Heart Tracks - Who Are You?

"But now, O Israel, the Lord who created you says, 'Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine." Isaiah 43:1...."The poor deluded fools feeds on ashes. He is trusting something that can give him no help at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, 'Is this thing, this idol that I'm holding in my hand, a lie?' " Isaiah 44:20

I heard Sheila Walsh tell the story of one of her experiences after she had checked herself in to a psychiatric hospital. Upon her first interview, the Doctor asked her who she was. She answered "Sheila Walsh." He said, "No, I didn't ask your name, I asked you who you are?" She then answered, "I'm the co-host of the 700 Club." He said, "I didn't ask you what you do. I asked you who your are?" She then said to him, "I don't know who I am.".......A month later, as she was leaving the facility, the Doctor who conducted that interview, leaned out of his office window and called to her, "Sheila Walsh, who are you?" She called back, "I'm Sheila Walsh, a daughter of the King."

I think so many of us, if we're really pressed on this issue of who we are, would, like Walsh, end up saying, "I don't know who I am." It would be because like Walsh, we put our identity into the name we have before others, or even more, the job, ministry, or role we have in life. That's who we are. The great problem in this is, who are we if that name, job, or role we have had is lost? Who then are we?

I know something of this. A great part of my life was spent identifying myself by these things. A day came when I was no longer any of them. I had been a husband, a pastor, and I had visibility in these roles before others. Then....I didn't. And it was a terrible blow. If I was no longer any of these, then what was I? Who was I? If I saw great value in being these, and I did, then now that I wasn't, I obviously had no value. I had knowledge about how others saw me, and how I saw myself, but I lacked any real understanding of how He saw me, and didn't really know that His was the only viewpoint that mattered.

When Isaiah spoke for the Lord to the people, he spoke the Father's heart to a people who had embraced other gods, idols, and did not know the lie that held their hearts concerning them. We do the same, though we are very slow to come to grips with it, if at all. We hold fast to our hearts what we do and what role we play. Insert the title of the job you have, or the relationship role you're in. We so easily see that as being who we are. We may have dedicated these roles and places to Him, but it's they, and not He who define us. Our identity is one with them, not with Him. We hold onto a lie...a lie that cannot help us once they are gone. In that psychiatric ward, Walsh, with her marriage destroyed, and her co-hosting role gone, had to come to terms with who she truly was, and where and with who her value really lie. Have you come to terms with it yet? Or do you still hold to the lie?

I remember the deep sense of loss concerning my roles. Yet losing them didn't immediately result in my recognizing the lie I still clung to. In His mercy, He began to restore my place as a pastor fourteen months after it had been lost to me. Yet I continued to feel that it, along with the hoped for restoration of a marriage would be what made me truly whole. So I continued to hold on to the lie. Yet He is so faithful. It took a lot of hard years and disappointments resulting from believing that lie until, at last, the beauty and reality of the above Scriptures came alive to and in me.
I was not defined by what I did, or who I was with. I was defined by the One who made me, and made me for Himself. To know beyond doubt that I had His love, His approval and acceptance, and His constant presence, meant that I could live in victory, have wholeness, be complete in Him no matter what state I was in, or how others saw or measured me. The power of the lie had finally been broken, and the power of His Truth had finally come.

I won't say that the lie no longer shows up to try and woo me back. It does. But such is my knowledge of the power of His Truth, that each time, I need only look to Him, and feel His presence, security, and oneness with Him wash over me. Finally, after so long, I know who I am. I may often need reminders, but I know. Do you? Or, do you continue to hold on to the lie?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Where Have You Laid Them?

3 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and [h]was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They *said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. John 11:33-35..."Jesus looked around an saw them following. 'What do you want?' He asked them. They replied, 'Rabbi (which means Teacher) where are You staying?' 'Come and see,' He said. John 1:38-39

I recently heard someone make mention of the above Scripture in reference to our need to take Jesus to the place and places where we have laid our failures, disappointments, hurts, defeats, betrayals, even the very death of our greatest dreams and desires. We all have such places where we have "laid" them. We may even have sought to "bury" them, but their presence is still with us. The smell of death, as Mary, Martha and the other mourners were sure would be upon Lazarus, is still with us. We may have "entombed" them, but they are still there, affecting us on every level of our life. Jesus comes, and bids us to take Him to them. To all of them.

Where are such sites in your life? Where is it that you've laid the wounds, tragedies, losses, and bitter disappointments? Some may have been so long there that you're no longer conscious of them, yet they still affect you, influence your behavior, thinking, and attitudes. Jesus knows them all, and He would have you know them as well. He asks you to take Him to them. Will you invite Him to "Come and see" even the most devastating of those long buried things?

When Martha, Mary, and the rest of the mourners laid Lazarus in his grave, they had no expectation that he would ever leave it, at least not in this life. They trusted in his being resurrected, but that was a future hope, not a present one. Where they laid their sorrow and loss was where they expected it to remain. Jesus felt their sorrow, and He entered into it, but it was what He did next that transformed everything. For those who trust in Him, no matter the depth of our need, hurt, or sorrow, we can look with faith unto what He will do next. What He did next was to call forth Lazarus from his grave unto life. A life that was beyond hope of recovery was recovered. Resurrection life was not just for tomorrow, it was for today. The one they had laid and lost was raised up and given back. Martha and Mary, in the midst of deep heartache and little faith, beheld a miracle beyond belief simply because they obeyed His word to take Him to where they had laid him.

We all have these places in our lives. All along the path of our journey are places where we've "laid" the crushing devastation of our failures, defeats, betrayals, and losses. We may have kept moving, but we have never really gone on. Right there stands Jesus, and He bids us, as He did Martha and Mary to take Him to where we have laid them...all of them. He's entered into our sorrow, but He asks us to trust Him in what He is about to do next. Can and will we? Can you?

We must extend this invitation to Jesus if we're to ever to know real wholeness. But that path also contains a second invitation as well. It is the one extended by Him to us. In John 1, in response to the two disciples question as to where He was staying, Jesus simply said, "Come and see?" This is His invitation to each one of us, no matter where we are at this moment. The disciples were inquiring as to where His physical dwelling was. Jesus wanted them to know where He dwelt in the Spirit, in the Kingdom. They could only know that if they would come to Him, enter into His Life, and see. He calls us to the same. He said that eye hasn't seen, and ear hasn't heard all that the Father has in store for those who love Him. But if we heed His invitation, we begin to see, hear, and know the fullness of that Life He invites us to.

Two invitations: The first comes from us, bringing Him into our various places of death and loss and beholding what He will do there. The second comes from Him, bringing us into the fullness of the Life He has just breathed into those places. Three simple words; "Come and see." Can we speak them to Him, and will we hear them from Him? His invitation has been given. Dare we give Him ours?

Blessings,
Pastor O.

Heart Tracks - A God For Us?

"What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?" Romans 8:31...."As Joshua approached the city of Jericho, he looked up an saw a man facing him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, 'Are your friend or foe?' 'Neither one,' he replied, 'I am commander of the Lord's army.' At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. 'I am at your command,' Joshua said. 'What do you want your servant to do?' " Joshua 5:13-14...."For us, the question is not one of receiving help, but of accepting leadership." Watchman Nee..."How much Christian work there is today that has never been disciplined, but has simply sprung into being by impulse." Oswald Chambers

A pastor friend recently remarked on how, in Job, we're told that "Satan went out from the Presence of God." He then pointed to the fact that Christ, His Son, was "sent out" from His Father in order to accomplish His will. I expect most of us know that truth, but are we aware of the quiet ramifications for us in it?

Those who are His love the promise of Romans 8:31. We want to face life, ministry, relationships, everything, under the covering of that promise. God is for us. Who can be against us? And so we go out (keep that phrase in mind) with the full expectation that whatever we put our hand to, He will bless and enable us in it. We presume that He is fully with us, engaged in our plan, our agenda. In it, we commit the sin of presumption, assuming that because we want it, or that it's "good," He's for it, will bless it, and bring it to pass. Secondly, we fail to recognize the very subtle but real difference between our going out for Him, and being sent out by Him. Oswald Chambers, who established a college for training missionaries, said that one was to go nowhere until they knew that they were not only being sent out by Him, but that He was and would be fully with them in the work. They presumed nothing. They waited upon Him in everything. It is the enemy's way to go out from Him, and the landscape of the Church is strewn with the wreckage of all the lives, endeavors, and mission projects that did so, in presumption, simply because they believed that in the going, He was for them. We seek the results of studies, demographics, and such as our impetus. Too often, they are our reason for going out. We go, but we're not sent.

When Joshua was about to enter into battle, he encountered the "Commander of the Lord's host." Most think that the Commander was the pre-incarnate Christ. Joshua, in his humanity, wanted to know whether this One was for, or against the people of Israel. His answer of "neither" would have been totally unexpected. What God wanted Joshua to know, what He wants us to know, is that He will not take the role of our supporter in our plans and agendas. He will not limit Himself to being the most powerful member of our team. He will lead, He will command, and we will fully yield to Him in all of it, or He will not be going out. Otherwise, we will be going out, but we will be going out from His Presence, from Him. Do you see the subtle similarity between the way of the enemy, the way of the Dragon, and the difference from the way of Christ, the way of the Lamb?

When Joshua realized who it was that he'd encountered, he could do nothing else but fall on his face in worship. And then he got up, in submissive obedience, and went on to total victory. To choose any other way but the way of the Lamb will also result in our falling on our faces, in defeat, in shame. Oh, we may accomplish many of our objectives. We can do a lot in our own strength, but we build a house of straw. It will not stand. In the end, it is nothing. Is He for us? Yes....for all those who step out in the assurance that they are His sent ones, and who will not take a step without His Presence. We can go out, but if we do so on our initiative, we'll never enter in. Yet those who are sent out by Him enter into the richness of their inheritance in Christ. To acknowledge Him in all of our ways is to be surrendered to Him in all of our ways. We then are sent out to accomplish His purposes, not simply going out to accomplish our own. And His purposes can look very different from ours. The way of the Dragon and the way of the Lamb. One is the way of Christ, and the other is not. There is a way that seems right, and there is a Way that is right. Which is yours and mine?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Worship In The Darkness - Part 3

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them." Acts 16:25....."Darkness will not go quietly into the Light." Alicia Britt Chole...."If we are immersed in the Spirit of God, the difference between a five-star hotel and a Greek jail are minimal.....The spiritual war requires great focus - and the ability to worship in dark places." ChrisTiegreen

We talk a lot about worship in the church today. We debate which style is most effective. We give attention to a lot of the details and make-up for what yields what we would think of as a "great worship service." Lighting, atmosphere, and mood are all things we take into consideration. We want to provide a good experience. I wonder if we consider how much of our "worship" is focused on ourselves, and how little upon Him? Even more, I wonder if we understand that true worship ushers us into a real spiritual battle ground? A battleground where His Light clashes with hell's darkness? I don't think the enemy cares much about our style, music choices, or how we light our sanctuaries. He cares very much whether His people come to Him with hearts wide open, seeking, laying hold of Him, wanting Him, wanting to encounter Him. All of themselves taking hold of all of Him that they can. The enemy in the dark will fight against such worship with all of his might. As Chole says, darkness will not go quietly into the Light.

Can you imagine satan's joy when he managed to have Paul and Silas imprisoned? He had them right where he wanted them. Their ministry for Him thwarted, their doom assured. He had won. They had lost. Now he could move on to his next victim(s). Yet Paul and Silas didn't respond as he'd hoped. They didn't give in to despair, hopelessness, or complaint. Locked in the darkest part of that prison, they worshiped Him...worshiped Him with all that was within them. Worshiped Him with such intensity that the earth shook. The prison doors flew open. Every power that held them was overcome. Because they were able in the darkest place, to worship Him. The darkness did not go quietly, but it did go. True worship is total war. True worship shakes both heaven and hell. The first with joy, the latter with despair. True worship crushed even the deepest darkness to the wall. It is always the witness and testimony of those able to worship in dark places.

I've a pastor friend that likes to use the term "first responders" for all those whose hearts are being drawn to His in worship and witness. First responders is a term we're hearing so much of in relation to the destruction of Hurricane Harvey. These are ones first on the scene of chaos. The Father is calling His own "first responders" in the midst of the chaos and darkness that envelops our culture. I believe these first responders will be all those who have learned the secret and the joy of worshiping Him in the darkness. The ones who found freedom, joy, peace, and most of all His Presence, in the midst of their own kinds of prisons. Their own kinds of darkness. The ones who found the brightness of Christ's Light amidst the darkness of the devil's hell.

I saw a moving video of a Texas interstate highway exit lined with trucks towing boats, all on their way to Houston to aid in the rescue work. The line went on for miles. These, in addition to all those already on the scene, were the first responders. They responded to the call. How about you and me? Do we hear His call to come out and into a culture awash in darkness? I believe only those who have learned to worship Him in the dark will hear it, will come to it, respond to it. The rest of us? Well, we can always stay occupied in debating what it is that make for real worship.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Warning

"As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come, Felix was afraid and said, 'That's enough for now. You may leave.' " Acts 24:25........"What does grace mean in our society? In the minds of those who are convinced of their sinfulness, it is a refreshing oasis of relief from a dry spiritual desert. But for those who have embraced a fuzzy, relative morality - the 'whatever you like' ethics of our age - grace means nothing. Why would a generation that has defined its own easy standards need a merciful God? What is there to forgive?" Chris Tiegreen

While I write this, Florida is being threatened by what is being described as a "potentially catastrophic hurricane," Irma. Pictures of packed, almost impassible freeways are being shown, as people in panic seek to get out of the path of destruction. As gasoline supplies dwindle, many are unable to procure the fuel needed to leave. It's too late. May His mercy be much upon these ones, and upon all that lie in the path of the storm, should it actually come upon the state, as many believe it will. Yet, as I watch these scenes of flight and fear, I am reminded of something even more dangerous, more destructive, and is coming upon the entire human race regardless of where they live. It is inescapable, and it is the final judgement upon all those who are without Christ on that great day. For all those whose lives are not "hidden in Christ," He who is the only source of safety, the only Way out of destruction's path.

Again, as I watch the scenes of flight, I am amazed at how close is the attention we pay to warnings of physical danger, yet how oblivious we are to those that are spiritual. Then again, could it be that we, the Church, have taken ourselves out of the role of those who sound the warning? We have emphasized the saving grace of God, and infinitely great is that grace. But as Tiegreen points out, what does the grace of forgiveness really mean to a generation who believes they have no need of it? Paul said that without repentance there can be no forgiveness of sins. Repentance flows out of conviction of need, of awareness that we have ALL sinned and fallen short of His glory. How can anyone truly be "saved" if they have no idea of what it is they are to be saved from? We are awash in a culture of depravity, where there is tolerance for every view except one that is absolute, and there is nothing more absolute than the message that Christ came to save sinners, among which we, like Paul, are foremost. When Paul witnessed to the Roman governor Felix, who was part of a culture so very similar to that of today, he knew just speaking of His love and grace would not reach the dark heart of Felix. Felix needed to know what his true problem was. That the problem could only be solved through the blood of and belief upon Jesus Christ, and what the consequences of rejection were. Felix fled. Not towards, but away from Christ, and His messenger, Paul.

The concept of sin is not just fading in our culture. It is fading in a great part of the Church as well. We present Christ as One who satisfies every fleshly longing. We speak to consumers who are looking for needs to be met...and abundantly. We must instead show forth a God who is a consuming fire. Who seeks to consume us...and cleanse and make us whole. A God who is a hurricane of Life and Love....but also a hurricane of loss and eternal death to all who reject Him. We do not speak with a torrent of condemnation, threat, and carnal fear. We speak in and with the mighty wind of His Spirit. A mighty wind filled with His love, but filled also with the real and awful consequence of rejecting that love. Eternal darkness. We do not try to convince anyone of His Truth. Only He can save and transform. We can only be His Light shining in the darkness, calling lives to Him. To Christ as He is and not as we would like Him to be.

John the Baptist asked the Pharisees "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Who warns this generation of the destruction that is certain for all who are without Christ? The answer is not in a renewed evangelism emphasis, but upon a Holy Spirit filled love for God, love for the lost and for souls, and a hatred of sin and all its consequences. The consequences are sure. Who among us will sound the warning?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Finished!

"Jesus knew that everything was now finished, and to fulfill the Scriptures He said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch and held it up to His lips. When Jesus had tasted it, He said, 'It is finished.' Then He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit." John 19:28-30...."It is finished. That is the last word in the redemption of man." Oswald Chamber....."It is finished, and Jesus is Lord." Lyric from the song, It Is Finished..."You tore the veil, You made a way, when You said that it was done." Lyric from the song, At The Cross

I often think that these three words of the King may well be both the best known, yet least experienced in their Truth, of all the words the Lord spoke. From the cross He proclaimed that the full ministry and work for which He had been sent had been accomplished. The atoning for all sin as well as it's power over humankind had been done and broken. On the cross, and in His subsequent resurrection, everything we must have to live abundant, victorious lives was completed. Jesus knew that it was finished. The devil knew, and knows it was finished as well. The question is, do we know it is finished as well? The victory has been won. The victory has been given. Have we received that victory? Have we entered into it?

The reality is, too many of His people live as if this truth is not real. We struggle and strive, barely making any spiritual progress, if we make any at all. We too often see Him as a God who must be appeased and pleased before He moves to any degree to help us. We know that His Son Jesus Christ came, lived, ministered, died and rose again. But we live as though He then removed Himself from the picture, and left us on our own to struggle through....with occasional interventions from Him on our behalf. After all, pain and suffering remain in this world. If it's really finished, why? If victory, abundance, strength and Holy Spirit power are really ours, why do we feel so weak, powerless, helpless...victimized. The full answers to these questions go beyond what I can write here, but maybe the journey to entering into this finished works starts with a realization of these three things.

First, we need to know that though it is finished, it isn't over. The battle is won, but it goes on. The devil is defeated, but he fights on. We are redeemed, but we continue to live in a fallen world. A world temporarily in the enemy's hands, but whose hands are controlled by Almighty God. It is not over, but it is done! Fight as he may, assault as he will, he cannot thwart the purposes of the Father for us if we will cling to Him, abide in Him, live surrendered to Him. We can live resurrection lives in a fallen world held in the grip of death. Until He returns, the battle goes on, but the victory is already ours...He overcame the full might of hell on the cross. In Him, we do, we have, as well.

Secondly, though it is finished, we're not. We are not finished in carrying out, living out, that which He created us for and called us to. We're not finished in His placing of us in the front lines of already won battles. We fight, but we fight with the knowledge that the enemy we fight is already beaten...and knows it. All the devil has is bluster...and lies....and threats....and his own name. We come against all that in the name of Almighty God. No matter how fearsome he appears through whatever means of attack he uses, he is already beaten, and we have already won.

Last, one of the enemy's greatest lies will be to get us to believe it is we who are finished, not him. He wants us to believe that the situation is too far gone, or that our failures and sins have been too many. That everything is far too gone, far past the point of saving. We are finished, and he has won. What Christ the King tells us in His finished work is that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be so "finished" and dead that the Father cannot raise it up. All the circumstantial evidence or "proofs" the enemy may offer to the contrary are lies. The Lord reigns, no matter how deep the darkness, and no matter how long dead. Death is swallowed up in victory. Has that reality, made so at the cross, become yours? Have you ever come to the cross...to Christ...to life?

So, how real are those three words, "It is finished," to you and me? Everything that was needed for us to have victorious, abundant, and overcoming life was done at the cross. It was finished. At the cross.....Come to cross. Come to victory. Come to His life. What keeps you from it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Tower

15So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 16He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep. John 21:15-17...."When we stand before Him, He will not ask, 'Were you accurately estimated? Were you appropriately recognized? Were you sufficiently applauded?' Instead He will ask, 'Did you love Me? Did you love others toward Me? Did you obey Me? Did you submit yourself to My will and My Word? Did you live for what I died for?' " Alicia Britt Chole

In the book, The Way Of The Dragon Or The Way Of The Lamb, Kyle Strobel tells of his visit to a prominent evangelical church. He said as they waited in the lobby, they saw a huge model of an ancient ziggurat, which is a pyramid shaped building that increased in height using steps. Most biblical scholars believe the Tower of Babel in Genesis was a ziggurat. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a massive fountain, built upon a foundation of large boulders. Upon each boulder was a plaque that named some achievement of the church. Strobel writes, "Let that sink in. Without realizing the implications, someone built the Tower of Babel in the lobby of the church with the foundation stones representing their own achievements. Someone built a model of the biblical portrayal of human arrogance as a physical representation of their own success......What could possibly be the goal of spending a fortune to erect such a monstrosity other than proving that they had something to be proud of?" In a church culture awash with "goals," what is it we're really trying to prove?

Let me say right off that in a ministry spanning over 30 years, I spent the majority of them seeking to build my own "Tower," to erect my own monument, establish my own legacy. It wasn't a naked obsession. I wanted to see His Kingdom grow, souls saved, lives made whole. I wanted to bring Him glory. I still do, but in all of it was a mixture. I wanted my kingdom to grow as well. I wanted glory too. I wanted Him to increase.....and to increase along with Him. I offered Him a mixture of sacrifice and pride. That's not an offering He seeks or accepts, and in our hearts we know that. So why do we offer it up? The yearnings to build our own towers remain in us. We want to give Him what we do. He wishes for us to offer up who we are. All of who we are. He calls us to the simplicity of such a life just as He did Peter. Peter, who always yearned for first place. "Feed My sheep. Tend My lambs." That's what we're all called to, for all who are His are members of His priesthood. But instead, we seek additions to our towers....and the sheep and lambs are starving, wandering off. In our homes, our churches, and to all the "wanderers" beyond.

Strobel writes, "The desire to be special, to be significant and powerful, is endemic in our culture; and we bring those things to the body of Christ." In the Church today, very few give much thought as to the account of our lives lived out in Him that will be required of us one day. The apostle Paul greatly feared falling short in such an accounting. Such was his love for his Lord, and for those He had entrusted to him. He never desired to be more than a feeder and tender of sheep, a vessel of His wonder and glory unto those he'd been sent to. He left no monuments, unless a jail cell can be reckoned as such. Yet His sheep are fed and tended even now through the ministry his Lord entrusted to him. Of the questions listed above by Chole, he could truthfully say that he did indeed, Live for what Christ died for. Can we? Can I? Can you?

The lure of the tower still plucks at my heart, even now in my latter years. I like to think I've grown past it, but have I? If He were to take me back once more to the beginning of my ministry for Him, would I, knowing what I do now, still seek to erect that tower? The lure is strong. It is in our flesh to deeply love monuments to our self. We are called to live a life that points to Him alone. All to Him alone. To Christ alone, and not to Christ....and me. Who does our life really point to? What are we trying to get people to see? Christ, or our monuments?

Blessings,
Pastor O