Heart Tracks - Burning Incense

"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9....."Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" Luke 6:46..."It meant everything in those days to say 'Jesus is Lord'......"You cannot willingly take Jesus as Savior and wilfully deny Him as Lord." Vance Havner

Polycarp of Smyrna was a second century leader of the Christian church, a man said to be a disciple of the Apostle John. At the age of 86 he was killed by the empire of Rome for refusing to burn incense to the emperor. To do so was unthinkable for Polycarp and so many other believers of that day. In the burning of that incense they were saying that the emperor was their lord, that he occupied a place above all others, including Jesus Christ. In the burning of the incense, the word they would use for the emperor was Kurios, which meant "Lord above all." No true believer could or would do this, as for them, Christ and Christ alone had this place in their heart and life. So Polycarp, and so many others, died before they would call anyone or anything else their Lord over all.

Vance Havner makes a chilling statement concerning the church. He writes, more than 50 years ago, "There has been a cheap, easy profession of Christ as Savior, but no real confession of Christ as Lord. The lips claim Him as Savior but the life shows no evidence of His Lordship. We love the same things we've always loved; we do not abhor that which is evil, we live our own lives. Christ has no say in the matter." In short, in so many ways, we burn "incense" to Caesar, and to many other "lords" as well.

In His Word, Christ is called "Lord" far more than He is "Savior." He is both, but He cannot be our Savior alone. He must be our Lord, and that Lordship must be evident in our lives. It must be so deeply placed in us that like the early believers, we would choose death before we would give allegiance to anyone, and anything else. A death that goes beyond just a physical one. It means we choose to put to death our dreams, desires, hopes, pleasures, joys, relationships, or whatever it is that calls our hearts to in some way forsake Him, and choose them. Anything that asks us to "burn incense" at their altar over the altar of God. What things, what people, what habits, what loves, are asking this of us right now? Where is it that we burn incense to other, less worthy "lords" than Christ the King?

Havner is right. We love to call Him Savior, but we have little idea or experience of Him as Lord. In the Old Testament, it was said of the people of Israel that, "Word from the Lord was infrequent, everyone did what was right in their own eyes." Their hearts had wandered very far from His, and as a result were too dull to hear anything He might be saying. Are we not seeing much the same today? Are we not doing what seems right, sensible, and reasonable to our flesh, even when it stands in blatant opposition to His Word? Are we not, in so many places and ways, calling Him Lord while not doing what He says? We are casually doing what was unthinkable to the early church; burning incense to other gods and lords, giving our hearts to that which will eventually destroy us.

At what altars are you burning incense? At the altar of ambition, success, pleasure, riches, relationships.....
ministry? The number of competing "altars" are as endless as the number of our desires. Where are they located in your heart and mine? Where have we joyfully taken Him as Savior while coldly rejecting Him as Lord? Why do we go on calling Him Savior but refusing to live with Him as Lord? We all have "incense" to burn. Where are you burning yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Repentance

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 3:1-2....."To move across from one sort of person to another is the essence of repentance." A.W. Tozer

Few words spoken in the church provide more of a knee-jerk response than "repentance." Our flesh hates it, and fuel has been added to the fire by so many who have preached and taught on it, attaching very a real message of fear and condemnation in connection to it. To be sure, there are dire and eternal consequences for living a finally unrepentant life, but that is not the heart of the Father in His call for it. The key to that message is seen in John's call to Israel, which is the call of the Father's heart to a people walking in opposition to Him. It is the heart cry of a Father to turn back from a way of life that leads ever further away from Him, to one that leads, through His Son, Jesus Christ, to Him. The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand in Christ, and now a choice was before them; receive Him and His Kingdom, or reject it. That choice lies before us all, and not just on a one time basis. Before us each day is the choice between continuing on in our way, or His. One leads away from Him, the other ever deeper into Him.

Nowhere is the heart of the Father seen more clearly than when Jesus stood above the city of Jerusalem and cried out, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets. How often I wanted to gather you to Myself....but you would not allow it." .....In Hebrew, repentance is defined as "changing one's direction," in Greek, as "changing one's thinking." Both are accomplished by the grace of God. We are born stubbornly assured of the rightness of our way. Only the grace of God, calling us to Himself can change this. Only His grace, as stated by Tozer, can change us from "one sort of person to another." His call to repentance by way of His grace takes us off the path of sure self-destruction, and puts us on the pathway to the fullness of His life. It is a transformation. We are born into the world totally disoriented from Him. We are at odds with Him on every level of life. His call to turn from our way and unto His, is a lifelong one, affecting us in every life area. Attitudes, thinking, actions, assumptions, how we view others, ourselves, and Him. We're wrong to some degree in them all, and His grace calls us to turn from that wrong direction and walk into His. The act of repentance leads to healing, wholeness, and abundance. The Father knows what we're doing to ourselves, and where it all leads. That's why His heart never ceases calling on us to turn back, turn away, and turn to Him. With so much good to be received in that, why then do we so often reject the call?

The answer is simple; pride...stubborn pride. We won't acknowledge that we're in the wrong. We won't acknowledge that we need to be changed. We are experts in justifying all we do, say, think, and are entrenched in our attitude of rebellion, though we don't see it as that at all. And such an attitude is not confined to those who have never received Him. We who profess to be His can be just as stubbornly resistant to Him as they. Often more so. And with each stubborn refusal, we take a step further away from Him, and nearer to the awful consequences of doing so. The finally and fully unrepentant will suffer eternal separation from Him. Darkness will be their end as it is already their present. Yet what of you and me, who say we are His, but walk against Him in certain areas of our lives? In those areas, darkness is our lot as well, and if we persist, we will give an account to Him for it all on that last day. Yet for both the former and latter, it doesn't have to be the case. The Kingdom of Heaven is near....in Jesus Christ. His heart calls to us to turn back, turn away from the road to destruction, and to Him and His pathway of life. With each step, we move either deeper into the darkness, or deeper into Him. In which direction are we going?.... In which direction are you going?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Noticers

"Live as servants of God." I Peter 2:16....."In the Kingdom of God, service is not a stepping-stone to nobility. It is nobility." T.W. Manson

Chris Tiegreen gives one of the greatest illustrations of what it is to be attuned to the voice and heart of the Father. He paints the picture of a waiter at a very exclusive restaurant. The skilled waiter is almost unnoticed by the diners, but himself notices everything. He "stands, observing every move of every member of the dinner party....When a diner gives even a slight, highly nuanced expression of need, the waiter discerns the sign and meets the need. He is highly trained to notice, and notices everything." Tiegreen goes on to write, "That is the posture of a Christian who is called to be living sacrifice for the Lord. We're to be 'noticers," interpreting all signs of the Spirit's work." And I go even further in that it should be so concerning His words, His will, and His leading. We must be so in sync with His heart that we perceive what He desires and act upon that perception. We live the life of the "noticer," and we notice nothing more than Him. We are "highly trained" in the Spirit because we have yielded ourselves so completely to His heart that our hearts beat in unison with His. We enter into this life through the school of intimacy and prayer. We notice what He's saying, doing, and leading to. We hear and know His voice because we're so well practiced in listening for it. The noise from all the other "voices" in this realm can't distract us from His.

I think we are rapidly losing the "skill" of listening in the Spirit. Sometimes we do this through the sin of presumption, sure that we already know His heart. Most often though, I think it's because our own voice, the voice of self, speaks so much louder to us than His. Our needs, our desires, our hopes and dreams put all of our focus upon seeing them all come to pass. The result is that we miss countless opportunities to minister, to be His Presence, speak His words, show His heart, to be vessels of His Life to a world, culture, people in desperate need of it. We're much more comfortable being the "diners" at His table rather than being His servants at others tables.

Yet it's much more than being tuned in to the needs around us. It's a matter of being totally tuned into Him. I remember an elderly evangelist named Cliff Chew using the example of a shepherd and his sheep dog. He said the sheep dog's only concern was doing not what the sheep wanted, but what the shepherd desired. That was his focus. So too must it be the focus of the follower, servant, and companion of Christ. Following His voice will often bring us into conflict with those He's sent us to serve. We're to lead in response to His voice, and we trust that voice because we know the heart behind it. This is not a blanket OK of those who think their leading should be unquestioned. A true leader of His people will not ask, demand, or lead in ways contrary to His heart and way. That's why all of us, whether in leadership or following those who are, need to know and discern the voice of the Shepherd.

Are you and I "noticers" first of the Shepherd's heart, and then of the needs, spiritual, emotional, and physical, of those He has placed us among? The need of the hour is a raising up of a "tribe" of noticers, "men (and women) of Issachar", who recognize the times we live in, and what must be done in response to them. May you be one. May I be one. Noticers of the voice, heart, and way of the King.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Outcomes

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

I don't know anyone who doesn't love to quote Psalm 46:10. Loving to live it out is another matter altogether.

Lisa TerKeurst, appearing on James Robison's Life Today, was sharing about her newest book, It's Not Supposed To Be This Way. She spoke of how her life was simultaneously hit with the double tragedy of a failing marriage and a life threatening physical condition. The former had been building for quite some time, the latter was very recent. Neither had any place in what she thought her life would be. Both were the focus of intense prayer on her part. She was in deep physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. She wanted all of it be made right, for all the pain to just end. She wanted God to act, and do away with all of it. Yet the pain went on.

Her physical condition came upon suddenly and reached such a state that she had to be hospitalized. She said that she lie in a hospital bed for three days in constant, agonizing pain. They couldn't find out what was wrong with her, and so great was her suffering that she said each minute seemed like an eternity. No pain killing medication worked, but finally, a specialist ran a certain test, and they discovered that her colon was twisted around and threatened to kill her. The Doctor told her that it was extremely fortunate that none of the medications took away the pain, for if they had, they likely would not have discovered the real threat to her life. God used her pain to bring about a means for her eventual healing. Romans 8:28 came alive before her eyes; God works all things together for good for those who are His." All things, even the worst, most painful things. For those who love Him. For those who know Him, trust Him, and by His grace, can eventually be silent before Him.

TerKeurst said something else that should speak to us all. She said that God used all her suffering to teach her that in her prayer life, she was "much too attached to outcomes," rather than yielded to Him. She had outcomes for her prayers written down on her heart and mind. It was how God should work. How He must work. She learned that all her expected outcomes had to be surrendered to Him. She wanted the pain to go away, had the Father done so, her twisted colon would have killed her. The outcome she wanted was one that would have brought her great harm. So often, the outcomes we want in our needs, situations, dangers and pain will do the same.

She took this new found knowledge to heart in her prayers about her marriage, and in time, God began a work of reconciliation between she and her husband. She surrendered the outcome to Him. She became still, and discovered anew, that He is God. Can we do the same? The outcomes in our lives may not be what we wanted at all, but He will work it all for good and the final outcome for us is yet to come. Trust Him with it. Be still. Know once more that He is God.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Track - The News

"They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord." Psalm 112:7

Author and speaker Lisa TerKeurst spoke recently of the day in which she received devastating health news. Crushing news. Shattering news. News that left her in pieces. As she confided all of what she had learned to a friend, that friend, speaking in the Spirit told her, "Lisa, you have to remember that news is not truth." News is just news, and all news, even the worst, has to bow to the reality of the One who is Truth itself.

All of us have unspoken fears concerning that which we consider being the very worst that could happen, happening. Our mate dies, or even worse, abandons us. Our children reject our Lord and our faith, and enter into a totally secular and hedonistic lifestyle. The financial stability we spent a lifetime developing is lost overnight. A ministry that once bore so much fruit, withers, dies, and is lost. When the "news" of any of these comes to us, we, like TerKeurst are just as devastated, crushed, shattered, and broken. It is then that we must know that the news we have just heard is not the Truth. I am not saying that it's all just a bad dream, though we certainly will hope that it is. What has happened is reality, but we have to stand in the the Greater Reality of the One who is bigger than all things. In the midst of the news that can literally paralyze us, we need to know this; the One who calls Himself I AM has not left us. He walks with us, fights for us, and carries us through. News is not Truth. He is Truth, and in the day of bad news, His Truth is His love that will not let us go. His Truth is the Light that shines forth in the deepest darkness. His Truth is the power that breaks the strongest chains. His Truth is of such infinite wonder that all the might of the enemies weapons and the circumstances through which he employs them, are rendered impotent before Him.

I leave you with one more thing I heard TerKeurst say. She said that the news she'd received had so crushed her that she felt like she was nothing but powder, but in that, the Father revealed a deep truth. He reminded her that He was the Potter, and that she was His clay. Clay begins as powder, and the Father adds His water of Life to that powder, turns it into clay, and molds and shapes something totally new and beautiful from it. This is Truth, and no matter what the Day of Bad News brings to us, it can't diminish it. Very likely, your day of bad news will hit you as it did TerKeurst. Maybe it's upon you now. News is not Truth. He is. You may feel like nothing more than powder. Know that if you will allow Him, He'll take your powder, and shape all of it into something new and wonderful. He is Truth, and that is exactly what the Truth does.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Mockers

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4....."Are we closing the mouths of the scoffers? We'll not do it by the truth we hold, teach, or interpret, but we can do it by what we are. By being in possession of 'the goods.' We're to embody the rest, peace, strength, and presence of Christ." T. Austin-Sparks

Scoffers, mockers, doubters of the Truth the people of God confess to holding to are everywhere. They always have been and always will be....until He returns and closes the mouths of all of them. But here is a reality for all of us; we don't have to wait until then to see it take place. It can happen now, through us, by our living in the "power of a life that cannot be destroyed." By our living in His resurrection life, which is not just some far off experience in eternity, but offered freely to all of us right now. No, we won't experience all the fullness of such life on this side of eternity, but we can experience it to the fullest extent possible in the present. It is done not by our talking about His rest, His peace, His strength, His joy, and His presence. It's done by our living to the full in all of those characteristics and more. Yet so few of us do, and the lack of the very characteristics of Christ in our own lives feeds the words and mocking of the scoffers. Why is this so? More, how can this be so? Scripture abounds with the promise that we have been given "all things in Christ." Yet in practice, in the living of our lives, so few of them show forth.

In my prayer journal, I have some other words spoken by Sparks. He said that God "is out for the manifestation of the Truth, not just its theory." Our great failing has been that we more often present to a watching world the theory of Christ and His resurrection life, and not the reality. Vance Havner said that our churches are filled with believers, but not disciples. There's a difference, and it's razor sharp. Believers accept and receive the truth of who He is. That truth lodges in their minds, but doesn't reach into their heart and soul. They believe the Truth, but that Truth has little effect upon their day to day living. So they continue to live in their own strength, dealing with life in dependence upon themselves. The result is a stressed out, anxiety ridden, weary, beaten down people. They believe in the peace, strength, joy, and presence of Christ, but they experience little if any of that in their daily lives. Why? What's missing? I believe that they've never been to the altar of God, and that altar is always found at the foot of the cross. It's there, in our surrender of our will to His, that all the power of the lies we've believed is broken by His Almighty Truth. We exchange the lie and the death it brings, for His Truth and the abundant Life He gives. It's a spiritual transaction, but too few of us are willing to make it. As a result, we never progress past the "believing stage."

Sparks says that God takes the view that, "He cannot go on with us until we are absolutely out in the open with Him. Until we have come to the place where we are perfectly honest." I remember a wonderful Scottish professor from my Bible College days, Dr.T.C. Mitchell, often admonishing his students in their walk with Him to, "Stop lying to God." We can only begin to embody His life when we stop lying to Him, running from Him, avoiding confrontation with Him.That can only end at the cross. At the cross, that all stops, and His Truth, His Life, and all that He manifests in us through that life begins. Are we ready for it to (finally) begin is us?

When we stop our lying, running, and avoiding, we will enter into a life that shows forth the wonders of His presence. A life that closes the mouths of the scoffers. Those who possess "the goods" will silence them. Have you and I the goods?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Toxins

There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God have done for you. I Corinthians 6:11

Our culture has become very health conscious these days, especially as concerns what are known as "toxins." I'm no biological expert, but my understanding is that these are man-made additives in foods that invade our bodies, and our bodies have no idea as to how to deal with them. Most often, they remain in us, acting as poisons to our system. Many Doctors recommend that we abstain from many, even all foods for a time in order to cleanse ourselves of these toxins. Large numbers of people respond to this guidance and seek to do just that as concerns their physical welfare. The question that comes to my mind is, what do we do concerning all the spiritual "toxins" that have invaded our hearts, minds, and being to this point, and only seek to increase in the future? We live in a toxic, fallen world, and it's poisons have invaded our lives. In our flesh, we have no idea of how to deal with them. How may we be "cleansed" of them? There is an answer; at the cross, at the feet of Christ. It's there we find the cleansing, the healing. It's there too, that we find the heart of the Father.

I recently heard singer Russ Taff speak of his journey to wholeness and healing in Christ. Raised by an abusive preacher/father, and equally abusive mother, Taff suffered terrible wounding to his mind and spirit. His father, because of his addiction, was forced to leave church after church. This brought rejection and deep shame to Taff. Coupled with great feelings of inadequacy, and the sense of not being "good enough," he sought fulfillment through his music. Eventually he found success and wide recognition because of it. Yet through it all, the shame and the feelings of inadequacy remained. He sought relief in alcohol, eventually becoming, as was his father, an alcoholic. All the while, he continued his singing to large crowds of believers, winning award after award. He said that he "hid" his pain and woundedness in that fame. He ran from a God he loved, but felt did not, could not love him. He hid in a lie, and lies are where we go to hide from His Truth.

Taff said he sought healing through counseling and therapy, and though it helped, it didn't really heal. The deep wounding remained. That all changed when he was asked to sing for an elderly preacher dying of cancer. As he entered the room with his guitar, he was paralyzed by what he saw. He said the man looked exactly like his abusive father. He recovered enough to sing several of the man's favorites, and this godly man then asked him to pray for him. Taff said he mumbled some kind of prayer, and then asked this dying preacher to pray for him. The man stood up, embraced him, and began to pray. As he did so, Taff broke down in tears, falling to his knees. As the man prayed, he stroked Taff's hair, and in response, Taff wept all the more. He did so because in the man's embrace, he felt, at long last, the unconditional healing love of the Father. He sensed the voice of the Father telling him to just let Him love him, and for him to receive the fullness of His love, and the healing and wholeness that came with it. As he was on his knees before that dying preacher, he knew he was also on his knees before His God, and His God received him, and healed him. On his knees, at the cross of Christ, in his brokenness, he found his healing. His wholeness. His unconditional love and acceptance.

Toxins. They've invaded all of us. Many, far too many, are living toxic lives. Lives that are poisoning us by inches. No matter how far back the invasion of those toxins have gone, there is healing to be found, received, and lived in. It's found at the cross, in the embrace of the King. In the washing of His blood. There, the poisons are cleansed. There, His great love is discovered. There it is that all of us must come. There is no toxin, no poison, that He cannot heal and cleanse. Come to His cross, kneel at His feet, enter into His embrace. Receive His healing. Be healed. Be washed. Be cleansed....right now.

Blessings,
Pastor O