Heart Tracks - Obligations?

     Day by day devotions, time spent in His Word, in prayer, with Him, is a discipline and practice long promoted within the church.  Many respond to that exhortation and make time within each day to read His Word, and pray.  Yet, I wonder, if, for all our study, we really enter into just what it is the Father in Christ, through His Holy Spirit longs for us to experience and possess?  I wonder, if for many, the word devotion might not be replaced by a word that may more correctly reflect our attitudes towards this time, and that would be the word obligation?  Too often I think we come to these times with a sense of duty, rather than joy in Him.  Something to be gotten through, checked off on our spiritual "to do" list, and then we can get on to the real business of our day. 

     Pastor and author Dudley Hall says that it's the Father's deep desire that we enjoy Him as He enjoys Himself, to enter into and partake of the fellowship that exists within the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This is what Jesus was speaking of in John 17.  In verse 3 He says, "And this is the way to have eternal life, to KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the One you sent to earth," so that we would be "filled with My joy."  In verse 21 He says, "My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, as You and I are One, Father, that just as You are in Me, so they will be in Us, and the world will believe You sent Me."  Eternity will not be time enough to learn and experience all that Jesus prays for here, but we can enter into the fullness of that experience right now.  Few of us do.
     We make much of "working for" Him.  I saw a review today on a book that lists ways that we can "renew and revitalize" the church.  I can only say that if there is a way that you and I can do that, then the finished product will not be the church.  A crowd or gathering, yes, we can do that, but only He can bring life, resurrection life to the church.  We're always looking for ways to improve ourselves in the flesh, even when our motives are good.  Christ seeks to remake us, and that is a work of the Spirit that only He can do.  Our idea seems to be that we find a way to get Him to come alongside us and assist us in our plan.  His idea is that we simply come to Him, surrender to Him, and behold Him to make "all things new."
     T. Austin-Sparks has written that, "God's central purpose is not the redemption, salvation, and sanctification of men, but the revelation of Jesus Christ in our hearts."  When that happens, we begin to see the unfolding of Christ's prayer being answered in and through our lives and His church.  The world then, as He prayed, begins to believe, and to receive.  When Christ's prayer is really being answered in our hearts and lives, then we no longer see times with Him as an obligation to be gotten through, and then left behind, but as an encounter that is ongoing, continuous, and though we may lay our Bibles down, and leave our physical place of prayer, the three in one God that we have encountered there remains powerfully within and with us.  We live in a moment by moment enjoyment of Him, knowing more and more of the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a fellowship He longs to have us enter into.
     Watchman Nee said that sooner or later, every Christian in ministry will "find out that they themselves are the greatest hindrance to their ministry."  The only path to the removal of that hindrance is to be found in deep, intimate fellowship with Him.  Indeed, the removal of every hindrance in our spiritual journey will be found there.  In that place, "devotions" will no longer be an obligation we must yield to, or a duty to be endured, but a joy to enter into.  No longer just a discipline, but a discovery of what it is that Christ prays for, ever deepening knowledge and understanding of Him.  Obligation will never lead there, but a heart truly devoted to Him enters in.  Which path are you and I on?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The "Wow" Factor

    Through the years a refrain I've heard often in the church concerning our gatherings is the joy we feel when the Lord "shows up."  Truth to tell, a good part of those found in the weekly worship service attend with some degree of hope that in that time, He will "show up."  It's the prayer of most, if not all worship leaders and pastor's, and a good number of the congregation as well.  I wonder though, how many of us consider that in the heart of the Father, is a longing for us to "show up," to be present with Him, not in part, but the whole?  I wonder even more, how much of our desire for Him to come among us, comes from a desire to see Him "perform," to do amazing things among us?  Our flesh has always liked a good show, and this is true in the church just as much as in the world.  In the Gospels, it's often written that when Jesus did some miracle among the people, that they were "amazed."  In their amazement, they followed Him, longing to see more, experience more.....amazement.  Yet, as a friend said, whenever He sought to take them from the emotion of amazement into a deeper place with Him, they very often sought to kill Him.  We love the "Wow factor," but all too often, that's about as far as we wish to go with Him.  Our expectation will be that He must do something even more amazing the next time.  I've a friend who once told me that during a time of wondrous growth in his church, he regularly received calls from members telling him they couldn't wait till next week to "see what God was going to do."  The church came to a point where the Father sought to take them into a deeper place in Him, but the people, disappointed that the show had stopped, began to leave.  Jesus is not interested in "wowing" us, but in living completely in and through us.

     I think most of us today are very content to be like Jacob.  If you know the story of his life, he was the master manipulator and trickster.  He was always looking out for himself, always seeking to receive the blessing and the benefit.  His spiritual state is best seen in Genesis 28, when, on the run from Esau, who he'd tricked out of his birthright, the Father appeared to him in a dream, and spoke to him of intentions for his life.  Upon awaking, he exclaimed, "Surely the Lord was in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it."  I think that's an apt description of how many of us live today.  Unaware.  Unaware of His presence, His personality, character, life.  Yes, I know that we like to say that "the Lord is present," but we say it in a very general way.  He's around, but He's not intruding, interfering.  He's pouring out blessing, which we're glad to receive, but He makes no demands, and kindly keeps in the background, and only comes out when we really need Him.  We're satisfied with a general sense of His presence, one based on our receiving His blessings.  Few know of His manifest presence, which is where He reveals to us in intimate, powerful, and very real ways, His personality, character and will.  He revealed Himself in such a way to Jacob, but it would be another 20 years until Jacob, at Peniel, reached a place of surrender to Him that transformed him  and gave him the new name of Israel.  How many of us are content to remain "Jacob," and so never enter into the riches of the life of "Israel?"  We keep looking for the "wow factor," and keep missing Him in all of it.  Living unawares.
     Are we living unawares today, always seeking that "wow factor," the next big thing?  Are we crying out for Him to show up, while He gently, passionately, constantly, calls us to show up before Him?  Are we living unawares, and if so, how much more of Him will we miss, as we keep looking for the One who is already there?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Passion

    It's kind of trendy these days to ask a person what their passion is, what moves them, excites them, has their focus.  Very often, the focus of our passion tends to change with our environment, age, and emotions.  We tend to have very short attention spans, and so, our passions, our fire, tend to burn out very quickly.  This leads me to believe that we don't really understand just what the word "passion" really means.  If we did, we'd likely be a lot more sparing in our use of it, especially in the church.
     It's not as if we don't use the word a great deal.  Many refer to Christ's death and resurrection as "the Passion."  For a number of years now, there have been Passion conferences geared towards young people, and heavily attended by them.  The word is found throughout scripture, one of my favorite being in 2 Kings 19:31, where, after promising through His prophet Isaiah, that the people of Judah would be delivered from the terrible threat of the Assyrians, added that, "the passion of the Lord Almighty will make this happen."  So, what are we missing here?  What is being lost in translation?  I've a friend that says that we who are His, too often are found speaking "earthish," when we should be speaking "heavenish."  That is, we need to understand and speak the language of the Kingdom, the language of the Father.  Jesus said that though we're in the world, we're not to be of it.  We need to know the language of the culture we're in, but as citizens of the Kingdom, we have to be, as my friend says, bi-lingual, able to speak and live and Kingdom language to a fallen world.  

    The root meaning of the word passion is, "a willingness to be squeezed to death."  Certainly this was found in the life and ministry of Christ, yet to what degree is it found in the lives of we who claim to follow Him?  We regularly say we want His will for our lives, but what are you and I willing to endure to see His purposes in and through us come about?  How much of our lives are we willing to have placed in the winepress in order to have the "new wine" we're so fond of talking about.  We're eager to talk about having "new wineskins" instead of old, but much less eager to be squeezed to death in order to have the new wine.  Oswald Chambers said that wherever He places us, even in the most obscure, unrecognized, and lonely places, we're to live in total devotion to Him, "with all of our might."  Many can do this when the spotlight is upon them and the attention of people is given, but how many can do so in the darkness, seen by no one, and all the while being squeezed to death in the process, yet living with all of our might, for Him?
    Matthew 22:14 is another of those much quoted, but little understood verses.  Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen."  Wade Taylor translated this verse as, "Many are called, but few are willing to pay the price in order to be chosen."  This does not discount the free grace of God, or promote a works religion.  Yet in this age of "cheap grace," that knows little of a cross bearing life, of a willingness to follow Him wherever He leads at whatever the cost, a willingness to be chosen to enter into the sufferings of Christ, the word passion will remain a vague term, filled mostly with emotion.  What does the word mean to you and I.  Who are we found standing among today?  The many, or the few?

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Heart Tracks - An Inconvenient Time

     Revelation 3:20 is a oft quoted verse.  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will have fellowship with him, and he with Me."  Concerning this verse, Wade Taylor asks the question, "What if the Lord comes knocking on our heart's door at an inconvenient time?  Will we let Him in?"  Would we?

      We very much live in a culture of convenience.  Our expectation is that life should move at a pace that is convenient for us.  People should adapt their lives to us in accordance with a pattern that is convenient for us.  Though we may not state it, we expect Christ to do the same.  He should know when to come, and certainly should not come when other things, perhaps more important things, are happening.  Sunday's are usually good, most of the time.  Even a mid-week prayer group is acceptable, as long as it doesn't go on too long.  We're open to Him as long as He doesn't become a distraction from the things that really have our attention.  "Lord, please come when it's a time more convenient for us."  Yet, He never comes at a convenient time.  He won't adapt His life to ours.  He insists that our life be absorbed into His.  He won't force His way in, but if we miss Him, we will never have the chance to receive what at that moment He longed to give.  I don't say that He will not come knocking again, but our chance to have what He came to give at that moment is gone, and can never be offered again.
     In Luke 24, as He walked with the two disciples shortly after His death and resurrection to life on the Emmaus Road, and after speaking much to them about Himself and all that scripture had to say of Him, and while the two remained blind to who He truly was, verse 28 says that as they came near to their destination, "He acted as though He would go farther on."  They were faced with a deep choice.  He'd been "knocking" at the door of their hearts.  It was now toward evening, time for their evening meal.  In middle eastern culture, to invite Him in for a meal was to invite Him into personal intimacy with them.  Without the invite, He was willing to go on.  They extended the invitation to stay, and as He entered in, and broke bread with them, scripture tells us that "their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him."  Had they allowed Him to go on, that was a moment that could not come again.  Yes, another opportunity may have come, but it would not be in that way, with that result.  They would have missed the wonder and glory He offered them at that time.  A wondrous revelation of Himself, offered at a time that may not have been convenient at all.

     Our lives are filled with inconvenient times.  No matter how hard we seek to control our schedules, and structure our time investments, we can be sure of one thing, He'll not honor them.  He will come knocking, seeking entry, fellowship, intimacy.  We can be sure of another thing.  He'll be doing so today.  When He does, will we allow Him to go "farther on," because the visitation is not a convenient one for us?  If we do, what will be missed, lost to us forever?  The two disciples on the Emmaus Road said that their hearts "burned within them," as He spoke.  Do we hear Him speaking now?  Do our hearts burn?  Or, will we allow Him to go farther on, without us?

Blessings,
Pastor O
    

Heart Tracks - Doubt Comes Knocking

     Not long ago I heard Priscilla Shirer, a sought after speaker and writer, and author of the book, "God Is Able," talk about the many crisis junctures in her faith walk with Him, covering seemingly impossible situations concerning health, ministry, relationships, and her fitness as a follower of Christ.  On the surface, one might ask how such a person could write a book titled "God Is Able," but as she related, it was through His faithfulness in the midst of her doubts, insecurities, and yes, blindness, that she discovered, through His faithfulness, that God really is able.

      Somehow, I think we have made the presence of doubt in our lives so odious that we either collapse in defeat when we discover its presence, or just as bad, simply deny that it's there, thinking if we just say we believe enough, that alone will extinguish the lingering fear.  I don't think it will.  We do need to believe, to trust, but the power to do so, the grace, doesn't come from within us, but from within Him who is in us.  Jesus did say that if we believed, and did not doubt, we would see His mighty works, but I have come to believe that He was not saying that with the expectation that doubt would never show up in our lives, but more that it must not be an ongoing heart condition in us that defines our walk, that defines us.  If we're honest, like Shirer, we have all had times throughout our journey with Him where doubt came knocking at our heart's door.  The major factor here is not that doubt comes to call on us, but to Who we take that doubt and what we allow Him to do with it.  Christ doesn't fear our fear, our doubt, and though He tells us so many times to "fear not," the very number of times He said that must indicate that it would show up, at least from time to time, in the lives of His people.  The question is, what is our response when it does?

      The story of the encounter between the disciple Thomas, Doubting Thomas as he has come to be known, and Jesus after His resurrection is one that gives me great hope for myself, and for all of us, because there are times, when we, like Thomas, really struggle to believe.  We come to situations, circumstance so beyond our previous experience, that demand a trust and belief we have never before known, and we like Thomas, waver.  We've not been here before, and all around us, and before us is unknown.  We can't see anything, and we seem to know even less.  We wonder, where is He, and if we take another step, will He be there?  Is he there now?  Our hearts are not hardened towards Him, and we are not refusing to believe, but in this place we need Him, and into this place He comes.  Like Thomas, we have an encounter with the resurrected Christ,

and that encounter leaves us able to only say, like Thomas, "My Lord and my God."  We learn again, and anew, He is greater, mightier, than the unknown, the darkness, the fear and the threat.  We learn anew that the One who defeated death, will defeat what ever lies before us, indeed, already has defeated it.  Yes, He did say to Thomas blessed is he who believes without seeing, but He also knows that there are times that come to all of us when the only way we can take another step is if can sense Him.  It's not an arrogant demand, it doesn't come from a heart set to disobey or disregard.  It just comes from a deep yearning to have with us, the manifest presence of Him.  With that encounter, we can take the next step.
     I know something of this in my own life.  25 years ago, with my life in shambles around me, I had deep fears as to what would happen to me, how could I go on, and where would I go?  Sitting in a small cottage on a lonely campground, not understanding how I'd got here, and not knowing how I'd get past here, He came to me in my fear, in my unknowing, and ministered.  He didn't rebuke me for the fear, or the need to hear Him, but into my weakness, He poured His strength, He poured Himself.  Like Thomas, I encountered the resurrected Christ, and said, like Thomas, "My Lord and my God."  That was not the last place in my life where I had such an encounter, and I know there will be such times yet to come, but in all of them, He will come.  Doubt comes knocking, but His life comes bursting in.  If you're in such a place right now, allow Him to do the same with you.  He is really risen.  Allow Him to show you, anew, or for the first time, how true that really is.

Blessings,

Pastor O
     

Heart Tracks - Breaking Free

    The great sadness I carry after nearly 30 years of ministry is the knowledge of how many people I have come into contact with throughout those years continue to walk in captivity.  We are born into this captivity, and Christ is the only way out of it, but tragically, so many of those who would profess belief upon Him, would say they are His and follow Him, themselves continue to live in some degree of bondage.  I love the way The Message translation of the Bible puts I Thessalonians 4:14, "Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who die in Jesus."  The resurrection of Christ did just that.  It broke the power of death over us, both physical and spiritual.  For those who are His, the grave cannot hold us, and neither may sin, which is the author of death, because it has been conquered by Him who is the Author of Life.  That life, resurrection life, fully received, will break all who receive it, from the power of the grave.  

      When Christ called forth Lazarus from the grave, the first thing he told those who were there was to cut the grave clothes from him, grave clothes that held him, and did not permit any movement.  So many have been called forth from spiritual death into His life, but the grave clothes have never been removed.  In the form of addictions, thought patterns, behaviors, beliefs about the Father and ourselves, these grave clothes remain, hold us in their grip, make it impossible to move about, emotionally, spiritually, even physically.  Lies that we have believed, about others, ourselves, and especially the Father, keep us in captivity.  We've been called out of the grave, but we've never broken free of it.  It haunts us still, and so the resurrection life He offers remains an ideal, not a reality.  We find ourselves coping with life, instead of living in the resurrection power of Christ, a power and life that bring overcoming and overwhelming victory.  We end up trying to cope with a life created by sin and death, rather than living the life we were created for by Him, and is ours in Christ.
     What is the state of our lives today?  Are we coping, trying to survive and make it through another day, hoping more good than bad takes place, that we "do" more good than bad, or, are we living in the power of His resurrection?  Do we know what it is to be an overcomer, to be "more than a conqueror,"  to face the power of sin and death, knowing it has no power over us because we're in Christ?  To know that in every battle, we're victorious, because He is victorious.  Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, He is victorious, and so, in Him, we are too.  This is breaking free of the grave.  Have you?  Have I?  Have we?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - True Worship

      Have you ever found yourself, like Elijah, at the brook Cherith?  Elijah, sent there after the Lord had proclaimed there would be no more rain in the land, was cared for by the Father, feeding him and refreshing him by the brook called Cherith.  Surely Elijah not only treasured this time, but most especially the brook and what it brought to him.  Yet, in I Kings 17:7, we're told that, "the brook dried up, for there was no rain in the land."  Everything now changed for him.  The place of rest, peace, and renewal, and blessing, was gone.  The brook had dried up.  What would he do?  What will you and I do should the brook dry up?  Perhaps it's dried up now.

     I have found myself most often in life, treasuring the brook more than I treasured Him.  I could worship Him at the brook, but when the brook dried up, and all brooks of this life eventually do, I found my worship of Him tended to dry up as well.  Rarely, if ever, could I bring myself to see or admit that I worshiped the brook more than I worshiped Him.  When it was gone, I was devastated, angry, and even accusing of Him.  I loved the brook, and whether I could see it or not, saw it, and not Him as my Source.  Has the same ever happened to you?  Is it happening now?
     I've a good friend who related recently how he had been mourning the passing of time in his ministry, thinking of the many great things the Lord had done in it, and how now, in what he calls, as Paul did, "the time of his departure," feels a kind of lack.  His brook had dried up.  Yet he said that in the midst of the mourning he heard the voice of the Father speak into his heart saying, "I am your Home."  He heard Him tell him that it was not his past, future or present that was the his source or his end, but the Father Himself.  That he could worship him, find wholeness in Him, fulfillment, and joy, because it was His presence, not the brook, that gave life.  Every blessing in this life will eventually dry up in some way, every brook we depend on it will eventually run dry, but He who is the Source of all the bread and water of life never will.  Every brook Cherith, no matter how beautiful, is not meant, was never meant to be our home, our dwelling place.  He, and He alone is.  So, is He?
     Watchman Nee relates the story of Abraham being told by God to go to Mount Moriah to worship Him, and to there sacrifice his only son, Isaac, his promised and long awaited son.  Nee says he made no protest, but simply went to worship.  He trusted, and he obeyed.  He would yield what he treasured most to the One who gave him.  Nee said that this was true worship, "to let go to God all His gifts to us, all our rich experiences, and all our hopes in Him, and to find unqualified joy in God Himself."  Not in the brook, not even in the son, but in God Himself.  The Father did not take Isaac, and He didn't keep Elijah at the dried up brook, but led him to another place, a deeper place in Him.  The place of worship.  Not dependent on the brook, or the person, or the blessing, but upon Him.  Can He lead you and I to such a place as well?  Has our brook dried up?  If so, what has that done to our life, our walk, and our love of Him?  Can we only worship and love Him where the brook flows, or, can we do so even when all has dried up, because we, as Nee said, have found our full joy in Him, our Source, the brook that can never dry up.

Blessings,
Pastor O