Heart Tracks - The Trespasser

     The concept of living a life "without limits" is a popular one in the church.  I think its a biblical one as well if we apply it to all the possibilities that lie before us in Christ.  With Him all things really are possible, and we need to live our lives from that perspective.  However, there's another aspect of that which doesn't get a lot of attention.  That would be the idea of having nothing in our lives, our hearts, that is off limits to Him.  That there would be no place in our hearts where Jesus Christ is trespassing, entering into areas that we have, consciously or not, declared to be off limits to His life, ministry, and Lordship.

     John exhorts us in I John 5:21, to, "Keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts."  Jesus said that where our treasure is, "There your hearts will also be."  One man said that "Our hearts follow our money."  I would also add that they follow our time, energy, and attention investments as well.  We are living in a culture that seeks to convince us that we have certain "rights" that we must protect.  That can vary as to the characteristics of the culture we live in.  I once served Him in South Jersey.  There, people tended to have seasonal jobs, leaving them a lot of free time, but not a lot of money.  They tended to be very generous with the time they gave Him, but not their resources.  Here in Northern Virginia, its just the opposite.  The fast-paced busyness of life makes time a treasured possession.  People will give of their resources, but not of their time, which is jealously guarded.  In both cases, neither is truly giving themselves, each declaring a great part of their lives "off limits" to Him. 
    Yet it can go much deeper than this.  We can make idols of most anything, professions, family, children, marriage, and yes, ministry.  We may also do it with attitudes, bitterness, unforgiveness, the past, and the future.  We seek to maintain a rigid control over them, failing to realize that they are in fact, controlling us.  In all of these, and more, we place "Off Limits" signs before Him.  We don't want Him trespassing in any of these heart and life areas.  Yet the Father, who knows our hearts, is well aware of the existence of any and all of these.  He will, no matter how hard we try to hide, expose the sites of our hearts true treasure.  In every place where that treasure is not Him, not Christ, He will free us from the tyranny of "treasures" that in fact, keep us in chains.

    John also wrote in I John 5:12, "Whoever has God's Son has life; whoever does not have His Son does not have life."  In every area of our lives where He is not welcome, in that area, we have no life.  Only death.  In those areas, off limits to Him, we are lifeless, because we are without Him.  May the Holy Trespasser enter into every such area in my heart and yours.  May every "No Trespassing" sign in our lives fall before Him, so that He may freely enter in, with full welcome, that we may truly live a life without limits.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Captivity Held Captive

      Each Thursday a pastor friend and I come together to talk and share.  Mostly we talk about what He has been speaking into our lives.  Oftentimes, I find myself mostly listening to what the Lord has been saying to him, and then trying to see what of those things He may be speaking to me.  Today was a day to not only listen, but to hear.

     We come together mainly for the purpose of pursuing together what Paul named "the upward call."  In our talking, we always share our mutual burden to see the church, and through the church, our culture, be swept up in that call, a call that sees the fullness of His life lay hold of the emptiness of ours, and of the lives around us.  Yet before that can become our reality, or anyone else's, we must be aware and rid of the obstructions and blockages that keep us from such a life.
     As my friend put it, too many of us live our lives horizontally.  We see only that which lies right before us.  We're captivated by it, and yes, controlled by it.  It so fills our sight that we're not able to look in any other direction but to what is right before us.  There may be many "things' before us, but the result is that our "horizontal vision" keeps us from ever exercising vertical vision, the vision that looks up and beyond what lies before us, to Him who is over and above all things.  As a result, we're unaware that the very things which so captivate us, in reality, hold us captive.  We think we're free to pursue them, lay hold of them, when in reality, they've already pursued and laid hold of us.  We don't hear the upward call because the horizontal one has all of our attention, and so thinking we see clearly, we don't realize we're blind.  The side effects of this are devastating.
    One of the great laments of the church today is how many are held in captivity by fear, anxiety, anger, bitterness, lust, crooked desires, and self-absorption.  This will always be the result of our living with horizontal vision.  We're held captive by what we desire, and live in varying degrees of fear, anxiety, anger, lust, and so much more, because we fear either losing what holds our gaze, or never having it at all.  While we're looking at all these objects, His Word and promise may be put before us, but they're just one more of many things to look at.  Small reason they have no real power or effect in our lives.  It's only when we look into and meet Him in His eyes and heart, that we are free of their power.  We can't do that apart from His grace.  Horizontal vision is natural, vertical vision is His gift.

    I love the way one version renders Ephesians 4:8, "He ascended on high and led Captivity itself, captive."
Captivity itself.  The sum of all things and everything that ever could or does hold us in its bondage and power, has been overcome, defeated, and made powerless by He who leads both it, and them, in His parade of triumph.  He holds all the power of darkness and the enemy, captive.  Those with horizontal vision will never see this.  Only those with His gift of vertical vision do.
   Can this really be?  There are two words in His word that speak powerfully to me.  "He is."  Bud McCord says that this means more than that He simply exists.  McCord writes, "He is everything He should be at all times....He is perfect abundance."  Everything He should be, He is.  And, if He is, then everything He promises and the life that goes with those promises, is ours, in Him.  But we must be looking up, not around, not before, and not behind, but up....into His face, eyes, and heart.  He then takes us captive, and we are then free to be His slaves, and so, more free than we could ever hope for.  He calls us upward.  Do you hear Him?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Laying Ourselves On The Line

      While browsing in a used bookstore, I came across and purchased a devotional titled "Voices Of The Faithful."  I was captured by the smaller print on the cover that said it was written by people who "Put their lives on the line for God."  Most of us may be familiar with the term "putting it or laying it on the line," but not the origin.  Google can be a valuable ally these days, and a search revealed that the term is thought to have originated in gambling, where the one making the bet, would place his money on a line on the table, risking it all to follow what he believed was his leading.  In a sense, I think that's an apt description of what it means to truly follow Christ, to truly be His.  Few of us would dispute that, but the question then arises, how many of us are truly living that?

     Many years ago, when I left my home in Pittsburgh to answer what I believed was His call on my life, I was able to fit all I owned into the car I was driving.  Material things had never meant a lot to me, so it was not hard to do.  Still, there was much risk involved.  I had never been further west than Ohio.  I didn't know anyone in Colorado, where I was going.  I had no idea how I'd support myself, what I'd do, or how I'd pay for my education.  I just went, believing in my youthful trust that He'd make a way.  Upon arriving, the first place I went was to the college campus.  It was set upon a beautiful plain directly beneath majestic Pikes Peak.  I remember when I got out of my car, the whisper of the enemy spoke into my heart the statement that "You have as much chance of thriving here as you do of seeing that mountain before you disappear."  For a moment, fear gripped my heart, but then almost immediately, the school president and his wife came out the door of the administration building, asked if they could help me with something, welcomed me to the school, encouraged me to call my contact person right away, and from that point on, God made a way.  I'd laid it all on the line, and He backed, with all His honor, glory and faithfulness, my "bet."
    A lot of years have passed, and I can no longer fit all I own in a car.  The stakes, the risks, of following Him have greatly increased.  I have to ask myself the question: Will I still, in all areas, lay it on the line for Him?  No matter the risk, no matter the cost, will I place it all there, and trust Him?  Will I trust Him if in my time of great need, no "door" before me opens, no welcoming voice speaks, and the frightening mountain before me just gets bigger and more frightening?  No longer young, will I still trust Him, no matter what, no matter where, no matter when, in everything? 
    We tend to think that our risks for Him will always end in what we consider success, "winning."  Henry Blackaby says that we must "never act as if it were God's purpose to make us successful."  I believe His purpose is that we be faithful, even if it appears there is no success.  The late British pastor and writer T. Austin-Sparks wrote that the Father seeks our faithfulness "even though that faithfulness may involve the appearance of utter failure."  I want to tell you that my flesh recoils at that.  It never wants to undergo such an appearance, such a humiliation.  What will my peers think?  What will those in authority over me think?  How will they judge me?  How will they see me?  Whether it be ministry, livelihood, marriage, family, I think this reaction is the same for all of us.  In our westernized culture, we flee from the appearance of failure, and I think, miss the rich blessings of faithfulness, and so, sharing in the fullness of His life, His ministry, and His way.  He, who by the judgements of men, would have been deemed a complete failure.

    Scripture tells us that "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God."  It is terrible....for our flesh.  Being in His hands alone means we have lost all control, direction, and self-purpose.  We are His and His alone, to do with as He will, for His purposes alone.  Our agenda's die, so that His can live in and through us.  We live lives "on the line" at all times.  Is this the life we are living now?  Can it be said in heaven that what we are living, how we are living, is a life that risks it all for Him.  Reputation, provision, position, possession?

Are we living life from the safety of the familiar, the known, or do we live as Spirit-led "pioneers" risking all to follow Him?  Risking all to be one with Him.  Laying it on the line with, and in, Christ.

 

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Where Are You Living?

    Scripture contains such a rich promise in the words, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."  Words so easy to memorize, yet so easy to at the same time forget.  Like so much of what has been promised us by Him, we know what He says, we just haven't lived in the power of what He speaks.  I think it can be especially true of these words.

     I saw this question posed recently:  Where do we spend most of our time as far as our thought life goes?  In the past, the present, or the future?  Think on that.  How much of our mental energy goes into dwelling upon and replaying what has already passed in our lives, both good and bad?  How many of us continue to re-live not only horrible defeats and failures, but glorious victories as well?  We can make "living quarters" there, and never really move beyond that place.  What's more, if we're not spending all our time living in the past, we may do so as concerns the future, constantly living in fear and anxiety as to just what might happen there.  When we live in one or both of these places, and under the tyranny of those places, we have to come to realize, awaken to the fact that we're living there without Him.  Jesus Christ, who's the same yesterday, today, and forever, is not present in either of those places because we have never truly come to know and experience Him today.  He is present with us today, now, and today is where He calls us to live.  When we come to know Him in this degree of intimacy right now, the power of both the past and the future and the fears, regrets, anxiety, and pain we can associate with both, is broken.  When we come to live in the now with Him, we can begin to know that He who is with us now, is also present in the past, and will be so in the future.  He will not change our past, but He will redeem it, cleanse it, and break its hold on us.  We'll not live captive to old defeats or victories, and so be free to live rich right now.  We'll not live in fear or be anxious about what could happen, because we are living in the assurance of His presence and life now, and that assurance gives us a firm and sure hope as concerns the future.
    So much, too much, of my life has been taken up with living as a captive to both my past and my future.  These are two jailers that should have no power over any of us, but they do.  Our enemy, satan, is expert at using both of them to keep us prisoner to both, and usually at the same time.  He is powerless to do this when we refuse the jail cell, and accept and enter into the life He calls us to right now.  He is present now, and when that reality fills our life, we can experience the healing of, and freedom from our past.  Knowing the joy and wonder of His presence and life now, frees us to live in a place of rest and joy and as concerns the future.  He who gives us victory now, will be there to give us victory then.  This is what makes us "more than conquerors" in Him.  When we live in the "now" with Him, life isn't defined by our ability to make up for the past, or try to relive its high places.  It's not defined either by what could come upon us at some future time.  It's defined by His constant supply of the bread and water of life....right now. 
    Most of us have heard many times that He redeems the past and holds the future, but the words will seem hollow unless we truly enter into His life and presence right now, and live, as one man put it, in His "eternal now."  Where have you been living?  Where will you live now?

Blessings,

Pastor O

 

Heart Tracks Living Face To Face

     "Either His presence changes everything, or it changes nothing.  He wants us to be absolutely clear on that......If the presence of Jesus was removed right now from our lives, what would immediately change?  What would be left of our Christianity without Jesus?  The first disciples would have said that everything would change and that they'd have nothing left.  They had heard Jesus clearly say, 'Without Me, you can do nothing."

- Bud McCord

     Earlier today I read an article a Facebook friend had posted.  It attributed the high rate of pastoral burnout and the leaving of so many from pastoral service to the fact that most of the church is not operating in their giftings, and so the pastor is left to fulfill all the offices and giftings of the Body within himself.  Let me say that I agree that this is true, but I don't think that it's the core of the problem.  We do lack the the fullness of His giftings, but it's not the lack of His gifts that have crippled us, but of His presence.  Not just within the Body, but within we who comprise His Body.
    McCord wrote in his book, The Satisfying Life, "Millions who say they believe in His presence, live as if He is already missing, and that His presence makes little practical, day to day difference."  How true might this be in our lives, our homes, our fellowships and our communities?  I think the truth of this can be seen in the state of our culture.  The lack within our culture, which so many of His people decry, has to be traced to the lack within the church.  Without Him we can do nothing, and nothing, in the end, seems to be what we're doing.  I know that sounds harsh, and I don't mean it in a harsh way, but can we deny the reality in which we're living, and can we dare to look beneath the surface to the reasons?  Why are so many pastors, leaders, followers, giving up?  Why does the salt and light of His presence have so little effect not only on our culture, but upon ourselves?  Why are we dying for life?
    Jesus said, "Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but not have a rich relationship with God."  So many of us are rich in "stuff" but have complete poverty in our life, if we can even call it that, in Him.  One of the prayers I am increasingly praying for myself and those He's given me to minister to, and that includes all who read this, is that I would, we would, live face to face, presence to presence with Him.  I believe only that kind of lifestyle will keep us from the burnout and failure written of in that article, and also, when we truly live in that place, I think the witness of such a life will lay hold of the hearts He has given us to minister to, and draw them to it as well.  I don't claim to have that life as yet, but my hearts desire is that I would.  How about you?

To have a life that is totally dependent on Him, and totally independent of all that is not Him.
     Mark 1:35-36 reads, "The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.  Later Simon and the others went out to find Him."  Christ's days were marked by His constant seeking to see, know, and encounter His Father.  It was not a sometime thing, or a morning or evening devotion thing, it was a lifestyle thing.  It was His life.  May it be mine, yours, as well.  May we have an unshakable desire to see, know, and encounter Him, face to face, presence to presence, each day.  May He be so real in our lives, that even the slightest retreat of His presence, cannot go unnoticed in us.  That, like the disciples, we realize that everything changes when He reigns within us, just as everything will change, fall apart, when He does not.  "Wonderful times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:20.  May such times be yours and mine today, tomorrow, always.

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Heart Tracks "Living In His "All"

        In a recent video presentation, several servants of the Lord asked this same question: "If I serve Him, why do I feel so thirsty?"  They were expressing a lack within their lives, their spirits, that they thought shouldn't be there, yet it was.  They were giving their all to Christ, yet didn't feel that they had all of Him, that something was missing, lacking, in their walk.  The question these followers ask may well be one you and I are asking too, even if its only in our hearts.  Why, if we are His, do we feel so dry, so hungry, more near death than life?  Why?

    Bud McCord in his book, The Satisfying Life says, "Many who know His perfect forgiveness know little or nothing of His perfect presence now.  So the dreams of an unshakable soul, the absence of hunger or thirst, fruitfulness, and being like Jesus, wait till heaven.  How far from Jesus' claims we have drifted when we leave being like Jesus to another time and another place."  If McCord is right, and I think our hearts tell us He is, its little wonder that being a Christian, following Christ, is so exhausting......and seemingly futile.  We feel like we fail far more than we ever succeed.  As Beth Moore put it, "Many of us work very hard at something that is hardly working."  How can this be?  Why do we live so far from the life He created us for and calls us to?  Why have we bought the lie that His fullness of life will only begin to be realized in eternity.  Why don't we realize that He has already "placed eternity in our hearts?"  John 6:35 reads, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."  That's what it reads.  Is that what we live? 

    On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were in the atmosphere of heaven, beholding the glory of Christ and the Father.  They were literally breathing in that atmosphere.  After that experience, they came back down into the valley, and when they did, they no longer took in the air of eternity.  They once again were breathing the air of, living in the atmosphere of, the valley.  As a result, they, and all the other disciples lacked the power and wonder of an abundant life.  That wasn't to have been the case, but it was.  They were more familiar with, and comfortable with this world's atmosphere and air, than that which they'd just experienced.  How true is this for you and me?  We'll not lack for valley's in this life, but as His people, we needn't breathe the air there.  We were created for, and will be sustained by the air and atmosphere of heaven......if we'll only have it, become saturated in it.

   In Ezekiel 47, he tells of the vision of water flowing from beneath the threshold of the door.  The water is then measured. as he's led into it.  At first it reaches only his ankles, then his knees, then his waist, and then finally, it was too deep for him, and all he could do was be carried along in it.  The river of course, is the river of God, and it is available to all of us.  Our problem is that most of us only care to get ankle deep in it.  This yields a sense of control.  We may go deeper, but we always want to have our feet touching the shore.  To step out into the deep, where we can only be carried along by Him is a step few are willing to go to.  So, we go on "following" Him, working for Him, living for Him, but always asking, "Why am I so thirsty?"  We'll keep asking till we respond to His call, His command to "launch out into the deep water."  It's there that we'll truly meet Him, experience Him, and know Him.  That's where the air of heaven can be breathed, where we may drink and eat the water and bread of life.  We'll no longer ask why we're so thirsty, only why did we delay so long in coming there? 
   As you follow Him, are you asking why?  Why so thirsty, so hungry, so exhausted?  Why you work so hard at something that's hardly working?  Launch out into the deep water.  Breathe the air of heaven, partake of its food and drink.  Stop waiting for eternity.  Begin to live in it.  Find out that the answer to the "allness" of your need is the allness of His life.

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Heart Tracks - The Voice Of Silence

     Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chloe says, "Silence forces us to come face to face with ourselves."  Unsaid was that it will also bring us face to face with Him.  We don't like silence, at least not in large or long doses.  We want activity, a sense of movement.....noise.  It's one of the great reasons personal devotions can be so difficult for us.  This reality is definitely seen in our corporate worship.  For proof, we need only look at the "average" worship service in the western church.  We do a great deal, most, of the talking.  The worship team leads us as we sing, the pastor, or some other person leads us as we pray.  The pastor or whoever is preaching that day speaks to us as we listen....or at least try to.  There may be an invitation to act on what has been preached, and the invitation may be received and people come to pray, usually as there is some kind of music played in the background.  Then the service closes, hopefully not too much past noon, and we either spend some time mingling with others, or we head directly to our cars and drive home.  We have said much for the Lord, much to the Lord, but what have we really heard from the Lord?  Who has done most of the talking?

     I was blessed to hear Chloe speak this past weekend.  She didn't disappoint, and she did something I don't recall seeing much of in our corporate worship.  A number of times during her message, she just stopped and invited people to silently reflect on just what the Lord had been saying through her.  She'd told us she was going to do this, saying that, "Some of you will love this, and some of you will love this a lot less."  Which category do you and I fall into?  Many of us can be very uncomfortable when the movement, activity, and.....noise, are taken away.  All that's left is ourselves, and God.  We so often don't know what to do with that situation.  Silence is something we fear, especially if we feel it's God who's being silent.  Yet, is He really?  Could it be that we're so unused to silence that we're unable to hear His voice in its midst because our spiritual ears have been so clogged with the activity, movement, and noise of the world?  One translation renders I Kings 19:12, which finds Elijah in a cave listening to God, "And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, the sound of sheer silence."  But silence doesn't have a sound...or does it?  For Elijah, and for us, the sound in the sheer silence is the voice of God.  Can we hear it?  Have we ever heard it?  We say that God is being silent, and sometimes He is, but could it be that in that silence, He's seeking to rid our minds and hearts of all the noise we've grown so used to that He may then speak all that He has longed to say if only He could get our attention?  Seeking to get the ears of our hearts attuned to Him, so we may listen in the silence, and hear Him?
     Chloe said that the last and greatest foe to be conquered in the life of a believer is self-deception.  That foe is only overcome in the silence, where we come face to face with ourselves, and Him.  Until that happens, we'll continue living in varying states of self-deception.  T.S. Eliot wrote in a poem that we have, "Knowledge of speech, but not of silence.  Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word."  Eugene Peterson says we live in an "age of mass communication and minimal communion."  Especially with God.  When we do talk with Him, do we speak of what interests us, or what interests Him?  We "mass communicate" our interests to Him, but He has minimal communion with us as to what HIs interests are.  In the silence, we'll learn differently.  If we'll, in the words of Simon and Garfunkel's song, "listen to the sound of silence," we'll hear Him.  In that place devoid of movement, activity and noise, we'll find Him and truly come to know Him.  Have we found that place?

Blessings,

Pastor O

   
   

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