Words

 "God's most terrifying words are, "I never knew you." Matthew 7:23, and His most comforting are, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Jeremiah 1:5 Larry Crabb

Jesus said that man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Every word, not just the ones we like or agree with. The above quote from Larry Crabb gives a very wide spectrum between words from Him that we find very comforting, and words that strike, or should strike terror in our hearts. He speaks both kinds.

Matthew 7:23 is referring to Jesus speaking to those who will stand before Him in judgement, thinking themselves secure in that they did all the "right things" as religious followers of Christ. They went to church, tithed, and sought to live good moral lives. They thought themselves justified by their keeping of a religious ritual, and told Him so. Yet, to them He said, "Depart from Me....I never knew you." I don't know that there can be any more chilling, shocking, and terrifying words that one could hear than those. A Lord you felt you'd recognized, even given some level of honor to, telling you that you had no place in Him, and that more, though you felt you knew Him, didn't know you at all. How could this be?

Maybe we can see the answer in something Leonard Ravenhill said about the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day. He wrote, "Pharisees read the Scriptures, tithed, went to church, and went to hell." Why? They rejected the claims of the Gospel Jesus brought to them. They rejected the claims of Christ. They had a religion, but they had no relationship. They did the right things but with the wrong heart. They thought that their doing all those things made them right with God, whereas Jesus told them He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The only Way, Truth, and Life. The Lord knows those who are His, and those who reject Him are not His. Scripture says that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. There can be only one of two outcomes. This is an outcome that no soul should ever desire. These are hard and frightening words, but He did speak them, and speaks them still.

Then there are His Words that speak hope, comfort, and the deepest assurance of His love and intimacy. He says that even before we were physically formed in the womb of our mother, He knew us. He knew, and knows the deepest recesses of our mind and spirit. He knows what He created us for, and He knows how to bring to pass all His purposes for us....if we will have it. One of the great human needs is that of being known. The world specializes in dehumanizing and devaluing us. God intends that we should know that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That in all of human life that has ever existed or will exist, there is no one who can connect with His heart like we can...if we will have it. I can't explain the total mystical nature of this truth, I can only testify from my experience with my God, through His Son, that it is true. Wonderfully, beautifully true.

This has not been an easy piece to write. I seek to present the Lord as He has revealed Himself. That means presenting Him as One who is ultimate mercy and love, as well as ultimate justice and wrath. His Word tells us that mercy triumphs over judgement, but His mercy must be received to be experienced. Dudley Hall said that, "It is dangerous and deadly not to receive the Word of God." The end of such a choice makes me tremble in His presence. At the same time, Jesus said that His Word is Life to all who would receive it. The knowledge of what that means makes my heart soar with His joy. Someone said that God has nothing left to give to the world as He has already given us His Son, His Spirit and His Word. As you read this, I pray that in every area of your life, you would receive them and not reject them. He is a Gift that is both too wonderful for words, and too terrible a consequence if He is turned away.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Beneath

 "Sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?" Judges 3:13..."Beneath every heartache, failure, and shattered dream, is a God waiting to be discovered." Larry Crabb

This morning in one of our prayer gatherings, it was asked why some of His choicest servants seem to suffer the most, and suffer seemingly unjustly? This is an age old question, and one that has no easy answers, especially for those who are undergoing the flames of suffering. Yet I think there are answers to be found, though they don't seem very satisfactory while we're in the flames.

The point has been made by many that those who have been most effective for Christ have been those who have suffered the most for and in Him. I think everyone who has entered into the pain of suffering while refusing to let go of His hand has discovered the truth of that. Jesus called Himself the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with sorrow. To really know Him, we must become acquainted with it as well. People who have lived their lives walking in nothing but sunshine rarely have anything to offer to those who have known the terror of the dark. They can't relate, and have little to say in the way of hope. They've never walked in the valley of the shadow of death, and have little help to give for the ones who are. They have no idea how to get through. I've come to see these ones as those who the Father can't really trust with suffering because they lack the spiritual depth to go on in the midst of it. Be sure that to be entrusted with suffering is a real part of the answer of suffering.

I love the quote from Crabb, that underneath the deepest of life's pain and loss there is a God to be discovered in it. God wants to be known, and known intimately. Also, in His relationship with us, He is always working with eternity in mind. This world is passing, though far too many of His are far too comfortable in it, and far too attached to it. In our good times, we rarely experience a thirst and hunger for Him, and so, we rarely travel very deeply into discovering who He really is. This will never be the case in the midst of suffering and pain. In that, there can be one of three results, that we will turn away from Him in anger for allowing it, or that we will sullenly decide to endure it, all the while resentful of His allowing it, or last, that we will throw ourselves upon and into Him. I think the majority choose either of the first two, but He calls us to the last. He does because in that choice lies the gateway into a deeper knowledge and experience of Him than we could ever have otherwise known. In our pain waits a God who will show us wonders concerning Himself and of who we can be in Him. If we will trust Him, we will emerge from the flames more whole and complete in Him than we ever thought possible. This will be a glory to Him, and a deep blessing to others, who we're now able to minister His comfort to, just as He ministered His comfort to us.

If you've never been in the "why" of suffering, perhaps it's because He's been unable to trust you with anything but sunshine, and though you may be comfortable there, you're of little use to Him or anybody else. More likely though, you have been, or are right now, in a place of pain. What will you choose as your response? Will you turn away in anger, or sullenly dig in and just hope to get through? Or, will you throw yourself upon Him, and in the pain, discover the One who is there, beneath it, inviting you into all His fullness?

In our humanity, we'll never fully understand the "Why's" of suffering. What we can know is the Father in ways we never dreamed possible. We find that His grace goes far deeper and wider than we ever dreamed. We will realize that our understanding of His goodness was far too small and limited. We will discover that the God we thought we knew wasn't really known at all. If we will trust Him, He will shape us into someone far more like Jesus than we ever thought possible. We will bring glory to Him, good to others, and I believe, as the old hymn goes, sing that it really was worth it all when we fully see Him on that great and awesome day. It's OK to have "why's", but may we trust Him with all of them, and know that one day, we'll understand it all fully while all the time, He was making Himself more fully known to us. Thank you Jesus, who dwells beneath our pain.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Thoughts

 I've been making up a new prayer journal, and in doing so I've been going over past books that I've read and highlighted, transferring many of the thoughts and insights into the journal. It's been spiritually stimulating to refresh my mind and heart with things processed a decade and more ago. For this writing, I thought I'd share three thoughts I wrote down in the journal. They're not specifically related to each other, but I think each bears a truth we need to remember anew, or know for the first time. They speak to me, and I hope they speak to you.

Genesis 1 tells us that He created the heavens and the earth, and made the earth from a formless mass, and that all was in darkness, until He spoke, "Let there be light." He then separated the light from the darkness. He has continued to do so through the ages. Jim Hylton says that God never stops speaking, "Let there be light." No matter how darkness seems to grow, and no matter how black that darkness may be, He will, in Christ, continuously speak His Light into it. Into the darkest dark, He will continually direct His light, and the darkness cannot stand against Him. His Light searches, reveals, exposes, and cleanses. It breaks the power of darkness. It has broken the power of darkness. For His people, darkness may at times envelop us, but we take heart, because though it may hide much from us, it can't hide Him, or hide us from Him. At all times and in every way, He will continue to speak, "Let there be light," and we can live in the assurance that there will be....even in our darkest hour.

The second truth is that we have become so focused on the last days that we run the danger of missing what He's doing and saying in these days. Yes, Jesus spoke of knowing the days, discerning the times, and looking for His return. Both Paul and Peter wrote of those coming days as well, but nowhere did they tell us to take our eyes off of His activity and words in these days. He is returning, but until He does, we're to occupy. Actively occupy. We're to recognize His works, His leading, His will for these days and be where He is in them. We're to live looking up, but also aware of what is happening around us. We both look for His return as well as look for His presence in the here and now. The Kingdom is coming, but it is also here right now. We're to seek it with all our heart now, even as we wait for all its fullness in His return. That's how we're to live. Is it how we're living right now? Dudley Hall said that Paul wasn't looking towards an event, but a Person, Christ, and that while we wait for His physical return, we can enjoy intimacy with Him every day. Let us so live.

The final truth concerns the encounter between Jesus and the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, right after the resurrection as detailed in Luke. Jesus approached them as they were in conversation about His recent death and burial. They were in deep depression and didn't recognize Him at all. He entered into conversation with them about it all and went quite a way with them, still unrecognized. Finally, at the door of the home, their eyes were opened to see who He was, and they rejoiced. The point made was that they had gone a great distance talking about Him when they could have been talking with Him. How like that are we? We gather in our Bible studies, classes, and worship services, even in our prayer groups, and talk a lot about Him, but talk so little with Him. We spend so much time on the subject of Jesus, and so little with Jesus Himself. I write this on a Saturday. Tomorrow, many of you will be engaged in Bible class/study and worship services. Will you be talking about, hearing about Jesus, or will you be talking with Him and hearing from Him? The two disciples were talking with Jesus, but didn't recognize that He was right there with Him. How much of what we call "church" is the same for us? Do we talk about Him as if He's not there?

May He this day speak light into every aspect of our lives. May we not be so caught up in looking for Him in the last days that we miss Him this day. Last, may we not grow so used to talking about Him that we miss the joy of talking with Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Trinkets

 "But just as it is written: 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the human heart, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.' " I Corinthians 2:9....."We get through days, but we rarely live in them." Mark Buchanan

In Luke 2, the account of the man named Simeon is given. Simeon was a "righteous man and very devout...filled with the Holy Spirit." God had promised him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah with his own eyes. One day, led of the Spirit, he went to the Temple and arrived at the time when Joseph and May were presenting the baby Christ to the Lord, as required by the Law. The Bible says that he took the child in his arms and said, "Now I can die in peace. As you have promised me, I have seen the Savior." Of this account, Mark Buchanan says that "Simeon lived to see Christ and died fulfilled. What do we live for? Will we die fulfilled?" Do you and I dare to allow that question to be asked of us? What is it we live for, and when we die, will we die fulfilled because of what we've lived for?

The passion of Simeon's life was that he might see the Messiah, the Savior. Surely his life was composed of other things. A job, possibly family, personal interests. But the overwhelming desire of His heart was to behold the fulfillment of the Father's promise to him. Nothing held his heart like that desire. Nothing else could ever bring the fulfillment that the realization of that desire did. You get the sense from his words that he could have possessed all the world, and it would not have been enough if he died unable to see His Lord with his own eyes. He lived with a divine passion. Do we? He was held in the grip of the Spirit. What has a grip on us, on our hearts?

We live for trinkets more often than not. God has placed before us all the riches possible in Jesus Christ, yet we continue to seek to accumulate trinkets. The things of God have been reduced to just one of our many interests, and often, found among our lesser ones. Jobs, relationships, husbands, wives and children, and yes, ministry for Him, can all consume us while any real passion for Him grows fainter each day. We live for trinkets and miss the treasures of the Kingdom.

Buchanan says that we get through days, but we rarely live in them. Live in them with His Life. Getting through life becomes the goal. We hope He'll be of some help, but really, we feel more as if we're on our own in the journey. That's the inevitable result when we chase trinkets instead of Treasure. Pastoral burnout is said to be at an all time high. A large reason is because working for Him has replaced living in Him. I think a great reason for this is that pastors, ministers, and workers in the Kingdom have lost or never had a passion for His Presence. We know what the abundant life is supposed to be, but have little if any experience in living it out. So we plod more than rise through life.

Then there are those who would say they do feel fulfilled. These would be the ones who have made comfort, security, and their overall well being their goal in life. If they have that, they feel at ease in everything. This is a deadly deception. We need to remember the rich man Christ spoke of; the one who loved his possessions and comfort, and lived to add on to them in every way. God came to him in a dream, telling him that that very night, he would die, and his soul be required of him. With that, all he had accumulated would be meaningless. What he thought was fulfillment was instead a destructive trap. How many are living just as he did? Are you?

Something that marked the great men and women of the Bible was their passion for the presence of God. Moses, David, Jeremiah, Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, and Paul, all sought His heart before all else. Paul said his overwhelming desire was to know Christ. He died with that desire being fulfilled. With all he accomplished, nothing mattered more. What matters more for you and me? What will mark our passing? Trinkets or Treasure? Which will we have lived for?

Blessings,

Pastor O

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Contradictions

 "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me?" Jeremiah 3:27

I recently came across a kind of scenario put forth by writer Larry Crabb. He put forward a truth, and then connected it with a seeming total contradiction. The truth was, "God is the God of the impossible. He can do anything." He then followed with a reality, "But He did nothing." What do we do when the truth we believe is totally contradicted by the reality we're living in? What happens when the God of all things seemingly does nothing for us? Especially after we have cried out to Him, pleaded with Him, and believed Him? Where does our faith go from there?

A great part of our problem is that we believe God always wants what we want. Even if He delays, we believe that in the end, if we just pray enough, believe enough, He'll bring about an answer that pleases us and makes our life better. The problem is that we have ourselves at the center of it all. What we want, how we want to feel, and all the circumstances surrounding that need to come together in a way that satisfies us. We can't see past our own dreams and desires. We're blind to Him and what His purposes may be. He's at work for something far bigger, deeper, and eternal then our here and now.

The Father is always working in us with eternity in view. He uses everything, especially our sufferings, to bring about His purposes for us. Satisfying a desire, even a need, may bring us into conflict with the greater work He's seeking to do. We need to reach a place where we can let go of the desire, even our deepest desires, to Him.....and trust Him with them. Trust Him even if He doesn't bring about that which we so desperately want. He doesn't want us centered upon our desired outcome. He wants us centered upon Him. Upon what He's speaking, showing, and doing in that time. He's focused on our growth in Him. Taking us deeper into intimacy with Him is always His priority.

Crabb says that our biggest problem is that "we want something or someone more than we want God." Dreams and desires, even good and valid ones, cannot take His place in our hearts and lives, and they can easily do so. If a shattered dream, painful as it may be, brings us into a deeper relationship with Him, He'll allow it. That's a great part of the "all things work together for good" that we struggle to understand. God works in us and for us with an eternal perspective, but we're so earthbound in our thinking that we miss and misunderstand what He's doing and working towards. Our hope and faith in Him is oftentimes only as deep as the results we seek. When those results don't come about, our hope and faith fades badly. Crabb says that, "we must find a hope that anchors us to God when dreams do not come true." That hope is not rooted in what He's doing, or not doing. It's a hope rooted completely in Him, in who He is.

We tend to base our well being on how we feel and how our lives are going. We think more in terms of happiness, while He wants us to know His joy. Jesus wants our joy in Him to be full. Without surrendered trust in Him, we can never really know the fullness of His joy, and every happening in our life that doesn't result in what we want causes us to doubt His love and His care for us. We live unsettled lives, tossed about emotionally and spiritually. God always seems a contradiction to us.

In the Garden, Jesus in His humanity desired to be spared the agony of the cross. Yet in the depths of His relationship with His Father, He surrendered the desire to the greater purposes of that Father. The result was glory. Sin crushed and death conquered. The cross seemed a total contradiction to the love of God. In reality it was a confirmation of it. To have full victory, full joy, full assurance in the face of all things, we too need to go to His cross and surrender all our desires, dreams, and hopes, for the greatest hope of all, hope in Him. Perhaps you need to go there today, with all the seeming contradictions to your own hopes and dreams. Crabb says that out of our shattered dreams, God can raise up a better dream. He did so at the cross, in Christ. He still does so at the cross, in Christ. Let us trust Him with every shattered dream and frustrated hope. Let Him reveal to us His better dream.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Broken Bread

 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psalm 51:17......"A humble, repentant heart is like a God magnet." Chris Tiegreen

Author and speaker Nancy Leigh DeMoss tells of a group of African believers who, when told of someone coming to minister to them, asked this question; "Are they a broken Christian?" Not, are they gifted preachers or impressive and bold leaders. They didn't ask if they had a record of building growing fellowships, or winning large numbers of the lost. They wanted to know if, above all else, they were broken before the Lord? Were they broken in Christ?

Do you think this is a question that the average pulpit search committee would ask a pastoral candidate? Do most missionary boards ask it of their candidates? In the local church, as we seek those who will minister, is it even a factor in those we seek? What is it that we really want in those we are looking to lead and serve? What is it that most impresses us? What is it, in any of these that we really want to see? Does brokenness before Him even enter into the picture? I think we know the answer to that, but I don't think we want to address the reason for that answer.

Brokenness is not a value in these things because brokenness is not a value to the average western believer. In a culture that applauds achievement, success, and celebrity, brokenness has little appeal to our flesh. This should be expected in the world, but it's a tragedy that it has become just as big a reality in His church. Eugene Peterson said that it is difficult to recognize pride as a sin when it's held up as a virtue on every side. This has become painfully true within the church.

We live in a hard, fallen world. A world that is highly skilled in hardening us. There is not much God can do with a hard heart except break it, and the idea of a God who loves us enough to do so is not much accepted in a church that has painted God's love in such sugary ways, Yet, any true disciple of Christ knows that bringing us to brokenness is a work that He is committed to, and He has the means of doing so. He does it through His Word, through the circumstances He allows, and through His Church, through our fellow believers. Through the loving counsel of many, as well as the sometimes unloving words and actions of some. He will do so because it is only the tender heart of flesh that will encounter and see Him. Hearts of stone never can. As Tiegreen says, a broken, humble, and repentant heart is a magnet to the heart and life of the Father.

One doesn't have to go far on the many outlets of social media to see that there is a large amount of hardheartedness among His people. Anger, hateful words, hardened attitudes are all on display. There is so much that is wrong in our culture, and we need to be righteously angry about it. Our problem is that our anger is manifesting in carnal ways. God will use His church to come against the evil that is rampant, but He will do so through hearts tenderized to Him, and through which He can speak, warn, and move in the midst of it all. The people of God are to fight on their knees, not with their words and attitudes. Is your heart such a heart? Is mine?

I get back to those original thoughts. God values and cherishes our brokenness. Do we? Do you? Does brokenness show through in your life? What areas of hardness still show through? Where is He working right now to transform an area of hardness into one of tender openness to Him and to others. DeMoss writes that, "A heart that is broken and humble before Him will be broken and humble before others." How true is that of us? To the degree that it's not, we need the softening work of the Holy Spirit.

We're to be broken bread and poured out wine in Christ. To really live such a life will not bring worldly acclaim and applause, but it is through such that His presence, life, and love will move. We have so many who seek a stage to perform from. He offers a bowl and a towel. Which do we really prefer?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Pebbles

 "Cast all your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken." Psalm 55:22

Today I saw this Scripture posted on FB by a friend. I affirmed the post.....and then the Lord spoke to me. I had just written how I had found it true throughout all of my walk with Him, and I have, but the Father pressed me on some aspects of that where I hadn't. Not really or fully.

In the Old Testament and New, we are invited by the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to bring everything in our lives to Him. Nothing is to be held back. The truth is, we tend to hold a great deal back. Not really intentionally or in disobedience. It's just that there are things that we often consider too trivial to take to Him. Along with that thinking is the attitude that these smaller things can be handled by us in our own ways. No need to bother the Maker of the Universe.

I doubt that many of us have ever carried a 150 pound sack of pebbles. It would be an overwhelming burden and one we'd surely seek His help in. The thing is, that sack was filled one pebble at a time, and none of the pebbles by themselves amounted to any kind of load. Herein is the problem; so many of our cares are not overly burdensome in themselves, but as we tend to hold on to them, one by one, they become an overwhelming load to us. We've never committed them to Him, and now the weight of them is crushing us, distracting us, wearing us out. A single gnat is not much of a problem, but a swarm of them certainly is. We're desperate to escape them. So it is with all the cares that we seek to handle in our own strength, wisdom, and understanding.

How many "pebbles" are you carrying today? How many small things are combining to totally distract you away from not only the important aspects of life, but from the Lord Himself? How many swarms of gnats are swirling around you right now, stealing your peace, your joy, your life? What are we, for whatever reason, keeping to ourselves that He has commanded us to bring to Him? Do we recognize our disobedience in that?

I said that He spoke to me after I'd affirmed my belief in Psalm 55:22. He whispered to me of all the times I'd not brought the "smaller things" of my life to Him. Sickness, though not severe, yet I went first to a Doctor or a pharmacy before I went to Him. Or worse, I never even thought of first going to Him. So it is with so many issues in our lives. We simply don't take them to Him. None of them seem serious enough to derail our lives, so we seek to handle them, one at a time, by ourselves. They're pebbles. Not much in themselves....at first Eventually the load of it all exhausts us, even breaks us. It is not usually the great problems of life that crush us. It's all the little stresses that we try to deal with each day that lead to our breakdown. Could it be that you're on such a path right now?

As you trudge along today, what's in your "sack?" What are the pebbles that you've been accumulating, none of them much in themselves, but are now in sum crushing you? What small cares, worries, problems, have you been trying to deal with yourself rather than bringing to Him? "Cast all your cares on the Lord." Where have you, like me, been failing to do that? Where is the accumulated load crushing you? Be free of that "sack." It was never meant to be carried by you in the first place. It's His.......surrender it to Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O