Israel. When an angel of the Lord appeared to him, he was hidden in a winepress threshing wheat. He was hidden because the Midianites, a people who were terrorizing Israel, were stealing their food and possessions at will. They were greatly feared by all, especially by Gideon. Yet God had called him a mighty man of valor, though nothing about his life said that was true. I heard Christine Caine say the other day that God will call you things when there is absolutely no evidence that you are any of them.. Gideon gave no evidence of being what God had just called him, yet that is exactly who he became, not only in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of his fellow Israelites. He led a band of 300 men to a rout of an army of Midianites numbering in the thousands. He became the leader of a nation. Who has God said that you are? What has He called you to? I guarantee you that whoever He says that you are or calls you to will be beyond anything you've ever expected and beyond any of your abilities to be or do. Some will laugh, others will mock if we tell them. Jesus' own family didn't believe He was the Messiah. Affirmation may be slow in coming and the enemy will throw everything he can in his seeking to keep you from realizing your calling from the Father. Your part, our part, is to dare to believe His call and stepping out into the call, even with small steps, must be our first response. If your heart tells you that it's His voice you hear and you obey, He will, with each step affirm and confirm, and with each step, our resolve to press on will grow. The mockers and doubters never really leave us. They'll continue to come in different forms and different ways. Our part is to ignore what they say and stay fixed on what He has said and is saying. In my life and calling, many have spoken against what He had spoken. Some were in my family. Some were my friends. Too many were in the church. I did what we each must do if we're to live out His call. I set my heart to obey, to follow, and to not turn to the right or the left. Not just in the initial calling, but in the unfolding call that is still taking place. At times I wavered and doubted, but His grace blew fresh upon me every time. He will do so for you as well.He has called you to what you cannot possibly be or do apart from Him. That's the beauty of the call. There is nothing within us to attain it, so we have to depend fully upon Him. It's been 46 years since I first heard His call. The calling has only grown as has His sustaining grace. He called me what I could never be and to what I could never do. He's done so with you as well. Know that. Believe that. Now, in trust and obedience, step out into the calling. You won't believe the places He'll take you. Blessings, Pastor O

More

Seek and you shall find. Matthew 7:7 Paul was a seeker and a finder and a seeker still. A.W. Tozer Matthew 7:7 is a promise, and the apostle Paul is an example of how the reception of that promise was lived out in a life. To what degree do we, who say we are Christ's, believe and live out this promise as well? I think too many of us never take it much beyond our "finding" of Jesus Christ and His salvation that He invites us to. We don't think too deeply about it all. We're happy to call ourselves "saved," and we try to live a good Christian life, but somehow, our seeking hearts grow dull and our "finding" of all the riches that are in Him never advances much beyond this initial stage. We live in spiritual poverty but are unaware of this because we've become so enamored of the treasures of this world, which aren't treasure at all, but snares. Tozer said that Paul sought, and Paul found, and Paul continued to seek more. Ever more. More of Him. More of His Life and Light. More of His knowledge. More of the endless riches that He calls us to. Paul lived with a seeking heart. His experience was that Jesus Christ satisfies, but He was never satisfied to stay at any one level. He never gave up His seeking. I believe His seeking goes on even now in eternity. His endless riches are always before us, and the more we lay hold of, the more we want, or should. The more satisfaction in Him that we lay hold of, the more and ever deeper satisfaction to be found in Him is laid before us. I will be 76 years old next month. I have been a seeker after Him since the day I first came to Him. I still am, but the temptation to "take my rest" is always there. The temptation to do so is always tempting, and the reasons the enemy suggests that I do so always seem to make sense, but it's a snare. If the devil can't destroy us, He will always seek to draw us away from Him. Our greatest defense will always be to never leave off in our seeking. My life has been an adventure in Him, but it hasn't always seemed so. I expect that your adventure has seemed so as well. Yet I know that for me, and for you, the greatest adventures still lay before us. His best is always yet to come, and it will come throughout eternity. Let us press on my friends. Let us always be seeking and finding and seeking more. More of Him. Always more of Him. Blessings, Pastor O

The Nothing

The Bible is filled with stories of those who entered wilderness times. Sometimes very lengthy wilderness times. Moses spent decades on the backside of the desert. Joseph endured more than a decade as a slave and prisoner. John the Baptist emerged into his ministry from a life lived in the desert. Paul spent three years in the Arabian desert before he undertook his calling from the Father. Jesus Himself went into a 40 day sojourn in the wilderness before He came out ready to fulfill His mission as Savior. Our flesh hates the very thought of the wilderness, but our God cherishes it for us. Something mystical takes place there, if we will have it. I really like what Alicia Britt Chole said about all this. She wrote, "You will not shortcut the wilderness season. Let Him meet you in the nothing. You will become one who can carry what God wants to put in your hands." Meeting Him in the nothing, and nothing is what the wilderness will seem like. Being there makes no sense, but it's there that He shapes and equips us. None of the above, even Christ Himself, could have fully carried out what the Father would put in their hands without their wilderness experience. Too many of us waste our wilderness time. We just want out, for it to end. As a result, He is unable to put into our hands the work, the witness, the impact that He means for us to have. For Him, for His Kingdom. I think we've mostly lost the concept of being "pilgrims in the world," just passing through, but that is what we are. Pilgrims will have their wilderness time, but will He be able to place anything in our hands there? In what seems like nothing, will we gain His everything? There are no shortcuts through the wilderness, so don't waste time seeking one. Meet Him there, in the nothing, and gain everything. He has wonders to place in your hands there. Will you allow Him to do so? Blessings, Pastor O

New

His mercies never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:23 I was thumbing through one of my prayer journals and I came across something I don't remember writing. On the surface it's a simple statement, but its depth is infinite. It reads, "Each day I get older and each day He gets newer." Let's chew on that for a few minutes. I have been walking with Him since I had just turned twenty nine years old. I've gotten old, but He never has. He, in the wholeness of His being, really is new every morning. I keep discovering new facets of His character, faithfulness, and love. No matter how deep I go in discovering Him, I continue to see how I am only scratching His surface. Life can become so stale. This passing world can as well. He never does and He never will. One of the great promises of an eternity with Him is that it will be a continuous adventure of knowing Him. An eternity filled with His richness, a richness that will never run out. The Apostle Paul said that the world's hold upon him had vanished, just as his hold upon it had as well. Here, at nearly 76 years of age, I understand that more clearly than ever. One of the blessings of aging for the follower of Christ is the realization that the treasures of this world never satisfy. Not fully and not for long. We grow tired of them and put them aside, quickly intensifying our search for something that will. Not so with Him. Not so with Christ, and not so with the things of the Spirit. They are constantly fresh and new, and they never fail to satisfy. They never will. Ever. Some reading this may have no idea of what I'm speaking of. It's either because you have never known Him, or because you have never fully believed that He could be and is all that I say He is, and what really matters, that He is all He says that He is and promises to be. If that is where you find yourself today I, with all my heart, encourage you, plead with you, to step out into Him and discover that it is true. Have the Bread of His Life and the refreshing springs of His Living Water fresh and whole. Discover that they really are new every morning. New for you, and new for me. Blessings, Pastor O

Rest

"Martha, Martha," the Lord replied. "You are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42...."Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 45:10 In over 40 years of ministry, I've found that many know how to be active, but so few of us know how to be still. Still before and in Him. We seem to live our lives, even in the church, at breakneck speed. I remember years ago when a mother of one of the ladies in our church came to spend some time with her daughter's family. There was a day when she was asked to oversee and get all the children to their activities. She was overwhelmed by all the events and happenings they were involved with. Keeping up exhausted her. The pace in most families has only increased. We don't know how to be still even in the physical realm. It's much worse in the spiritual. Martha thought that the supreme dedication she could make for her Lord was to wear herself out in serving Him. Jesus said that the best part was found in sitting at His feet, abiding in Him. He didn't say that activity for Him was wrong, but He was saying that activity that didn't flow from a place of rest would only result in what Martha seemed to be experiencing; burnout. Burnout coupled with frustration, anger, and resentment. Any pastors or full time workers in the church know what I mean here. Burnout in pastors is a major problem in the church. Hundreds have left the ministry as a result. Most, if not all of it a result of never having first found a place of rest in Him from which to serve. Recently, a good pastor friend of mine in one of His writings said, "Come join me at the cross, and rest." We don't associate the cross with rest, at least not often. Yet, it really is a place of ultimate rest because at the cross, we must die out to all the things that ultimately are keeping us from His fullness. At the cross, His resurrected life pours into us, and flows out of us. We are not driven when we live at the foot of the cross, we are led. We die out to a life lived at breakneck speed. Our flesh will always resist this, which is why so many fight so hard against coming to the cross, and as a result never know what it is to be still in Him, and at rest. So, I extend to all who find themselves living more like Martha than Mary. Jesus loves our service, but He wills that it should flow from our place at His feet. Stop resisting that place. Learn what it is to be still. Learn what it is to come to cross....and find rest. Blessings, Pastor O

Broken Hearts

Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zwboim? My heart is torn within Me, and My compassion overflows." Hosea 11:8....He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 We are a brokenhearted people pursued relentlessly by a brokenhearted God. I don't think the majority of us are really aware of this. Oh, we readily know about our own broken hearts, but we're mostly ignorant of His. I know personally the agony of a broken heart. A heart broken many times over. You do as well. It is a very great tragedy that so many of us never really have our broken hearts healed. They say time heals all wounds, but that's a lie the world came up with. All time does is cover over the wound with an ugly scab. The wound itself remains beneath that hardened scab, still causing great pain. Not just for the one whose heart is broken but for all those living closely with and to them. The world has a multitude of counselors whose offices are filled with people who come for healing, but in too many cases, never are. They just go on bleeding. And all the while, there is a brokenhearted God pursuing those broken hearts, longing to bind up their open wounds and heal them. In our suffering, the enemy seeks to convince us that the Lord either does not care about our suffering, or that He's powerless to help us. He's a liar, he's been very successful in convincing us of his lies. The reality is that we have a Father in heaven and a Savior in Jesus, whose hearts break with ours. They break over what has happened to us. They break over what our own choices and actions have done to us. This is seen in the exchange in Hosea with the Father speaking to His people, Israel. Their rebellion and insistence on their own way had brought about untold suffering for them. He weeps for His people and with them. He does so with us as well. In some of my deepest sufferings, I often had the sense of His being right there, holding me to Himself, and weeping with me, as well as for me. I have no biblical proof of this, but I believe that there is healing for us in His tears. Our tears may bring us emotional release, but I think that somehow, His tears poured out for us and on us, bring forth His healing....if we'll have it. If you have or are walking the road of the brokenhearted today, know that you are not alone. The God of the broken heart pursues you with His own broken heart. No matter how you got to this place, He pursues you with healing in His hands and in His words. Bring your wounds to Him. All of them. Lay them at His feet. Lay yourself at His feet. Let Him do what only He can do. Heal what is broken. Heal what you might believe is broken beyond repair. The God of the brokenhearted walks with you with His own broken heart. He offers His healing and the binding up of all of your wounds. Won't you receive Him? Blessings, Pastor O

Paupers?

Jesus said, "My Father in heaven has revealed this to you.....Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means 'rock'), and upon this rock I will build my church." Matthew 16:17-18.....Acknowledge who Jesus is, and you will hear Him acknowledge who you are." Chris Tiegreen Jesus' above words came directly after He'd asked His disciples who both the people and they believed Him to be. They could answer who the people said He was, but Jesus pressed them; who did they say He was? Peter, as usual, took the lead, He stated, correctly, that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Jesus told them this was true, then He said something that was surely unexpected. He called Peter "Rock" and said that upon him, and surely the others as well, He would build His church. We must be able to acknowledge and live in the truth of who Christ is. It must be central to our being and is a question we must be able to answer. Yet in this passage there is something else. Yes, we need to know who Jesus is, but we also need to know who He says we are. What He says concerning that will seem as unlikely to us as did being called a "rock" was to Peter. He had just shown himself to be anything but. I see His asking us who we are as having two answers. The first is our acknowledging who we are in every area of life where we're seeking to live apart from Him, knowingly or not. He will not heap condemnation upon us, but we cannot either know Him or how much we need Him, until we know how far from Him we may be, and how unworthy of Him we are. This brings us to the second part, for once we know what we are not, He can begin to show us who and what we are when we bring all of ourselves to Him. All of our mess, our failings, our sin, to Him. We bring this in confession and we bring this in repentance. He then takes all this and "files" it under "forgiven and made clean." Now we're ready for Him to begin to tell us who we are...in Him. Who He created us to be. What our giftings and callings are. What He has named us and called us in contrast to all the "names" the world and the enemy has put upon us. Many have freely acknowledged who He is, and done so in brokenness, but somehow, they have never been able to fully grasp that they are made wholly new in Him. We lay the past down and enter into His new life. The infinite inheritance we have in Him is ours. The name He has given us fits who He has made us to be. It is a terrible tragedy to live out our lives and never really understand the depth of this. I could write much more on this, but I'll close with something from A.W. Tozer. He said that he feared that despite the infinite riches that were his in Christ, he might come before Him on that day as "almost a pauper," having failed to ever fully enter into all he'd been given and had in Christ the King. May we, as the old hymn says, realize we have a "new name written down in glory, and it's mine, oh yes, it's mine." May none of us be found as paupers on that last, great day. Blessings, Pastor O

Touching

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from Him, so He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched My robe?" His disciples said to Him, "Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can You ask, "Who touched me?" Matthew 9:30-31 Have we ever taken the time to ask the same question that His disciples asked? It was not a foolish question. Jesus was being pressed by, thronged by the crowd. Many people were touching Him, yet He asked specifically who the ONE was. Why? The crowd that followed Him had many motives for doing so. He was something of a celebrity. There was also the expected excitement. A lot happened wherever Jesus went. Many came with a desire that He do something for them, much more interested in getting something than getting Him. There was something much different about the woman who had suffered from menstrual bleeding for so long. It had rendered her unclean by Jewish law. Yes, she wanted healing, but I believe what set her apart from all the others is that she sought not only His healing, she sought Him. All the years of being shunned by the priests and people had left her desperate for the contact she felt she had lost with her God. I think the healing was secondary for her. She didn't want to just touch Him as all the others were doing. She wanted Him. She didn't want to just press in on Him, touch Him, and then move on. She sought an intimacy she must have felt she'd lost in all the years of being barred from public worship. She realized there was a great difference between touching Him for a moment and then moving on. She didn't want just the blessing. She desired the Person. Many commentators have agreed with this. It's what set her apart from all the others. Jesus knew it as well. He sensed a deep desire for a personal encounter with Him. Such passionate seeking can never be, will never be ignored by Him. So what's the lesson for you and I? When we come before Him, especially in what we call corporate worship, do we simply "press in on Him" for a few moments and then go on our way? Do we have our scheduled "touching base with Jesus" moment(s), or do we seek, deeply seek, to encounter Him as He is? As He longs for us to? There's a difference. The latter is what true worship is all about. Is it what we are all about....or do we just crowd around Him briefly and then move on? Jesus knows the difference. Do we? Most reading this will count themselves as His followers. If so, what are our motives? That of the crowd, or that of the woman? I believe most of the crowd that day went away from Him unchanged. Not so the woman. In our times with Him, individually and corporately, how will we emerge? Who will we most resemble? Blessings, Pastor O

The Cost

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Matthew 16:24 When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.....He calls us to love, forgive, and sacrifice to the extreme. Chris Tiegreen I am drawn to the love, comfort, and abundance that is found in Christ. I think most of us are as well. Certainly, the majority of those who listened to the messages of Christ were. Yet in John 6 when He called His listeners to a complete commitment to Him, Scripture says that many turned back and followed Him no more. The above Scripture and the quotes associated with it offer little in the way of comfort and abundance, at least not in their immediate understanding. They give us pause. They give us pause even after we have made that initial choice to answer His call in Matthew 16, but He is always calling us into His deeper ways, and in so doing, we're invited to deeper sacrifices, deeper trust, and deeper obedience. Tiegreen says He calls us to love, forgive, and sacrifice to the extreme, but the truth is that we cannot do this apart from our choice of taking His cross, denying ourselves on every level, and following Him wherever He leads and whatever the cost. To live the cross-style life you must die out to the self-style life. Too many of us will not do so. Many of us are pastors. The "option" of drawing lines we will not cross in our following of Him is not an option offered to any of us, but for one who is called to a life of full-time service to Him and His church, it should never be an option at all....but it is. Early on in my preparation for ministry, I had a friend who was due to graduate and was exploring the possibilities of where he might serve. Even as a still young believer, I was dumbfounded when he told me he'd taken a map showing his home area and drawn a circle about it with a 150 mile radius. That's where he was willing to serve. He didn't feel he could be any further from family than that. Several years later, another classmate, in full time ministry as I was, resigned his church when his mates parents, serving in the same district, resigned theirs. They followed them, with their help, to the new district. His wife thought it too painful to be so far from her parents. These are not the only examples I could cite. I hear too many in ministry saying they will follow His lead "unless." Unless it involves pain for their family, or danger, or great risk. I get this. Our humanity sees those things, but can that be the deciding factor? Do our brethren in Nigeria, Tanzania, China, the Middle East, and more, draw a circle on a map and tell Him that's where they're willing to go? I am not saying this is where all within the church are at. I know of so many who have given all of themselves to His cause, pastors and laypeople alike, counting the cost and going forward anyway, but I return to Christ's words. And Tiegreen's and Bonhoeffer's as well. Will I live a life for Him that takes me to the extreme in sacrifice and cost? Will you? I believe we in America are moving towards the kind of cost our brethren in so much of the world are already experiencing. It will cost everything to follow Him. I think if we wait until that time comes to decide, it will be too late. The costs involved will terrify us. May we, you, me, us, make that choice now. No lines, no circles, no boundaries. Where He leads, we will follow. No turning back. No turning back. Blessings, Pastor O

Sacred Slow

Those of us who are children of the 50's and 60's can remember the first appearances of what came to be called, "fast food restaurants." I remember the first MacDonald's in our area. It was located on a secondary road, close to a main highway, but unseen by those who traveled it. Even so, it became immensely popular and it wasn't long before it moved up to that highway, to be joined soon by seemingly innumerable others offering varying kinds of "fast foods." It didn't happen immediately, but at a steady rate, people more and more found themselves eating even their main meals from their menus. Fewer and fewer people made their own dinners in their home, but instead bought meals at these fast foods eateries. More and more often, "home cooking" became a fading memory. Alicia Britt Chole said that it seemed like we forgot how to prepare a meal from just the bare ingredients. Transferring this thought to the spiritual, she said we have opted for "fast" to be a prerequisite for most everything we did or entered into....including our spiritual lives. She calls that, "fast faith." We want our spiritual growth to be fast. We want our faith lives to develop rapidly. We know little of what she calls "the sacred slow." Years ago I knew a young lady who felt she had a call from the Lord upon her life. I remember her telling me once that God had her on "the fast track" for ministry. I told her that it was my experience, both personally and by observation, that God didn't put His servants on such a track. He used what Chloe termed, the sacred slow. It's the way He worked in and through His choicest servants. It's also how He worked for them. It's how He prepared them for what He'd called them to, and also for what He'd created them to be. It's seen in the life of Moses, Joseph, David, Paul, and countless other heroes of the faith. It's also how He worked in His Son, Jesus Christ, who spent the first 30 years of His life in quiet preparation for the cosmic task He had come for. It's how He will use you and me as well....if we will submit to it as He trains us and raises us up for that which we were created for. It is a mark of immaturity to desire everything now. It's the spirit of the prodigal son. Only as we grow in Him do we recognize the beauty of His "sacred slow." In that process, He fits us for eternity. May we embrace it. He's working His masterpieces in the process. Blessings, Pastor O

Tables

Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. And He declared to them, "It is written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer. But you are making it a den of robbers.' Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus will zealously pursue communion with us even if it means overturning some tables. Chris Tiegreen Many look at this Scripture and only see the outward understanding. They'll make it about reverence for the House of God, about behavior "in church." The church is indeed holy ground, but anyplace where we stand with Him is holy ground. He makes it so. Jesus was offended by the presence of worldly practices in His Father's House. His House of Prayer. Ungodly things will always deeply offend Him and will never have a place on His holy ground, and there is no more holy ground than the heart of a true believer and follower of Jesus Christ. So many of us can be so diligent about the physical ground of our church while completely neglecting the ground of our heart. Into the holy ground of our heart we can bring so many unholy things. We accumulate our own personal tables piled high with things that should not be there. Things that take our attention, our desire, worship away from Him and onto something else. They can be good things that have become so important to us that our desire is for them, far more than it is for Him. When this happens, Jesus is going to overturn some tables. The money changers and the merchants did not all "show up" in the Temple at once. It was a gradual thing. A little opening for one or two. A little compromise, a little less guarding of the heart of what the Temple was to be, a house of prayer. Gradually it became what it was, a courtyard meant for prayer and worship that had become anything but. It deeply offended the eyes and heart of Christ. He overturned the tables and drove them out. He cleansed the Temple of their presence. This is what happens in our hearts. The rivals to Christ and our love for Him don't all arrive together. They come in pieces. They come with our compromises. They come with our permission. As they keep coming, our awareness of Him dims, as does our love. Jesus will not be shy in His confrontation of it all. He will violently confront and overturn the things that have taken us from Him, that have taken up space that must belong to Him alone. Tables will be overturned and it can be painful, but oh, the cleansing that is the product of it all. Where have the tables of the world gained entrance into your heart and mine? Tables piled high with our earthly treasures didn't become so all at once. We've made compromises. We've given permission, and in our doing, have muddied our hearts and compromised our affections, blinding us to all that has happened there. What tables exist in our hearts today? We've likely grown so used to them that we don't even "see" them anymore. Jesus will bring us to reckoning. He'll begin overturning tables. Will we allow Him to cleanse our hearts as He cleansed the Temple courtyard? Or, have we grown attached and in love with our tables? Blessings, Pastor O

Destroyed

My people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 As Jesus hung dying on the cross and the onlooking crowd hurled abuse and mockery at Him, He cried out to the Father, "Forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." That's a perspective that's unnatural to us apart from Christ, and even in Christ we often struggle with forgiving those who treat us unjustly. Yet, when we see as He sees, think as He thinks, know as He knows, we begin to understand, and He can then take us ever deeper into that understanding. The hardest aspect of my ministry over these past 40 plus years has been that of watching friends and family being destroyed "for lack of knowledge." They lack true knowledge of Him and of His ways and words. They know of Him, but they don't know Him. As a result they make choices and decisions based on their own understanding and perception. The Bible defines that as their living according to the flesh and not of His Spirit. This way of life will always, I repeat, ALWAYS ultimately lead to destruction. In Hosea 4, God was speaking to both His priests and people. They did not know and believe the God that they claimed to believe and follow. Destruction and catastrophe would be the price they paid. In the church today, I see people of all ages leading lives based on the flesh and not on His Holy Spirit and His Word. They are making choices that feed the flesh and self-life. Choices that cost those around them, and ultimately themselves. It's a heavy price they will pay. Husbands and wives abandoning their marriages and families. Men and women pursue desires that cause them to neglect the very ones they have been charged to love, lead, and nurture. This is the way of the flesh and is never the way of the Spirit. As a result marriages, families, lives, and even churches, are being destroyed because they don't really walk in the knowledge of God and His Way. One of the prayers found in Scripture is that He would "teach us His ways." The need that He should, is desperate within the church. May we, every husband, every wife. Every father and every mother. Every pastor and every professing believer, come before Him and allow Him to root out every place in our lives that is being destroyed because we are following the impulses and desires of the flesh over that of His Holy Spirit. We have allowed the enemy to destroy far too many of our marriages, families, and churches. That destruction has to stop, but it will only stop when we say "enough." Are you ready to say that, or will the destruction go on? Blessings, Pastor O

Worst Day

Evangelist Stuart Olyott said, The very worst thing that ever happened was the death of the Son of God. The very best thing that ever happened was the death of the Son of God. If God can bring good out of this, what can He not do for us in the midst of our deepest losses? This is truth, though few of us are able to see it in the midst of our worst days. I certainly could not, but He has proved to me over and over again that it is. Though our worst days can greatly differ, I think they all contain this in common; they take us by surprise, and they leave us devastated and in emotional and spiritual shock. We can't think or act clearly and we experience a wide range of emotions and thoughts. We cry out to God. In pain, in anger, and with the plea that He undo what has happened. Like the disciples after the crucifixion, we run, often to Him, and just often away from Him. We know the promise of Romans 8, that He will work all things together for our good, but we cannot see how He can do so in the midst of this day. The devil mocks us through this promise. We hear the liars voice, but we seem unable to hear the Father's. He may not be speaking because He knows the turmoil will keep us from hearing, but He is working. Always He is working. My worst day, the collapse of my ministry and marriage, led to many more days, weeks, and months of journeying with Him on a road that always seemed dark, and with many unexpected twists and turns. I often wanted to quit, to turn aside and just die, yet each time a sense of renewed hope would come, and I would get up from my self-pity and keep going along, even if it seemed an inch at a time. His road led me from ruin to resurrection. His road always will. Piece by piece, He rebuilt both my life and ministry. In losing what I thought was everything I gained everything in Him. John Wesley once said of his life that he was "an amazement to myself." He was amazed by what God had done in spite of his life deepest challenges and losses. I feel the same. The pain of my losses was real, but the wonder of what I've gained in Him is more real. In the journey I learned the truth of something else Olyott said. Don't grumble about the road He's leading you down because it's the road by which He's leading you home. He is not the cause of your worst day, but He is the solution. If you're in the midst of your worst day, don't listen to the lies of the enemy. He will not abandon you. At your weakest, He will be your strength. He knows the way home. Trust Him to get you there no matter how many "dangers, toils, and trials" you may encounter. In the journey, you will discover riches in Him you never thought possible. He will turn your worst day into your best....as you trust Him. Blessings, Pastor O