Heart Tracks - The Question

"At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him. Then Jesus turned to the twelve and asked, 'Are you going to leave too?' Simon Peter replied, 'Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life.' " John 6:66-68...."Have we made the choice that no matter what, whether we see, understand, agree, or not, we are going on with God? This is faith; we put over to Him our mistakes and failures, trusting Him with all of them, and we go on." T. Austin-Sparks

At some point, Jesus' question to His disciples, and Sparks question to us, will have to asked and answered. They can't be avoided. When Jesus asked His disciples to give to Him complete devotion, regardless of the cost, most of them turned away. His demand offended them. Offended their flesh. We need to know beyond doubt that Jesus Christ will most certainly ask of us that which offends the flesh. He will also lead to places that offend us, deal with us in ways that offend us. If we have not settled what our answer is to the above questions, than we can be sure that we, as did the above disciples, will turn away at some point in the journey. Note, I didn't say we'd stop going to church, doing good works, reading the Word, or giving money. I said we'd stop following Him with all of our heart and being. The cross He has called us to pick up and join Him in carrying, will be laid aside. And we'll step aside with it.

Too many of us want to walk with Him with divided hearts. We're willing to give of ourselves up to a point. We'll give a "tithe" of our life, but not all of it. We'll be partly available, but not completely. Some part of our life will be died out to self, but not all of it. We'll retain our rights, at least in part.

I was both moved and convicted by something I read the other day from a missionary nurse in Central America. Several members of a remote village had given their hearts to Christ. They asked if they might have a pastor. A young man who'd been assisting a pastor felt called to go to them. He took his family and went, walking most of the way. A long way. Months later, the missionary nurse visited the village, and was brokenhearted at the condition of the pastor and family. The village was poor in every way. Poverty was rampant, and the pastor's family was literally starving, yet in the midst, she heard no complaint from them. The pastor, with unbounded joy, spoke of all the lives that were coming to Christ as a result of the sacrifice being made. What glory for God. What conviction for me, as I wonder if I could do as he did? I contrast this with something I heard my District Superintendent speak of a few years back. A young seminary graduate had contacted him saying he desired to come to our District and seek to reach lost souls. He wanted to go to the various local coffeehouses and seek opportunities to share Jesus with the people there. That's a noble desire. The problem is, he wanted $60,000 a year to do so. Contrast this with that young Central American pastor. Which do you think has settled the questions asked above? Which blessed the heart of Christ? And which could live in assurance that He would, even in the direst circumstances, take care of him?

The questions are before us. Before you. Before me. Have we made the decision, the choice, that no matter what the cost, the direction, or the place He calls and leads us to, we will go on with Him? Has the self life with all its ambitions and cares been crucified, so that, as Paul writes, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in (and through) me? The Holy Spirit puts the questions to us. The choice is clear. What do we choose?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Magnificent Obsession

"So no one can become My disciple without giving up everything for Me." Luke 14:33..."Nothing is truly established until it has been yielded up and received the brand of the cross upon it.....T. Austin-Sparks

One of the great joys I have is serving in the food pantry at the church I minister in. Besides the distribution of food to families in need, we get to pray individually with every person that comes in. For me, that's the best part, and yesterday might have been the most moving experience I've had.

A man, we'll call him James, came in. He was likely in his mid to late 30's, and he and his wife had 8 children, ages 3 to 16. He also had Multiple Sclerosis. He told me it was advancing at an accelerated pace. Because of his affliction, he could no longer work in the field he'd previously been in. Serving him was an honor and blessing. As I prayed with him, I had no sense that he was giving in to self-pity. His thoughts were with his wife and children, and though he didn't speak it, I knew he had to be thinking about what how his advancing disease would affect them. I sensed that the Holy Spirit spoke and touched him as we prayed. I'm hoping that I'll get to do more of the same with him the next time he comes in. I was blessed to be able to do all of that, but I was also convicted, for myself, but also for so many in the church today. Convicted of how often I, we, cannot see past our own needs and problems in order to not only see someone else, but to see Him. The problem is only increasing in this "I and me" age we live in.

We are a people obsessed with ourselves. Our problems, our needs, our desires. Obsessed with what we don't have but want. Obsessed with all that is wrong, all that is unfair, and all that should be right. In all of that, we call ourselves disciples, followers of Jesus Christ. Does it shock us that Jesus doesn't?

Can we look at Luke 14:33 again? What is the Lord saying? What does it mean to give up "everything" for Him? Somehow, we think everything doesn't really mean everything. Certainly we're allowed to keep some things, particularly our right to ourselves, along with our right to complain and bemoan our lot. Our right to be blind to so much need around us as well as blind to His presence before us. Scripture says that in the last days we would be "Lovers of self instead of lovers of God." We certainly appear to know a lot more about loving ourselves than we do of loving Him, and loving those around us who are also loved by Him. People like James are everywhere, but we don't see them. How could we when we're so taken up with ourselves?

James has a disease of the body, but we have one of the soul, and we are crippled, and crippled even more than is James. We need healing. We need deliverance from ourselves. It is found in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. He calls us to be His disciples, and that begins with a calling of ourselves, everything of ourselves, so that everything is in and of Him. That happens in one place only; the cross. When that happens, our testimony ceases to be all about us, and becomes all about Him. Has it happened in you, in me? There's a classic movie titled "Magnificent Obsession." For the believer in Christ, there can be only one such obsession, Christ Himself. Is He yours and mine. Or, does our magnificent obsession remain.....ourselves?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Closing Mouths

"And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him." Acts 3:9-10...."Are we closing the mouths of people? 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

Doubters and scoffers of the reality of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ are everywhere. They were certainly abounding in Jerusalem after His resurrection. Many, indeed, most of them were found in the "church." What has happened in the above passage from Acts 3 is that Peter and John, on the way to worship at the Temple, had, in the name of Christ, imparted healing to a cripple who had sat at the gate of the Temple for as long as anyone could remember. Many there that day knew who it was that they said they represented, Jesus the Messiah. Few actually believed them, or the Messiah they represented. Then, relying on His grace and power alone, they spoke healing into this long crippled man, and the result was that the scoffing, doubting, even ridicule, was silenced. All they could do was look on in wonder and amazement. Christ had manifested His resurrection power through the lives of two men who a few years before had been simple fishermen. They had a powerful effect and witness upon all who were there that day. It was the expectation of not only they, but their Lord, that they should. He has the same expectation of all of us who take His name. Do we share it? Are His expectations being realized in our life and witness?

It's been going on 50 years now since it happened, but it still resonates in my heart. I had dropped out of college for a year to earn money for tuition. When I returned, I encountered a young woman I had known during my previous time on campus. Back then she'd been a drug addled, loose living hippie girl. I remembered that her eyes had always been vacant, kind of glazed over, just like my own. What I saw that day was not that. Before me was a young, vibrant, beautiful girl whose eyes shown with light and life. I, like those who beheld the crippled man's healing, was amazed and astounded. She shared with me that she'd come to know Christ, that she was no longer enslaved by drugs and sex. She was free, and from her emanated not only the fruits of His life, but His life itself. While my stubborn heart would not accept what she shared at that time, it also could not deny the reality of what she shared. She embodied what Sparks spoke of, His rest, peace, strength, and presence. Her witness to me that day played a huge role in my own entrance into that reality five years later. I remember little of what she shared verbally, but I remember all that she shared in her spirit and countenance. She had, as Sparks says, "the goods." Do we? Do you?

The world has been dying since the fall in the Garden for such displays of His life. He has chosen to, in the main, show forth those displays through His people. If you are one of them today, how consistently is He able to do so through you? That dying world is not much interested in the Scriptures we've memorized, the attendance trophies we've won, or how grand are the buildings we've built to meet in. They are interested in seeing life, His life, real life, being lived out before them. Such lives will close the mouths of the scoffers and doubters, and though many will never become His, some, like me, will. To that crippled man at the Temple gate, a man who sought a gift of money, Peter said, "Silver and gold have we none, but what we do have, we give to you. Rise and walk." He has entrusted that same resurrection power to those who are His. What He's entrusted us with make silver and gold look like cheap trinkets. We too, can speak to a crippled world, "Rise and walk," because we have lives that prove to them that He has done exactly that in us. We are called to speak it. We are called to live it. How well are we embodying either today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Foolishness?

"Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never know Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe." I Corinthians 1:21...."The secret of America's greatness is in the righteousness being declared from her pulpits." Alexis de tocqueville...."Where are the gut-wrenching holiness messages, the assaulting of sin and compromise from the pulpits?" John Burton

Alexis de tocqueville was a Frenchmen who traveled throughout America in the early 19th century to try and discover just what it was that set this young, vibrant nation apart from the rest of the world. He saw many wonderful things in the existing society, but what moved him the most was the message of righteousness being preached in the churches, the effect of which salted all of the society and culture. He didn't say it was a perfect society. It was not. He didn't deny the flaws, which existed. Yet he saw America as a whole as a nation that was at its heart, good. He saw that goodness as having its source in the message that was coming from the pulpits of her churches across the land. Can we ask, where is that message today? Once the church was seen as completely relevant to the culture surrounding it. Now "experts" tell us that we have become irrelevant to it. If this is so, dare we ask if its the result of our message having become irrelevant as well? Do we even have a message at all? If we do, where are we seeing the impact of that in our culture? If we do, why has our culture fallen into the state that it has?

I have been hearing the mantra of "We need to change our methods, not our message." I have no problem with that, except that I see more evidence that along with the needed change in our methods, we have added the unneeded change in our message, and are suffering the consequences of that everywhere.

More and more voices are devaluing the ministry of the pulpit. Preaching is no longer seen as the primary call of a pastor. The pastor has become first a CEO, a facilitator, a motivator, a corporate leader instead of a spiritual one. I once discussed this with a spiritual mentor of mine who reminded me of our denomination's decision to place the pulpit in the very center of the platform. This was to symbolize that the preached Word was to be central to all that took place in the church. Upon my ordination in 1987, Dr. Charles Strickland, himself a gifted proclaimer of the Word, said to me, "There are strange winds blowing through the church. Preach the Word!" If such was needed then, how much more now?

John Burton's above words should convict us all. Where is the holiness preaching that consistently brings conviction of our sin and compromise? How extensively has it been replaced by messages that tell us how we can have more contentment, more happiness, more of the blessed life? Burton said that the call of church leadership is not to confirm people's salvation, but to challenge it. In the "average church," and "average" ought never to be applied to any church, is this happening.....at all?

Our culture is a very long way from what de tocqueville observed. Yes, there are stains upon our history. Slavery perhaps the deepest, but how many even know that it was the church that was the strongest voice against it in this nation, and in England, that was steeped in the slave trade until God came against it through His church. Our culture has become a cesspool, and we fail Him by our failure to not only address it in the culture, but our failure to address how that very culture has infiltrated the church. Are we ready to cry out, "Enough!" Are we ready to be foolish once more?

The strange winds that Dr. Strickland spoke of are still blowing, harder than ever. How do we respond? Hold another meeting? Speak of helping a person to have better self-esteem? Comfort people in their sin and disobedience? Or do we, as he said, preach the Word, without fear of the consequences. Without fear of offense. Trusting God to honor and bless. And once again, to be salt and light in a dying world.....and perhaps a dying church.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Realistic Way

"You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Mark 8:33....."Is Jesus naive about the ways of the world? No, we're naive about the way of the Kingdom." Chris Tiegreen....."There are no crown - wearers in heaven who were not cross - bearers here below." Charles Spurgeon

In the above Scripture, Jesus has told His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to die upon a cross. This shocked his listeners, none more so than Peter. Jesus was in the midst of a wonderful, miracle working ministry. He was the Messiah. Why in the world would He allow such a fate to be His? Peter, who was sure He had a better perspective on everything than did his Lord, took Jesus aside to explain to Him what he was sure was a more realistic way. Jesus' response was to preface His above reply in Mark 8:33 by saying to Peter, "Get behind Me Satan." Two questions; can we imagine how that reply/rebuke would have sounded to Peter? Secondly, how often have we been guilty of doing the same with Him as did Peter?

Christ's way made no sense to Peter's flesh. His way never does. Our flesh will rise up against it every time. Every time, so long as we live and operate in our flesh, we will dispute, not come. Not die. Every time we do so, we will have the interests of our flesh, and the devil who operates through it, at the forefront. We're sure our way is the better one. We're sure He must be mistaken. We don't want His way, and we certainly don't want the cross, His cross, that He leads us to. We desire the resurrection life He promises, but we don't want to have to die in order to lay hold of it. There must be an easier, less costly way, and that's the way we want. So we go on...in our flesh...in our weakness....and in our defeat. We may strive valiantly, but in the end, we are overcome. The more realistic way becomes what it has always been....the way of death.

Where are we disputing, rather than coming, yielding, dying today? So many keep "bumping up" against the same sin, the same crippling habit or addiction, behavior, or attitude. Jesus Christ's answer to all of it is His cross. Our flesh is sure there is a better, more realistic way, so we continue the bumping up, and we never rise up in His life. We keep taking Jesus aside, whereas He calls us apart.

There are always two ways before us; what we think is the realistic way, and His way, which will always lead to a cross, which leads to resurrection life right now. In John 6, Jesus presented to His followers the spiritual ultimatum that if they were to follow Him, they like Him, must choose the way of the cross. Scripture tells us that most of them did not continue to follow. He presented His Way. They chose what they saw as a more realistic one. As He presents the choice to you today, what do you choose? Do you seek to to take Him aside, or worse, choose to go no further? Or do you come, as you are, with all that you are, as He calls you apart....and out from?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Praying Through

"Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass." Psalm 37:5....."A man quietly reading a newspaper may not look as pious as a man on his knees in prayer. But if he has committed his way unto the Lord and left it with Him, while he calmly moves on to something else, he is a better Christian than one who never leaves his way with the Lord but is always trying to." Vance Havner

Why do we find it so hard to actually live out the command, and it is a command, and a promise too, of the above Scripture? Why are we so often much more like the man on his knees, constantly seeking peace and rest, than we are the man with the newspaper, actually living in His peace and rest? Why can we not reach the place that we know we want to reach? What's the blockage? Does God just dangle His promised rest before us like a carrot on a stick? Of course not, but so few of us ever enter into the fullness of that rest. We're in the main, an anxious, stressed out, weary people. Why does His promise not bear fruit in us?

I think the answer is found in how we approach this promise, and how we pray it. First off, we seem far more familiar with all that works against the fulfillment of His promises than we are of experiencing their fullness. They seem to just be too good to be true for this fallen world we live in. More than that, I think we know little of what it is to "cast our burden upon the Lord," and what is involved in that. Casting involves effort on our part, and I'm not speaking of a works kind of effort, but an effort of our will. By God's grace, our will is yielded fully to His. We let go, completely, and surrender the burden, all of the burden, to Him. We do this at the cross. We give to Him all that robs us of His peace, we spiritually nail it to His cross. It is now His, and subjected to all the power of the cross, His blood, and His resurrection. What's been surrendered is rendered powerless there, and it can oppress us no longer. Coming to this place in Him is by way of prayer, and we have to realize the enemy is going to do everything in his power to prevent it. He will do all he can to oppress us and rob us of His peace. All those obstacles will fall as we press on and through them in grace empowered prayer. Christians of an earlier time called this "praying through." Praying through all the blockages to our laying hold of that which He's promised. In our "instant results" culture, this spiritual discipline is fast disappearing. Along with His promised rest. But if we will do this, we will lay hold of His fullness, of His rest, and the grace to trust as He works, and He always works, to bring us to the place He desires for us.

Where in our lives is unrest prevailing? Right before us, in Him, is the fulfillment of His promise. Commit, trust, rest. The adversaries to having this from Him are many, but if we determine to "pray though" them, we will have His peace because He has us and all that concerns us. There is so much to be anxious about today. There is only One who can release us from that bondage. There will be blockages to reaching Him, but He has given us all the grace needed to persevere, to pray through them all. If we will commit our way to the One who is the Way, we will know and experience His rest, live in believing trust and faith, and see Him bring to pass all the fullness of His will for our lives. Praying through to Him is a matter of of the will, being determined that we will have Him, all that is Him, all the while having what is not Him cleansed from our lives. Our flesh desires to be anywhere but at the foot of the cross, but its there, and only there, that we find the fullness of His Life. We die to all that is not Him in us, and come alive to all that is His Life. We don't struggle to find peace, we are peace, in Him. May this be our testimony. May this be our life.

Blessings,
Pastor O

  

Heart Tracks - Real

Come, let us reason together, says the Lord." Isaiah 1:18....."The Bible is not a book to carry around and read for information on God, but a voice to listen to." Anonymous

If you look at the full context of Isaiah 1, you may think I've chosen a strange verse to feature. The Father is speaking to a generation of His people Israel who have forsaken Him, embraced a lifestyle of rebellion and sin, and whose hearts are far from Him. He is justifiably angry, yet at the same time, His heart longs for them to come to Him, with all that they are, sin and rebellion included, "and reason together" with Him. He wants relationship and intimacy with them, and to be able to give them a new, fresh revelation of who He is. John Eldredge once said, "I want Jesus. The real Jesus." In His constant call to us, it is His desire that we know Him, in all aspects of who He is. The real Father, real Son, and real Holy Spirit.

I once read that the Hebrew word for "Bible" translates to "to call." Personally, that impacts my heart. It's so easy to see the Bible and the "study" of it as an exercise in information gathering. Whether individually or in a group setting, we can fall into having nothing more than discussions on what we think the Bible says, all the while missing what He is saying through it. So much of what we call "Bible study" is nothing more than this. Jesus Christ is the Word made Life, and the Bible is His Living Word. Simply put, the Bible is not merely nice words of wisdom printed in ink on paper. It is God breathed revelation and it is filled with Himself. All of it is a call to our hearts to come to Him, reason with Him, listen to Him, and be ministered life by Him. If we really knew and believed this, our Bibles would cease being "that book gathering dust on the table," one we know we should read, but rarely have the desire to do so, to being a means of partaking of His Life. If we knew this, preachers and teachers would have to cease almost begging people to read it. All, including those very preachers and teachers, would come hungry for the bread of His Life that is found in those neglected pages.

There's a chilling verse in the Old Testament that relates how the people of that day had hearts that had wandered very far from the Lord. It reads, "Word from the Lord was rare." For too many of us, it is the same. We may diligently be going to church, paying our tithes, even dutifully reading our Bible, but actually hearing Him, relating to Him, growing deeper in Him, is rare. Our physical bodies may not have wandered far from organized church services, but our hearts have drifted far from Him. His Word and Presence have little impact on our day to day living. We may not be in open rebellion and sin, but we are missing the real Three in One God revealed in His Word, and that He longs to make real in our lives. So here's a penetrating question for each of us; when was the last time you picked up a Bible, read it, and heard His voice and heart? More, when was the last time you actually expected to?

Whatever spiritual state you may be in today, He calls to you. He invites you, me, all of us, to come to Him, talk, reason, and yes, question Him. He doesn't fear that, because when we do, He is faithful to respond. He may not explain all, reveal all, but He will give of Himself. He will give us His heart and His Life. The call of His Word leads us to His heart, leads us to pray, leads us to worship Him. We move from practicing a religion to experiencing intimate relationship. He calls us to come, open His Word as He opens His heart. His is a Voice to listen to. How deeply do we desire to listen? How clearly do we even hear?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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