Heart Tracks - The Foolish Cross

"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." I Corinthians 1:18...."The cross is a picture of violence, yet the key to peace; a picture of suffering, yet the key to healing; a picture of death, yet the key to life." David Watson...."Unbelievers will one day be ashamed of the things they have laughed at, and we will one day be grateful for looking like fools." Chris Tiegreen

What role does the cross of Christ play in your life? What role has it in your marriage, family, relationships, profession, and ministry? Is everything of yourself and all that makes for yourself brought to it, nailed to it? Has your old life really ended there, and your new one in Him begun? Is it real to you, or just a decoration on the wall of your church or home, if indeed it's even physically visible in either?

The message of the cross has always been and will always be "foolishness" to all those who reject Him. That is a tragedy which has eternal consequences. Yet an even greater tragedy is that it is becoming foolishness in some parts of the church. A friend of mine attends what would be considered a "good and growing church." Yet he tells me that he can't remember the last time he heard a message preached on the cross, and the power and life that is found there. Messages on how to have a better marriage, communication, contentment in your life, yes, they abound. But the message, the full message of the cross? No.

Jesus said, His Word says, that the cross is an offense to the flesh. It exposes our central need; freedom from sin, and tells us that there is no other way to that freedom but through Christ and His cross. This offends our sinful flesh, which is sure it can find its own way to God through its own efforts, and bypass the cross. The cross tells us that we can't. That we never will. The cross does not draw flesh centered crowds, but it will draw, does draw, those who are His. Jesus said that when He is lifted up, He will draw us to Himself. He was first lifted up on the cross, and then in His resurrection. We want that resurrection life, but we don't want the cross that is the only path to that life.

The moving away from the message of the cross is not new. It's happened periodically throughout the history of the church. I first began hearing it back in the 80's, when at a seminar I was told that its message was a negative one that people would only be driven from. They needed to be wooed through other means, fleshly means. Soon that meant that we needed to make our churches "people friendly," and pastors and leaders were advised to not display crosses at all, as they made people uncomfortable and carried a "negative message." So the cross being the "key" to peace, healing, and life was a little heard message, while just believing Jesus was a doorway to the good and pleasant life our flesh so craves. A Jesus message that contains no cross of Jesus.

Has the message of the cross become foolish to you? Has it become foolish to the fellowship of which you're a part? Has it always been so? Do you remember a time when it wasn't? The cross will indeed offend our fallen nature, but it beckons to the yearning for His Life that is in all of us. It is the path, the only path, to the death and burial of our old, fallen life, and the beginning and endless riches of His risen one. Then we learn that the foolish cross is, and has always been, the power of God, as well as His wisdom.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Awakened!

For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14

Recently, one of the literature releases that my denomination produces put forth some very concerning facts. The large majority of those currently serving as pastors are 50 years old or more. The average age of pastors was not the central point of the article, but it was what struck my heart. Last week, a good pastor friend and I were talking about that article, and most especially about how few young pastors there were, and the number only looked to be decreasing in the future. We both wondered as to where the younger voices of the church will be coming from. More, why were so few of them being raised up? Who is it that will speak for Him to a church and culture that is in desperate need of Him? Who will be His prophetic voice? Has He stopped seeking such, or, is it really a matter that too few are any longer listening? My friend said that we desperately need revival, and we do. Yet the word I think that speaks even more clearly to the need is "awakening." We need an awakening. We need to awaken from our sleep. We need a new generation of prophetic voices to arise from the dead that they might then speak to those still dead....with the message of His resurrection life.

Maybe a great part of our problem stems from our starting to see pastors and preachers more as leaders, builders, managers, and marketers. As CEO's rather than prophetic voices of and for His Kingdom. We started to become more about meetings, strategy sessions, buildings and attendance growing than about being Kingdom voices. We gathered more for "brainstorming" than we did for prayers that stormed heaven. We know well each other hearts, what we think and want to say. We're missing His heart and what He's saying. So what's being heard are our voices, and what's being missed is His. If I'm even partly right about this, is it any wonder that a generation sits in our sanctuaries each week and then leaves, not really hearing His voice, and certainly missing His call. They can hear what we're saying. They can't hear Him. They know the sound of our voice. They've never learned the sound of His.

We are past time for an awakening in the heart of His Church, for a mighty move of God upon His people. Some say it is too late. I disagree. Michael Brown spoke to this recently via a You Tube video. He portrayed the spiritual condition of England prior to the great Wesleyan revival of the 18th century. Drunkenness and debauchery were openly practiced throughout the nation. Hundreds upon hundreds of newborn babies were abandoned in the streets of London. Parents, addicted to drink, sold their children to public workhouses, where the majority were worked to death and never reached adolescence. Into this darkness, God sent men, voices, like George Whitfield, John Wesley and his brother Charles. They spoke into the deep darkness with His voice, and into that darkness came His Light, and out of it, His Life. England was transformed. It was said that in the coal mines of Wales, donkey's used to carry coal out of the mines had to be retrained, for they had only ever heard the curses of the men who handled them. Such men's hearts, minds and tongues had been transformed. And it started with three men, and hundreds more unnamed just like them.

Those voices of His Kingdom are as needed now as they were then. Young, middle-aged or older, will you be among them? And you don't have to fill a pulpit to be one. Are you weary enough of hearing what men have to say? Do you hunger for the voice of God? More than 2500 hundred years ago, God spoke the words "Who will go for us?" The prophet Isaiah heard that voice, and then became His voice to a lost generation. And he wasn't alone. God calls today in that same voice and with the same words. Do you hear? Will you come, and then, will you go? Or, do you have another meeting to attend?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Bread And Fish?

67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. John 6:67-68..."If we focus too much of our attention on what people want, we will only increase the amount of complaining. The more we try to fulfill their desires, the more they complain when their desires are not met." Francis Chan

Have you ever noticed that Jesus had no problem drawing "followers" so long as He was giving out good "bread and fish." Or dispensed miracles of healing, provision and restoration. But when He made a statement that required whole and complete devotion to Himself, a willingness to come to the same cross He would die upon, these followers turned away in droves. He was left with the twelve, and pointedly asked whether they would leave Him as well?

There has been a subtle but steady move of the church to be "need meeting communities." Identify needs in the culture and then seek to meet those needs in response to them. Let me say that this certainly needs to be part of the role and work of the Body of Christ, but it is not central to it. The providing of bread and fish meets a need, but it doesn't meet "The Need;" that of the transformational life of Christ laying hold of us, and working its wonder within and without. It is so easy to hear the culture tell us what it wants and try to give it that. The underlying hope is that when we do, they will be open then to the "deeper message of the cross." The problem is that we get bogged down in trying to minister to the temporal, and only touch the surface of the spiritual and eternal. We can't transition to that deeper message because the people won't allow it. They're focused on the bread and fish. They don't see, are blind to, their need for the Bread and Water of His Life. Worse, the pressure only increases on the leadership of the church to continue to minister to the flesh, for if they don't, they fear the people will leave....and find a church that will.

Jesus ministered to thousands, and great crowds followed Him everywhere. Yet when He told them that they could not be His disciples unless they "ate His flesh and drank His blood," He was left with the twelve. The crowd wasn't confused about what He was asking for. They knew He was commanding and demanding a total, surrendered devotion to Himself. They wanted the good bread and fish, they weren't looking for that. The disciples remained. Why? They did so because they saw beyond the provision and the miracles. They knew He spoke words of life. They knew they couldn't find that anywhere else but in Him. That meant more than the bread, fish, and miracles. It meant everything. Does it mean everything to you and me?

Prioritizing ministering to peoples "felt needs" is a double-edged sword. It can be effective while also being destructive. No church can ever keep up with all of them, and, as Chan says, the complaints will be angry and loud when they can't. Jesus was willing to risk losing, and did lose, the bread and fish people in order to proclaim the whole message of the gospel. Are we, in this generation of bread and fish consumption, willing to do the same? People may well leave, likely will leave, but I believe He will, in response, raise up a generation of those with the heart of the twelve. Can we believe that? Can we trust Him in that? Bread and fish, or words of life? Which is our focus?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Crisis Worship

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-34....."God is looking for those who will worship Him not only in spirit and in truth, but also in crisis." Chris Tiegreen...."Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds." Thomas Benton Brooks

What do you think of when you hear the word "worship?" Sunday mornings and church platforms filled with singers and instrumentalists? Choirs raising their voices together in beautiful harmonies? Maybe it's the invitation to prayer, to gathering at the altar and bringing Him your burdens. Perhaps it's the reading of His Word, and the expounding of it from the pulpit. Maybe it's all of these, and it is all of these. But it is more than all of these. Worship of Him is not something we go to. Worship of Him is to be what marks our lives. To worship Him is to be intimately engaged with Him. Not just when we feel all the "elements" that make for it are present, but even when none of them are. Most especially, even when we are exhausted emotionally and physically, and spiritually spent. This is something of what it is to worship Him "in spirit and in truth."

We live in a fallen world, and its effects are going to be seen in all aspects of our emotional, physical, and spiritual lives. Every day is not a good day. Many can be bad ones. Some can be the worst ones. In those times we can fall victim to following our feelings rather than His Spirit. We can seek relief, escape, from other sources rather than the One who is our only Source. What is our response when the atmosphere, the music and singing, the voices and all that go with them are missing? What do we do when all of that is missing, as well as the feelings that can go with them, and all that is left is Him....and us? What do we do in the impossible place, the deadly threat, the place of crisis, where all seems a matter of life and death? Where it may well be a matter of life and death. Can we, in that place, in all places, worship Him?

I remember as a young preacher, hearing the wonderful Dr. Charles Strickland tell the story of another young pastor. A story of tragedy and worship. The man was driving with his family in the midst of a tremendous storm. Alongside the road ran a river, and as he drove on, the rain intensified and suddenly before him the road washed out, and his car was carried over the side and into the raging waters. Somehow, the man escaped the car, but he could not reach his wife and two daughters within, and the current carried them away to their deaths. I will never forget how Dr. Strickland framed the aftermath of that. The young preacher made his way to the banks and in the mud and mire, made an altar. In the shock, sorrow, and loss, he worshiped His God. With a sorrow felt beyond words, he worshiped. In the midst of the most terrible loss he could experience, he worshiped. That may be the clearest picture ever of what it is to worship Him "in spirit and in truth."

You and I will face our times of crisis. Likely many times. Can we worship Him there? In the loss of everything, can we still see through the pain, the tears, and all the emotions that come with them, and see Him? Can we, in that place, build our own altar to Him....and worship?

I love when the people of God come together and worship Him. When all the elements of what we call "worship" come together. Yet through the years I have discovered that my sweetest times of worship have been when it was only He and I, together. Times that often had the presence of loss, pain, sorrow. Times when I had to bring all of that to Him, build an altar there, and worship Him. In those places of crisis, there are only two things we can do; surrender to the feelings, or surrender them all to Him....in worship. Which will you be most inclined to do?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Dying Before Dying

"For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21...."Only believers obey and only the obedient believe." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A fellow pastor posted this story from one of his devotional readings the other day. When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the captain of the transport ship sought to turn him back. As the long boat bobbed in the green waters, ready to row the small party ashore, the captain called out, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” Calvert looked up from the long boat and ended all discussion with a simple reply, “We died before we came here.”

What an inspiration! What a life lived out for Him! How much do you and I really know about such a life? Where is the witness of Paul's words in Philippians 1:21 shining through in us?

The term "wrestling with God" has become very popular in church circles. We like to think of ourselves like Jacob at Peniel, engaged in a great struggle with the Lord until finally, we yield. We tend to think of this as very spiritual, but as Richard Blackaby writes, "It sounds deceptively spiritual......we misguidedly believe we can do something as ludicrous as grapple with our Creator." Too many of us enter into "the ring" with God on a daily basis and over almost anything. Anything that our flesh is reluctant to undertake...to surrender to...to obey Him in. In those places where we fight Him, we like to say that "He's been speaking to me about that." In other words, the Father is making suggestions to us, hoping we'll listen and follow them. What we're really doing is justifying our disobedience, seeing it as our "just not being ready for that." It's not the sin of disobedience, it's just that we haven't come to the right place yet....we're wrestling with Him over it all. As Blackaby says, that's deceptively spiritual. We've been deceived if that's our line of reason.

That's why the story of James Calvert cuts to the quick. The islanders that Calvert and his party went to were indeed dangerous beyond words. Many were those they had already killed. Yet Calvert and the rest could go to them because they had already died to the fears, the dangers, and all the possibilities that went with them. They were not afraid of death because they had truly died to all its power over them before they would ever set foot on that shore. I'm reminded of what someone said about the fearless apostle Paul after he had been stoned, left for dead, and his body carried outside the city he had been ministering in. Miraculously, he stood up, and walked back into that city again, and preached the truth of the gospel anew. They said, "What is there to fear when you've already died and walked away?" Death could not keep him because it could not keep His Lord Jesus Christ. Neither can it, or its threat keep you and me.

Danger abounds in this fallen world we walk through. Yet for each who are His, He has called us with a purpose. That purpose will have "many dangers, toils and trials." Many will threaten our very lives. Even the lives of those we love. What will we do in response? Wrestle with Him over whether we will obey? Come up with some reasons for our disobedience that sound very spiritual to our flesh, but are sin in His eyes? Or will we like Paul, Calvert, Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries, and countless other martyrs, "Die before we die?" Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged naked on a meathook by the Nazi's, but he had died to all before he died on that gibbet. Every threat, ever danger, every fear, has its power broken when we die out to their grip on us, and are held instead in the grip of His love and life. Resurrection life over which the threat of death has no power. That threat could not hold Him. It will not hold us. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Can we not only say that.....can we live that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Grasshoppers?

Numbers 13:25-33....Moses had sent out 12 spies to explore the land God had given the people of Israel. Caleb and Joshua saw all the wonders of God's gifting to them. The other 10 saw only the difficulties and hardships of receiving those gifts. Caleb and Joshua saw who they were in Him. The 10 only saw themselves without Him. What they saw were themselves as grasshoppers......Eugene Peterson said, "Don't let the church you desire become the enemy of the church you have." To that I would add, don't let the life and ministry you desire become the enemy of the life and ministry God has given you.

Have you ever thought upon all the times you've sung or testified about how God was "more than enough" in any situation? Have you ever dwelt upon all the times you told someone else that all they really needed was Him? In short, have you ever realized how often you and I have magnified Him with our words but minimized Him with our lives? Of how that has really become a character trait in us? I have, and it shames me. It shames all of us.

In his book "Unlimiting God," Richard Blackaby tells of an experience he had as young preacher in his first pastorate. It was a Sunday summer morning, and as can so often be, many people of his already small congregation were missing, among them both his pianist and worship leader. Adding to that, he had a couple visiting for the first time. By appearance alone, he could tell that these were professional people, and he was sure that they were used to and expected the very best in everything, and his church would be no exception. As the service began, he was acutely aware of his fellowship's seeming lack. He began to make excuses for the sparse attendance and use of back-up workers. His spirit plunged downward, and he doubted these visitors would ever come back, if they even remained for the entire service. He writes, "I felt self-consciously that our modest church had nothing to offer these sophisticated guests. The Spirit whispered to my soul, 'Don't ever be embarrassed about representing your Lord. If you speak for Him in front of thousands of people or you talk about Him to a prisoner in a jail cell, it is an undeserved honor." He reminded me that I had an almighty God's power at my disposal whether I had a two hundred voice choir backing me up or was leading a small Bible study in an apartment building." When I first read this account, I was cut to the quick. I wrote in the margin of the book; "How often have I been guilty of this same thing? Lord, forgive me." Why is it, whether as concerns our corporate gatherings or our day to day challenges, encounters, and testings, that we don't feel God is enough at all? Why do we feel a lack? Why do we think we need something more? Why do we always feel like grasshoppers when the Almighty God of the universe has promised to stand with us? Oh, and as concerns the couple? After Blackaby heard the voice of the Lord, he preached a message empowered by His Spirit. That couple returned the next week, and every one thereafter. They told him what stood out to them above all else was that they had heard and encountered God in his message that first morning.

I identify completely with Blackaby, because I have been in that place so many times. I have felt like the ten far more than I have Caleb and Joshua. I have too often seen my lack, my church's lack, than I have seen His endless sufficiency. I have seen my resources while missing the One who is my Source. I know I'm not enough. My failure has been to not know that He is more than enough. In every place and in everything, He is more than enough. Abundantly more.

Have our fears and feelings of inadequacy kept us from hearing the same Spirit that Blackaby heard? Have we forgotten that He has entrusted us with not only His message, but with His Life and Presence? To be His witnesses? Have we lost sight of the great honor He has given us in representing Him anyplace and anywhere, no matter who and how many might be listening and seeing us? Are you guilty as I've been guilty? Can we confess it, repent of it, and move out anew in Him?

The enemy and the world system he operates in are masters in making us feel like grasshoppers. God calls us His mighty men and women of faith. Wherever we are, He's entrusted us with Himself; His life, His presence, His reputation. No greater honor could be given us. In ourselves, we're all inadequate. In Him, we are more than enough for any challenge. Know that today. Walk in that today. Let the grasshopper become the giant today....in Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Life Finds A Way

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:10
....."Take hold of the life that is truly life." I Timothy 6:19

We live in the midst of a world system where the actions of the thief get all the attention. We see the destruction wrought by him, the lives ruined, families and churches broken apart. We have fully entered into the time when the Bible says that "evil will be called good, and good evil." It would be easy to look upon all of this and lose heart. Many have. Many have accepted that the battle has been lost, and that all that is left for them is to await the ending of their lives and their entrance into His eternity. This is not biblical. As long as we draw breath as the people of God, we have purpose. His purpose. And there is hope, there is a future, and above all, there is life. His life.

What I write today was spurred by a line I heard in the movie "Jurassic Park." Jeff Goldblum's character is arguing against the man-made manufacturing of modern day dinosaurs by scientific means. Those doing so were convinced they could control all the elements involved and eliminate all risks. Goldblum's character differed. He believed that the very fact of their being alive was greater than all the controls science sought to establish, saying, "Life finds a way."
When he spoke that line, I was immediately reminded of Jesus' words in John 10:10. The enemy fully believes he is in control of the events of this world. Of your world and mine. Stealing, killing, destroying, he believes he can do all of this without limits......to you, to me, to all. He sees no possibility of anything else. Into all of it comes the One who is Life itself. The One His Word says is the "Author of Life." Into the seeming impossibility of countering the works of darkness and hell, comes the One who is greater than all of it. He comes into it with His Life, and if we will receive it, we will find, in the midst of the destruction, His Life finds a way.

Can the proof of this be any more clearly seen than in His resurrection? At the cross, the enemy thought he'd won. In the tomb, the enemy was sure he'd won. His stealing, killing, destroying was at the forefront. But in His resurrection, all of that fell at His feet. The enemy was crushed. Life found a way. Life finds a way. His Life will always find a way. Can you believe that?

Throughout His Word, Old Testament and New, we see again and again the power of His Life breaking through. Breaking through darkness, death, and every circumstance that goes with them. Can you believe that His Life will do the same for you? He doesn't promise that He will remove us from the circumstances of our lives, but He does promise to break through them with His Life, Joy, Peace, and Hope. In the poverty of our surrounding, we can have an abundance of His Life. We can have it now. His Life finds a way. Will you allow it to find its way to you?

Blessings,
Pastor O