Heart Tracks - For I Know....

    A.W. Tozer asks the question, "Are you Bible taught, or Spirit taught?"  In this question, he was stating that one can know everything the Bible says, and can expound on its history, the cultural and historical settings in which it was written, and quote chapter and verse at will.  They know much about God, and much of His word, but the deep question here is, do they know God?  They, we, may know the words He has spoken, but do we know the meaning in the words?  Bible taught people know what He has said, but only those taught of the Holy Spirit can know the meaning of what He has said, and what He continues to say right now.  Bible taught people, I think, seek to modify their lives along the lines of what their intellects, their human understanding, believes He is saying.  The Spirit taught, have their lives and hearts transformed by His Living Word.  Our lives are not modified from the outside in, but transformed, redone, from the inside out.
    I heard a brother recently speak about what 2 Timothy 1:12 is saying.  The apostle Paul writes, "For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day."  He simply said that he didn't merely know about the One he believed in, but knew Him, His personality, His ways, His love, His mercy, justice, and faithfulness.
He knew this first hand.  Not perfectly or completely to be sure, but he knew Him as Moses did, "face to face, as a friend."  Because of this, he was convinced, persuaded as some translations render it, that the God he knew intimately, would be totally faithful to keep that, all of that, which he had entrusted Him with, till that day....and beyond that day.  Simply, because he knew, he was convinced.  He knows this because he was not merely Bible taught, but Spirit taught.  Taught by the One who teaches by giving us personal revelation, knowledge, of Himself.  We don't receive information about a person, but a Person.  All the fullness of that Person.  All the fullness of the Father.
   The circumstances of life can be, and so often are, overwhelming, crushing.  So many collapse under their weight.  As writer Christine Caine has said, "There's a force much greater than our circumstances, and that's the truth of His Word."  The power of our circumstances cannot stand against the power of His life revealed in and through His Word.  If we know Him, in and through His living Word, we cannot be anything but persuaded, convinced, that He is able to keep us, and everything connected to us, in the midst of that day of need, and every day beyond it. 
   For you and I then, it comes down to this; do we know, are we persuaded, that the force of His life is greater and mightier than the sum of all our circumstances and need?  Bible taught, or Spirit taught?  Circumstance taught, or God taught?  Which, really, are you and I?

Blessings,
Pastor O  
    

Heart Tracks - Come Forward

       As a pastor, I think one of the most grieving things to observe are lives that never seem to move forward, to move past, to move on.  For whatever reason, they stay in the same place emotionally, spiritually, that they have been in for a very long time.  It may be because of woundedness, disappointment, discouragement, personal failure, or pain that just never seems to end.  Months, even years may have gone by, but all is as it has been, and all looks to remain as it has been.  They tell themselves that one day it will be different.  One day they'll get past it, get over it.  But that day is not yet, and that day, very likely, will never be.  This is not how Jesus, the Giver of Life would have it.  So why do we?
    Writer and speaker Christine Caine says that we don't need to stop hurting before we move forward, that we can "get past what we can't get over", that if we'll "move hurting" we'll find that the healing comes as we're moving.  As I thought on her words, the Spirit brought to my mind the scripture from Mark 3, where Jesus heals the man with the withered hand.  The man was sitting at the entrance to the synagogue, where Jews would meet to worship the Father.  Scripture relates that "He said to the man with the withered hand 'Rise and come forward."  The man obeyed and as he came towards Jesus He spoke again to him, "Stretch out your hand."  As he did so, his hand was restored.  As I read this I see how Christ brings His healing, wholeness, and His life to us.  He calls us by His grace to come forward, to come towards Him.  As he comes near, Jesus tells him to stretch out his hand.  I have heard it said that to enter into the fullness of life that He has for us will require a great stretching, a great reaching on our part.  A stretching not only of our faith, but our whole being.  Few of us want to reach or stretch so far.  As the man began to move forward to Christ, his hand was still withered, but the healing began in that movement.  Though he "moved hurting", he moved forward, and as he reached towards Jesus, he was fully healed.  So it will be for you and I......if we'll but stretch, reach, and discover in it, that His grace has enabled us to do so, and His grace makes us whole. 
    How many of us are like the man with the withered hand, sitting in the doorway of the church, even in the pews, with our own type of withered hand?  He calls to us to "Rise, and come forward."  To stretch out our hearts and lives that we may take hold of His heart, and His life.  There are many more who may not be anywhere near a church, but their lives are just as withered, just as hopeless.  To these too He calls us to rise, come forward, come to Him.  No matter how powerful or crushing that thing which brought upon the withering may be, it is powerless against Him who raises the dead, and calls that dead thing within us to rise and come forward, and be whole.  Our choice is stay where we are, waiting for "someday", or respond to His call, today, to come forward, stretch, reach towards Him, and be whole.  Will we go on living in "someday" or today?

Blessings,
Pastor O  

Heart Tracks - Occupied

    For so much of my time in the Lord, I have heard a great deal of teaching as to what the "responsibility" of a believer is.  Almost always, this responsibility seemed to be summed up in one word; duty.  We have a duty to do good deeds, a duty to be involved in our community and culture.  We have a duty to spend time in His Word, in prayer, and of course, a duty to be in church.  Now, all of the preceding are good things, very good things, but somehow, when we see them through the lens of duty, we miss Him.  Too often, these things are not carried out, lived out in Him, but for Him, and the impetus and strength to live them out comes mostly, if not all, from us.  The result of this duty-bound life is inevitably disillusionment, discouragement, and spiritual dreariness.  I am coming more and more to see that our great responsibility, the one needful thing for us is to receive all the fullness of the grace He has given us.  Not will give, but has already given.

    There is a great amount of exhortation in the church today to "be about the Lord's business", and we have been very busy with that business, doing good things in His name in many places.  We focus on the deed, but He calls us to focus on the Person, out of which may flow not only deeds, but life.  T. Austin-Sparks wrote, "The idea of what is of God today is chiefly associated with things that are being done for Him....The Lord is not concerned with how much we do, but that every bit of it should come out of a knowledge of Himself...The Lord is concerned above all else that we should know Him."  To Martha, flustered, duty bound, and resentful towards her sister Mary, Jesus said, "You are concerned about so many things, but only one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen the better part (sitting at His feet in intimate fellowship).  Martha was carrying on her work outside the life of Christ.  There would be ministry for Mary too, but she would live it out in Him, refreshed, renewed, anointed with His presence.  Martha's life reflected that she lived out of a place of duty, of what she thought she should be doing.  Mary's came, and would continue to come out of a deep, evergrowing knowledge of Christ.  Sparks said we are to be "occupied" with Him....beholding, we are changed.
    Our lives will reflect what we're occupied with.  Good works done out of duty, ultimately will reflect mainly upon us, not Him.  Life, lived out in Him will bring glory to Him, and Him alone.  Beholding Him, we are changed.  Seeking to imitate Him we will only grow more and more weary, for He can't be imitated.  He can only be received.  That's our great responsibility.  Will you and I take it up?

Blessings,
Pastor O

 

Heart Tracks - The Company Of Frogs

      I recently heard writer and speaker Christine Caine ask a penetrating question as concerns the scripture found in Exodus 8:10.  A plague of frogs is upon the land of Egypt, and Pharoah, whose stubborn refusal to listen to God has brought it upon them, finally pleads with Moses to entreat God to remove them from the land.  Moses, with God's permission answers him, in effect, "When would you like this to happen?"  Pharoah's reply?  "Tomorrow."  Caine's question was, "Why would anyone want to spend another night with the frogs?"  Why would anyone?  Why would you and I?

Like the cripple at the pool of Bethesda, we say we want healing and wholeness, yet we never get into the healing water, and always, from our viewpoint, with good reason.  What's your good reason?  Why would you want to spend another night with the frogs?
    The pool at Bethesda is an apt description of much of the church today.  Just like then, crowds gather at the weekly "pool", but few receive the healing that's to be found there.  There are so many reasons for this.  Many believe that just being aware that there is a need for healing is enough, but awareness of the problem is not victory.  Francis Chan says "We like to hear and get convicted and then think that's success", and that we gather to listen to words that we'll never apply to our lives.
We hear but don't receive, so we leave the gathering as we came, lame, wounded, blind, deaf.  Jesus asks us when we would like to have this healing, this wholeness, and again and again we answer, "Tomorrow."  Always, it's tomorrow.  But that tomorrow never comes, and so, neither does the wholeness of life found only in Him.  We prefer the company of the frogs, to the intimacy of true fellowship in and with Him.  The frogs, as loathsome as they are, have become familiar to us, even comfortable.  We're attracted to what Christ offers, but most often, we prefer to wait for tomorrow.  Yet God is the God of "NOW!"

    What is your response to Christ's invitation to be free of your particular "frogs"?  What crippling agent, whether it lies in your past, present, or future, holds you in its grip, refusing to release, and though you wish to be free, in the end, you tell Him once more, "Tomorrow".  None of us need spend one more minute with the frogs, let alone one more night.  He calls us to Himself, right now, to come, to transact life with Him now.  To receive His life fully into ours.  To see the frogs done away with.  Now.  Not in a tomorrow that never comes, but here, in the present.  Free.  Free from the grip of our "frogs" and the chains that accompany them.  The company of frogs fully exchanged for the company of Himself.  Will you have such company?

Blessings,
Pastor O

     

Heart Tracks - The Exchange

     Isaiah 40:31 is a much memorized and claimed promise.  It begins, Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.  Beautiful.  Yet, in our claiming of this promise, I think we fail to realize what God is promising through His prophet Isaiah.  We think that it's our strength that the Father is promising to renew, that as He renews it, we'll again be at our full strength.  If we think this through, then we have to ask the question, just what can we hope to accomplish in our own strength, whether it is full or not?  The problem lies in how we have come to understand the word renew.  A more proper understanding of the Hebrew would render this word to mean exchange.  God is promising that those who wait upon and in the Lord, will exchange their very limited, finite strength, for His unlimited and infinite strength.  Can we dare to dwell on just what such an exchange will really mean to us?  I believe that exchange will involve much more than His strength.  In the exchange we discover anew His promise that He is able to do far more than we could ever ask or think.

    Three of the most beautiful words that Jesus ever spoke were Come unto Me.  Oswald Chambers writes that His word "come" means "transact."  An exchange takes place.  Chambers writes, "The last thing we do is come, but everyone who does come knows that that second the supernatural life of God invades him instantly.  The dominating power of the world, the flesh and the devil is paralyzed, not by your act, but because your act has linked you on to God and His redemptive power."  For me, the three key words of the two scriptures I've quoted are Come, Wait, and Him.  We come to Him and we wait in Him.  In this, a transaction, and exchange takes place.  Our life receives His life.  We don't stop having our life, but it is absorbed into His.  Along with this exchange, we exchange our pain for His healing, our despair for His hope.  Our brokenness for His wholeness.  Our emptiness for His fullness.  Our poverty for His riches.  Our lostness for His salvation.  It doesn't matter what we come with, or how useless we believe what we have or are to be, He receives it all, and gives to us His all.  The question for us is, will we receive it?
    Wherever you are today, in Him, or without Him, He calls you to come to Him, wait upon Him, to transact spiritual business with Him, to exchange that which is sinking sand for that which is the rock of His life.  Are you ready for the transaction?  Are you ready for the exchange?  Are you ready to receive.  Then come.

Blessings,

Pastor O

   
   

Heart Tracks - Grace, Mercy, Peace

     Over the past 24 hours, there have been three situations that I've felt impressed to pray for.  The first is a brother and his household whose ministry has come to a standstill.  Their place of meeting has been lost, and with it, the means of carrying out a very distinct part of that ministry and outreach to the community.  It has been devastating to all, particularly his young daughter.  The second involves a church fellowship in my area where thieves, as thieves always do, came in the night hours and stole six HVAC units, valued at $60,000, leaving this fellowship not only without a means to heat their building, but also without the resources on hand to replace them and an insurance company that seems reluctant to cover the cost of replacing them.  The last involves a young college student, away from home for the first time, learning to navigate the path between childhood and adulthood, while seeking to discover the reality of the God she has always believed in.  She struggles with depression and discouragement.  I want to pray for each situation and the people affected by them, but the question is, how do I pray?  I find the answer, as always, in Him and in His Word.

    In I Timothy 1:2, Paul breathes this simple yet mighty prayer over young Timothy as he embarks upon the ministry path the Father has called him to.  He says, "To Timothy......Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."  Some might say, "What kind of prayer is that?  We need concrete answers and help.  Grace, mercy, peace, all well and good, but how do they pay the bills, provide shelter, meet our need?  Haven't you something more for us?"  Something more.  In our blindness, we cannot see that there can be nothing more needed than this that Paul seeks, and He gives, than that, the full manifestation of His grace, mercy and peace be in our lives. 

   Grace, by which He blesses us with all, not part, but all, the riches of heaven and His Kingdom.  When we speak and pray grace unto people, we speak and pray all of Himself and His Kingdom upon them.  Mercy.  When life collapses, when everything is against us, when we feel we can't take one more step or breathe one more breath, it's then that the mercies of God must wash over us.  When the enemy and his darkness seek to swallow us up, it is then that the mercy of his light and life surround and keep us.  As a friend once said, sometimes the most powerful prayer we can make is to simply cry out, "Lord, have mercy."  Mercy, as always, triumphs over judgement.
Peace.  Here in Northern Virginia, there is a dentist who advertises "sedation dentistry" for those who fear the pain of a dental procedure.  Sedation is the answer of the world to pain.  Drugs, alcohol, sex, pleasure, distraction, it will use all to try and sedate us against the pain of life.  It gives a false peace that lasts only till the next "visit."  We sedate the pain, but it's never healed.  The peace that God gives goes to the deepest part of our souls.  It brings His rest to the heart and mind, and with it, life, light, and joy.
     Grace, mercy, and peace.  His grace.  His mercy.  His peace.  This is what I will be praying for the above situations and people, because when we have these, we have Him.  When His grace, mercy and peace are upon us, He is upon us, and in us.  They are real, they are living, and they are ours.  We then live in and from a place of grace, mercy, and peace.  This is the fruit of being in Christ.  This is also what I pray for you today, that His grace, mercy, and peace be upon you and yours.  When they are, it means that He and His life are within you, and so, there is nothing that can stand against that life.  The reality of the need, whatever it is, will be there, but overcome by a greater reality, Himself.  Then we begin to understand the truth of His words, "If God be for us (and in us), then who can be against us?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Wonderful Things

      Devotional writer Dianne Neal Matthews tells the story of the discovery of the tomb of Pharoah King Tutankhamen, more commonly known as "King Tut."  Archaeologist Howard Carter had been digging in the Valley of Kings in Egypt for nearly 5 years.  Most thought him a fool, believing that there were no more discoveries to made there.  His sponsor, British Lord Carnarvon was losing patience and hope, but agreed to finance one more season of digging.  Just 4 days later, Carter and the workers discovered steps leading to a tomb entrance.  Summoning Carnarvron, they dug on to the very door of the tomb.  Carter made a small hole in the door, and lighting a candle, peered into the darkness.  Carnarvron asked him, "Do you see anything?"  Carter, having gotten just a glimpse of the huge amount of treasure within replied, "Yes, wonderful things."

    In this story lies great spiritual truth for all.  In a place where all believed there was nothing else to be discovered, lay what might be the greatest archaeological find ever.  When all around him believed him a fool for seeking what they thought wasn't there, Carter dug on, seeking with all his heart that which he fully believed was there.  When it comes to God, His truth, especially as concerns that truth revealed in His Living Word, which attitude is yours and mine?  Most believed Carter's digging to be an exercise in futility.  There's nothing there, so why go on seeking?  Might this be you?  Carter was certainly not the only archaeologist in Egypt, but all the others believed that "treasure" could only be found somewhere else.  Carter believed it could be found, at least in this instance, only where he was.  Jesus said that real truth, full truth, is found only in Him.  "I am the Truth," are His words, not mine.  Where are you seeking truth today?
   The problem here doesn't just lie outside the church.  I remember a number of years back a member of the congregation telling me that he didn't really listen to sermons anymore with any expectation of learning something new.  He'd been listening for many years and believed he'd received all the truth he could.  Sadly, his life in every way reflected that fallacy.  Like those that daily walked over the hidden tomb of Tut, believing that nothing was there, he came again and again before God, leaving as he came, empty.  He has many companions in the church today.    

   Psalm 119:18 reads, Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.  The small light of Carter's candle enabled him to see just a glimpse of the "wonderful things" within.  So too will the light of Christ, no matter how small it may be in you right now, give you a glimpse of the wonderful things to be found in Him.  Indeed, one of His names for Himself is "Wonderful."  Right now, whether you know it or not, lies before you, beneath you, around you, and above you, the wonderful things of God, the wonder of God Himself.  Have you seen Him?  Would you see Him?  Will you see Him now?  It requires that you have a heart that seeks to see.  He can and will give you that heart, and in the giving, will enable you to see His "wonderful things."  Ask for it.  Ask for it now.

Blessings,

Pastor O