Heart Tracks - Altars

"Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness." Malachi 3:3...."We have no shortage of gifts to bring to our altars, because the world has no shortage of altars." Chris Tiegreen...."All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you will sacrifice yourself." Alexander MacLaren

I think the meaning of an altar is slowly being lost in the church. If we do think of them, it's usually as something from Old Testament times when the Priest offered sacrifices to Jehovah God, or more recently, as something that once was present in the church before we realized we needed to be more "seeker friendly." I never really got that concept, because what better place is there to seek Him than at His altar? In any event, I think we've lost the reality of what it is to bring an offering to His altar, and that was is placed on His altar is given over, completely, to Him. Add to that reality the truth that regardless of how we might view it, we make offerings, sacrifices, on seemingly countless altars throughout the course of our days. Indeed, every day.

Tiegreen says, correctly, that the world offers us no shortage of altars upon which to offer sacrifice. The altars of success, accumulation, applause, legacies, reputation, pleasure, and on an on. More, that everyone of those altars can be found in our churches, and in the ministries that compose them. We can offer the sacrifice of not only ourselves in the pursuit of them, but of our marriages and families as well. And as we do so, we can be deceived into believing it is all given up for Him, when in fact, we make sacrifice to all that is not Him. I know. I've made "offerings" on most of those same altars. Ministry success, the esteem of my peers, recognition in the church, the advancement of my agenda, the fulfillment of my desires. I thought it was for His glory, and a lot of it was, but I didn't see the mixture involved. I didn't see how much of my own glory was "mixed in." I was missing two great truths; God doesn't share His glory with anyone or anything, and that any offering made to Him must be pure, "without blemish." Too many of mine had more than a few blemishes. I'd wager that too many of yours do as well.

In the lives of the Old Testament Patriarchs, we see them at various stages of their journey, building an altar to Him and making sacrifice there. Nor more so than in the life of Abraham, when he built an altar to the Lord and was offering the very life of his cherished son Issac. He was willing to give to God the one he loved above all. Above all except his God. Such is the call to those who are His. As MacLaren says, all along the way of our walk with Him, we'll be called upon to make the sacrifice of ourselves; our hopes, dreams, desires, plans, all of ourselves to all that He is. What do you and I do when that call comes to us, and it will come? When it does, two altars will be before us. His, and that which is not Him, against Him, and seduces us into giving glory to that which is false while missing the One who is True and Truth.

Wherever you are on the course, those two altars lie before you. When you come to them, you'll be faced with the choice of upon which you'll offer sacrifice. Have you already made that choice that it will be upon His, or, does there remain a lingering question? Which one of the countless altars of the world seduces you? Fire always consumes the altars offering. Which fire will consume you? The Holy Fire of God, or, the unholy fire of the one the Word calls, The Destroyer? A terrifying question. How do you and I answer?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Supplement

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. I TImothy 1:15...."Jesus did not come into the world to improve us. He came to rescue those who are lost, broken, and helpless." Chris Tiegreen

Supplements. Our culture has a lot of them. We are always looking for new ways to supplement our lives, make them better, more fulfilling. Whether it be simple vitamins to supplement our diet, self-help books to supplement our overall well-being, or professional counselors to supplement our self-image, we're into finding something, anything, to improve the state of our life, something that we can add on to it. In many ways, I think we have made Jesus just such a supplement.

Though it may not have been the intent, I think we have reduced the King of Glory to someone who offers improvements to our flesh. He can help us be more patient, more stress-free, have a more positive attitude, and a host of other good things. He can make us a better person, and in the making, give us a more rewarding life. He offers a "wonderful plan" for us, and if we'll give Him a chance, He'll show us just how wonderful life can be. He can make a bad life good, and a good life better. Yet none of this is the reality, though the enemy is very satisfied with such a message. He doesn't care if our lives get better so long as we stay lost. Someone said that His wonderful plan for our lives is to make us holy. Our fallen flesh cannot be made holy. It can only be brought to the cross, crucified, and made new in Christ. His ultimate means of "helping" us is to bring our fallen flesh life to its death at the cross in order that we might enter into His risen life from the same place. He did not come to make people who were mostly good, better. He came to transform people who were hopelessly lost and separated from God by sin, into new creations in Him, reconciled to a Father who gave His only Son that they could be made so.

Every year around Easter, there comes a flood of programs asking "Who was Jesus?" I've never seen any that hit upon who He was, and more, who He is. He was not a good man with good ideas and philosophies. He was fully man and fully God, sinless, perfect, and the only acceptable offering for the penalty of sin which all of us, you, and me, are born under. He is no add on, or author of a great self improvement program. He's the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the conqueror of sin and death. He did not come to help flawed people become less flawed. He came to save and deliver those who have absolutely no means of saving or delivering themselves from sin's penalty...eternal death.

So here we are again this Easter. How do you see this Jesus? And how do you see yourself in His Light? As One who can give you a helping hand? Someone who had led an exceedingly wicked life once said to me, "I'm a good guy, I just do bad things." Their blindness to their soul's need was deep, and yet they had and have lots of company in their view. Contrast that with Paul. Was he truly the worst of sinners? In his own eyes, confronted with the beauty and holiness of Jesus Christ, he was. To truly see Jesus is to truly see ourselves; lost, broken, helpless. The worst of sinners. And then, if we'll have it, to truly see the spiritual transformation only He can bring about. He doesn't add on to fallen lives, He cleanses and removes our sin and the penalty of it. The old really does pass away, and the new really does come. Has it been so for you? The old hymn says that He brings us out of the miry clay. Have you been brought out? Are you ready to be? Or, do you just look for Him to make your conditions in the clay better? That same hymn says He sets our feet on His Solid Rock. Are your feet in the clay, or on the Rock?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - No Escape

"How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" Hebrews 2:3....."At Calvary, the naked truth is staring down at us, challenging us to drop the pose and own the truth." Roy Hession..."At the cross we see who we are, and we are humbled. We see the ugliness of our sin and we are speechless. We know we can make no claim of our own righteousness before God. But Jesus is our claim. We bow before Him. We know He's there for us." Chris Tiegreen

I'm going to ask a question that cannot ultimately be avoided; to what degree are you and I ignoring the infinitely great salvation offered us in Jesus Christ? Here's a second question; how can we think we will ever escape the consequence of the ignoring?

To truly come to Christ means that there will be no escaping the cross. He brings us on a collision course with it. We can try to bypass it, sneak around it, deny it is even there, but to be His, really His, means we will come to it, and what we do there sets not only the course of our lives here, but into eternity as well. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, this truth has been missing in much of the message of the western church. We offer Jesus, His blessings, His wonderful plans for us, and all the benefits that come in the "Jesus package." We don't make a lot of mention of His cross, not our carrying of it, and certainly not our dying upon it.

Many churches don't even display a cross anymore. "Experts" have told them that the unchurched find it offensive. It is offensive. The cross of Christ offends every aspect of our flesh. It exposes our sin and our complete inability to save ourselves or to have any degree of our own righteousness. As Hession says, it brings us face to face with the reality that we can't maintain our "pose" any longer. We can't escape the truth; we are lost, and our only hope of salvation, of life, healing, wholeness, comes by way of His cross. Our trust in all and anything outside of Him is shattered at the cross. Only He remains, and He bids us to come and die so that we might truly and finally live. The old rugged cross is harsh and rough. So too is the truth about ourselves, our condition and our need that we find there as well. Many have no qualms about coming to Gentle Jesus, the Savior who walks along doing good......especially to us. Coming to the Christ of the cross can be, is, another matter altogether. Many have come to Him, but not in eyes wide open understanding of their condition and need. They come as they are, and stay as they are. The piercing light of the cross has not laid bare their sin and their need. Jesus is an add-on to their life. He is not Life itself. Only at the cross do we really see the Light. Only at the cross is the burden of our sin rolled away. We ignore that to our own eternal destruction.

Yet it is not just the lost who cannot escape the consequences of ignoring this great salvation. Countless of His people have come to His cross, have seen His Light, have had their sins forgiven, yet they have never gone on to the fullness of His resurrection life that is offered beyond the cross and the grave. The enemy of their soul has deceived them into thinking that such life is not possible this side of heaven. Healing, wholeness, abundance, freedom, these things can never be realized here. So he holds them captive with his lies. They have not so much ignored His great salvation as they have failed to believe in it. So despair, discouragement, weariness, exhaustion, is their lot. Though total victory was won at Calvary, the lies of the enemy keep them defeated. All of this is the consequence of ignoring, not believing in such a great salvation.

So again, to what degree are you and I ignoring this salvation? It is to that degree that we won't escape the consequences of doing so. There is no escape but one; the cross. Run to it. Cling to it. Die upon it, and then live through it. The cross still leads to the crown. Have you been led to the cross?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Outlaws

"Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:27..."The life of discipleship is not about comfortable pews and golden crosses; it is about a clash of kingdoms." Chris Tiegreen...."Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the world." John Wesley

Mark Batterson said that following Christ will mean that He leads us out to the place(s) where Light and darkness clash. As Tiegreen says, a "kingdom clash." A clash between His Kingdom of Light and Life, and the devil's of death and darkness. Neutrality in the collision is not possible, though I think the majority who call themselves His attempt to live that way. Those who do are deceived into believing they are, but the reality is that they've been made casualties of the war. They've been made prisoners of a war that they sought to avoid.

Our hearts always seem to resonate with stories of rebels against tyranny and oppression. We love to hear tales of freedom fighters who battle against injustice and unholy dictatorships. We tend to see Jesus Christ in a lot of different ways. Do we ever view Him as the ultimate Rebel, Freedom Fighter, and Insurrectionist?

Think on this; Satan led a rebellion against God in heaven. He was defeated, expelled, yet laid claim to this fallen world and all within it. We are born into the yoke of his captivity. Into all of this came Jesus Christ, the Lord of Light and Life. When He began His earthly ministry, He immediately clashed with all the forces of this world; religious and political. He led a "rebellion" to throw off the yoke of slavery to sin that all are born into and offered a pathway to His Life and freedom. Satan recognized Him immediately and unleashed all the power of his kingdom with the purpose of stopping Christ's establishment of His. He unleashed hell. God unleashed His Son, the Author of Life. His unleashing led to a cross, which led to death, which in turn led to resurrection. At Calvary, the ultimate clash of kingdoms took place. It seemed at first that the enemy had won. That impression was shortlived, for the cross led to the tomb, and then to His resurrection, which sealed His victory. Christ the Rebel, the Freedom Fighter, had overthrown the kingdom of darkness by way of His cross and resurrection. He led the way in the rebellion which while it secured the victory, still plays out today, and will until His return. I've a friend who doesn't agree with the popular conception that the devil knows he is defeated. He thinks satan doesn't believe that at all, even though its true. So he fights on. Tyrannizing, oppressing, destroying. We who are His are called to live out the victory that is ours. Rebelling against his lie with the proclamation and living out of His Truth and Life. We too are rebels and freedom fighters. Neutrality isn't an option. We enter into the clash of kingdoms, and we already know the victory is ours. And all the while, we carry His cross into the battle. And that cross is the symbol and guarantee of our victory.

Are you involved in the clash of kingdoms today? Or, are you seeking neutrality? If you are, know that you're living in the enemy's prisoner of war camp. You may not see the fence and barbed wire he uses to keep you in, but it is all around you. Take up your cross. Step out in faith. Run to the battle. Join the rebellion. Will you be a Kingdom freedom fighter, or just keep looking for your comfortable pew each week, gazing at a golden cross on a wall, but never seeing the rugged cross He calls you to carry...and die upon? To truly be a Christian is to be an outlaw to this world. Jesus went to His cross as such. Will you and I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Desperate Places

"They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." Matthew 14:16...."We tend to see our need as either too large to even ask God to handle or too small for Him to be concerned with......He is the Provider, the God of deserted places." Chris Tiegreen

Too many times in my journey with Him, I've fit into what Tiegreen says about how we believers tend to look at our needs, and their relation to Him. Just as true, too many times I have not realized that He really is the God of deserted places. The God who is there when all else and everyone else is gone.

In Matthew 14, the disciples are faced with an overwhelming need. 5000 plus people who are hungry. They recognized a need but did not recognize the power of the One who was there in the midst of that need. They thought the need not only too great for them, but for the One who was in their midst. So they sought to have that need met through temporal means. They'd send them into the village where they could buy or trade for the food they lacked. Jesus gently rebuked them, telling them that in Him, they had the means to satisfy that hunger. They were overwhelmed. He was not.

Just as true can be our reaction to the small yet persistent needs and cares of life. We tend to think that He doesn't want to be bothered with these trifles. After all, "God helps those who help themselves," right? So we take these things that are mere pebbles singly, and try to wrestle them through to a solution. With each pebble, the load becomes greater until we carry a huge sack that eventually breaks our emotional, physical, and spiritual "back," and renders us unable to go on. In the end, we've become just as overwhelmed by the small things as we have been by the great. We know that one of His names is "Provider," and we've called Him that many times. Yet too often we end up in that "deserted place," where there is only our need and ourselves. We desperately need a fresh visitation from the One who is the God of the deserted place.

His Word says that He is not limited to saving us by either great or small means, for they are the same to Him. Nothing is too great for Him, and neither is anything too small. His Word also says that what touches us "touches the apple of His eye." Our need exposes our very real weakness, and our weakness unleashes His very real strength and power. The enemy of our soul convinces us that we are alone in facing it, that God has deserted us, abandoned us. The Father wants us to know by experience that this is just another of the devil's lies. It only feels deserted. He is there, and He is God Almighty. In the great and in the small, He is God.

I expect I've written of this before, but I never tire of relating the story. On a lonely church campground on a bitterly cold December night, I felt deserted by all, totally alone. Searching through the apostle Paul's writings, I came upon his words concerning his imprisonment and facing of Caesar himself. He said, "At my first defense, no one was with me, All had abandoned me....yet Christ stood with me." Call it what you will, but at that moment I saw with the eyes of my heart, Him coming to me, standing with me...in that deserted place....and putting to flight all the lies of the enemy. He was the God of that deserted place, and every deserted place yet to come. Do you know Him as yours as well? in whatever deserted place you might feel you're in today, He stands with you. Will you receive Him? All human and temporal help may be gone. There may be one overwhelming need, or many small but crushing ones. He comes to you there, in that deserted place, and stands with you. Can you see Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Road

10“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11“I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” 12And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” Mark 2:10-12......"There is a fresh urgency for elders and pastors and Sunday School teachers and worship team members to get up, every day, pick up their mats, and walk. always in the direction of home. That's church......A church will cease to be a church if the Word of Jesus is not preached. But a church will fail to become a church if the Word made flesh does not appear among us, and we touch Him, and see Him, and He us." Mark Buchanan

My heart and spirit are moved by this passage of Scripture and what Buchanan says about it. I think of all that can be seen in the modern church, and how much of what he speaks of is not seen at all. We are focused on so many things, presentation, atmosphere, appeal to the senses. Yet, is what Buchanan speaks of actually being lived out in the life of our fellowships? As I read his words, my mind was drawn to the book of Ruth. Naomi and her daughter-in-law are in Moab, far from their home in Judah. Their need was great, and there were many directions in which they could move, but Ruth 1:7 reads, "They took the road that would lead them back to Judah." Back to their home. For the true believer and follower of the King, there is only ever one road for us to take, one road upon which the travel. The one that leads to "home." The home, our home, that is His heart. We are, all of us, to get up, every day, pick up the mats of this world that have held us to it, and walk...in the direction of our home. To move always deeper into the presence and life of Jesus Christ. How would our fellowships be transformed if that, and not the other things were foremost in the minds of those He has called to lead, to teach, to worship? And we will find, as we stay to that road, that the Word made flesh will indeed appear among us. We will "see" Him, "touch" Him, and experience Him. He will manifest Himself in our midst, and in each other. We will no longer have to seek new ways to be appealing, because He will be appearing in and through us. All because our hearts are set upon traveling the road that leads us home....to Him.

What happens on this road is that the reality of sin in us is made clear, and the pathway to confession, repentance, and forgiveness is laid open. Healing of the heart, the mind, and the spirit takes place, and oftentimes, of the body as well. Christ is free, we are free, and the "mats" that have held us on the ground no longer control us. Christ, in us, has overcome them. They no longer define or confine us. The Word made flesh has set us free, and we are free now to manifest that truth to all who will hear it.

There are a lot of things going on in the church today, and we always seem to be looking for new ways to amaze, which oftentimes is just another form of entertainment. The show needs to be interrupted by the breaking through of His Holy Spirit. In a culture where our natural senses seem to have "seen it all," we need what few have ever truly experienced; the fullness of His glory upon His church. A glory that leaves our hearts burning for more, and a glory that no earthly prop can ever compare with.

Where is your "road" leading you to? To Him, or that which is not Him? To the Kingdom of Light, or the kingdom of darkness? To your home in Him, or a home that knows nothing of Him? Your mat will always keep you from that road that leads to Him, but He is before you, before us. He speaks His healing Word, and calls us to get up, leave the crippled life of being without Him, and in wholeness, walk His road with Him. Are you ready to do so, to take the road that leads home.... to Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Forerunner

"But after I have been resurrected, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." Mark 14:28...."There is nowhere you can go that you will not find Christ waiting to join you." Henry Blackaby

I'm retiring. These are two words that I never expected to utter, but I am. Yet even as I write them, I know that they don't mean what many may think. The word "retire" usually brings up thoughts of sitting back, taking it easy, relaxing, and even the sense of just accepting that the prime years are past, and what's left is a kind of waiting for my eventual departure from this realm. I don't see it in any of those ways. For me, it is the closing of the time for one aspect of my ministry in order to enter into a new one. A wide vista of the unknown lies before me, but really, that has been the description of my journey with Him since the very beginning. The details of His calling change, His presence in the midst of them all doesn't. He's proven the truth of that over and over again. The twists and turns of life are mostly unexpected for all of us. I think I've had more than my share of those, but in every twist, every turn, He's been there. He's seen me through. Even in the darkest and deadliest of them, He empowered me to overcome. I've learned to expect the unexpected, but to also expect the Author of Life to be my victory in all of it.

He's given me the testimony of this through every phase of the journey. From those first steps taken as a young man, following His call to step out and onto a college campus 1500 miles from the only home I'd ever known and where all was unknown, and with Him as my only resource and source. To and through the entering of a marriage, and the eventual destruction of that marriage. Into a pastoral calling, and the seeming end of that calling. And then into the resurrection of that calling when it seemed everyone else had pronounced it fully dead, completely gone. The Lord of the Resurrection showed forth His resurrection life to, in, and through me. He continued to do so when He called me to plant a church in one of the most challenging areas of this nation. An area that has been a graveyard for churches. And yet the calling and the work didn't just survive, it thrived. The Holy Spirit told Paul that a "wide door for effective service has been opened to you, but many are the adversaries." I found that to be so for all of the 27 years I have labored with Him here in Northern Virginia, but there was never an adversary that could stand against Him. In my own strength, I was easy to defeat. Yet the Lord I lived in and for was undefeatable. There were times, many, when the work and ministry seemed sure to fail. Where the visible resources were non-existent. Where hope seemed gone and despair the only thing present. Yet He was there in the midst, and the Lord of the Resurrection brought forth His Life anew, again, always.

Twenty seven years yields far too many stories to share in a single writing. Those years have come to an end....here. But they aren't over. He's leading me onto and into a new realm, a new calling. I've no doubt that the adversaries will still be many, the unknown just as unknown. And the stories of His faithfulness, His endless supply of Himself to me in them, will go on. My body has grown old. I don't possess the physical vitality that I once had, but I believe my spiritual vitality only burns brighter. I'm stepping back from one form of ministry, but I enter into a new one. No doubt the adversaries will be many, and they'll be empowered by one the who has been my adversary, and who's sought my destruction from the beginning. He doesn't fear me a bit, but he trembles, and flees at the name of the One who goes with me....Jesus Christ the King. Lord of the Resurrection. Lord over all darkness and death. Lord over the Adversary. My Lord, your Lord. Lord over all. He goes before me. The Forerunner. Who and what can stand before Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O