Heart Tracks - Name Cards

But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1......"From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus." Galatians 6:17

I recently heard a woman named Allison Allen talk about something she does in her itinerant ministry. As people come, they are given a blank name card. She then asks each person to write down on that card the word or words that they think truly describe them, or who others see them as. She said that almost always, the words used are harsh, even destructive. Then, in the course of her ministering to them, she shares with them the reality of the healing Christ. The One who really does make all things new. The One who really does transform. The One who wipes away all the disgraces of the past. She concludes with asking them to now write on those same cards the word or words that they think Jesus Christ would use to describe them. At the end of one of her gatherings, a man came up and just stood before her. He had tears in his eyes, and was so overcome with emotion that he couldn't speak. She saw he was clutching his card. She asked him if she could see it. With a shaking hand he gave it to her. On the card was written, "Convicted Felon." She took out her own pen, crossed those words out and wrote above them, "Forgiven." And that man, weeping in joy and though long a believer, received that truth, and with it, his new name and identity.

In that simple exchange, an even deeper picture came to me concerning His healing, freeing love. His church is filled with people, young and old alike, who carry around mental and emotional name cards that describe and define them according to the devil's and world's definitions and measures. Failure. Cheat. Liar. Betrayer. Adulterer. Divorced. Loser. Forgotten. Ignored. Unseen. Rejected. Second Class. Not Good Enough. The list of names is endless. The pain that goes with them is too. Those names and words hold us in chains, tormenting us, isolating us, keeping us from others, and worse, keeping us from Him. He bids us to come to Him, with all our name cards, and give them to Him. And when we do this, He takes them, and with the ink of His precious blood, crosses of that word or words, and writes in that blood, All things new in Me. And along with that come His words of description for us. Free. Lovely. Favored. Cherished. Precious. Beloved. Honored. Lifted Out. Lifted Up. Hope. Beauty. Glory. His names for us are unending, as is His power to make them our reality. What we have been, had done to us, been known as, or perceived as, all their power has been broken in Him. Like Paul, we announce that they can no longer trouble or hold us. We bear on our hearts and souls, the brand marks of Christ. Like the old hymn says, We've a new name written down in glory, and it's mine, oh yes it's mine.

So, no matter your place in life right now, in your relationships, profession, ministry, or journey as a follower of the King, what words and names have you allowed the enemy and the world he works through to write on your name card? How tightly are you held in their grip of lies? Can you dare to bring those cards that were never given you by Him, to Him? To place them in His hand and behold Him to cross that name, those words off in the ink of His blood, and the power of His cross. And in that blood, and by His cross, write His new name and words for you? No matter how long you've been carrying that false name card, its power is broken in Christ. He invites you to come, name card and all, and receive His new name and words.....for you. A new name sealed by His blood.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Wondrous Love

"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffer! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:1-2

One of the first things I remember being encouraged to do after coming to Christ and becoming a part of His Church, was that I needed to have quality "devotional time." Others may refer to it as "quiet time." The crux of it all was that I needed regular periods spent in studying His Word, and in prayer. It was called "spiritual discipline," and it's importance was not left in doubt. So, wanting to do what was right, and also wanting to please Him, I embarked upon having those regular times. I was told I needed to do it, so I did. And it's there that the real problem comes in. As I heard someone put it, our times with Him should never be something we have to do. A requirement. They need to be about who we are. Most of us seem to live in the former, and we miss the joy and wonder of the latter.

I think it's a great tragedy in the church that so few of us, pastors and teachers included, really understand what riches are to be had in our spending time with Him. When we approach it as a duty, then our mind and attention are on things like how long, how much, and how often? We're looking for some kind of standard to be met. Some place that He'll find acceptable and that both He, and we, can live with. We miss the truth that His longing is to spend rich time with us. Intimate time. Life changing time. His heart in union with ours. His mind speaking into our mind. He does this directly through His Word, but also through prayer, and through a word we don't care very much for; meditation.

For the believer, meditation is simply allowing Him to fill our minds with His Word and His Truth. As we're still before Him, He whispers His Truth and Life into the areas of our being that so deeply need to hear and absorb it. It becomes a part of us. It becomes who we are, and our living in His presence becomes a moment by moment experience where His very Life is constantly flowing through every part of our being. It's not limited to a devotional or quiet time. It is an ongoing intimacy that is literally, as the Psalmist say, "day and night." It's not a duty. It's our joy. It's our life. It is not a "to do" time. It's a "who I am" time.

For so many, the words, the ways, the promises of God aren't real to us. We may believe that all of it is real, but it isn't real to us. He, and they, are not impacting our lives in the way that He wishes, in the way that He created us for. Like the great cartoon character Calvin, from the wonderful strip, Calvin and Hobbs, who had to be forced out the door to school each day, so do we seem to have to be forced to come into His presence. Rarely do we approach these times with joyful expectation. That's likely because there is so little expectation that we'll meet Him there. More, we feel if we don't, we'll anger Him, and there will surely be very unpleasant consequences. So we read our obligatory chapters and pray our obligatory prayers. We "pay" Him what we think we owe Him and what we believe He feels we owe Him.

I'm so thankful that I learned the joy of prayer and the study of His Word early in my walk. Even so, there were still times when I felt that if I missed, I would pay a heavy price for it. The "duty" taskmaster was at work in my mind. He still can show up even now. He's a liar. Our times with Him don't earn His favor. He seeks to bestow that always. And while it is true that prolonged absence from His presence will surely bring leanness to our souls, He draws us to Himself not as the stern schoolmaster, but as our loving Father who is passionate about sharing Himself with us. And our lives don't become an "I have to," connection with Him, but an "I get to" one. And that is how He wishes us to see all of our coming to and living in Him. We get to. It's a shared joy. His and ours. He's not just waiting for us. We're already there. That really is "wondrous love."

We live in a fallen world, filled with fallen influences and powers. The counsel we walk in determines everything, both now, and in eternity. If you consider yourself His, then whose counsel do you walk in? Scripture says that we don't live by bread alone, but by "every word that comes from the mouth of God." His bread of life. Many, like children seeing vegetables on their plate, eat it under protest. The goal is to get it over with as quickly as possible. Others as the very bread of their life. Bread that they eagerly seek and feed upon. Which one are you?.....One last thought. We sing so much of His great love for us. Love that compelled Him to offer up His only Son in order that we might have life through Him. Isn't a Father God whose love for us is so infinite that it went to such a sacrificial length, worth immersing ourselves in, growing deeper in? If you say yes, shouldn't you not let anythig keep you from His embrace....and He from yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Secrets

"You have searched me Lord and You know who I really am." Psalm 139:1

I heard Sheila Walsh say that we think keeping our secrets will make us safe, but all they really do is keep us isolated. Most especially do they keep us isolated from Him.

We all have secrets, things, events, actions, that we want to keep hidden. They're those things that we think, and the enemy so joyfully echoes to us, that if anyone knew them, they'd have nothing to do with us. The secrets we keep can, and usually do, carry deep pain. They can carry guilt, shame, and condemnation. They are an ever present heaviness upon our soul and spirit. No matter how hard we may try to escape them, their presence just gnaws at our soul, heart and mind. We want no one to find out about them, and go to great lengths, often destructive ones to keep it that way. We think we're keeping them safe, but as Walsh says, we only succeed in isolating ourselves, especially from Him with who there can be no secrets at all.

The pressure to keep our secrets only grows. We fear the possibility of anyone finding out, and so the guilt and shame that so often accompany them and have us in their grip only grows stronger. The secrets we keep aren't confined to what we've done, or may have had done to us. They also include thoughts, temptations, deep seated anger, even hatred. We carry these secrets everywhere.....including into our worship gatherings. We sing songs, join in prayers, and listen to the sermons, with our secrets in hand. And when we leave, our secrets go with us. We may have succeeded in keeping our secrets secret, but we've deepened our isolation from not only each other, but from the One we call Father.

As a pastor, I think I've come to realize that no one may be more adept at keeping secrets than we are. There's the ever present fear that if anyone found out about them, we'd be run off at the first opportunity. So we keep the secret about the true state of our marriages, families, and spiritual and emotional life from everyone....even Him. We throw ourselves into the work, and try to bury the problems ever deeper. And our soul and spirit dies a bit more each day. I know. I've been in that place....many times. It wasn't just that I wouldn't talk about any of the secrets with others, it was that I really wouldn't fully talk about them with Him. So I tried to handle it all in my own strength and understanding.....and failed. Badly. And that's always the end for us. The secrets we seek to keep will always find a way to show themselves in our lives....one way or another. Exhaustion. Burn out. Spiritual backsliding. The power of the secrets we keep is greater than our power and ability to keep them. They show up...in our jobs, relationships, ministries, and our journey with Him. And none of it need be so. In all of it, the One from who there can be no secrets, is all the while calling us to Him. Calling us, as Scripture says, to "Come back to Me and live."

He calls us to Himself. All of Himself, to come to Him with all that we are...failures, secrets, sins, and bring them all to the cross of Christ. At the cross we find healing, we find freedom. We find the One to who we can give all our secrets to, no matter how dark, and discover that He takes them away, yet never turns us away. Guilt, shame, fear, condemnation, they all lose their power in the face of the power of His blood....at the cross. He knows who we really are.....and loves us. Our secrets may have caused us to live very far from Him, but His call, no matter how far we may have gone is always, "Come back to Me and live." And we will, when we bring all of ourselves to all that He is.

Bring all the secrets to His secret place that only He can make known to you. The cross. His place of safety, healing, freedom....and life.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Storytellers

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, I Peter 3:15

I heard someone say that those who are His should live lives worth telling stories about. Here's the twist. The story would not be about you, but about Him. Christ the King. At this place in your life, my life, what kind of story of Christ are we telling. Is it worth reading about, listening to? What kind of Kingdom storytellers are we?

The world, and even the church, have too often conditioned us to think that only the great and grand stories are worth telling. We love the spectacular. We don't see how the everyday can be inspiring to anyone. But it's in the everyday where His Life and Light shine most brightly. It's in the everyday that a lost and dying world needs to see that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Answer, the Truth, and the Life. Those are the stories His followers need to be telling. Stories that are "read" and "heard" by a world in desperate need of knowing them.

Two storytellers had a deep impact on my coming to Christ. The first was a young girl I knew at the small northwestern Pennsylvania college I attended in the 70's. I never knew her well, but she moved in the circles I did, the party crowd. I don't remember ever encountering her when she wasn't high on something. Of course, I was as well. Such is the life of the party crowd. I eventually left school to work and earn money, and was gone for a year. When I returned, that young girl was in one of my classes. Once a burnt out "hippie chick," I now beheld a young girl that l glowed with joy and peace. I began to talk with her, and she, quietly, but powerfully, told me of how her life had changed, and more, Who had changed it. Gone were the dead eyes that my own dead eyes had looked into. They were replaced with eyes that sparkled with life and light. She told me her story, which was His story in her. No, she didn't lead me to Him, but what I had seen and heard deeply impacted me. I never forgot it, and today, more than 40 years later, it still resonates with me.

Several years later I listened to another storyteller. He was also a fellow "party circuit" guy. When last I'd seen him, he'd had long, greasy hair, and was wasted on drugs and alcohol. He was at my 10th year high school reunion. I went up to him hoping he might be able to share some dope with me. He shared Jesus instead, and what had happened in his life. Once more, I could not deny the transformation. The man before me was no longer the man I'd known. This storyteller, like the last one, left the imprint of Christ on my dead heart.

Almost a year to the day later, I once more came across him in a chance encounter that was not a chance encounter at all. He invited me to his church. My heart was ready to at least see what this was all about. I went, and I heard the preacher tell His story through His Word. My heart was impacted again. I went back several more Sundays, and then, one evening, in the home I grew up in, my desperate heart just simply cried out to Him, "Jesus, I need you." And into my heart came Christ......And all because of two storytellers sent to me by Him, to tell His story through theirs. Ever since, it's been my heart desire to tell His story through mine. And if I tell it right, no one notices me, but everyone cannot help but see Him. We are called to be storytellers. We tell His story in us, and then we leave the results of the storytelling to Him. I never saw that young girl again after I left school, but her story remained. A good story always does. The story of Christ, alive in us and through us, is the greatest story there can be.

The Father created each of us in part, for the purpose of telling His story, His Son's story, through us. Each is intended to be a "masterpiece," a "classic." He writes His story on our hearts, and that story then flows out of our lives and into the lives of others....and all through the everyday wonder of our living in Him. We are letters from His heart to a heartsick world. He intends for us to be read, and we will be read. The question for each of us is, what is being read by those we encounter. Are we stories that give witness to the miraculous transforming power of Christ, or do we just pass through unnoticed, because the world's story is seen so much more clearly through our lives than His is?

Storytellers continue to come my way. I gain much by hearing them. They've lived lives in Christ worth telling stories about. The world likely has never noticed them. Sadly, much of the church hasn't as well. Yet they're heart stories written from His heart by the blood of His Son. I long to keep reading them. I want my life to be a story of Him read by those He places me before. How about you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Christianity 101

"Why were you searching for Me?" Luke 2:49....."The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it." Martyn Lloyd-Jones...."Seeker friendly Christianity tried to revive the church by infusing it with the logic of the marketplace. Hipster Christianity tried to revive the Church by obsessing over newness and relevance....Christianity became more about apologizing for itself and affirming the culture than about extolling Christ and transforming the culture.....A Christianity with no teeth, no offensiveness, no cost, and no discomfort is not really Christianity at all." Brett McCracken

Very likely you're at least somewhat familiar with the current trend of universities establishing "safe zones," for students who don't wish to be exposed to speech, views, or ideas that they might not agree with, or make them uncomfortable. I think this idea has entered into the western church, and in a very large way.

Let me say that I fully believe that the true church should function as a sanctuary against the very real evil and way of the world. The true church is to be a picture of, a reflection of His Kingdom. The values, ways, and power of His Kingdom should be consistently demonstrated in the church and in the lives of those who comprise it's body, which in fact is the Body of Christ. The true church is infused with the power and presence of God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is to be, as someone said, a colony of heaven in the country of death. There can be no safer place for our souls. At the same time, if it is truly functioning as His church, it will be a decidedly uncomfortable, dangerous, even terrifying place for the flesh, our fallen nature. That nature that is so at home in the kingdom of death can find His church to be a most uncomfortable, even frightening place. Yet here is the beautiful fact. With all that being true, His heart will draw hearts that have been trapped in that fallen nature to Himself because those hearts recognize that in Him, there is life, freedom, healing, and deliverance. So they'll brave the fear of the unknown that they might enter into the life of Him who longs for us to know Him.

Chris Tiegreen, remarking on how the story of Jesus' parents finally finding Him in the Temple, and the disciples seeking Him at His grave, shows how we so often look for Jesus in all the wrong places. It cannot be denied that in our desperation to attract a lost culture to Christ, we have too often created a Jesus more to our own liking, and called people to Him. This Jesus doesn't cause any deep controversies, and seems to dislike His church far more than He hates sin. McCracken writes, "Rather than pointing confidently to the way of Christ, the church has narcissistically critiqued itself and praised the culture, all while Christ is relegated to a supporting actor role." Where is the Jesus that Peter beheld? The Jesus who, when Peter realized who He was, fell at His feet and cried out, "Lord, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man." This is the Jesus that I first met. This is the Jesus that after years of running from Him, confronted me in the dining room of the home I grew up. Like Isaiah, I was "undone" in His presence. And in His presence, He entered into my heart and life and began to remake me. He led me on a journey through His church that was decidedly uncomfortable, often terrifying, but was life transforming. And the transformation continues even now. Yes, this church is filled with imperfect people, all at different stages of their own journey, but the common thread is that in the true church, these lives are being transformed "from glory to glory." This is the fruit of the true church. It's messy, but it yields His beauty. The church as it should be. The church as it must be. The church this is His church.

I realize I may offend some with what I've said. I don't apologize. That evening in my mother's home, I met the consuming fire that is Christ the King, and He has been a consuming fire upon my life ever since. He received me as I was, but loved me far too much to allow me to remain what I was. With all my flaws, I've never ceased to yearn for the fullness of His fire in my life. I want nothing else. I'll accept nothing else. How about you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Your Kingdom Come?

"Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He responded by giving them what is known as "The Lord's Prayer.' Ever since, it is likely the most familiar and most used prayer in the Church. So here's the question for each of us, particularly as pertains to the above verse; how much and how deeply has this prayer been answered in our lives, in our fellowships, and in that part of the world where He has placed us?

Here's another question; when we pray "Your Kingdom come," just what is it that we think we're praying for? In what ways do we want it to come? Where do we want it to come, and even more, where, in our true self, do we not? We may want His Kingdom to reign around us. Does it reign within us?

Most in the Church seem to see His Kingdom as a future hope and not a present reality. It's either something they're trying to build and make happen here on earth, or, it's some far off dream that won't be realized until we leave this place. Either way, we're wrong. The Kingdom won't be ushered in by our efforts. It's already here. Jesus told His listeners that the Kingdom of God was among them and He invited them to enter into it. Now. They didn't have to make it happen, and they didn't have to wait a lifetime to realize it. The Kingdom, in all the fullness possible for those still living in the flesh and blood side of eternity, was here, and it is ours.....If we would receive it, walk in it, live in it, and behold it to grow within and around us. Now. Not later. It wasn't and isn't some goal to be realized, but a reality to be abundantly lived in.

So let's get back to praying that prayer. When we pray it, do we realize just what it is we pray for, and if we have, do we still pray for it? When Jesus directed His disciples to pray for His Kingdom to come, He meant that they were to pray for His Kingdom to come in every facet of their lives, within and without. It also meant that the fullness of the Kingdom, the rule and authority of the Father in all things, would come to every affair both of the Church and the world. There can be only one Kingdom; His. There is no room for ours. More, it wasn't a "someday" expectation, but a "today" one. Chris Tiegreen writes about our deferring the Kingdom to some future time. "God will do miracles, but not now. Every knee will bow to Jesus, but perhaps none today. We may see some momentary blessings - or glimpses of them, but we can't expect them or enjoy them for long." Jesus said that the Kingdom has come, and it continues to come. Not yet in its complete fullness, but it is here. We're called into its reality. Have we entered in, or is our mindset closer to that which Tiegreen writes about? Do we wait to enter into what is already before us?

I asked that if we knew what praying this prayer really meant, would we still pray it? In addition to saying that His Kingdom had come, Jesus also said that in this world we would have tribulation. Those who seek the fullness of His Kingdom in their lives and the lives of others will certainly encounter resistance. Intense resistance. Mark Batterson called this world a "shadowland where light and darkness clash." When we pray for the fullness of His Kingdom to come, it means that His Kingdom will certainly collide with the world's. And we'll be in the middle. The loved ones we pray for the Kingdom to come to, will be as well. So will all the situations we place before Him that cry out for His deliverance, His salvation, His healing. There is a spiritual violence involved in all of it, and it will shatter the comfortable complacency we love so much. We'll no longer be able to pray this prayer from the safety and comfort of our home groups and ladies Bible studies, or from our men's prayer breakfasts. We'll be praying it from the midst of the shadowlands, but we'll be praying in His Kingdom power because we are living in that power. A Kingdom that has come and has already overcome every kingdom of the world, and the satanic kingdom that rules them all.

So, what will we do with this prayer? Do we pray it in power, having no fear of the ramifications that come with that? Or, do we go on giving it "lip service" from the comfort of our spiritual easy chairs? The Kingdom has come, and it is continually coming. It's not a "Someday" thing, but a "Today" one. We're in the shadowlands, but His Light is upon, in, and with us. The fullness of His Kingdom is now, and we must walk in it now. Or, do we just go on acknowledging its reality, but not living that reality? One thing is for sure. For His Kingdom and will to come and be done, our kingdom and will must die. So, do we really want to pray this prayer?....It's His prayer. Is it ours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Side-Trips

"The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, 'Come, be My disciple.' " John 1:43

One of the things I've always heard people say about taking a tour of the Holy Land is the joy and beauty to be found in walking in all the places that Jesus Himself walked in. I can understand that, and I know there is a deep, spiritual and mystical element to all of that. Yet as I dwell upon this there's a thought that comes to mind. We can talk a lot about our walking in all the places that Jesus has walked in. What thought do we give as to whether He can walk in all the places we're walking in?

The disciples, with all their faults, were marked by this fact. They went where Jesus went. If they left His physical presence, it was only at His direction. They didn't make "side-trips." They didn't see any separation between what was "His business" and what was theirs. Their "business" was to follow Him, to be His disciples. There was much they didn't understand, but they did understand that they were His to command. Where He was, they were, and in all their questions, there was no question as to where they'd be. As Peter said, where would they go? Christ alone had the words of Life. Contrast this with how so many of we who also call ourselves His, choose to carry out what we call discipleship. How easy we seem to find it to make those side-trips into places He has not sent us and He would not go. We do this both physically and emotionally, even spiritually. We do this in relationship choices, career choices, even ministry choices. We allow our minds, emotions and the desires that they contain to enter into places that He has not led us and He would not go. We allow our eyes to see things that He would not look at, our tongues to say things that He would not say, and our minds to think things that He would not think. We walk in places that He wouldn't walk in. We go where He wouldn't go, and we have some very clever ways of justifying all of it. Somehow we are blind to the fact that the first result of these unauthorized side-trips will be self-deception. We're sure that He doesn't have a problem with it, and even if He does, we begin to think that we're just a little better informed about it all than He is. I think that this is very likely exactly what happened in the heart of Judas. His side-trips away from the path of Christ eventually led him into a full betrayal...and a place of darkness he could never come back from.

So the question for you and me is, in our hearts, minds, words, actions, and choices, where are we taking side-trips? Where are we walking that He isn't? And are these side-trips getting more and more frequent and of longer duration each time? Where do we walk today that He can't? Where have we been deceived into thinking that He has no problem with any of it? Where do the side-trips lead, and what will be their end? Alicia Britt Chole asked where might Judas be hiding in our hearts? Where might he? Do we hold the heart attitude of Peter, that there is no place to go but with Him, in Him? Or, do we allow ourselves the little side-trips without Him? If we go, what will be the end of them? Where does Judas hide in you and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O