Heart Tracks - The New Normal

"Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mt. Seir. But forty years after the Israelites left Mt. Sinai, on a day in mid-winter, Moses gave these speeches to the Israelites....." Deuteronomy 1:2

"The New Normal." That's a term that's being heard in the church increasingly these days. I realize its origins in that it is the church's attempt at understanding the current state of both the culture around, and within it as well. The crux of it all is that what was considered normal both within and without in the past, is no longer considered such today. My concern is how are we really responding to this "new normal?" A lot of what I seem to be hearing, intended or not, is that of seeking to adapt to this new normal, and minister as effectively as we can. This seems to put a great deal of emphasis on our own strength and understanding. Here's my question, is the power of the three in One God affected in anyway by change in our culture and whatever labels we may care to put upon that change? We have been hearing for some time now that we need to "change our methods, but not our message." But is that really the approach we've been taking. E.M. Bounds says God is not seeking for better methods, but "better men." And women. Men and women who can be made "better" only through the transforming power of the Gospel. The whole, full, unabridged Gospel of Christ.

In the passage from Deuteronomy quoted above, Moses is speaking of the fact that though the journey to the border of the country promised them by the Father should only have taken eleven days, they had instead spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. Wandering because of their refusal to believe, trust, and obey God. Their ongoing history would be one of almost constant rebellion and unbelief against their God. Wandering in the wilderness would become their "new normal." It was never what the Father intended for them, but it became their lot. The new normal for the people of Israel would become lives, homes, a nation, built upon sand. Always near collapse. To me, our current culture, nation, and state of the church seem eerily close to the same. Someone said that the church is not to be a thermometer, reflecting the spiritual temperature of the culture it is a part of, but a thermostat, setting that temperature for the culture. I think it is very plain that we have become far more like a thermometer than a thermostat.

Vance Havner, speaking decades ago concerning the American church said that anyone living like a "normal" 1st century companion of Christ, would be considered abnormal by the contemporary church of today. Francis Chan tells the story of his being reprimanded by a member of his congregation for being too over the top in his walk with Him. He was told that there was a "middle ground" that he could and should walk. He needn't be a fanatic about it all. Friends, you can be sure that to seek a life filled with His holy fire will most surely result in your being labeled, like Chan, a fanatic. It's much easier to accommodate the culture...the new normal. Even when it means another forty years in the desert.

I think a lot of the "new normal's" way is for the church, you and me, to ask God and His Word to conform themselves to us and our lifestyle. God's normal, shown in the call of His Son, Jesus Christ, is to take up our cross, follow Him, and die to everything that is not Him. That's what's normal in the Kingdom. Anything else will bring nothing but desert wanderings. What "normal" are we living today? Are we living in the fullness of His Promise, or just wandering?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Tasters And Samplers

"I know all the things that you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of My mouth." Revelation 3:15......."Today's compromise is tomorrow's captivity.....Be holy. Be one. Be light." Samuel Rodriquez

A good friend spoke recently about how those who profess to follow Him are really more "tasters and samplers" of Him. So many like to get Him in bits and pieces. The bits and pieces that they find acceptable. Few seem to really desire to immerse themselves in the fullness of who He really is. Even the way we in the Church present Him tends to emphasize this. If we're not marketing Him to a lost world, we at least put forth a one dimensional, watered down and user friendly Jesus that the world will find acceptable. We almost beg them to "take Jesus....please." Jesus never begged anyone to "take Him." How many of us would turn "the rich young ruler" away from the doors of our church? Yet Jesus was uncompromising on what it would take for him to come and follow Him. The young man wanted a taste, a sample of Him. Jesus wanted all of the young man, and for the young man to desire all of Him. Christ bids us come and follow Him....as He is and on His path. That path always leads to and beyond the cross. You can't "pretty up" the path. Neither can it be sampled. It must be followed...walked upon. Died upon.

We are stressing the love of God in the Church, but it is His love as defined and understood by us...our flesh. We preach a gospel that has at it's center, "me." Jesus came for and died for me. He wishes to make my life good. He gives me a future and a hope. He's the provider, we're the consumer. He does all the compromising and we reap all the benefits. He's our no-cost insurance plan that covers all the expenses of life. He paid it all so we don't have to pay at all. This has nothing to do with our earning salvation. But as one man said, "When Jesus calls a man, He bids him to come and die." We are not called to be His tasters and samplers. We are called to come and die....in Him....and so find true life. Tasters and samplers have no impact on their world. They only see that world insofar as it affects them. Never beyond. Keith Green sang in his song "No Compromise," that"It's so hard to see when my eyes are on me."

I write all this today because of what I've been hearing from a group of Christian leaders gathered in Texas by evangelist James Robison. He and Ravi Zacharias have called these men and women to come together in response to an ongoing spiritual collapse of our culture and nation. I have heard so many rich things from these ones, but a man named Tim Clinton said something that really resonated with my heart. He called for an uprising of the Church .He asked, "Will we just have conversation, or will we rise up with a voice?" The Church has had an abundance of conversation. What is needed is an outpouring of His Spirit that raises it up to once again be a vessel of His Voice. We need to speak, live, and show forth the fullness of the Gospel without apology in the midst of an unbelieving, even hostile world. That uprising will begin, that voice will be found nowhere but at the cross. We cannot taste and sample the cross. We can only die on it. He bids us come and do so.....and find our voice. His voice.

One last thought in this perhaps, too lengthy writing. The friend mentioned above made this point, so often overlooked. The gospels related that at one point during His crucifixion, both of the thieves were hurling abuse at Jesus. Yet, in the end, one of them asked that He would remember him when He came into His Kingdom. That thief saw something in Christ's death that made him hunger for His life. Such was the power of His witness. Do we have such a witness today? The Church is called to an uprising. It begins, it will always begin, at the cross.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Unchanging

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever." Isaiah 40:8......"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8...."Men and women set themselves as judges of what the Lord has said - and so they stand with pride and judge the Lord." A.W. Tozer

Someone told me recently that I should be living back in the 1950's. They said this because of my belief system, which they thought was much outdated, and not in step with current popular thought. Their statement brought to mind a lot of things; the great deception the world is currently under, has always been under, as well as its ongoing desire to label "truth" as relative. Something that changes with time and circumstance. But what stands out is that "current popular thought" will always clash with the unchanging truth of His Word....which really does and will stand forever.

We are living in a time when open ridicule of the truth of His Word is everywhere....even within some quarters of the professing church. I have been amazed at some of the interpretations of Scripture being put forth by those who belong to those segments. They always seem to point to "new, more recent" interpretations put forth by "modern scholars." Basically, they say that what was held as truth for more than three thousand years, really isn't. That due to ignorance, error, and misunderstanding, we simply missed what the Father really meant. What Jesus really said. What the Holy Spirit really revealed. It never ceases to amaze me that those who stand in such places never see the deep pride they walk in. A pride that makes them think that they, and they alone possess the wisdom and intelligence to see and know what God really meant, what Christ really said, and what the Holy Spirit really revealed. I think Scripture is fulfilled when they "thinking themselves wise, became fools." The world has always lived in deception. Too much of the church in the west has fallen under it as well. Yet I believe, more than ever, that the power, authority, and truth of His eternal Word, will not only stand, but prevail in a world and culture where darkness appears to be victorious. Someone once said something to the effect that His resurrection life and truth will prevail in a world where death and darkness get all the attention. Death and darkness are certainly getting the attention, but Truth has not abdicated its place. It not only will prevail,... He who is Truth, already has.

I don't mind if someone says I ought to be in another time. In a sense, they're right. Only it is not another time I live in, but another place. His Kingdom. There is no time there. It is life in His unchanging life. His Word is true. His life is true. He is true. He will stand, and all else will fall. We, who call ourselves His, must know and live this. It is not what the world says. It is not what a misguided, even deceived segment of the church says. It is what He says. And He says it in and with power and authority. It is our part to walk in that power and authority. He stands forever, and so do we when we stand in Him. He is unchanging, and we will always find Him so when we look to and trust in Him. Let others mock. We know Him who is Truth. And He who is Truth, makes us free.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Broken And Blessed

"He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, 'This is My body, which is given for you. Do this to remember Me.' " Luke 22:19

For most of us, when we think of the blessed life, we think of comfort, safety, the absence of heartache, and a great deal of what we define as happiness. The thought of brokenness leading to blessedness is alien to most of us here in the west. Yet Christ, by the example of His own life, showed the way to a life of true blessedness. He shows it still.

Little if any of our ideas about the blessed life include any concept of brokenness. In truth, we flee from any form of it, and so, we remain in all of our ways, unbroken. We hate the idea of suffering, and seek to avoid it at every turn. If it should enter into our lives at some point and way, our immediate response is to ask Him to get us out of it, and if He doesn't quickly do that, we seek our own means of deliverance from it. We want pain free lives. We don't see any value in pain of any kind. In those places where everything around us may be broken, we ourselves can remain unbroken. The fruit then, of an unbroken life in the midst of these broken places is usually bitterness, anger, unforgiveness....and a blaming of God for all of it. We know that Christ suffered for us, but we think that the suffering should have ended with Him. Our part is to enjoy all the fruit of His suffering, not be partakers of it.

Writer and speaker Ann Voskamp said we should not be afraid of the broken places or seek to escape them, because it is in these places that He can bring us resurrection life. This is the blessing of brokenness. The fullness, the abundance of His resurrection life in us. And then through us. Jesus first broke, and then blessed the bread. Then He gave that bread out. This is His desire for what your life and mine should be. He said that many are called, but few are chosen. Many hear the call to come to Him, and they do. But few choose to enter into the "fellowship of His sufferings." We stop at being a people called out, but we do not care to be "called into" the fullness of His life. That call will lead us into His brokenness, which, despite all our fears to the contrary, will also lead to the life of blessedness. Blessedness that does not stop with the meeting of all our self-centered desires, but with that of being broken bread and poured out water to a world and people in desperate need of such.

The broken places of life will come to all of us. How we respond to them will define whether our lives really fit into His definition of blessedness. Voskamp says that instead of demanding of Him an explanation for these sufferings, as most do, we must allow Him to enter into them with us. To experience Him in them. When the broken places come to you, what is it that you'll desire? An explanation from Him, or an experience in Him? Only one leads to the life of real blessedness.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Between Two Thieves

"As God's partners, we beg you not to reject this marvelous message of God's great kindness. For God says, 'At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation I helped you.' Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:1-2....." 'Now' is being crucified between the thieves of 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow.' " Eugene Peterson

In our lives, where is the 'now' opportunity for freedom, abundance, healing, and newness being crucified between the "thieves" that hold us captive? Thieves that make their home in our yesterdays and tomorrows.

It is a tragedy to behold people rejecting Jesus not only once, but many times. I see it everyday. You may as well. How many of us would admit to being guilty of doing the same? How many of us have had Him come to us in the midst of our fears, worry and anxiety? Our weakness, and yes, our patterns of sin, and rejected again and again, His offers of freedom? We do so not because we don't believe that He can do what He offers, but because we are robbed of our "now" moment in Him by our captivity to our yesterdays and tomorrows. We want to be free, but our "jailers" in the form of yesterdays sin, failure, abuse, and loss, and tomorrows unknown, keep us shackled, and once more, we miss today's "now" moment and chance.

Someone said that Peter did not step out and walk upon the sea, but upon the power of Christ's word, "Come!" That word from Him, that invitation, is before us. It is before us now. But its power will not be known until we first speak, in His strength, the words "no longer," to the two thieves. No longer will they hold us captive. No longer will they exercise the crippling effects of fear, dread, guilt and shame upon us. When this happens, we step out into His welcoming invitation...and find healing, wholeness, freedom.

Have not the two thieves wreaked enough havoc? Isn't it time for their tyranny to end? All the power of the two thieves, and the devil that empowers them, could not hold Him. In His resurrection, He broke their power completely. Therefore, in Him, they cannot hold us either. Our "now" moment is today. Today is the day of salvation. Will it be your day, my day, today? May we not, on any level, reject His wonderful kindness. The power of the two thieves has been broken completely. Let it be completely broken in you. Now. Today. Forever......All we need do is step out into His invitation.....and come!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Night Songs

"Where is God my Creator, the One who gives songs in the night?" Job 35:10

Back in the long ago 1960's, there was a popular top 40 song that had the lyric, "We'll sing in the sunshine, we'll laugh every day." Singing in the sunshine is not difficult. Most any of us can do it. How many though can sing sweet songs to Him in the darkness? How many "night songs" do you and I know?

I believe the sweetest song that any may sing to Him are those sung in the darkness. That place, or those places, where we cannot see Him, or even sense Him. Those places where we must press on, with only the promise of His presence to hold to. Those who are truly connected to His heart will know such places. He will be the One who leads us to and through them. He is the God who, as His Word says, often approaches "covered in darkness." Nothing of our natural sense may perceive Him. Even our spiritual senses may not "see" Him. Yet He calls us to believe He is there. That He is with us, and that His love and care have not diminished. That He will carry us through. That He will lead us home. His heart for us is enlarged, moved when we can go on with Him not only in trust, but singing to Him our song. Our song of trust, faith, hope, and love. The sweetest song. The night song.

The world has long had the phrase "whistling in the dark." It's meant in a very negative way. The thought is that the whistler is doing so in false hope and courage. A kind of denial as to how desperate, even hopeless the situation is. This is not the song of the surrendered heart. That heart can sing a night song of joy, because it, like Jobs, is one that knows "my Redeemer lives." And because He lives, we not only can "face tomorrow," but we do so in confident, holy expectation of Him. Not expectations of what we want Him to do, but expectation of His continually revealed and displayed goodness and love. To walk in such faith and expectation will always yield a heart that knows how to compose beautiful and eternal night songs. Songs that I believe are the most beautiful to His ears.

I don't believe we ever compose the songs that are eternal in the times of sunshine. The song I mention from the 60's was a passing tune. Very few remember it today. It is those songs composed in the times of pain, danger, desert, and wilderness that ring out in heaven. Such songs minister to His heart. I believe they are continually heard in the throne room of the Father. They come from hearts bonded to His in and through every circumstance and need. Through and in the deepest darkness and greatest pain. Night songs given to Him. Of such is the music of heaven composed. May we sing those songs to Him....in all places.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Maranatha!

"Then Moses had one more request, 'Please let me see Your glorious Presence,' he said." Exodus 33:18....."Christ will be coming back for a Church that looks like Him. His return has nothing to do with how big the Church is, but how big He is in His Church." James Robison

I've been thinking a lot of late on Moses heartcry to the Father in the above Scripture. I call it a heartcry because that is exactly what it is. It was not just one of many desires. It was not a request to have his curiosity satisfied as to what the Father actually looked like. It was a singular, overwhelming desire to see Him, and to see His glory. No other desire in his life could compare with that longing to behold Him. The question that arises in my spirit is, what would my life, and the Church of which I am a part of, look like, be, if such a cry were really present in my heart? In the heart of His Church?

The prayers that emanate from the heart of the western Church must surely grieve the heart of God. We bombard His throne with petitions that more often than not have ourselves as the main benefactor. Comfort, prosperity, success. These are words that, if not actually on our lips, are certainly in our hearts. If we're in trouble, we want His assistance in getting us out of it. If there is physical, emotional, financial, even spiritual need, we want Him to meet it, and sooner rather than later. "Now" would be best. Rarely do we ask Him to reveal Himself to us in the trouble or the need. Even more rarely do we seek for Him to glorify Himself in and through the situation we face. We just want it taken care of, so we can get back to what life is really all about....ourselves. That may sound very harsh, but the challenge for all of us is that we take the time to look at our prayer lives and "see" if "me" isn't the main subject and benefactor in all of it.

I return to that question asked above. What would be the result if we simply came before Him, broken, surrendered, His, and the cry of our hearts and lives is that we might behold Him? I have written in my prayer journal that "in beholding, we become." This is the only pathway to a truly transformed life. The heart that yearns to see Him, will. If there are "veils" over our hearts, they will fall away, and we will "see" Him with the eyes of our heart. And we will never be the same again. The Father longs for such prayers from you and I. Are we offering them up to Him? Or do we continue to see Him as "the Kingdom caterer," bound to satisfy our every desire. Desires that never seem to include Him.

There is so much talk today of His return. Yet His Word is clear. He will be returning for a "glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle." The Church in which the Father sees the fullness of His Son. Do any of us think, at least here in the west, that we are such a Church? Robison said that one day, hopefully soon, the Father, in His throne room, will turn to Jesus and say, "My Son, look at them. They look like You. It is time." Paul wrote of a Church that "longed for His appearing." I want to be part of that Church. A Church where the flesh has no part. Where the "me" is not seen. Only Christ. First, last, and always, Christ. Lord, may we behold Your glory. Maranatha, Lord! Come quickly.

Blessings,
Pastor O