By Invitation

 “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.” James 2:23...."We don't choose to be friends of God. It's by invitation only." Henry Blackaby

There's a popular worship song with the lyric, "I am a friend of God, He calls me friend." I've heard it sung in a number of churches by a number of different people. I've sung it myself. The question is, are we, including myself, really His friends, and if so, who initiated the friendship?

Friendship is a casual term these days. It likely always has been to some degree, but our loyalties to one another don't go very deep anymore. The bond that sustains them oftentimes isn't very strong. On the earthly level, we choose our friends pretty casually, and discard them just as casually. That may be understandable in the world, but it's inexcusable in the church. Yet we've all seen, experienced, and even been a part of many broken friendships. We've seen how so often, the word friend carries little meaning to us. This isn't the case with the Father. That's why Blackaby's statement is both powerful and convicting. If being His friend can only happen through His invitation, how many of us have lived in such a way, in such a relationship as to be invited?

It was said of Abraham in several places in the Word that he was called God's friend by the Father Himself. The Bible also says that Moses spoke to God face to face, "as to a friend," Jesus told the disciples that they were His friends, "if they did as He commanded," and lived their lives wholly for Him. Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, the disciples, Paul, and deeply spiritual and committed believers through the ages have been invited into His friendship. Is our life, our walk with Him worthy of that invitation?

It's true that His love reaches out to each of us, and it can't be said that He loves one more than another. His Word says He's no respecter of persons. Yet there are some who enter into an intimacy with Him that is far deeper and richer than others have, and that is the key; intimacy. Some thirst for such a connection to Him, but many more don't. There is a difference between honoring and loving Him for what He does for us, and doing so because of who He is. One sees Him as an object, the other as a Person. One is little more than an acquaintance, the other His intimate friend. Which is it for you and me?

Chris Tiegreen says that faith can be defined as "knowing the heart of the One you pray to." I think this can define friendship with Him as well. A friend knows His heart. Not just knows about His heart, but knows it because they've experienced His heart reality in their day to day living. This was what has marked the hearts and lives of those mentioned above, and others who have followed, like Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody, Tozer, Ravenhill, Sparks, on down to this day. Tozer said at the end of his life that he had found God to be an intimate, warm and loving friend. He had because he'd lived out a life of such intimacy with the Father. He'd been invited into friendship with God, and had accepted the invitation. Have we?

The invitation to enter into friendship with Him is given to each who believe upon His Son, Jesus Christ. Some accept, but too many don't. We're too preoccupied with ourselves and our own affairs. We run to Him in need and avoid Him most of the rest of the time, or if not avoiding Him, living mostly unaware of Him....until He's needed. We decline His invitation, and we'll not realize what we cost ourselves in that until that day we stand before Him.

We must all long to hear Him say on that day, "Well done, good and faithful servant." I do, but just as much, I long to be called His friend, now, and into eternity. He speaks the invitation, and I believe my heart hears and accepts the invite into intimacy with His. Does yours? Or, is being a casual acquaintance enough?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Before The Furnace

 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18......"The two clauses in real faith are, "God is able" and, "but even if He does not." Mark Buchanan

More and more I've come to believe in the truth of what Buchanan says. I don't think we've truly entered into the place of real, overcoming faith until we have yielded to the two clauses he lists. We must be a people who believe that our God is able to do anything and everything. The word "impossible" only has meaning to us. It has none to Him. We need to have a steadfast belief in the infinite power of our Almighty God. This is the "easy" part of the two clauses. It's the second clause that we struggle to yield to. The fact that though He is able, He doesn't. To lay hold of that second clause requires a level of surrender too few of us want to come to. It's a level where many of us stumble. Some never recover.

Someone said that we tend to believe God will act in a certain way because it's the way we would act. We think God will see everything as we do, and will behave in all situations just as we would. We have trouble understanding that He behaves in ways that are a result of His seeing and understanding our situations far further and more deeply than we ever will. We can't see the depths of His purposes, and we're most often ruled by the depth of our immediate need over and against His overall purposes in the midst of that need. The reality is, He may not respond as we wish, no matter how desperate our situation is. To accept this, and still trust in Him will require the deepest level of surrender and trust on our part. This is where our stumbling comes, because there will be times, when the good God we have believed in, will not appear to be so good. When that happens, and it will, will we still believe, and will we still trust?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were faced with such a situation. Commanded to worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden idol, they refused, and the cost would be their lives. In the face of the furnace of death, they proclaimed their trust in their God. They believed that He would save them, but they surrendered to the second part of the clause; they would trust in their God even if He didn't. For the true disciple of Christ, this is a place we will come to. If you consider yourself such a disciple, what will be your response when you do?

The decision has to be made "before the furnace." That is, before we come to the door of the furnace and it's killing flames, have we already chosen to trust, believe, and obey, regardless of how He responds to our need in that place? If we have not, we will surely waver, stumble, and very possibly, fall. The furnace of fire awaits every true disciple of Christ. He will lead you into it, and He promises to be with you there. Is that promise enough.....at the door of the furnace?

Furnace times are upon the people of God. This has been so for His people in most of the world. It is now becoming so for His people in the west. Before we come to the door of the furnace, will we have decided that we will trust, believe, even if He doesn't spare us the flames? Or will we waver, shrink back, and avoid the flames? It will all depend on the decision we make before the furnace.

Blessings,

Pastor O

God Evaders

 "But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord." Jonah 1:3...."Toward evening they heard the Lord God walking about in the garden, so they hid themselves among the trees. The Lord God called to Adam, 'Where are you?' " Genesis 3:8-9

Pastor and writer Mark Buchanan once wrote about "Jonah and the company of the God evaders." I think it's a very large company, and Jonah wasn't the first, and will certainly not be the last. I think to some degree, all of us have kept company with Jonah. Maybe you're keeping company with him right now.

Jonah had been charged to go to Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian nation, and the great enemy of God's people Israel. God commanded Jonah to take a message that called for their repentance, and a turning away of His judgement upon them. Jonah didn't want to do this. He much preferred that they be destroyed. So, he ran from God. Where in our lives have we been doing the same, evading God because He has pursued us with a purpose, one that we don't wish to carry out? Perhaps it's His call to become the husbands, wives, fathers and mothers that we know we should be in Him, but aren't. Maybe it's the call to cease our life on the spiritual fringes of the Kingdom and enter fully into the life He saved us for. Perhaps it's His call to no longer limit our participation in the Body to one of attending and giving a tithe, to that of truly fulfilling the call of being a "priest" in the Body of Christ and cease looking at our walk with Him as being a Sunday thing instead of a 24/7 one. All of these involve one thing; surrender, and you're running from that. We're running from that.

I said that Jonah was not the first God evader. He wasn't, Adam and Eve were. They'd disobeyed God, and through their disobedience, sin entered not only the human race, but the universe. Both are fallen as a result. God knew what had happened, and He came to them. Coming to those lost in sin, blinded by this fallen world, and with no idea of how to escape from it, is what He does. It's what He still does. We're all born in the place of Adam, and the Father continues to come for us in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Maybe you're in the same state as Adam and Eve, but you, like they, seek to hide yourself from Him. You can't. He knows where you are. The question is, do you?

Whatever our spiritual state, if it isn't in the fullness of Him, it isn't where we must be, and His question to us is, "Where are you?" We need to come to grips with where we really are, and not where we'd like to think we are. We humans are masters at evading and hiding from God, but blind to the fact that we never can. He always finds us in one way or another. Is He finding us, you, right now?

Is there something in your life, our lives, that's caused us to seek to evade Him by hiding in the trees? If so, the whisper of His voice calls to us. "Where are you?", though a whisper, just seems to grow louder all the time. At some point, we have to answer. At some point, we have to come out of the trees and leave the company of the God evaders. Have you reached that point yet, or, do you try and stay in the trees?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Foolishness?

 "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." I Corinthians 1:21....."The land abounds with sermons, yet its spiritual condition continues to deteriorate." Richard Blackaby

The Apostle Paul made clear that the intent of the Father was that His message of salvation through Christ was to be transmitted first and foremost through the preaching of that gospel message. I think we have gotten far from that place in the church. Blackaby's above quote can't be dismissed. On any given week, tens of thousands of sermons are preached in the churches of this nation. Yet, stretching back more than a century, we have seen a steady deterioration of the spiritual condition of this nation. Indeed, the acceleration of this deterioration has been frightening over the last 50 years in particular. Do we dare to allow the microscope of His Holy Spirit to search us as to what part of that lies with the failure of those called to and given the task of proclaiming that message?

I will never forget the charge I received upon my ordination by the great General Superintendent of my denomination, Dr. Charles Strickland. I remember him laying his hands upon me, looking me in the eye, and saying, "My brother, there are strange winds blowing through the church. Preach the Word!" I have never forgotten that charge, and have sought to the fullest of my calling to do just that. I know that I will answer for how well, or how poorly I have done so.

I believe throughout the church, preaching is more and more becoming a secondary aspect of being a pastor. As we have more and more adopted the corporate approach to ministry, pastors have become more the CEO's of an organization than they have Prophets of the Lord. The spiritual deterioration that Blackaby speaks of gives weighty evidence to that, and I think there will be an accounting for it. Preachers have become in too many cases, promoters of their own agendas and kingdoms rather than proclaimers of His. It's an easy ditch to fall into, I have myself, and sadly, too often, denominational structures can pave the way to that ditch. We need Him to raise up a generation of preachers who refuse the way to that ditch.

The prophet Jeremiah shared a trait with every true prophet who went before and came after him. He said that he could not keep silent about the message God had given him, that if he tried to do so, he would literally explode from within. This is the kind of fervor, zeal, and fire that must return to the pulpits of this land and every land. The need is desperate. It's beyond desperate. Yet I carry great hope that it will. That it is.

Recently I was talking with a young man in our fellowship who is a pastor on staff, and who is the son and nephew of preachers. I asked him if he felt that his ministry would lead him to a full time place in a pulpit provided by the Father. He said he thought that might be where God was leading him. I then asked if he felt that the things that he believed the Lord was sharing with Him, putting into his heart and mind were such that he had to proclaim them, that he couldn't keep them in, that he must tell of what they were. He said that he did feel that way. I told him that it surely seemed to me that the Father had called him to be one of His prophets. Only God and he can know for sure, but in him, I see the traits of a true proclaimer of the Kingdom.

There is so much more I could say, and some may think I've said too much, but I'll close with this question from Blackaby that he says every preacher should ask himself; "Am I about to deliver a sermon I prepared or a message that God has inspired." There is an eternity of difference between the two, and the difference is being seen in our culture and in our churches. If you have been called to a pulpit, what is your answer to the question? If you're a member of the Body of Christ, from which do you want to hear?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Revolutionaries

 "Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city." Acts 17:6....."We must revolt against the chains that hold and oppress us and make us feel defeated. More than revival, we must desire a revolution." Kirk Franklin

There is always talk from one generation to the next of the need for revolution. Sometimes in low key ways, but more often in the last 50 years or so, loudly and persistently. The trouble is, most of these "revolutions" don't revolutionize anything at all. The Who were correct in their classic song, "Won't Get Fooled Again," with the lyric, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." As I can personally attest, revolutions are very popular in the young, but lose most of their attraction as we age. We're strongly drawn to comfort, and we embrace the status quo in order to keep it. This is true in the world, and sadly, in the church as well. In Christ, we have a revolutionary message, but we have so watered down the message that instead of presenting an Almighty Savior, we instead present a smiling, easy going "genie in a bottle" Christ who is committed to blessing our lives and providing as easy a way for us as possible. Little gets turned upside down, especially in our own lives. Worse, we settle for comfortable prisons.

This was not the story of the early church. They went about with a living message of power and victory, of salvation not only from the penalty of sin, but from its control as well. They presented a Savior who made all things new, who binds up the brokenhearted, who set captives free, and who made us in Christ, more than conquerors. They brought this message of abundant life, of victory, of holiness, wherever they went, and wherever they went, there really was upheaval. This was the story of the Apostle Paul and Silas, Their Gospel message really was bringing upheaval of the spiritual status quo. So much so that when they arrived in Thessalonica, there was organized resistance to them and to the message of Christ. Acts 17 goes on to relate that the city was thrown into turmoil by the message and presence of God's witness through Paul and Silas and those who were with them. The full message and power of the Gospel will always cause turmoil in the kingdom of darkness. Are we proclaiming and living out a message that turns that kingdom upside down?

We need to understand the concept of spiritual strongholds. These strongholds are points in lives, churches, and cultures, from which the enemy operates out of. These strongholds are usually built upon lies that have been accepted as truth. These strongholds are found everywhere in and around us. They hold us captive. The message of Christ, His cross and resurrection, shake their very foundations and topple them. We who are His are charged with doing just that, but we cannot if all we have is a tepid message, backed by a congenial Christ. He is both the Suffering Servant and the Conquering King, and His church must exhibit the same traits. Paul and the other apostles brought a power filled message of love and freedom. They were revolutionaries, and history bears witness to the fruits of their message. We can be no less.

For the follower of Christ, revolution is inevitable, and it begins in our hearts and minds. Has it begun in yours and mine? As we look at our lives, where are the evidences of His transforming life? Do we live and walk in the ways of the Spirit, or do our ways vary little from the ways of the culture around us? How desperate is our need for spiritual revolution?

Leonard Ravenhill said that it was his great desire to be on the devil's most wanted list. Revolutionaries always are. Do we desire to be the same? Or, are we comfortable with our world, our lives, and our church, remaining as they are.....strongholds and all?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Invitations

 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me." Matthew 16:24

Here in the western church, we emphasize "inviting" people to come to Christ. This is a good thing, as Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," and that, "No one comes unto the Father" but through Him. Yet can we take a moment to answer a serious question? Just what is it that we are inviting people to? To what "kind" of Jesus do we invite them to believe in?

We love Christ's invitation to, "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That's a true and powerful invite. We stress it a lot in our talks about the Lord. However, we're not so keen on His invitation spoken in Matthew 16:24. Carrying a cross where the ultimate destination will be our own Calvary holds little attraction to our flesh. Rest, blessings, health, healing, wholeness, abundance, prosperity. These are very attractive to us and we have no problems following a Christ who exists to give us all that and more. In that invitation is a kind of attitude that says, "Christ paid the cost so that I don't have to." It's true that only He could meet the cost of opening the door to God that original sin had put upon the human race, but a costless Christianity never had any place in His message. Not when He walked this world, and not as He walks it through His Holy Spirit today. Even so, we've grown very comfortable with proclaiming such a message. Jesus said directly to those who heard Him that they must "count the cost" of becoming His disciple. Little of our modern message speaks of any kind of cost at all. We proclaim a blessings based message far more than a cross centered one.

There is a Chinese evangelist who is known as Brother Yun. He has been imprisoned and tortured by the Communist Chinese government innumerable times for his faith. His suffering has been intense, but his witness and power in Christ have been immense. He said this; "The cross of Christ is soaked in blood. If we will carry it, it will be soaked in ours as well." Jesus promised His disciples an abundant life. He kept His promise. To them, and to all who have followed Him down through the ages. He also promised them a blood soaked life as well. That promise came to pass as well. Every one of the disciples except John suffered a bloody death. John was horribly tortured and then sent to die on a prison island. The history of the church is filled with those who have suffered for His cause and His name. The impact of those lives and the cost they paid continue to bear fruit years, centuries beyond their giving. Their witness will stretch into eternity. Will yours and mine?

So, let's be confronted with the question again; to what kind of Jesus, and what kind of life are we inviting the lost to? If it is anything else but a cross centered one, we invite them into a life that will not stand in the crucible of affliction. We invite them into a lie. Into a false gospel. Jesus was unafraid to issue an invitation that was blunt to the extreme. Indeed, He discouraged people from coming after Him until they had counted the cost of it. We can do no less. Such an invitation will not draw a crowd, but it will draw those whose hearts are being drawn to Him.

Former U.S. Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie told the story of a conversation he had with one of his seminary professors about discipleship. Ogilvie was stumbling over the true cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. His professor said to him, "Mr. Ogilvie, you cannot sneak around Golgotha." Golgotha was the place of Christ's crucifixion. Ogilvie was attempting to follow Christ while avoiding his own Golgotha. He couldn't. We can't either. We cannot sneak around Golgotha in our following. We must go to the place of the cross. It's the center of the invitation Christ gives. Do we come?

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Command

 "On the Day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus' resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place." Acts 2:1

Scripture tells us that after He rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to more than 500 people, yet on the Day of Pentecost, there were just 120 gathered in the upper room. Where were the other 380 plus?

The Bible doesn't tell us where they were, but preacher and writer John Bevere said, "Those 120 were dead to their own agendas," suggesting that perhaps the others were not, at least not at that time in their faithwalk. As a result, they missed out on what may have been the most momentous event the church has ever known, Jesus' promised an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His church. Before He ascended to heaven, He had commanded His followers to "not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what He has promised." He didn't suggest this. He commanded it. This points to a much neglected teaching within the church; we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. We, like the 120, are to be still before Him, focused upon Him, and passionately seeking all the fullness of His Spirit. Yielded and surrendered to and before Him. Empty of the control of the self-life that we may be filled with all the fullness of His Life. Bevere believes that only 120 of those He'd appeared to were at such a place in their faith lives, the rest were not. Not yet. Perhaps not ever. So, dare we allow ourselves to be confronted with the question; He has commanded us to seek all the fullness and infilling of His Holy Spirit. He has promised that fullness if we will. Which group are we going to be found in the face of His command? Those who have died to their will and way, or....those who have not....and may never at all?

Some years back, Francis Chan wrote a book titled, "The Unknown God." He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, of whom He said most of the professing church knew little or nothing about. We don't understand His Personhood, so often thinking of Him as a "thing," rather than a Person. We don't understand, indeed fear, His ministry and presence in our lives. We are so intent upon running not only our lives, but His church according to the leadings of our flesh and not of the Spirit. We trust in our own natural gifts and not upon His supernatural gifts of the Spirit. In truth, we have made the Holy Spirit a kind of "silent partner" in the church. We admit that He's real, but we don't really want Him to actually show up in that which we're doing. We give Him lip service, not heart service. As a result we quench His Spirit, and have no real sense of His Presence, and don't really know we might be, or are completely lacking His Presence at all. As Bevere says, "The Holy Spirit comes with power, but He leaves very quietly." I think in many of our fellowships, we have so neglected His Person and ministry that He has receded, withdrawn....and we haven't even noticed.

There are many things as concerns the ways of God and His church that I don't know, but I do know this; we have no future if we continue upon the man centered path that too much of the church has been following. We are coming up against challenges, opposition, even hatred, and the enemy that is behind it all, that we cannot hope to overcome apart from the power and ministry of His Spirit at work in us. The hour of need is upon us. The command has been given. Will we be found obedient to the command, and the recipients of the promise?

I close with a repeat of His command, to both wait for and seek with surrendered hearts and lives all the fullness of His Spirit; the fruit of Pentecost which He still gives. With that, I offer up a question that the early church would always ask those they encountered who had come to faith in Christ; "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you first believed?" We can debate what it means to be Spirit filled, but what can't be debated is that we are to be filled with His Spirit, and exhibit lives that show the world that we are. Lives of power, victory, and miracles. Are we and our churches exhibiting such power? In our hearts we know the answer. In our hearts we know whether we have, or have not, obeyed His command to be filled with His Spirit. What do our hearts say of this right now?

Blessings,

Pastor O