More Jesus

 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Most of us know the above verse, just as most of us will likely admit we're lacking in all of the fruits of the Spirit that are listed. The lack of these spiritual fruits in our lives is not the problem. The way we go about filling that lack is.

Henry Blackaby made an interesting point on this in one of his devotionals. He said that our response to knowing our lack is to ask the Lord to give us more of what we lack. We ask for more love, or more joy, or more peace. The desire is sincere, but our mistake is centering on a fruit of the Spirit, and not the Person of the Spirit, Jesus. We don't need to be asking for more of any one aspect of the Spirit, but for more of the Spirit Himself. We need to ask for more of Jesus, because Jesus is joy, and He is peace, and He is kindness, and goodness, and gentleness. All of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is found in Him. The more we have of Him, the more we have of His fruit. Where He is missing in our lives, His fruit will also be missing. When His fullness is present within us, so too will be His fruit. The more of Jesus that we have, the more of His life we have.

Oswald Chambers spoke in a similar way about this. He talked about the "new name" that we're given in Christ. He said that God writes our new name in every place in our heart and lives where we have surrendered to Him, where we have died to self that we might live to and in Him. He said that in those places where we haven't yielded, haven't surrendered, we still bear our own name. We're His, but we're not fully His. We've reserved some part ourselves, often a very large part. He said that we have His name in "spots only, like spiritual measles." In short, we're spotty believers, spotty followers of Jesus.

I think a great part of our problem is that we're always "trying" to be better followers of Christ. We want to exhibit more of His personality in our lives, so we ask Him to give us what we need to be so, because we're trying so hard to be like Him. What we miss is that He has already given us everything in Himself in order that we can live in His fullness. As I've seen it put, we're saved by grace, but we continue to live by the law. We're trying to get into a room that has already been opened to us. We don't have to kick that door in. It's wide open before us. That's where our old self-life keeps showing up. Consciously or not, we hold to this idea that we can achieve Christlikeness by our own striving. Self is exalted over Christ.....and we keep on trying.

Nowhere in the Gospels did Jesus ever exhort His listeners to "try harder" to live out His teachings. He did constantly encourage them, indeed command them to receive all that He gives them. Jesus said, "Freely I have given, freely receive." Through His cross and His resurrection, He really has given us all things. We don't have to try to get to them. Through faith, obedience, and yielded lives, we can receive all He gives us. Are we ready to cease the striving to live for Him and just surrender ourselves to Him......and freely receive all things?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Hangry

 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6....."People today are "hangry." Hungry for more and angry about life." Lisa Bevere

Hangry people. Bevere's quote from above really does describe a vast number of people today, including many in the church. We're hungry, but we don't really understand what it is we're hungry for. We think it is for more of what we've always understood as "the good life." More of those things that will make for such a life. More "stuff." We hunger for that, whether the "stuff" be something tangible, like money or goods, or intangible, like contentment, satisfaction, or the all elusive "happiness." Our problems come in when we find that having "stuff" only results in our hunger for more stuff, and the stuff never satisfies for long. We don't realize that the source of our hunger is a hunger for Him. We were created with a yearning for Him, and nothing else will satisfy that hunger but Him. The result then is a hunger that never finds satisfaction apart from Him, and then anger, because we feel a mounting frustration in our lives because we lack what only He can give. We become "hangry" people; hungry for a "more" we can never get, and angry about life, because He's the only One who can give life meaning and His promised abundance.

Examine all the ways we have sought to satisfy our hunger. We look for people to fill it. So many have married, sure that their mate would fill that hollow sense that something was missing from our lives. We're sure that person can fill it, but they cannot, because what is missing can only be found in Christ. So often, one or both parties become frustrated and angry, because the other has not met their expectations, and divorce is the result. Even when this is not the result, and people do love one another, there still exists that hunger. A hunger for something more. He is that something more.

We have sought out a host of counterfeits to try and satisfy our hunger and thirst. All of them are nothing more than junk food and soda pop in comparison to the One who is the very water and bread of life. When Jesus was at the well with the Samaritan woman, she was in the process of filling her jar with water. No matter how large her jar, the water would eventually run out. He told her that if she would ask, He would give her His water of life, which would never run out. Then, when His disciples had returned from the nearby town with food for them to eat, He refused it, telling them that He had "food to eat that you don't know about." In both cases He was telling them that what He offered, His Living Water and Bread, would give the human spirit what no other created thing could; life. Life, abundant, full, and free. No longer would they live captive to hungering for the things of this world, or suffering the frustration and anger at never finding true satisfaction in them. The only hunger and thirst they would know was for Him, and they would find Him, we will find Him, the One who ceaselessly satisfies our hunger and thirst for more of Him.

To what degree are you and I "Hangry" people today? Will we remain so? We don't have to. All we need do is come to Him, and drink of the water that never runs out, and eat of the Kingdom food that will always fill us. And we will be, as He promises, blessed. Let us do so. Let us be blessed.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Fireproof?

 "Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many signs and wonders." Act 2:41-43...."If we really knew God we'd set the world on fire." Leonard Ravenill

I heard Francis Chan preach on this passage, and he said that for years, he was very uncomfortable preaching through the book of Acts because he had been taught that the wonders seen during those times in the early church, ceased with the passing of those apostles. He said that though he accepted that teaching, always in his heart was the sense that what the church was then was what the church was to be now. Yet the prevailing spirit around him was that it couldn't, and wouldn't be. I believe this thinking is a spiritual stronghold, and holding it will choke the very life of the Spirit out of us, and out of the church. We don't lack evidence of that fact. So there's a two-fold question for us to consider: Has the church become fireproof? Have you and have I?

Having fireproof products in our homes is a good thing as concerns natural fire. Being fireproof to His supernatural fire is certain death for the church and for us. How many of us have fallen into the trap that Chan lived in? How many of us read of the wonders of the early church, believe them completely, yet at the same time believe that such wonders, such "fire" cannot be ours now? There's a line in an old hymn that I've always loved; "I never will forget how the fire fell...." Most of us cannot forget it because we've never experienced it in the first place. We've found our niche in the church and we're quite comfortable. Quite comfortable indeed. We go to our organized worship services and we know exactly what to expect each time. The songs we sing may change, and the sermon topic too. We may even expect them to be very good, even moving. We may emerge talking about how good the service was, but what really has taken place in our hearts and lives? We don't come expecting a true encounter with the risen Christ. We don't come expecting to encounter a holy God whose presence is so mighty that all we can do is be undone before Him. Ravenhill said that we need "a fresh revelation of the majesty of God." When's the last time that happened to us? When were we last overcome by a sense of awe concerning our God. our Jesus, and of His Spirit and presence?

Where have we allowed our lives to be "fireproofed?" Where have we allowed our churches to be so as well? We've allowed "strongholds" to be erected in our minds concerning the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Strongholds are lies we believe as truth. Perhaps the greatest lie we have believed is the ministry and presence of the Spirit in His church, or more correctly, His lack. We've created a tame God who knows His place and doesn't intrude on our lives outside of our fireproofed "worship." There is no such God and He will not be contained. His fire will fall, is falling. The question for each of us is will it fall upon us, or pass us by? His Word tells us that He's a consuming fire. Has He ever truly consumed us?

I believe that His Holy Spirit fire is already falling. May it fall upon me, upon us. Whatever "fireproofing" we've allowed in our lives and hearts, may we renounce them all, and come to His altar....and be consumed by His holy fire. May we as individuals and as a body, know what it is to have His fire fall.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Boxes

(Jesus said) "If you don't believe Me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe Me if I tell you about heavenly things?" ...."God's words are always calling us out of our boxes and deeper, higher, and further into His Kingdom. And only those who are willing to be stretched can hear them." Chris Tiegreen

In the Old Testament, one of the writers spoke of "the land of far distances." He was speaking in spiritual terms, and he meant that God always has more for us, that He is always seeking to have us live, reaching forward. Reaching into a new place in Him, a deeper knowledge of Him. Not to, in Star Trek jargon, "go where no man's gone before," but certainly to a spiritual place that we've never gone before. We're to live spiritually stretching, reaching for that place in Him that cannot be had from the position of our comfort zone, or, from the box in which placed Him, and ourselves as well.

The above Scripture takes place in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus the Pharisee. Jesus had just told him that he needed to be spiritually "born again." Nicodemus asked how such a thing could be? How could a man re-enter his mother's womb and be born anew? He missed what Jesus' much deeper meaning was. That's when Jesus asked that if Nicodemus couldn't understand basic truth like this, how could he ever understand the much deeper things of God that He desired him to know? He asks the same of us.

Jesus often told His disciples, and all who listened to Him that He had "much more to tell them than this," but that He couldn't because they were not able to hear or understand what He wished for them to know. In a sense, the disciples had placed Jesus in a "box." They were limiting their knowledge of Him by defining Him according to their own understanding. They were comfortable with that. Jesus wasn't. He never will be......Where are we doing the same?

We in the church have been notorious for such for centuries now. We've set up parameters, invisible though they may be, where we have defined how He will speak, work, and act. I can't number the times I've heard fellow believers say, "I don't think God would do that." We don't, because we wouldn't do that. Everything comes from our perspective. He wishes it to all be from His. Our perspective will always shut us off from His. Our perspective keeps us from stretching forward, seeking to lay hold of new spiritual territory. Into ever deeper revelations of who He is. Our perspective is so earthbound that we can't understand the things of His heavenly Kingdom. As a friend puts it, we speak earthly language but He longs for us to know the language of the Kingdom of heaven, and I am not speaking of the spiritual gift of tongues. I mean the language of the Kingdom. The language that reveals more and more the mysteries of the Kingdom. They are only mysteries because we've not discovered their meaning yet. He means that we do. To do so, we must come out of our boxes, run the risk of reaching into the unknown, though it's only unknown to us, not to Him.

Jesus told the disciples that they didn't understand much of what He was saying now, but one day they would. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they came out of the "boxes" they'd been in, and began their never ending journey into the deep things of God. It continues for them now in eternity. So will it for we who are His now, but may we not remain in our boxes until then. Let's live reaching forward, stretching with all of might to have all of Him that He gives. Can there be any other way of life for the believer?

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Rescue Plan

 The Spirit of the Lord [a]God is upon me,

Because the Lord anointed me

To bring good news to the humble;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim [b]release to captives

And [c]freedom to prisoners;

2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn, Isaiah 61:1-2......"Sometimes His rescue plan is something we would never sign up for....Sometimes He takes us to prison so that He can set us free." Sheila Walsh

When Jesus made it "official" as to why He had come to earth, He used Isaiah 61:1-2 as the means of doing so. It was a Messianic prophecy that all who heard it would recognize as being so. When Jesus read it in the synagogue that morning, He was telling his hearers that the prophecy was fulfilled in Him. He was the Messiah. It was to be the best of news for those who heard Him, but most did not receive it as such. The majority of the listeners wanted to stone Him.

The Gospel is rightly called "The Good News." The human race, held in captivity by sin, and with no means at all of freeing themselves from it, now had the One, perfect man and perfect God who could do so. He would do so through His death and resurrection, so that all who believed in Him would enter into what Isaiah 61 promises. Wondrous and beautiful news indeed, except, as Walsh says, oftentimes the means He takes to fully rescue us would not be something we would willingly "sign up" for. Sometimes He does take us to a "prison" in order to set us free. Why? We're a stubborn and stiff necked people. We always have been. It's in our fallen nature and Jesus Christ is determined to cleanse that nature, but we can find a myriad of ways to resist. Sometimes, we, like those first hearers, want to "stone" Him when He seeks to effect His rescue plan for us.

After 40 plus years of walking with Him, He has brought so much freedom into my previous life of bondage. Yet the pathways He has chosen to do so were never the ones I would have chosen, and I too have at times been taken to "prison" in order to be made free. He never chooses this way because He desires to take us through so much pain and heartache, but because we can be so resistant to what He seeks to work into our lives that there simply is no other way. We're like the cat sitting by the door, waiting for just a slight opening in order to escape. We're sure we know the real way and means to be free, to be victorious. More often than not, like that cat, trouble is the result, and He sees that there is no other way to bring the healing, wholeness, victory, and freedom that He came to bring us. Like the Prodigal Son of the Bible, we believe we know the true way to abundant life, but it isn't until we find ourselves in the pig pen, eating the pods, that we realize we've only increased our darkness and captivity. Yet, if we will see Him, we'll find that even in that place, He's there, and not only that He's there, but He's using that place to work His life, His abundant life into us. He means to bring us home.

The other aspect of His rescue plan is that we can make such a mess of our lives. We can get ourselves into places from which no one is able to save us. No one but Him. We also can suffer wounding that no earthly means can heal....but that He can. The depth of the lostness and woundedness we can be in can be seemingly beyond measure. He often must employ radical means to deliver us, to save us. The process can be painful. Almost certainly it will be. We tend to cling to those things that are destroying us, and His bringing our grip upon them, and they upon us, will involve pain. Sometime it will involve our going to some sort of "prison" in order that He can make us fully free. Yet, as the old hymn goes, "It will be worth it all."

Wherever we may find ourselves today, in the midst of great trials or small, He will rescue us. We only need, as someone said, utter the simple but powerful invitation, "Jesus, come get me." He will. He will effect the rescue. It almost certainly will be a way that our flesh would not choose, but trust Him. Believe Him. He will get you out. He will make you free.

Blessings

Pastor O

Awakening

 11And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Romans 13:11-12...."Has the church become 'revival proof?' Can He awaken what doesn't realize it's asleep?" Unknown

One of the truly great singer/songwriter/evangelists was Keith Green, who was a central figure in the Jesus Movement of the late 60's and early 70's. One of his greatest songs was "Your Love Broke Through," with my favorite lyric in it being, "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." Green was speaking of his life prior to the Light and Life of Christ breaking through what he thought was real, and revealing to him what truly was real and eternal; Jesus Christ. Even so, I think that lyric, as well as the above quote, are on point as far as concerns the western church. We're asleep. Asleep in the Light as another of Green's songs says. Asleep, and yet we don't know it. We're dreaming that all is well, the church, and especially us. We think we're fully alive, but we're not. I feel He is speaking to us as He did to the church in Sardis, in the book of Revelation; "Now wake up! Strengthen what little remains for even what is left is at the point of death." That's where the question from the unknown source above comes in. Can He awaken us when we seem so oblivious to the fact that we're asleep?

We have found it easy to fall asleep because we no longer have our hearts tuned to His voice. We have watered down His Word and it's meanings, particularly His warnings that our found there. Someone said that love does win, but also warns. We have not heeded many warnings of late. We have so cheapened His grace as to make it a free pass to living a lukewarm spiritual life. We've embraced "casual Chrisitianity," which is something totally unknown to both Christ and His Word. Francis Chan said that a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron. There can be no such creature. Yet we've made ample room in the church for just such creatures.

We the church have become so much more self-centered, and so much less Christ-centered. This is seen in the music we sing. So much of it is about how much He loves us, how much He wants to do for us, what He's given, what He yet wants to give. All this is true, but where are the songs that center on His glory, and above all, upon His holiness, or His command for us to be holy as He is holy? We've turned Him into more of a dispenser of blessings, than a majestic Father who calls us to fall before Him in wonder and worship. Like sleepwalkers, we're sleepwalking through life and not aware of it. They say one should never try to awaken a person who is walking in their sleep. In our spiritual lives, He can do nothing else. Can He? Can He do so with us, or are we in such a deep sleep that we have become "revival proof?" Awakening proof?

The words of Christ through Paul in Romans, and directly to the Sardis church in Revelation have one deep bond in common; they carry a great sense of urgency. I believe He speaks such urgency to the church today, and every day, but are we listening? Or have our comfort, security loving lives lulled us into sleep, or at best, a half-awake state? We must awaken. We must wake up. Former President John F. Kennedy, as a young man, wrote a book titled, "While England Slept." It detailed how Hitler was able to build Germany into the deadly superpower it became, and into the monstrous force it would show itself to be. All while England, fearing confrontation, slept. Whatever our reason, fear, apathy, or simple self absorption, we cannot remain asleep. The power of the darkness grows, but it can only overcome the church, quenching the light we are charged to shine, if we are sleeping. May we, you and I, awaken, rise up, and meet the increasing threat. Today, His salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Tomorrow it will be even nearer.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Ready?

 "However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8...."Christ is not coming for a defeated, whining, moaning, broken or divided church, but a glorious one." Samuel Rodriguez

When Jesus left to return to heaven and the presence of the Father, He told His disciples, His church, that He would return, and bring His people fully to Himself. He exhorted them to be watching for Him. Since that time, we, the church, have had varying degrees of interest in doing so. Usually our interest hinges on what is happening in the world around us, and so, at various times of crisis, the church has looked for Him more diligently than when there was none. Right now, we're in such a time, and many talk of His soon return. This writing has almost nothing to do with the timing of His return, whether near or not. It doesn't even have a great deal to do with the conditions of the world, though we are to take note of those conditions since Jesus spoke of them in connection to His return. What I write of today concerns the condition of His church upon His return, which is something we seem to easily lose sight of. We're accomplished at pointing out the impurity and sin of our surrounding culture, but our sight is clouded as to the condition of our own hearts.

The above quote from Rodriguez really speaks to me because I think the first part gives an accurate picture of much of the professing church. In our comfort obsessed western culture, we are prone, no, driven to complain and moan about anything that threatens that comfort. Many are praying for a movement of God upon the nation and church, but what is the motive behind the prayer? How much of it comes from a yearning to be a pure and holy people? How much of it comes from a desire for God to change our outward circumstances, or activities that we dislike, and so restore everything to the way we want it to be, while leaving us unchanged? How much of our prayer comes from defeated, broken spirits that just want Him to get us out of a place we don't like, rather than from hearts that despite everything, live in victorious faith? The church He returns for will be glorious and victorious. Does that describe the corner of His Body where you and I currently reside?

In John 17, Jesus prayed that His church, we His people, would be one in Him. A unified people is who He'll return for, but can we honestly say we're anything close to that? Look at what we bicker over? Look at how steadfastly we defend our "turf." Loyalty to denominations and organizations have taken precedence over loyalty to Him. I'm a Wesleyan-Arminian, and I believe that strain of Christian faith is closest to the teachings of His Word, but I will not let that keep me from having rich fellowship with brothers and sisters who may have a slightly different view of what certain Scriptures are saying. I have learned so much from Calvinists, Charismatics, and Pentecostals. So much so that I know our differences are minor. On the essentials of faith, we don't differ, and we need to celebrate that unity, not quarrel over who's the closest to having everything "right."

I hunger for His return, but when He does return, whether for all His church, or just for me when my time here closes, I want to be found in faith. I want to leave this world fully alive in Him, always reaching for more of Him. I don't want to bemoan all that I don't have, or have lost, but all that I have and can never lose in Him. I want to be living as "more than a conqueror" when He comes. I don't think He will accept any other spiritual state. Do you share that desire? Do you, your household, and your local fellowship look like what He will return for? Do I? Or, do we far more resemble what Rodriguez speaks of? In our hearts, we know. So does He.

Blessings,

Pastor O