Heart Tracks - He Is Risen...Indeed!

     In Luke 24, after their encounter with the risen Christ on the Emmaus Road, the two disciples went to the other followers of the Lord and reported, "The Lord has risen indeed."  Before this time, others had reported this reality as well.  Mary Magdalene, in John 20 joyfully exclaimed, "I have seen the Lord."  The Lord has risen. and multitudes will be celebrating this all over the world over the next several days.  He is risen, is the victory cry of the church.  The tomb is empty, and death has been defeated.  This is fact, but I have a question for each of us; is this fact an historical one for us, or an experiential reality?

    I listened to a friend tell of what tradition says the words believers used to greet one another in the early church.  The first would exclaim, "He is risen!," and the other would respond, "He is risen indeed!."  The first  proclaimed a truth he believed, the second was saying that he not only believed that reality, but that it was a reality that found place not only in his mind, but his heart, soul, spirit and life as well.  Like the two on the Emmaus Road, they not only believed the report, they had experienced its truth themselves.  They, like Mary, had seen Jesus.  As the classic song by Sandy Patti and Larnelle Harris sings out, "And nothing will ever be the same again."

   What and who is the risen Christ to you and I today?  Is it a fact, a truth that we agree with and believe in?  It's wonderful if it is, but has that truth penetrated into the very fiber of our being?  Has the resurrected Christ truly given us resurrected life?  Has the power that conquered the grave, truly conquered us?  Do we live in the power of a resurrected life, willingly entering into His sufferings, and finding there, a source of strength and power sufficient to overcome all the power of death in every form it takes?  Or, has our knowledge stopped with our agreement with that truth?  If you are among those who will gather in various fellowships across the lands, will you, after singing the songs, speaking your praise, and listening to the message of truth, leave that time, walking in the power of a resurrected life, meeting every challenge, no matter how intense, and how painful, with not only the fact of that life, but the reality as well?  Or, will you, after leaving, step back into a life that though it knows the truth that He is risen, continues to live as though He were still in the tomb?  May we truly come to know the life that enables us to greet one another with those words, not just on Resurrection Sunday, but each and every day, "The Lord is risen!, Yes, the Lord is risen indeed..within me."  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Blessings,
Pastor O

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Heart Tracks - Missing What's Not Missing!

     So much of my life with Him has been spent in trying to get Him to give, not realizing that He has already given, in Christ, all that I need or will ever need.  We try to get what we already have.  Bud McCord, in his book, The Satisfying Life, said, "A person living from need or lack cannot live Jesus' teachings."  Think of how much of our lives are lived from a lack.  We so often feel that provision, blessing, help of any kind, is something to be pleaded for.  We're always seemingly trying to get God to come down to us, and seem totally unaware that He is already with us, calling us onward to higher and higher places in Him.  We're told that we, as His children, have all things in Christ, yet we live as orphans who need to constantly besiege a seemingly reluctant Father to care and provide for us.  We are, as McCord puts it, "Missing what's not missing."
    We seem to think that all we need has to be put into us, not realizing that we already have it in Him.  The abundant life is something we have to somehow lay hold of, something to take, missing that this life is something to receive, a receiving of what has already been given to us.  We have with Him, what a good friend has called an "Employer/Employee" relationship.  We seek from Him "stuff," orders, direction, and miss the truth that if we are abiding in Him, moment by moment, these things needn't be sought, but heard, for His voice speaks, and as we abide, we hear, and follow His lead.  We don't have to come to Him, for we're already with Him.  We don't have to ask Him to give because we're living in what He's already given. 
   McCord gave the example of the Israelites following God in the wilderness.  So many lived in anxiety and frustration from day to day.  Always unsure of whether there would be enough, whether on this day, the God who had come through yesterday, would do so today.  Others, much fewer in number, lived in the rest and assurance that He would provide and protect.  His Presence was there moment by moment, yet some missed what was not missing, and some...did not.  Which group do you and I belong to today?  Which group is being produced in our fellowships right now?
   McCord said that "discipleship" styles can be placed in two categories.  Those that seek to "put into" people what we feel is lacking in their walk.  The "have's" teach the "have-nots," Discipleship becomes about 'resources and learning."   This style starts with what people lack, not what they have.  The other method is that which "points to" Christ.  Here, people are not exhorted to imitate Christ, but to live in connection to Him.  His life flows into them, and out of them.  It's not just calling people to avoid evil, and then sign up to come to the scheduled meetings and follow the rules and works of the group.  The product of this approach will result in people who live missing what's not missing.  It's not a life that seeks to get from and get to by the expending of great amounts of our energy.  It's a life that lives looking into the face and heart of Christ, drawing by the moment on that life, receiving all that He has already given.
   A pastor friend recently told me that he sees his ministry now being that of being a "message machine" for the Father.  The message he hopes to bring to those who hear him is, "Call home."  That people would hear the voice of God calling to their hearts, calling them to Himself, to their true home, His heart.  Then hearing, and receiving from His heart, the limitless abundance that He has already given them, us, in Christ the King.
Have you heard that message?  Are you hearing it now.  The Father invites.  Call home.....right now.

Blessings,
Pastor O 
   

Heart Tracks - Is Judas In The House?

     One doesn't have to live very long in this world before suffering the pain of betrayal.  It cuts even more deeply when the betrayal comes from a trusted loved one, friend, family member, or spouse.  The wounds these betrayals leave can take a very long time to heal.  Sometimes, they never do.  When they don't, we're left with varying degrees of bitterness, anger, and many times, a desire for vengeance.  I know this because I've suffered the pain of betrayal, and you have as well.  It's so easy to entertain carnal, and yes, sinful attitudes towards those who've betrayed us.  We'll have an inexhaustible supply of justification for it.  Yet, in the midst of it, Jesus will continue to reach into our hearts to expose what's really there, and leave us in the end, not with our betrayers, but only Him....and us.

    I was going through one such time when, reading the simple list of the disciples found in Mark 3, I came upon the last name;  "and Judas, the betrayer".  As I read that, His voice spoke to me and simply asked me if there had ever been times when I, His follower, could have assigned that same description by Him?  Had I ever been, was I even then, Gary, the betrayer?  You know what my answer was, and you know what yours is as well.  We have all failed Him.  We've all at one time or another, betrayed Him.  Betrayed His trust, His call, His life, and His name.  My betrayals of Him could not have cut Him less deeply than any of me.  Indeed, they had to have cut deeper, because in His love of me, trust of me, He'd given His all.  I, we, if we're honest, always seem to find a way to hold something of ourselves back in our love, in our trust.  He never does.  He always opens His heart and life to the possibility of us wounding Him deeply, betraying Him utterly.  Breaking His heart....again and again.  You may think this is about forgiveness, but it's not.  Not really.  It's about a question I heard Alicia Britt Chloe ask in a message a few weeks ago; "Is Judas in the house?"  Where might Judas the betrayer be lurking in our hearts, waiting for the opportunity to turn you and I into a betrayer of Christ as well?  Dare we let His Spirit search us for the answer?
   In the Spirit, Chloe simply described some of the things that marked Judas' life, and then followed those descriptions with the simple, contemplative question; "Is Judas in the house?"  She gave so many examples of the life of Judas but I do want to pass along a few for our consideration.  She said that Judas "Gave Jesus up for something that shined."  Have we ever?  The "trophy" for achievement we just had to have.  The applause of men, to the disregard of heaven?  Leaving a place where we know He put us, in order to go to one that offers more reward?  Is Judas in the house?  She said that when Judas gave something, he expected to receive something countable.  How often have we, if not spoken it, thought of how much we have given the Lord in service, time, energy, money, and received, to our system of measurement, so much less?  How often have we believed He "owed us?"  We've worked so hard, but received so little.  Judas understood bartering, but not sacrifice.  Is Judas in the house?  Chloe said that the spirit of servanthood gone sour yields the spirit of entitlement.  As she put it, "Mercy and grace make no sense when we're captivated by what's tradeable and countable."  "In the end,"  she said, "Judas worshiped Christ with blood on his hands."  In some part of our lives, could that be true of you and I? 
   More and more, He is teaching me to live vertically, with my eyes on Him, rather than horizontally, with my eyes on everything and everyone but Him.  The horizontal way makes me acutely aware of all who've failed me, betrayed me.  It also makes me "aware" of how little He seems to have done in my life.  The vertical life lets me look into His eyes and heart, and see what is real, and what is not.  The vertical life keeps me from being again and again, the betrayer, the deceived.  It's the life I want to live.  What life do you wish for?  What life do you live right now?  Is Judas in the house?

Blessings,

Pastor O

  

Heart Tracks - The Counterfeit

      In America's colonial times, most currency bore the inscription, "To Counterfeit Is Death."  The reason for this is that there was no central source for currency.  Each financial institution printed its own notes and this made it easy for the lawless element to forge, counterfeit, the bank notes.  It was extremely hard for most people to tell the difference and those who were tricked tended to suffer great loss in accepting false notes.  Thus the dire warning on the face of the bills.  The counterfeit brought death.  I wonder how aware we might be of the presence of a "counterfeit gospel" in our midst today?  We're all aware of the warnings in His Word to not take away or add on, but somehow, we never seem to think that we might, consciously or not, be falling into that very habit ourselves.

    I heard one man say that we in the west have become quite fond of what he termed a "utilitarian gospel."  By this he meant that we tend to preach and seek messages that center on how we may have a better marriage, better family, kids, and life.  How Christ and His life can make our lives so much better, bringing happiness and contentment.  I remember a slogan from the 80's, "Jesus makes everything better."  We may word it differently, but the meaning remains the same.  Jesus is the great Healer, Restorer, Savior and Sanctifier....who came for ME.  As Juan Carlos Ortiz put it, "ME" has become the center of the gospel message.
   Yet, we have done this in other,  far less noticeable ways.  Outreach and soul winning are "big ticket" items in the church today.  Let me say, I very much believe in both, but I think we have gotten things misconstrued as to how we go about that.  Oswald Chambers, who founded a school for prospective missionaries, said that we are to not be "ambitious to win souls or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be "accepted of Him."  He based this on 2 Corinthians 5:9, "Wherefore we labor that...we may be accepted of Him."  He said any ambition that held greater sway than to "live facing Him," resulted in the very real chance we become spiritual "castaways."  He did not come, did not save in order that our lives might be better, or even that we might lead others to Him, but that we would KNOW Him.  He came to seek and save what was lost, and foremost, what was lost to all of us was a relationship that yielded intimate knowledge of Him.  If we're missing that, we're missing it all.  If we are preaching, following any message that doesn't first begin with that truth, we are in effect, preaching another gospel, a counterfeit.  And to counterfeit is death.

   It is not wrong to desire a better life, a better family, marriage or ministry.  It is for certain not wrong to want to see those trapped in darkness come into His light.  What we're missing is that these are not things we  need to seek Him to send down to us, but will rather flow into and out of us when we live facing Him.  This is life, and this is real.  It cannot be counterfeited, and anything that this world offers, even when cloaked in His word, brings not life, but death.  What spiritual currency have you and I been moving in?  That which has its source in Him, or that which is crafted by the lawless one?  One offers truly abundant life, and the other....just another form of death.  Which will we have?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Trespasser

     The concept of living a life "without limits" is a popular one in the church.  I think its a biblical one as well if we apply it to all the possibilities that lie before us in Christ.  With Him all things really are possible, and we need to live our lives from that perspective.  However, there's another aspect of that which doesn't get a lot of attention.  That would be the idea of having nothing in our lives, our hearts, that is off limits to Him.  That there would be no place in our hearts where Jesus Christ is trespassing, entering into areas that we have, consciously or not, declared to be off limits to His life, ministry, and Lordship.

     John exhorts us in I John 5:21, to, "Keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts."  Jesus said that where our treasure is, "There your hearts will also be."  One man said that "Our hearts follow our money."  I would also add that they follow our time, energy, and attention investments as well.  We are living in a culture that seeks to convince us that we have certain "rights" that we must protect.  That can vary as to the characteristics of the culture we live in.  I once served Him in South Jersey.  There, people tended to have seasonal jobs, leaving them a lot of free time, but not a lot of money.  They tended to be very generous with the time they gave Him, but not their resources.  Here in Northern Virginia, its just the opposite.  The fast-paced busyness of life makes time a treasured possession.  People will give of their resources, but not of their time, which is jealously guarded.  In both cases, neither is truly giving themselves, each declaring a great part of their lives "off limits" to Him. 
    Yet it can go much deeper than this.  We can make idols of most anything, professions, family, children, marriage, and yes, ministry.  We may also do it with attitudes, bitterness, unforgiveness, the past, and the future.  We seek to maintain a rigid control over them, failing to realize that they are in fact, controlling us.  In all of these, and more, we place "Off Limits" signs before Him.  We don't want Him trespassing in any of these heart and life areas.  Yet the Father, who knows our hearts, is well aware of the existence of any and all of these.  He will, no matter how hard we try to hide, expose the sites of our hearts true treasure.  In every place where that treasure is not Him, not Christ, He will free us from the tyranny of "treasures" that in fact, keep us in chains.

    John also wrote in I John 5:12, "Whoever has God's Son has life; whoever does not have His Son does not have life."  In every area of our lives where He is not welcome, in that area, we have no life.  Only death.  In those areas, off limits to Him, we are lifeless, because we are without Him.  May the Holy Trespasser enter into every such area in my heart and yours.  May every "No Trespassing" sign in our lives fall before Him, so that He may freely enter in, with full welcome, that we may truly live a life without limits.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Captivity Held Captive

      Each Thursday a pastor friend and I come together to talk and share.  Mostly we talk about what He has been speaking into our lives.  Oftentimes, I find myself mostly listening to what the Lord has been saying to him, and then trying to see what of those things He may be speaking to me.  Today was a day to not only listen, but to hear.

     We come together mainly for the purpose of pursuing together what Paul named "the upward call."  In our talking, we always share our mutual burden to see the church, and through the church, our culture, be swept up in that call, a call that sees the fullness of His life lay hold of the emptiness of ours, and of the lives around us.  Yet before that can become our reality, or anyone else's, we must be aware and rid of the obstructions and blockages that keep us from such a life.
     As my friend put it, too many of us live our lives horizontally.  We see only that which lies right before us.  We're captivated by it, and yes, controlled by it.  It so fills our sight that we're not able to look in any other direction but to what is right before us.  There may be many "things' before us, but the result is that our "horizontal vision" keeps us from ever exercising vertical vision, the vision that looks up and beyond what lies before us, to Him who is over and above all things.  As a result, we're unaware that the very things which so captivate us, in reality, hold us captive.  We think we're free to pursue them, lay hold of them, when in reality, they've already pursued and laid hold of us.  We don't hear the upward call because the horizontal one has all of our attention, and so thinking we see clearly, we don't realize we're blind.  The side effects of this are devastating.
    One of the great laments of the church today is how many are held in captivity by fear, anxiety, anger, bitterness, lust, crooked desires, and self-absorption.  This will always be the result of our living with horizontal vision.  We're held captive by what we desire, and live in varying degrees of fear, anxiety, anger, lust, and so much more, because we fear either losing what holds our gaze, or never having it at all.  While we're looking at all these objects, His Word and promise may be put before us, but they're just one more of many things to look at.  Small reason they have no real power or effect in our lives.  It's only when we look into and meet Him in His eyes and heart, that we are free of their power.  We can't do that apart from His grace.  Horizontal vision is natural, vertical vision is His gift.

    I love the way one version renders Ephesians 4:8, "He ascended on high and led Captivity itself, captive."
Captivity itself.  The sum of all things and everything that ever could or does hold us in its bondage and power, has been overcome, defeated, and made powerless by He who leads both it, and them, in His parade of triumph.  He holds all the power of darkness and the enemy, captive.  Those with horizontal vision will never see this.  Only those with His gift of vertical vision do.
   Can this really be?  There are two words in His word that speak powerfully to me.  "He is."  Bud McCord says that this means more than that He simply exists.  McCord writes, "He is everything He should be at all times....He is perfect abundance."  Everything He should be, He is.  And, if He is, then everything He promises and the life that goes with those promises, is ours, in Him.  But we must be looking up, not around, not before, and not behind, but up....into His face, eyes, and heart.  He then takes us captive, and we are then free to be His slaves, and so, more free than we could ever hope for.  He calls us upward.  Do you hear Him?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Laying Ourselves On The Line

      While browsing in a used bookstore, I came across and purchased a devotional titled "Voices Of The Faithful."  I was captured by the smaller print on the cover that said it was written by people who "Put their lives on the line for God."  Most of us may be familiar with the term "putting it or laying it on the line," but not the origin.  Google can be a valuable ally these days, and a search revealed that the term is thought to have originated in gambling, where the one making the bet, would place his money on a line on the table, risking it all to follow what he believed was his leading.  In a sense, I think that's an apt description of what it means to truly follow Christ, to truly be His.  Few of us would dispute that, but the question then arises, how many of us are truly living that?

     Many years ago, when I left my home in Pittsburgh to answer what I believed was His call on my life, I was able to fit all I owned into the car I was driving.  Material things had never meant a lot to me, so it was not hard to do.  Still, there was much risk involved.  I had never been further west than Ohio.  I didn't know anyone in Colorado, where I was going.  I had no idea how I'd support myself, what I'd do, or how I'd pay for my education.  I just went, believing in my youthful trust that He'd make a way.  Upon arriving, the first place I went was to the college campus.  It was set upon a beautiful plain directly beneath majestic Pikes Peak.  I remember when I got out of my car, the whisper of the enemy spoke into my heart the statement that "You have as much chance of thriving here as you do of seeing that mountain before you disappear."  For a moment, fear gripped my heart, but then almost immediately, the school president and his wife came out the door of the administration building, asked if they could help me with something, welcomed me to the school, encouraged me to call my contact person right away, and from that point on, God made a way.  I'd laid it all on the line, and He backed, with all His honor, glory and faithfulness, my "bet."
    A lot of years have passed, and I can no longer fit all I own in a car.  The stakes, the risks, of following Him have greatly increased.  I have to ask myself the question: Will I still, in all areas, lay it on the line for Him?  No matter the risk, no matter the cost, will I place it all there, and trust Him?  Will I trust Him if in my time of great need, no "door" before me opens, no welcoming voice speaks, and the frightening mountain before me just gets bigger and more frightening?  No longer young, will I still trust Him, no matter what, no matter where, no matter when, in everything? 
    We tend to think that our risks for Him will always end in what we consider success, "winning."  Henry Blackaby says that we must "never act as if it were God's purpose to make us successful."  I believe His purpose is that we be faithful, even if it appears there is no success.  The late British pastor and writer T. Austin-Sparks wrote that the Father seeks our faithfulness "even though that faithfulness may involve the appearance of utter failure."  I want to tell you that my flesh recoils at that.  It never wants to undergo such an appearance, such a humiliation.  What will my peers think?  What will those in authority over me think?  How will they judge me?  How will they see me?  Whether it be ministry, livelihood, marriage, family, I think this reaction is the same for all of us.  In our westernized culture, we flee from the appearance of failure, and I think, miss the rich blessings of faithfulness, and so, sharing in the fullness of His life, His ministry, and His way.  He, who by the judgements of men, would have been deemed a complete failure.

    Scripture tells us that "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God."  It is terrible....for our flesh.  Being in His hands alone means we have lost all control, direction, and self-purpose.  We are His and His alone, to do with as He will, for His purposes alone.  Our agenda's die, so that His can live in and through us.  We live lives "on the line" at all times.  Is this the life we are living now?  Can it be said in heaven that what we are living, how we are living, is a life that risks it all for Him.  Reputation, provision, position, possession?

Are we living life from the safety of the familiar, the known, or do we live as Spirit-led "pioneers" risking all to follow Him?  Risking all to be one with Him.  Laying it on the line with, and in, Christ.

 

Blessings,

Pastor O