Tombstones

 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  John 20:1....."The blessings of salvation began the day Jesus blew the doors off a tomb." Chris Tiegreen

I've been thinking a bit recently about the stone that sealed the tomb of Jesus. Tombstones were meant to be something that separated life from death. Those who had died were placed in a burial tomb and then the tomb was sealed with a large stone. To remove a tombstone was a very difficult thing. The stone was a symbol of the finality of death. Yet, as Tiegreen's above quote shows, Jesus "blew the doors" off of His tomb and in doing so conquered the power of sin and in its greatest form, death.

The stone was rolled away from the tomb of Jesus Christ, but I'm wondering, in our own lives, what "tombstones" may still be remaining that seek to block His life from ever reaching the areas of death that are found there? Where do we need stones to be rolled away that have continued to keep us from His healing grace and life? Stones of unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment. Stones of fear, addiction, confusion. Stones that have formed because of lies we've believed, or forgiveness that we can't really believe He has given us. The tombstones that can accumulate in our hearts and lives are many. We can even begin to "worship" these stones and we don't wish to have them removed. Our tombs have become comfortable, familiar, and we don't want to leave them. We've grown so used to their darkness that we shun the light that comes with Christ. Charles Wesley wrote in his great hymn that his spiritual dungeon flamed with the light of Jesus Christ, that he rose from his spiritual death and went forth and followed Christ. Even the most miserable dungeon, tomb, can become our home if we have been there long enough. Yet He stands before every one of them, and with a Word those stones, even the most massive and seemingly unmoveable, simply roll away. He stands before yours. With one word He'll remove it. Will you have Him speak it?

Whatever your "Tombstone" and however many you may have and how securely the enemy may have sealed it, it cannot stay in place when Christ speaks His life and freedom to it. The tomb that held Him is empty and has been for more than 2000 years. May whatever that has entombed you, as well as the stone that seals you in with it, be rolled aside by the One whom no tombstone can withstand. He stands there, whispering your name, calling you forth. Take that step towards that stone.....and behold as He rolls it away.....and you're free.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Bevere

 I thought I'd share today three statements from one of my favorite authors and speakers, John Bevere

"A religious spirit holds fast to what God DID while resisting what God is DOING." I've seen a religious spirit defined as a type of demonic spirit that seeks to replace an actual relationship with God with the keeping of rules and traditions. This spirit has no problem with agreeing with many acts of God in the past, and in fact, would have us focus on what He has done so that we are blind to what He is doing. This is how professing believers are deceived into magnifying what He has said into a list of rules to keep, rules that they believe give life. It also allows for the rise of traditions within a body that become sacred. So sacred that the tradition is exalted above the Person. Erwin McManus asked if Jesus was being lost in the religion that bears His name? I think to a great degree, He has. We look to systems, behaviors, formulas, and methods far more than we do Him. We talk and think about Him more in the past tense than as an active participant in our lives. A great part of the church has fallen into this trap. During the great move of His Spirit known as the Jesus Revolution, many young people said that what drew them to Christ was that He was being proclaimed not only as real, but totally real right now. They sensed that He was a living Person, not a historical figure. The enemy has no problem with us being engaged in religion, even if it's about the God he hates. He trembles at the thought of anyone coming to know the Living God in a living way. The Word come to life. Does he tremble when he beholds how we relate to Him right now? Are we religious, or are we alive?

"Do we love the dream and the vision more than the dream and vision Giver?" This is a very legitimate and piercing question. Many pastors have become so enamored, so obsessed with the vision or dream they believe the Lord has given them that it has become the central force in their life. Everything is invested in realizing the fulfillment of the dream, the realizing of the vision. Their eyes are on nothing else....including Christ. The dream and vision has become their idol. They worship it and the process of realizing it above even the worship of the God they believe gave them the vision in the first place. This can happen very easily in fellowships where pastors have been strongly encouraged to "get a dream or vision" for their ministry from Him. So eager can they become to have one that what they believe has come from Him actually originates with them. I believe He does give HIS dreams and HIS visions to His people, but they come to those whose hearts are closely in tune with His. And they are realized by those whose hearts remain attuned to and focused upon Him....all through the journey to their realization. If you believe you're pursuing a dream from His heart, has realizing that dream displaced Him in your heart?

"Simon the Magician's pursuit was for the anointing of God, not His character." The story of Simon is outlined in the Book of Acts. The Holy Spirit was moving powerfully after the Day of Pentecost and hundreds, even thousands were being converted. Simon the Magician had a reputation as something of a miracle worker and he was one of the ones who professed to have received Christ and witnessed amazing miracles through the disciples. As Peter and others ministered to those who were coming to Christ, they were laying hands upon them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Upon seeing this, Simon offered Peter money if he would lay hands upon him that he too might receive the Spirit, that he too might have this anointing. For this Peter severely rebuked him, saying he asked out of an evil motive and called upon him to repent of it.....Few of us would feel we are anything like SImon, yet how many of us long for a powerful ministry anointing from Him? We long for His anointing, but do we also long for His character and integrity to accompany that anointing? Simon's heart and desires were crooked. Where might ours be the same? Where might our hunger for ministry anointing and success outweigh our desire for His righteousness?  Where might "Simon" be lurking in our hearts?

Just a few thoughts from John Bevere. Something for each of us to contemplate.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Restoration

 "Behold, I am making all things new." Revelation 21:5....."He came to restore every single thing that sin has broken." Paul Tripp...."He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as the curse is found." Isaac Watts

Secular humanism denies many things concerning the Christian faith, but two of the foremost would have to be the reality of sin and its enslavement of the human race, and the reality of Jesus Christ and His work of atonement for the human race through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Sin entered the humanity through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Ever since we have been held captive by our sin nature. Those who would deny this are legion, but somehow, in their denial, they can never account for the presence of evil in this world and how it works in and through the hearts of men and women. They can't account for why and how we have been powerless to "evolve" past murder, genocide, the traffiking of women and children as sex slaves, and the overall growing disdain for the sanctity of a human life. All these and many more. It is obvious that we humans are powerless to free ourselves from the reality of sin no matter how much we may deny its existence. Hence our need for a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ, He who is both perfect God and perfect man. He paid the price for our sin on the cross and through His death and resurrection offers life in place of death, hope in place of despair, joy instead of mourning, and peace instead of chaos.

Milton wrote of "Paradise Lost." Humanity lost what it was created for by the entrance of sin into all of creation, starting with us. We have been trying to regain paradise ever since and falling further from it all the time. Only one Person could do that and has done it....Jesus Christ.

I watched the powerful movie "The Passion Of The Christ," for the first time in a number of years the night before Easter Sunday. I was moved once more by the scene where Jesus, beaten and bloody, has His mother Mary come to Him as He crawls up the steps in Jerusalem, carrying His cross. She cries in great anguish, but He whispers to her, "Watch, as I make all things new." In His death and resurrection, that is exactly what He did. Through His sacrifice, He invited us into His work of restoration. The restoration of what sin has cost us and the restoration of the life we were created for. I can testify to this personally, as can millions more. My own sin and the sinful actions of others have cost me greatly. Great was my loss. Greater still is the restoration He has accomplished in my life in spite of it. Starting with my heart and extending ever outward, He has made all things new. He continues to make all things new.

Isaac Watts' beautiful hymn, "Joy To The World," contains that powerful lyric,  "He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found." Whatever sin has cost you in this life, no matter how deep the loss and the consequences, know that the saving blood of Jesus Christ redeems and restores both it and you. His healing grace extends to the furthest reaches of the effects of all sin. Nothing is beyond the reach of His redemption. Believe that. Receive that. He has made all things new. That is the greatest reality. Let Him do so in you....today. Now. Why delay and longer? The King has come. Receive Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Still Risen

 "Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We will come with you.' They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus." John 21:3-4

Easter Sunday is now past, at least on the calendar. The Body of Christ everywhere celebrated the greatest event in the history of the world; the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many churches celebrated through the weekend, beginning with Good Friday services and culminating all of it on Easter morning. One of the statements made by many preachers in the Good Friday service was, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming," for it was on Friday that He was crucified and on Sunday that He rose from the dead. I thought about all this this morning, and the thought came to me that, "It's Sunday, but Monday's coming." It's the above passage of Scripture that brings that thought to mind.

Jesus had risen. All the disciples as well as many more of His followers had witnessed this. He had appeared to them. They rejoiced. They could shout, "The Lord has risen! He has risen indeed!" Then Monday came, and they who had been fishermen before His calling them, were back on their boats....fishing. What a time of exhilaration Sunday had been, but now it was "Monday." What would they do with it? What would they do with the reality of a risen Christ? It appears that they were prepared to go back to living as if He hadn't really risen at all. They knew He had, but it doesn't seem like it was going to affect how they were to live. He'd called them to be fishers of men, but here they were, back to fishing for fish. The reality of His resurrection wasn't translating into their day to day reality. For all of us who celebrated His resurrection just a day ago, Monday has come. Has His resurrection invaded our lives on this day as it did yesterday. Or, was Resurrection Sunday just a day on a calendar to be celebrated that day, but not lived out on any other?

Jesus had already appeared to them, and likely more than once. Yet here they were, engaged in something that He'd called them from, and when He appeared to them again, they didn't recognize Him. How are we like them? A day ago we recognized Him, celebrated Him in song and the Word. He was so real to us in our worship, yet here we are today, "Monday," and we don't recognize Him at all. His reality isn't entering into ours. He's here, but we don't "see" Him. Our "stuff" is back in the forefront, and that's what we're aware of. We don't see Him and we don't recognize Him even when He's right before us. It's like He hasn't risen at all.

Christ is risen! He is and gives resurrection life to all who believe upon Him. If we say we believe in Him, if we are His by the transforming work of His Spirit and blood, why are we not living in the resurrection life He gives us? Why are we living like He's still in the tomb? Why does the greatest event in human history, celebrated so richly just a day before, seem so far from us just a day later? Why do we so easily go back to our "old boats" and fail to partake of the life He died and rose to give us?

Resurrection life is not just a future promise. It's a present one. He calls us into it. It is our part to step into it. To believe and receive it. To forsake all the "old boats." Old ways of thinking, living, coping, surviving. To enter into His new and Living Way. Sunday has come, and Monday's coming, but in Christ, we may live every day as Sunday. Resurrection Day. He calls us to it. Each and every day. Easter Sunday is to be our way of life every day of our life in Him. Is it, and if not, why not?

Christ is risen! That's the reality. Is it our reality. Monday is here, but the wonder of His resurrection is as real, more real than ever. He gives us resurrection life. Let us enter into it. Fully enter into it. The tomb is empty and all of our "old boats" can be left behind. The old has passed, the new has come. Let us lay hold of all of it.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Blogger

 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:  Luke 24:4-6

This passage of Scripture has always spoken so powerfully to me. Mary and her companions had come to anoint the dead body of Jesus in his tomb. Upon arrival, they were stunned to find the tomb empty, and then even more stunned when two heavenly beings appeared and asked them this question, "Why do you seek the Living One among the dead?" The two angels go on to say that He had already told them that He would rise from the dead. It was His promise. Yet, here they were, at the tomb, forgetting the reality of His promise, and looking for Him where He'd told them He wouldn't be. 

We can be really hard on biblical characters and what we see as their lack of faith....until we come upon the same kind of places and challenges. We fail in the same places, and perhaps no more than in our continuing search to find Him in the midst of "dead things." Dead formulas for what we see as successful Christian living.. Dead traditions that rose from the hearts of men and not Him. Dead legalism that disguises itself as personal holiness. In all of them we think we've found Him, but He is not there. All these kinds of things are found in a tomb. They are never found in the presence and life of the risen Christ. Even so, we continue to look for Him everywhere but where He is.

I'm a strong believer in our need to daily immerse ourselves in His presence through meditation upon His Word and in intimate prayer. I also believe that as His people we need to be found doing good unto both our brethren within the church and those who are found outside His Body. Yet even these can become dead things to us. We can begin to think we find life, His life, through a regiment of Scripture study and daily prayers. Yet we can read chapter upon chapter of His Word and never encounter Him. We can literally pray without ceasing, but never actually talk with Him, just at Him. In all of this, we're seeking the Living One among the dead things of religion rather than the powerful experience of a personal and intimate relationship with Him.

It's Easter week. There will be Good Friday services, Sunrise Services, and Easter Morning services. It is usually the most heavily attended service of any church's year. Yet many will come seeking the Living One among the dead. Faithful attendance at a church fellowship can be just as dead as never being there at all. We come for the rituals, or the singing, even for the activities geared towards children. If these are why we're present, then we're no more present than those who don't come at all.

There will be many proclamations this weekend of "Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!" Is He truly risen in your heart and life? Or, do you continue to seek Him out in the dead things of religion? He has promised us resurrection life now. May we, each of us, truly enter into it. Let us leave the tombs we've been searching in, and go to where He is....which is standing right before us.

Blessings,
Pastor O

In Awe?

 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” Genesis 28:16

....."I am afraid that many of us have lost our awe of God and we don't even know it." Paul Tripp

Do we, you and I, belong in that group of "many" that Paul Tripp speaks of? Do we live, go about our daily things, including corporate worship, with a distinct lack of being in awe of the God we say we worship, serve, and follow? Jacob, spoken of in the above Scripture, was a man born into a family with a rich spiritual heritage. His grandfather was Abraham, friend of God, declared righteous by God. The father of the faithful. His father was Isaac, the very Isaac who had witnessed so many acts of faithfulness by his father Abraham, and who himself had led a life of faith. Jacob had either seen or heard firsthand accounts of the wonders his God had done, yet he had grown so dull to His presence that he came to a place where the encounter he had with God caused him to exclaim that he hadn't even been aware of His presence. Had he gotten so used to the idea of God that he no longer sought His reality? He knew a great deal about Him, very little of Him? How like him are we?

I fear that we have, as Tripp warns, lost our sense of awe in His presence. It can be seen in how casually we approach Him, be it public worship or private prayer. When Isaiah encountered a Holy God in his vision in Isaiah 6, he could only say, "Woe is me. I am undone." The holiness of God overwhelmed him. When a cohort of soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden, asking if He was the One they had come for, His answer, "I Am He," caused every one of them to fall to the ground before Him. Such was the power of His Presence. When Peter first began to understand who Jesus was, all he could do was ask Him to depart from him, because the holy presence of Jesus Christ made Peter realize his own sin and his unworthiness to be in His presence. The disciples spent three years following Him, loving Him, beholding His miracles, and enjoying deep intimacy with Him. Yet they never became so familiar with Him that they lost their sense of awe in His company, especially as they witnessed His miracles. When He calmed a savage storm, all they could do was ask, "Who is this, that even the winds and waves obey Him?" When's the last time that kind of question, spoken in amazing wonder, came from us? The old lyric comes to mind; "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene." When was the last time we experienced true amazement before Him? Has He become so familiar to us that we no longer wonder at His name, at who He is? 

I often think of how He must grieve as He moves about our various fellowships as we come together. We come in a myriad of different attitudes, but so few of them are that of true worship. We come before Him distracted, unfocused, half-asleep, or thinking about what has gone on before we got there or what might be coming after we leave. Worst of all, we come expecting pretty much the same thing we saw the last time. We've seen it so often now, and Lord help us that it's true, we've gotten a bit bored with it all. Like Jacob, we've been in a trance, and like Jacob, it is time, past time, for us to wake up.

Some years back Larry Crabb wrote a book with the title, "Real Church. Does It Exist? Can I Find It?" The book came out of his realizing that he, and so many he knew, had grown bored and unsatisfied with their worship experience, which wasn't much of an experience at all. A dying world and a sleeping church are desperate to experience "real church." May we, you and I, rediscover the awesome God who is very much present but who we so often don't notice. May we confess all the attitudes and reasons that have made that so, repent of them all, and enter into, maybe for the first time, the wonder of His presence. To know and experience true awe. To be undone and then re-made. To worship Him in spirit and truth. For us and our fellowships to never be the same again.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Shore Line

 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Luke 5:4.....

"Launch out into the deep and cut away the shore line and be lost in the fullness of God." A.B. Simpson

I can still remember when I first heard Luke 5:4 preached. I was a young believer, following Him for less than a year. But as I heard this Scripture proclaimed from a skilled preacher, I could feel my heart and spirit responding to the call. I wanted the depths of what I was being called to. I wanted to know Him more, experience Him more deeply, to have all the fullness of Him that I could. I didn't have any real idea of what that entailed or meant, I just knew that I wanted to launch out and put into the deep waters of God. I wanted to "catch" all that He had for me in the deep waters He called me to. I still do. But it meant then, as it does now, that any shore line that exists in my life has to be "cut" in order that I not be held in the shallows, within sight of all I may have depended on. I think most of His people wish to put out into the deep things of God. It's our "shore lines" that keep us from doing so.

Shore lines are meant to keep a boat and whoever is on it tethered to the known safety of the shore. It is a dangerous thing to go out into the deep waters where the wind and waves can rise so high. Fainthearted fishermen don't want to lose sight of the land, yet the fish are found in the deep. So too are the deep things of God. 

What are our "shore lines?" What is it that keeps us from "getting lost in His fullness?" What does that mean anyway? I think it certainly means that doing so puts us at the mercy of the winds and waters.  This can be a terrifying matter, unless one can trust and believe that He is Lord of the winds and waters. The disciples, many of whom were experienced seamen, were frantic with fear when they found themselves in the middle of the sea in the midst of a life threatening storm. Even when they saw Jesus coming to them, walking on top of the waves they thought would kill them, they didn't recognize Him and feared He was a ghost. They'd forgotten it was He who'd sent them out to begin with. The great part of getting lost in His fullness is that He will do these kinds of things with regularity. He knows that it's in the dangers that we really learn of who He is and how faithful and true He will be. Our shore lines will never allow us to discover that.

So, I ask again; what are your shore lines, and are you willing to cut them? Are you ready to enter into all He has for you?
Or will the longing for His fullness remain just that; a longing? A longing that goes unfulfilled. Can you, we, dare to cut all of our shore lines and learn that our safety and security was never in them? That indeed, they have been a snare that kept us from all of Him that we could experience? His deep is calling us. Are we ready to put the knife to all of our lines?

Blessings,

Pastor O