Draw Near?

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  James 4:8......"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering and come before Him.; Worship the Lord in holy array." I Chronicles 16:29

In the western church, we have so magnified the place of His grace through the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, that we tend to dismiss almost entirely His calling upon us through His original covenant. The result has been a corruption in what we call "worship." 

In the Old Testament, He established a holy priesthood that was to minister to Him on behalf of the people. These priests were to be ceremonially clean when they came into His presence. His holiness was magnified before both the priests and the people. Scripture says that He dwells in "unapproachable light." So great was His glory, is His glory, that He told Moses that "no man may see Me and live." The priests came before Him with a holy reverence, and only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of His Presence was. 

With the coming of Christ and the New Covenant given us through Him, we may now come into His presence freely. Those who are His have total access to the Creator of the Universe. A Hebrew living in Old Testament times could surely have no concept of how wonderful this is. And that my friends is what I write about today. I want to speak of how far we have drifted in the modern church from a holy reverence for Him in what we call "worship." 

I am so thankful that through Jesus Christ I may draw near to Him, but how easily I forget how I am to draw near to Him. James speaks of coming before Him with clean hands, a pure heart, and single minded devotion. The writer of 1st Chronicles speaks of worshipping Him in "holy array." This references how even the vestments of the priests were to be perfectly clean when they came to minister to Him. Our holy array is to be our hearts. We are to come before Him not only clean outwardly, but inwardly as well. He expected His people in the Old Covenant to come before Him with fear and trembling. Not as a result of being carnally afraid of Him, but in awareness of how Holy He is, and that His Holiness is so great that apart from Christ, we can never come before Him, that His holiness would kill us were it not for His grace. This should fill us with awe, but I would make the point that the average attendee in the western church expresses little awe and reverence upon entry into whatever place they join into corporate worship. This reality should trouble us greatly. Why doesn't it?

A good pastor friend of mine described a recent visit to a large church in Texas. He said the presence of God was so powerful and so corporately felt that you couldn't help but be overcome by the wonder of it. He said that at the conclusion of the singing part of the service, a time of worship where no one had to be asked to stand before Him, He realized he had tears streaming down his face. He felt like he had joined with a people who knew personally the wonder of their God, and entered His sanctuary in awe, reverence, and yes, fear and trembling. You and I may feel we belong to a very good body of believers. I know I do, but tell me, when you observe His people coming to His church, entering into His presence, do they, do you and I, do so with an awesome sense of reverence and wonder? Are we acutely aware of our need for clean hands and pure hearts? Are we acutely aware of any part of us that is not clean, that is not holy? Where we are not, at least in part, clad in "holy array?"

We're invited to draw near. I am so thankful for the invitation. How do we come? With clean hands and a pure heart, clad in holy array? This is not a plea to "clean ourselves up" before we come to Him. He's the only One who can make us clean. What it is is a plea to live in deep awareness of Him, of His holiness and wonder. To realize and sense that we are always in His presence whether we acknowledge it or not. To realize that because of this, wherever we stand is holy ground, because He is there with us. When this becomes our way of life then His Spirit is continually at work within us, giving us, as the chorus says, "clean hands and pure hearts." And that is how we enter His presence, and we would not enter, could not enter, in any other way.  

May we draw near, live near, and never depart. Clean hands, pure hearts, encountering and experiencing our awesome God. May it be so. May it be so now.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Rescue Plan

 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.  Job 23:10

I heard Sheila Walsh ask the question, "Have you ever thanked God for not answering something you had prayed for?" She was referencing a time in her life when she had checked herself into a mental hospital. She suffered from deep depression and anxiety issues. She also had the memory of her father's mental illness, which was the result of a severe head injury. Eventually he had committed suicide. All of this converged upon her that first night in the hospital. She was terrified. She said she then prayed that the Father would take her out of her nightmare, that He would take her home to Himself. She then added, "But that wasn't His rescue plan." She said that He was not going to take her out of her nightmare but walk with her through all of it until He brought her out onto the other side of it. And when He did, she would not be the same person. Her rescue plan was an escape that changed nothing. His was a journey and relationship that would change her forever.

I know exactly what Walsh speaks of. I remember so well the deep darkness I walked through more than 30 years ago in the midst of my own nightmare. I remember the pain, the fear, the despair I felt. I never contemplated taking my own life, but I deeply wanted Him to. I wanted out of my nightmare. Like Walsh, that was not His rescue plan for me, and like Walsh, He meant to walk through all of it with me and when He had brought me through, I would not be the same. I would know myself more deeply, but best of all, I would know Him in ways I never thought possible. I would know Him in ways that could never have been discovered apart from His joining me in my nightmare, and bringing beauty in the midst of it and out of it. 

None of this should ever surprise us. Jesus Christ came to rescue a human race lost in its sin. If Christ were like us, He would have demanded that God just make all the sin "go away," so that He would never need to suffer the agony of the cross and its death. But the Father didn't just want to save a lost race, He wanted a deep and rich relationship with us. One based on surrendered faith, trust, confession and repentance. He wanted us to be aware of our lostness, our need for a Savior, and the terrible consequences of our sin. His rescue plan for us was Christ and His cross. No other plan could have dealt with our sin problem. As Scripture says, He endured the cross for the glory set before Him. We must realize the glory we will see and bring to Him when we allow Him to take hold of us in our nightmares and step by step, lead us out of them. 

Maybe you're in the midst of your own nightmare right now. Maybe you're simply in a place you desperately want to escape. Maybe you've been praying that one way or another, He'll end it, and help you escape. Dare to look to Him there. Dare to trust Him there. Dare to lay hold of Him as He lays hold of you and allow Him to bring you out to the other side. To the other side where you will enter into a richness of life you never dreamed possible. Sheila Walsh knows something of that. So do I. So do countless others. You can as well. Yield to His rescue plan for you. You will never regret it, and like Walsh, like me, you'll thank Him that He didn't just snatch you away, making you miss all that you gained in the journey.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Aliens

 For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; our days on the earth are like a shadow." I Chronicles 29:15

Aliens are among us. I'm one of them. Are you?

Now, before you start asking me if I've been to the Mothership or had conversations with odd looking creatures with huge eyes and oddly shaped heads, I am not speaking of such beings at all. I am identifying with the above Scripture. My life, the way I live, the values I hold to, the way I view people and the surrounding culture and its worldview, is to be alien to all of it. The people of God are to live like, as a friend put it, "like we're not from around here." I hope my life looks like that. As one who is in Christ, it should. If you make such a confession as well, yours must too.

The Israelites were known as Hebrews. The word Hebrew means "alien." From Abraham onward, they were aliens in every land they lived in. They were always pilgrims, passing through the lands but never taking root. God, through Abraham, had called them to be a people apart from every other race and people. This was the case until He led them out of the slavery in Egypt and into the land He had given them as their inheritance. In that land, they were to embody the Kingdom of God. They failed. They were not to become a part of the surrounding pagan nations or adopt their ways and values. It was God's desire that instead, they would used of HIm to bring them to Himself. That they would become part of His people, His Kingdom. That never happened. At first, they embraced all the ways of those unbelieving peoples and departed from their God. Later in their history, they returned to Him, but now they completely rejected all other people, seeing them as unclean and living in isolation from them. Both were destructive responses, and both completely missed the heart and will of God. I think we modern day believers continue in their blindness.

Christ and His ways were alien to all those He ministered to, especially to all the religious Jewish leaders of His day. He invited all people to Himself and proclaimed to all of them that the way to God was not through good works, or keeping rules, or avoiding evil people. It was through faith in Him alone. It was through a renouncing of the ways and values of the world and an embracing of the Kingdom He preached and invited them into. It was and remains His Kingdom, founded on His grace, mercy, and love. The door into it was opened by His sacrificial death on the cross and in His resurrection from the dead. It was His Kingdom of Light and Life. A Kingdom that had and has conquered all the power of darkness and death. Its citizens are transformed into people that more and more reflect their Lord Jesus. The ways of this fallen world are alien to them, and they are alien to this world. I know. I once lived in the dark kingdom, and those I met from His Kingdom were certainly alien to me. Strange strangers. Then the day came, so long coming, when I heard and answered His invitation. Before, the Kingdom that is eternal was alien to me. Now, the fallen kingdom of this world that is passing away is even more so. This can only happen through the entrance of Jesus Christ into my life as both Savior and Lord. I now live out the words spoken by the blind man whose sight Jesus restored, "Once I was blind, but now I see." Not by the works of men or reason, but by His entrance into and transformation of my heart.

So, I come back to my question: Are you an alien? Which kingdom are you most at home in? Whose "citizens" seem most alien to you? Which are you most comfortable around? Are you a pilgrim passing through this world, or are you so attached that you have no desire to ever leave? Are you not from around here, or are you very much "here" right now? Oh, and isn't it strange that throngs of people long to meet an extraterrestrial, an alien, but give almost no thought to meeting the One who is truly not of this world, Jesus Christ?

Blessings,

Pastor O

If You're Real

 I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.  Job 42:5

I recently heard the story of author and speaker Cristina Baker when she told of her journey from deep darkness to life in Jesus Christ. She related how she had grown up in an abusive and atheistic family. In her early teen years she turned to a lifestyle of drug use that led ever deeper into hopelessness and despair. She had a child and a job, but her drug use was only increasing, and she became suicidal. She said she was sitting at her workstation one morning and decided that later that evening, she would take her own life. She felt that everyone, including her child, would be better off if she were gone. Soon after she felt a tap on her shoulder, and a co-worker said that he felt led to invite her to a prayer gathering he and other employees would be having during lunch break. She went, and when she got there, she saw people engaged in prayer. Truly engaged in prayer. She said her first thought was that if there really was a God, these people must surely know Him. God was working. Though she made no move towards Him, she decided to not take her life.

Some more time passed, and her life only became more broken. In her brokenness, she cried out to Him, "God, if you're real, please help me." She related how she just had the sense in her spirit of the Father speaking to her saying, "I have been waiting for you to give Me such an invitation. Let Me show you how real I am." She said that immediately she felt a supernatural presence of life and power enter into her being. Christ had come into her life and the heavy chains of drug addiction and suicidal thoughts were broken. So began her journey from darkness, death, and despair, into light, life, and wholeness. Like Job, the God she had heard about became visible to the eyes of her heart and spirit. He had answered her prayer. He was real. He is real. Do you know that? Do you know it now?

I tell all that story because there are so many, both among those who profess to believe in Him, and those who are living far from Him, who, spoken or unspoken, want to know if He is real. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe life has gotten to the place where everything is against you, nothing makes sense anymore, and all you want to do is give up. You may not wish to take your own life, but you've decided to stop trying to live. You'll just live waiting to die. But in the midst of it all is that question for Him, "If You're real...." 

As He stood before the life of Cristina Baker, He stands before you. In the midst of your doubts, your fears, your disappointment, your despair, He waits for your invitation for Him to prove to you how real He is. He delights in doing so. He won't respond to arrogant demands that He prove Himself, but He will always reveal Himself to the broken and seeking heart. To your heart and to mine. Would you, in your brokenness, invite Him to show Himself real to you right where you are today? His Word says that He gives us a hope that will not disappoint. The miracles He worked in Cristina Baker's life, in my life, and in the lives of countless others who cried out to Him from the darkness, will be worked out in yours as well. All you need to do is extend the invitation. He will do the rest.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Power

 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

A young woman in our church shared something she'd heard a preacher say recently. She said as he went before his congregation, he told them that he'd just purchased a book on witchcraft and that it was filled with various spells to cast on people. He said he thought the fellowship might be interested in hearing what was contained in those spells. The young lady went on to say that the preacher then said that he saw the countenances of his congregation change to those of fear and dread. They didn't want to be exposed to those words of darkness and evil. With that he told them he had bought no such book and that he would never expose his people to what such a book contained. He told them that he did wish to make a strong point with them though. He said that when he presented the idea of the book and the reading of its words, the people were immediately afraid of what those words could do to them. He asked them, "Why are you, we, so willing to give credence and power to the words of the devil and his kingdom, and yet we seem to have so little confidence and belief in the power of the Words of the Almighty God we say we believe and follow? Why did they? Why do we? Why do you?

Somehow, a great portion of the western church has drifted from the place of being anchored in His Word. If we are not outright denying great portions of it, we are living as if it had no impact or power in our day to day lives. We are putting more value and trust in the words of men than in the Word of our Creator. We are more and more resembling that generation Paul spoke of who have a form of godliness but deny the power of God and of His Word. We have Bible quizzing for our children and youth but are we modeling and teaching them a reliance upon the words they memorize. If we should claim a promise of God do we really have any expectation that the promise will come to pass? What words of His are we currently standing upon? What Scriptures would we consider to be our "life verses," words from His heart that we have entrusted our lives to, our families, and all that concerns us? What does it say about us that the words of men and of the present age are more real to us than His words? Hundreds of thousands of people attend church services where they hear the Word preached and give it passive agreement, and then go away each week with no intention or belief that what they have heard can actually be lived out in their life situations. Lord, give us an awakening to the power of Your Word and words.

To be blunt, the church in America is for the most part stagnant. In most places church growth is just a matter of people moving from one congregation to another. Why are we not reaching a culture that is dying before our eyes? Could it be that we are living a powerless faith that has no attraction to a people trapped in despair and hopelessness? Yet, in cultures outside of America where poverty, disease, and death are a constant presence, the church is growing rapidly. Great throngs are coming to Christ. The greatest part of the reason is that they are seeing a real Jesus, a real God, and a real Holy Spirit in the and through the lives of His people. They live in a power greater than all that is against them, and they come to the Christ that these ones model and live out. May it be that we live in such power, modeling such a life. May it be so in you, and may it be so in me.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Second Chances

 Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”  Mark 16:7

Mark 16:7 is a beautiful Scripture, particularly for those who have at some point, failed Jesus....and that is all of us....The angel of the Lord had appeared to Mary Magdalene and two other women as they had come to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. He proclaimed to them that "He is not here. He has risen!" He then instructed them to tell the other disciples, "including Peter," that they were to go to Galilee where the risen Christ would meet them. 

"Including Peter." Peter, who had failed Christ at his trial, even denying that he even knew Him. Peter had failed Him, and he likely felt that he'd be the last person Jesus would want to see or meet with. Yet Christ made it a special point that the women should specifically let Peter know that He wanted him there. The meeting wouldn't be complete if he wasn't. Tell the disciples, "including Peter." Where can you and I insert our name into that command? Where have we felt, are we feeling now, that our failures in our faith walk have rendered us unwanted in His eyes? Jesus knew all about Peter's denial. As He was being led to his trial, His eyes had locked upon Peter's as he was warming himself at the enemy's fire, denying that he even "knew the man." Can there be a worse failure, one deserving of total rejection? Yet Jesus wanted him to know that He wasn't turning him away. He called him to Himself.

Ann Graham Lotz said, "He is the God of the fat chance, the slim chance, and the no chance." All of this is true, and knowing it is true should lift our hearts beyond any impossibility we face. I have it written in my prayer journal, but I have included my own words, "and the second chance" to it. He is the God of second chances. Of endless chances. Of the chance to choose life instead of death, hope instead of despair, victory instead of defeat, and love instead of hate. The world spirit would have discarded Peter after such a betrayal. Christ called the betrayer to His heart. Scripture calls Judas, "the betrayer," and such he was, yet in my prayer journal, I have the question, "How often have I been 'Gary the betrayer?' " How many times have I betrayed His trust, His command, His reputation? How many times have you? I'm not writing about a lifestyle of failure and betrayal. That wasn't what marked Peter's life and it can't mark ours, but if we should fail Him, we can know that He has the door of His heart open to us. The key to entering in is our confession and repentance. All the disciples, not just Peter, had failed Him. All were broken in their failure. All found welcome in their brokenness. He doesn't turn the broken away.

Let us give glory to the Lord of the Second Chance, and if that is what you need from Him today, He calls you to it. The chance is offered, openly. May the chance be taken. He will never be the One who turns away in the offer. Will you turn away in rejection?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Unchanging

 "I am the Lord, and I do not change." Malachi 3:6...."Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Hebrews 13:8....."God has not changed. The Bible has not changed. God's truth has not changed. The blood of Jesus has not changed. God still has the solution to our problems. Thank God that has not changed." A.W. Tozer

God has not changed. Christ is the same, remains the same now and through eternity. We read this, we hear this, and we say we believe this. Do our lives look like we do?

I often wonder what the first century church would have made of the message coming from most western pulpits these days. Indeed, what would our brethren in places like China, the Middle East, and many parts of Africa make of that message? What would they say about our view of the God we say we worship? Would they be attracted to the God and Christ we're speaking of? I remember reading the sobering words of an African believer who'd been brought to America by well-meaning friends who wished to "rescue" him from the difficult life he was leading in his village. After nearly a year here, he expressed his desire to return to that village. He feared that his faith life was dying due to the spiritual environment he was in and the "worship" he was experiencing. God was not real to him here. I ask, is He truly real to us?

I know that God doesn't limit Himself to only one way of relating and revealing Himself. He has infinite ways of doing so, but there does seem to be a common response when He does; people are overwhelmed by His presence, left speechless, unable to move or even remain standing in he awesome wonder of His presence, His holiness, His might and power. In response to all of this people were left trembling with awestruck fear, or simply fell on their face in worship. Scripture says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. We tend to think that speaks to having to face Him in judgement, but I believe it covers every true encounter with Him. Paul was struck blind on the Damascus Road when Christ appeared to him. John fell on his face before Him when Christ appeared to him on the island of Patmos. I am not saying that He has to do the same with us, but really, do we ever expect Him to come to us in such a way? When was the last time we were overwhelmed with awe by an encounter with Him in worship, be it corporate or personal?

Someone pointed out how we in a culture where we lack so little, have such a small idea of God, while those who are surrounded by need and want in less advanced cultures, have a steadfast belief in their God who they know beyond all doubt, can and will do all things and anything on their behalf. Could it be that in their simple yet powerful faith, they believe He really is the unchangeable One, that the Jesus they follow is the same for them that He was 2000 years ago? They believe that the God who parted the Red Sea is as alive and mighty for them this day as He was for the Israelites on that day. Why is that so hard for us to believe? Why have we tried to domesticate a God, a Christ, a Holy Spirit who cannot be tamed? Who will not be tamed.

If God has not changed, then we must face the truth that we have. Someone said that we have not sought to keep Him in a box, but in a leatherbound gilt lettered Bible. He will not be held there. He is Almighty God, wild and free. May we learn this anew, or perhaps for the first time. Come upon us Unchangeable God. Change us and forgive us for trying to change You.

Blessings,

Pastor O