Which Sense?

 "Didn't I tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God." John 11:40....."Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him?......"Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams He will not stand by us." Oswald Chambers

Oswald's quotes bring me to a question that confronts us all; in what do we really trust in? Our own common sense, which is natural to us, or in His Spirit sense, which comes not from ourselves, but from His Holy Spirit? The first is so natural to us that we move in it easily. We depend on rational reason, logic, and our understanding. Our flesh will always be in quick agreement with our common sense. The latter can only function in our lives through the fullness of His Holy Spirit. It is not natural to us and so it must be cultivated over time. His Spirit will lead us in this, but the process will involve confrontational trust. Confrontational because as Chambers says, our common sense will tell us that to trust Him is the height of foolishness. Common sense sees only the visible, and makes decisions based on what it sees and understands. Spirit sense tells us to trust in what He has promised, even though it completely conflicts with what we see and understand in ourselves. Spirit sense tells us that though everything shouts that nothing is there to hold onto, He is there, and His grip on us will not loosen. And He will get us to where He has willed us to go.

I fear that the professing church has lost the ability to have true spiritual sight. The proof in this is how easily deceived so many of God's people are. It comes out in our choices in every aspect of life. We have failed to heed the Scriptural warning, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is death." Common sense, trust in our own faculties almost always chooses the way that seems right, and rarely seems to see the death and destruction lurking behind these choices.

We are living in times that require spiritual sight to a degree few of us have ever experienced before. All that we hear and see in the natural must be measured against what His Spirit is seeing and speaking that is beyond the surface. Then we must be willing to risk all in the belief that what the Holy Spirit says is real can be trusted. Fully trusted. We are willing to be called foolish by the world, and even by some in the church, because we "see" and "hear" a voice that doesn't speak to us through reason and logic, but through His discernement, wisdom, and understanding.

Many times in the New Testament, it was written of Paul that he "perceived" certain things about people and situations that were not perceived by anyone else. Perhaps the greatest example of this was the voyage to Rome detailed in the book of Acts. The weather was very favorable, and everyone on board, from captain on down, thought it pointed to a safe voyage. Everyone but Paul, who told them that to embark would result in disaster. He was ignored, and shipwreck was the result. But even in the shipwreck, he heard the voice of promise that God would save the lives of all on board. His witness was sealed by his words to the others which were, "And I believe it will happen just as He has told me." Such faith, sight, and hearing is in desperate need today in His church. Will you and I walk in that sense of things? Will we depend on His Holy Spirit sense, or our own sense....and suffer shipwreck as a result?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Deceived

 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6 "The truth tellers of God need to be able to recognize falsehood.....The heart of the believer needs to be well trained in seeing deception." Chris Tiegreen

Discernment. Wisdom. Understanding. These are spiritual giftings that the church is meant to possess in abundance but instead is suffering from a distinct lack of all three. The proof of this can be seen everywhere. It can be seen in what we choose for entertainment, for leisure, politics, social and cultural issues, and perhaps most important of all, who and what we are listening to in the church itself.

The Father, speaking through one of His prophets in the Old Testament said, "My people are drunk on a spirit of deception." The Israelites, who had been given God's law and truth through Moses, and a succession of prophets who followed him, had wandered far from that law and truth. They had wandered into spiritual deception, so that they now worshiped false gods, listened to false prophets, and chose to believe a myriad of lies. As God said through the prophet Hosea, His people were being destroyed for lack of knowledge. Read that as a lack of His wisdom, His discernment, and His understanding. I believe that the western church in the 21st century is following closely in their footsteps. If we continue, we shall surely suffer destruction.

How can such a thing be true about the people of God? His word and truth are more freely available here than any other place on earth. Christian themed literature is abundantly available, as is His revealed word in the Bible, and in a large array of translations. Yet sitting in our pews and even filling our pulpits are those who have been wooed away by lies whose origin is found in the bowels of hell. We are seeing the authority and truth of Scripture being first questioned, and then denied. We are being led not by His truth, but by our emotional response to it. The result is that our emotions and not His Word are what lead us. We are looking at His church, the culture around us, and even our own hearts, through emotion, human logic and reason, and choosing ways that seem right to them, and us, but which His word promises will lead to ruin.

Charlatans, political, cultural, and spiritual are arising everywhere. We, who should be functioning as watchmen on the walls, warning of the deep danger, are ourselves often blind to their lies and ways. They do sound appealing and attractive. Because we don't run them through the filter of His Word, and because we lack the spiritual "radar" of discernment, wisdom and understanding, we are wooed into deception, and the eventual tragic results that will follow.

John Bunyan, the great reformer said, "The truths I know best I have learned on my knees." I think we have grown very far from being a people who live on their knees. Because of that, the spiritual senses so desperately needed these days is lacking. Deception has come in like a flood. Not just upon the world, but His church as well. All of us, from the pulpit to the pew, need a fresh move of His Spirit, bringing back our dulled spiritual senses, and once again walking in His wisdom and understanding. Everything depends on this. So everything then depends on us.....and finally on you, and on me. Let us not be deceived as to who the enemy is, how he operates, and who he operates through. Where we have been blind and deaf, may we cry out to Him, "Lord, we want to see. We want to hear. Give us the ability for both."

Blessings,

Pastor O

Simple Prayers

 "The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless." Psalm 10:14

Somehow we think that for prayer to be effective and heard, it must be long and filled with details. Being loud helps as well. We've got the idea that it's what the Lord requires of us in order for our prayers to be heard and answered. I've learned something else. I've learned that the length or volume of our prayers, or the inclusion of lots of "Thee's" and "Thou's" has little to do with reaching His heart. I've learned that so often, it is our simplest but most heartfelt ones that move Him. Here are three that I've learned in the midst of my journey that can be God calling, miracle working prayers.

The first comes from a story told by author and speaker Sheila Walsh. She tells of the experience of checking into a psychiatric hospital in Virginia. She had been a person of high visibility in the Church; singer, speaker, 700 Club co-host. Having suffered a total breakdown, she found herself on the floor of her hospital room, and all she could pray was "God, help me!" On that floor, that was exactly what He did. She later wrote that what she said to Him afterwards was, "Father, I never knew You lived so close to the floor." On that floor she was rendered almost speechless, and all she could do was cry out for His help. And He came with help in His hand and heart. She recovered, was released, and the Lord worked in and through her to rebuild an even greater ministry for her from it. It began with that simple prayer.

The second is from something I heard Beth Moore say. She said that there will come times in our lives where our situations are so desperate, so frightening, and so seemingly hopeless, that the only thing we can pray is, "Jesus, come and get me!" She said from her own life experiences and the stories shared with her by others, she learned the great power of such a prayer. I have always believed and have learned in my own life, that no matter where we are, no matter what the threat, and no matter how desperate the situation, a heart cry that simply pleads that He will come will never go unanswered. He will not fail to come. In one of His letters to Timothy, Paul spoke of how, when he gave his first defense of his ministry and work before Caesar, the most powerful ruler in the world, no one stood with Him. But he concluded with the words, "Yet Christ came and stood with me." In our time of need, we must know, fully know, that when we call for Him to come, He will. With power, with presence, with His Person. All of His Person.

Last, I remember being in a time of prayer with an older brother in the Lord, who said that in his life, he had learned that there were needs, places, situations, and dangers so intense, so seemingly beyond any help, that the only thing he could pray was, "Father, have mercy." Mercy that establishes His control over the circumstances and threats, no matter how intense they are. Mercy that brings comfort, hope, and help, where there is seemingly no reason to have any of that. Mercy that brings all of Himself into all of the need, and transforms that which we were sure would destroy us into something that lifts us higher and closer to Him, and deeper into His life.

Simple prayers. Only a few words spoken. Yet they lay hold of unbelievable power. Infinite power. Simple prayers heard by an Almighty God who heard the desperation and the faith within, and literally moved heaven and hell to respond. Maybe today, right now, you feel so overwhelmed that you have no words other than these. Pray them. From your heart. His heart will hear, and His heart will move. He will come and save you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Bursting Through

"When darkness overtakes the godly, light will come bursting in.....They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them." Psalm 112:4,7....Only when we cling to His Word can we thrive in the dark. We thrive by the light of His Word." Jennifer Rothschild

Jennifer Rothschild is a woman who has been blind since the age of 14. She knows much of what it is to live in literal darkness. She is also a woman who knows much of what it is to live and trust in His Light in the midst of that darkness, both the darkness of blindness, and the spiritual darkness that is everywhere around her.

We live in a fallen world that is cloaked in that darkness. A darkness that has been making itself known in seemingly endless ways. Many, even in the church, feel overwhelmed by what they see unfolding. The root meaning of the word overwhelmed is "surrounded." We feel surrounded by this darkness as it presses in upon us from every direction. Yet for us is a precious and wonderful promise; He tells us that for those who are His, who live for HIm, trust in Him, His Light will come bursting through the darkness, even the thickest darkness, and like a light switch flipped in a darkened room, crush it the wall.

The people of God are not immune from the enemy's attacks in the dark. Darkness will, as His Word says, overtake us. But it will NOT consume us if we remain steadfast in our faith and trust. Rothschild said that when she lost her sight, she had to learn to live not by what she couldn't see, but by what her cane said was there. She learned it was the same in the realm of her faith life. It was not what she couldn't see in the darkness, but what by what His Word promised was there...God Himself. His Presence, Power, and Person. We cling to His Word, and Jesus Christ is His Living Word. We cling to Him...in the darkness, and He will come bursting through.

Someone said that lightning flashes out from the throne of God and that whoever lives close to Him gets drenched in His power by it. I believe that is what takes place when His Light comes piercing through the threatening darkness. He not only lights the way before us, but He empowers us to overcome every intent of the enemy towards us. We don't just get through it. We don't just somehow survive. We thrive in the midst of it. We know it has no power over us because we are filled with and surrounded by His power, light, and life.

Darkness will overtake us. Our choice is to trust Him in it, follow Him through it, and thrive within it. His Word says that darkness is not darkness to Him. It has no power or effect upon Him. Therefore, it has no power over us. There's an old saying about those who "whistle in the dark." It points to a kind of wishful bravado that there is nothing to fear there, one whistles to try and bolster their courage, but all the while, fear reigns in them. Not so for the believer who trusts in Him. We don't whistle in the dark, we sing in it. And we sing a song of victory. We sing because we know His light will never cease to burst through. Believe that in your dark place. His light is already piercing it.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

The Horizon

 "You are my King and my God. You command victories for Israel." Psalm 44:4...."God speaks the language of victories, not defeats." Chris Tiegreen

As a pastor, it has always been heartbreaking to me to observe all the lack of victory that is present in the lives of His people. In no way is this His will for any of us, yet it is the norm in many lives. How? Why?

The greatest enemy of humankind is death, both physical, and even more, spiritual. Both were conquered by Christ on the cross and in His resurrection. Somehow, our minds, our faith, cannot seem to get a real grip on the magnitude of that reality. Somehow, we have allowed death to be more real than His life, and defeat more our lot than His victory. Too many of us don't live expecting victory. We live resigned to defeat. As a result, our sins, our flaws, our failures are what we see before us, not His promise of resurrection life. We have heard, countless times, His promise of freedom, but we don't really believe we can be free. We see our infirmities, our besetting sins, our addictions, as all being bigger and greater than Him. Not in what we say, but in what we believe in the core of our being. God said to His people Israel, after they'd been conquered by the Babylonians, that they were prisoners and slaves in the very land that He had given them. It was their promised land, but by their own choices, and ultimate unbelief, they were not living in the fruit and fullness of His promise. They were being held captive in the the land of their promise. How like them are many of us?

Someone said that death is always the devil's horizon for all of us, but that God's horizon was life. Free, full, abundant, and eternal life. Each of us walks towards one of these horizon's. Those without Him already travel in the enemies direction, but what of those who would name Him as Lord and Savior? How captive are you to his lies? He has countless ways to tell us there is no hope, whether it be as individuals, families, and even church fellowships. He blinds us to God's horizon that is right before us, so that all we see is his mirage.

I don't write this from the perspective of never knowing defeat or failure. I have, and more than once. But I also know that most of my defeats have come as a result of not living fully in Him, of determining to have my way, and making choices and decisions outside of His will, and trusting in my understanding and not His. But I have also learned something great in this; as someone said, God is not affected by our defeats. His word for us remains "victory," and if we'll bring our defeats, failures, and yes, sins to Him, along with the confession and repentance that must accompany them, He will turn our defeat and failure into His, and our victory. When we do, the devil's false horizon disappears, and what lies before us is His horizon of life. Life as an overcomer. That's the life we were made for. And that life is possible because.....He commands it!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Come, See

 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" John 4:29

These words were spoken by a woman after she'd had an encounter with Jesus at the well outside her Samaritan town. Jesus, a stranger to her, probed deeply into her heart, seeing her as she really was, and as He probed, she somehow, if only in a small way, began to see who He really was. So impacted was she that she immediately went into her town and began inviting all to "Come, see," this man Jesus. It is a simple but direct invitation, and it's extended to each of us....even those of us who believe we've already come, and we've already seen. We need constant fresh sightings of Jesus Christ. We must never tire of coming to Him. We need daily, to come, and see, the One, the Man-God who knows us as no other can.

Mark Buchanan tells a story of a church plant on the east side of Toronto, a place where drug dealers, gang members, drug addicts, and prostitutes dwelt in abundance. One Sunday a prostitute came to the service. She was bruised and shaking. The church celebrated communion each week. As the pastor prepared to serve, he explained that in taking it, they received His healing, forgiving, cleansing, and redeeming life into their very being. That they "feasted on Christ's forgiveness, love, and promise of newness of life." As the communion bread was passed, the streetwalker took a handful. At the invitation to take the bread, she ate it all, even licking the crumbs from her fingers. When the cups came, she did the same, taking 6 or 7 and consuming them all. As she did so, she wept. Buchanan said that she didn't do so because she was hungry or thirsty for bread or drink. She was "starved for love....parched for grace. She could not get enough of Christ." She had come and seen a man. She had come and met the man. Have we....really.

Do we regular church goers and attenders have such a hunger and thirst for Him? Do we seek to drink and eat of His life to the full? No matter how much we receive of Him, and He gives to the full, do we continue with a thirst and hunger that though He will moment by moment satisfy, we will always crave more? More of Him. All of Him. Do we run to see this Man? Do we long for others to see Him as well?

From the high powered corporate executive to the lowliest street person, and from the layperson sitting in a pew to the one filling the pulpit, we are all filled with a hunger for what only He can give. Sadly, we more often seek to satisfy that hunger with the food and drink of this world. Sometimes, we who say we are His are the most guilty of this of all. Wherever you are, in whatever state, you, me, all of us, need to hear anew, "Come. See. Meet a Man." Partake of Him to the full. And more than the full. And after we have come, may we go, and extend the invitation to all our fellow starving wanderers. Let us come and see...now.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Checkbook Christians

 "I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Matthew 25:36....

I have been a pastor for going on 40 years now, and I have a confession to make. Through most of those years I performed ministry that was difficult, uncomfortable, and took me to and into places that my flesh didn't want to be. I was never greatly at ease visiting people in their homes. I didn't like hospitals or being surrounded by sickness and disease. Throughout my ministry, and with various people, I ministered in prisons, and was decidedly uncomfortable in all of them. The truth is that I ended up in countless places that I would never have chosen to be, but was, and for one reason alone; His love constrained me to go. It was more than just doing my duty. It was the knowledge that if I sought to avoid ministering in these places, I would also be avoiding Him. To avoid Him is to miss Him, and I have learned that I can never afford to miss Him, even if joining Him means a stark prison, a dark hospital room, or a family whose very foundation is crumbling. Learning is oftentimes difficult, and my learning continues.

We believers in the west have become highly skilled at throwing money at real needs. We can be very generous in this, especially if our generosity somehow excuses us from ever having to actually encounter those in need. By our giving, we in effect, pay for someone else to be Jesus to them. We can feel like we've done something good without ever having to leave the comfort of our well constructed environment. We've avoided what makes us uncomfortable, or offends our flesh, but have soothed our conscience by writing a check and getting no closer to the need than our name upon that check.

Is this the extent of our compassion? Do we "minister" with as little personal cost as possible. Do we give of our finances without ever giving of ourselves? Are we a people without a face giving to people who have no face to us? Do we avoid the real pain and sacrifice of ministry that we might go on enjoying our personal comfort but feeling that in giving something financially, we've done our part. Have we avoided the sacrifice of real ministry not realizing that in doing so, we've also avoided Jesus Himself.

I remember seeing an old movie. In it, a cruise ship suffers a terrible explosion in its engine room. With smoke billowing out, surviving crew members are seen scrambling to escape the death and destruction. At the same time, one man, a minister, is making his way down to that engine room. A terrified sailor cries out to him, "For the love of God man, don't go down there!" The minister's reply was, "For the love of God, I must go down there." Such it is for we who are priests and ministers of the Father. We must minister not out of duty, or guilt, or because it's what people expect of us. it must be because His love gives us no other option, and we want no other option. There are still so many aspects of ministry that don't come natural to me, and that I'm decidedly uncomfortable with doing. And sadly, there have been times when I rationalized a way to avoid those places. In doing so, I avoided Jesus. I missed Jesus. Can there be a greater loss than avoiding the place where He is? I return to the scene from the movie. For each of us, there will be, very possibly this very day, places where our flesh tells us, "We can't go there." May His love move us to reply, "For His love, I must go there." We must be something much greater and better than "Checkbook Christians." We must be those who go into the smoking engine rooms of this world in spite of the cost because His love and life give us no other option.

Blessings,
Pastor O