Heart Tracks - Nominal?

        Nominal: Existing in name only, not real or actual; hence so small, slight,as to be hardly worth the name.  Quite a definition.  Can we dare allow His Spirit to probe our hearts as to what degree it may define our relationship with Him?  

     A.W. Tozer wrote, "I cannot understand how anyone can profess to be a follower and disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ and not be overwhelmed by His attributes."  We are overwhelmed by much in life.  To what extent are we overwhelmed by the beauty, majesty, and holiness of Him?  What is the degree of our awe and wonder?  I can still remember the time, many years ago, when the truth came to me that the closer I got to Christ, the more unworthy I was to be there.  I fear we know little of this awe, this wonder, and I believe too many of us are closer to the definition of "nominal" than we are to that of disciple.  There may be many who presently seek to define our lives, including ourselves. The only definition that matters however is His.  What is His definition of our relationship with Him today?
     Yes, we each walk at our own pace with Him, but it is a pace that is set by Him, not us.  Oswald Chambers called it "walking in the stride of the Father."  Are we matching His stride?  Are we, as scripture says, "following hard after God."  The picture of that is to be so pressed into Him as to be indistinguishable from Him.  Is that you?  Is that me?

     Matthew 6:33 reads, "But strive (seek) first for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness....."  Eugene Peterson asks of us, "What evidence is there in your life that you seek first His Kingdom?"  What is the evidence?  That we go to church regularly? That we tithe, pray, go to Bible studies, listen to Christian music, engage in good works?  Paul said that we could do all of these, but if we were without love, an overwhelming, passionate love for Him, we were nothing more than empty gongs.  Psalm 42:1, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O my God."  The nominal life thirsts for the things that are passing. The Christ centered life thirsts for Him....and in Him finds satisfaction for that thirst.  What are we really thirsting for today? Security, provision, protection, position?  We become obsessed with these. We are obsessed with these.  We become nominal pursuers of Him, and passionate pursuers of these.  Which, and who are we pursuing right now?
    Josh McDowell wrote a compelling book about the reality of Christ titled "Evidence That Demands A Verdict."  As to the reality of His consuming Presence in our lives,  what is the evidence?  What is the verdict?  In our lives, our relationships, our homes and families, and in our church fellowships, what is the evidence, and what is the verdict?
    

Blessings,
Pastor O

      

Heart Tracks - He Broke Through

     As a newly converted believer back in 1980, I was deeply moved by the lyrics and music of a Keith Green song, Your Love Broke Through, because they spoke so clearly to exactly how He had revealed Himself to me in my own life.  The entire song is powerful, but one line by itself seemed to speak everything to how He was able to lay hold of a man, myself, who had been living in deep darkness, delusion, and deception.  That line went,

                                                              Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed,

                                                              Until Your love broke through

                                                              I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me,

                                                              Until Your love broke through

     35 years later, those words have not lost their power for me, or became any less true.  Indeed, they are more true than ever.  And I grow more thankful each day that in that dream, that fantasy, that life I thought was life and was lost in, yet seemed so real, that in that place of darkness, His love broke through.....to and for me.  That truth grows more powerful for me by the day.  As it does, my burden for all those still trapped in that fantasy, and I believe many of them sit in the pews of our church fellowships, grows as well.  Yet at the same time, my hope in Him, for them, grows too.  I know that if the love of the Father in Christ can reach the heart and life of a young man trapped in the darkness of drugs, worldly philosophies and ideals, and the deception and delusion that they hold, than that great love can do the same in them, no matter where they are found.
    We truly live in a day when the Bible says "good would be called evil, and evil good."  Our culture has embraced darkness, and we see it reflected not only in our favorite entertainments, but in the daily reporting of what we call "news."  So many are lost in a fantasy that has blinded them, both in and outside of the church.  Those who live as citizens of the world cannot help but adopt the value system of that world.  Yet so many of His people, who would claim citizenship in His Kingdom, find themselves living, choosing, seeing and thinking in just the same way as those who make no claim of Kingdom life.
    Recently, a good friend shared of how many in his family, family that would claim to be His followers, lived in just as much fear and dread of death as those without Christ.  Despite, in most cases, a lifetime of hearing His message of life and hope, that message had never penetrated their heart and being.  They could no more see Him, His Hope, His eternity, than those without Him.  This world was far more real to them than His.  In truth, the fantasy was not the lie of this world, but the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven.  They, like so many, continued to live in a dream that seemingly had no end.  They are not alone.  I think that there are a multitude of professing believers who are far more comfortable in and with the world system than they are the Father's.  It's not only comfortable, it's more real.
    In the midst of all this, Isaiah 58:8 speaks, "Then Your light will break through like the dawn, and you will heal quickly."  Break through.  The deepest darkness, and the greatest deception and delusion.  None of them are greater than He.  He pierces all darkness, bringing His light and life, and with them, His healing.  This world will seek to entice us to believe its fantasy.  Seek to keep us living in that "long dream."  All the while, His love seeks to pierce that delusion, that fantasy, and bring healing and sight.  More than 35 years ago, He broke through mine.  To whatever degree the fantasy may hold you, would you have Him break through to you?  I remember so clearly my crying out to Him while held in the grip of darkness.  He broke through.  Cry out for His love today.  Right now.  He will break through......to you.  Wake up from the dream.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Greatest Disability

      Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms or legs, said that, "Fear is the greatest disability of all."  Beth Moore once remarked that we need to, "Know the power that dread has over us."  Fear and dread.  These are two things that most, if not all of us live with to some degree every moment of every day.  They do disable us.  They do have seemingly unlimited power over us.  They are tyrants, jailers, and they hold us in chains.  We know that Jesus said seemingly numberless times that we are to "Fear not," yet this is a command we seem completely unable to obey.  Why? Do we consciously disregard Him?   Are we refusing to hear Him?  Is our unbelief that great?  I think the answer is both yes, and no.  Let's look a little deeper.

     All of us know how paralyzing fear can be, especially in the spiritual realm.  We are robbed of boldness, strength, and faith.  We're also made blind to Him in the midst of it.  It is the greatest disability.  How can we be free of it?  Can we be free of it?  This is not to mean that fear will never make an appearance in our lives.  We're human, and there are things that will happen that our first and human reaction to will be fear.  What we need to understand is that our reaction that brings forth fear can be overcome, completely, by how we respond to it in Christ.  The flesh reacts, but in the Spirit, we can respond.  So what is the key to all of this?
     T. Austin-Sparks said that "Freedom comes when we are satisfied in Him, and stop trying to satisfy Him."  Think on this a moment and see if we can realize that fear finds a "beachhead" in our lives right here.  We are afraid in some way that we are not pleasing Him, not satisfying Him, so we work harder to do that.  All the while there exists the fear that we're not pleasing Him at all.  Fear has a base to operate from, and then it reaches its tentacles out and works in more and more areas of our lives.  I think the majority of us are not truly finding our satisfaction in Him, and one of the great results of this is that we don't really know Him.  Therefore we're always trying to figure out what He wants from us, and so we're always afraid that we're missing it.  Fear is at work.  Sparks says that what is key is to realize just who and what we are occupied with?  If we are occupied with ourselves, then we will revert to "type," and everything in life will pass through our perspective and understanding, and along with this will come an ever deepening realization of how unable we are to control any of it.  We can do nothing then but live in fear.....of everything. When we are occupied with Him, we are then abiding in Him.  Jesus said that apart from Him, "We can do nothing."  Especially exercise any real control.  When we are occupied, abiding with and in Him, we not only know that we can do nothing, but we come into ever deeper understanding that He can do anything and everything.  We are living in the realm of "Nothing is impossible with God."  We live looking at Him, and not the things that threaten us.  Fear, dread, or any other bondage, cannot stand in His Presence.  They have to release us.  In Him, we are free.
     His Word tells us that, "Beholding.....we are changed."  If we live beholding ourselves and how everything around us affects us, then we will surely more and more be changed into people totally occupied with ourselves and how everything in life affects us.  If we live beholding Him, we will more and more be changed into His likeness, and more and more enter into His freedom.  We no longer try to be free, no longer try to please Him by our own efforts, but we are free and satisfied in Him.  We don't live in captivity to what's going on around us, but in freedom with He who reigns and lives within us.  The power of the greatest disability is broken.
    To what degree are we living under the power of that disability?  How much control are fear and dread exercising in our lives?  Jesus told us to "Occupy" until He comes.  We will occupy....and be occupied with, and by something and someone.  The question is with what....ourselves, or Him?  Beholding we are changed.  What and Who are we beholding?

Blessings,
Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - Nailed

      I heard a woman named Sarah Hagerty speak recently about a time in her life when she was fighting a losing battle with bitterness in her spirit. Like so many, she had embarked upon her married life with expectations that if she did right, life would be right.  She believed that the Father would bless her with the fulfillment of her deepest desires.  One of these was to have children.  Many children.  Time passed, and yet no children came.  She could not understand why.  The difficulty was increased by her observation of seemingly every other young couple in her church being blessed with children.  Many children.  She said she didn't begin to question the goodness of God, because she knew from His Word that He was good.  What she questioned was whether He was good to her.  How could He be, if her greatest desires were not being fulfilled?  His Word says He will give us the desires of our heart, yet her desire remained unmet.  I think more than a few of us have spent time in the same place as her.  The question is, are we still there?

    She said that things began to change in her heart when she read Proverbs 27:7, "A sated (full) man loathes honey, but to a famished (hungry) man, any bitter thing is sweet."  She sensed that He was speaking deeply into her life in the midst of her bitterness.  That the Father intended to use this unfulfilled desire, bitter on the surface, to reveal the sweetness of Himself in the midst of it.  That this place, a place she did not want to be, that frustrated the deep longing of her heart, could be, would be, a place of revelation of the wonder and beauty, and yes, faithfulness of who He was and is.  Just as the Lord had turned the bitter waters sweet for the Israelites in their wilderness journey, so He would turn the bitter experience of her journey sweet for her.  As He will for us if we will have it.
    She said that the Father began to take her ever more deeply into Himself.  She shared how one morning during worship, surrounded by all those young families with children, she saw a picture of the cross.  On that cross was nailed one word; "Family."  She knew what the Lord was calling her to.  She knew that He was asking her to surrender that deep, unmet desire for a family to Him, to nail it to His cross, to surrender that desire to Him.  And then trust Him that even if He did not bring about the family she longed for, He would reveal Himself to be sweeter to her even than that family.  That He would make her life sweet, despite the bitter circumstances she found herself in.  In obedience, she nailed her desire to His, and her, cross.
    What might you and I need to do the same with?  What do we need to nail to His cross?  Our deepest, yet unmet desire?  Our marriage, or desire for marriage?  Our mate?  Our children?  Our job, business.....ministry?  The past, future, or present?  What depth of bitterness is present in our lives because in some way, our desires for, or in these have gone unfulfilled?  He has not acted or answered.  Bitterness has taken root and grown.  Can we believe He will make the bitter, sweet?  Even if nothing outwardly changes?  Can we take whatever, or whoever causes us to doubt His goodness to us, and nail them to the cross, and leave it there?  Can we?
     For Sarah Hagerty, her journey took she and her husband to adopt 4 children from Uganda and Ethiopia.  Then, what she believed could never happen, did.  She gave birth to a child.  Out of bitterness, sweetness.  I cannot, and He will not promise that we will have all we want in our lives. There may be something we so deeply desire, something very good, that He doesn't give us.  Can we believe Him to make that bitter place sweet? Can we believe in His goodness to us even there?  At the cross, He will make the most bitter place or experience, sweet, if we will surrender it and trust it to Him.  He calls us to nail it to His cross there.  Have we nailed it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Ruthless Pursuit

      "By perseverance, the snail reached the ark."  Charles Spurgeon   God's goal for the snail, and for every creature on the ark, including Noah and his family, was that they reach it.  Without doubt, each journeyed to the ark at the pace the Father created them for, and it was not the speed of the journey, but that they would get to where it was He called them to.  For sure, there were numerous distractions to be found along the way, but within them all, even the snail, was an overwhelming desire to find the rest and life that could only be theirs in the ark.  They would not be denied.  There's a lesson for us in that.

     It may be that the greatest enemy of the heart of a believer is self-satisfaction.  We tend to want to look back on how far we have come, and in doing that, can fall prey to a smug satisfaction about it all.  Of this tendency Chris Tiegreen says, "We think we've stocked up on our Godward obligations and that He must be satisfied with us as long as we're satisfied with ourselves."  His call, like His grace, mercy, and love, is new every morning, and it  always calls us onward....and upward.  Along this same line Watchman Nee wrote, "The question is not how far we have gone since we started, but whether our hearts are still set on God's goal."  Are our hearts set on that goal?  Is yours?
    To live in such a way will require far more than a general, good intentioned desire for Him.  It will mean a ruthless pursuit of Him.  Yes, ruthless.  In Matthew 11:12 Jesus said, "And from the time John the Baptist began preaching and baptizing until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing and violent people attack it."  T. Austin-Sparks says this means that "we do violence to anything that seeks to keep us from Him."  This means that we ruthlessly remove from our lives anything that has come between He and us.  We do not go about our pursuit of Him in anything but an all out, full-hearted, way.  Are we in the midst of such a pursuit right now?  Or have life's distractions, disturbances,  and competing interests sapped us of our energy for Him?  If they have, why are we okay with that?

    Not long ago, I was looking at a local church's website.  I went to their "statement of belief".  The first thing it said was, "We value the word of God."  Valued.  There are many things we can value.  Is Christ and His Word now just one more to add to the list?  I doubt we will die, especially to self, for something we merely value.  We will for someone who has a place above all things, most especially ourselves.  Nothing will keep us from such a One.  Such a Christ.
    Sparks said this; "The Lord is able to look into the depths of our hearts and see if we mean business with Him.  He will know how far He can go with us."  How far can He go with you and me?  To the place where we feel satisfied, or He does?  Is our heart still set on His goal for us, the fullest measure of His life and power?  Does this day find us, you and me, on our way to "the ark," undeterred, undisturbed, journeying there with all of our hearts?  Ruthlessly pursuing Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O  

Heart Tracks - The Goods

      Acts 3 portrays the miracle of Peter healing the crippled beggar at the gate of the Temple.  The man, lame from birth, was apparently well known to those who were regularly in the vicinity of the Temple.  Asking for money from Peter and his companion John, Peter told him that, "I don't have any money for you, but I'll give you what I have.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk."  Peter then extended his hand and the man "jumped up."  He then began to "walk, leap, and praise God."  Scripture records of the onlookers that, "They were absolutely astounded......everyone stood in awe of the wonderful thing that had happened."

    T. Austin-Sparks asks of us 3 pointed questions as to this event and how it applies to our walk in Christ.  He wants to know first, are we, through the witness of our lives in Him, "closing the mouths of the scoffers?"  Surely in the crowd were many who had heard of the move of God that was happening in Jerusalem, of the relaying of the news that Christ had truly risen, and that those who were His followers, had boldly come forth and were ministering in His name.  Just as surely there had to be many who were at best, cynical, and many more who likely "scoffed" at the whole story.  With what Christ did through Peter, their mouths surely were closed.  They could do nothing but stand in awe of the witness of Christ in the lives of two men who they knew to be of very humble origins, yet who walked in the power of Christ.  Do we walk in the power of such a life?  Do we embody the resurrection life of Christ?  Do we, as Sparks puts it in his second question, "have the 'goods'?"  Are our lives much more than just words, information about Him, correct doctrine and theology, or, do we truly move in His resurrection life and power?  Do we indeed "have the goods?"
    This was a very great miracle done in His name by His people, but I think, particularly in our day, that there is an even greater miracle to be done through us, and this brings us to Sparks' third and final question.  "Do we embody, in our day to day living, His rest, peace, and strength?"  In a culture and world desperate for all three, do they see these in us?  Do they see us living from a place of deep rest in Him.  In a world in chaos, do they see us in living in and from His rest?  Or, do they witness men and women just as stressed out, anxious, fearful, and weary as they are?  Do they see in us, emanating from us, a peace that passes all understanding?  Lives that are not dependent on everything around them being at peace, but that live in undisturbed peace in the midst of a very disturbed world.  Do they have from our lives, the sense of His mighty strength showing forth through us?  Though not immune from the cares and struggles of life, they witness in us a power and strength that enables us to be overcomers in the midst of all of them.  The scoffers and cynics have no answer for those who live such lives.  Their mouths are closed.  They may refuse to believe, but they cannot deny.  Those they see truly have "the goods."

    How do you and I answer these 3 questions today?  One way or another, we will answer them.  Either by the closing of their mouths, or by giving "proof" to the attitudes of the scoffers and cynics.  Only the life truly living and abiding in Him will close mouths, and bring forth awe. Living in any other place will only feed the attitudes of the unbelieving.  I want to live with "the goods"  How about you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Calling Card

      Watchman Nee said, "Without some foothold in us, satan cannot operate.  Hence his first tempting of us will be aimed at securing some ground, the next will be an assault from the ground he has secured.  One very large territory, perhaps the largest, that he operates from is fear. Fear is satan's calling card.  Whenever you accept his calling card, you will receive a visit from him."  I don't think it's a question of if, but when is it that we accept his calling cards, be they through fear, worry, anxiety, anger, unforgiveness, lust, and on and on.  I think though, that a case might be made that all of these are rooted in some kind of fear that pervades our lives.  Where might it be pervading ours?
    The "footholds" that Nee speaks of are what the Bible calls "strongholds."  These are territories that the enemy is able to establish in our thinking and the actions that flow out from that thinking.  In this age of reason, and dependence upon manmade solutions and definitions, I don't think we place much emphasis, if any on these. Though the science of psychology has its uses, I think we depend more upon it, much more, than we do upon the power of His Life and Spirit.  Depending on our understanding rather than His sets us up for defeat.  The foothold/stronghold remains established in our lives and as Nee says, he launches attacks against us from that place and places.  Thirty plus years in ministry have convinced me that his greatest foothold, the center of his attacks, do indeed come from the stronghold of fear in our lives.  This is not how it is to be in our lives, but for too many, it is.  Is it so in you?
    Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods.  We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds.  With these weapons we knock down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God."  God's powerful weapon is the truth of His Word and Life as revealed in Christ.  A stronghold in our lives is a lie that the enemy has placed there and convinced us to believe is true.  He then operates against us in the power of this lie.  It is a spiritual thing and we cannot defeat it, destroy it, by human reasoning, plan, or method.  Yet like all of the devil's lies, it is powerless in the face of His truth.  His truth will "knock down" the Devil's stronghold, no matter how high or strong, every time.  Are you ready enough, desperate enough, to see them knocked down and destroyed in your life today?
     His Word tells us that "perfect love casts out all fear."  His perfect love brings forth truth into our hearts, minds, and lives.  Fear cannot stand in the presence of that love because it is His presence that crushes it and puts it to flight.  When we are living not some of the time, but all of the time in that love, the Devil is unable to establish a foothold of any kind.  When he sends the calling cards of his lies, we have the power to reject them because we recognize them for what they are, lies.  He has no foothold.  He establishes no stronghold.  This is freedom.  Is this freedom yours?
    You and I will receive his calling card in some form this week.  Will we accept?  Will we believe his lie once more?  Will fear in one of its forms shape us?  Or, in the power of His Life and Truth, will we reject the card, and see that stronghold demolished?   We live in a fallen world, and the enemy has been able to spend years of our lives building these strongholds of lies in our minds and hearts.  Yet in Him, they must and will fall. Are you ready for that?  Are you ready to "tear up" his calling card today?

Blessings,
Pastor O