Flashlights

 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12...."Give me the grace in the darkness to cling to what you spoke to me in the light.......The Spirit blows where He pleases. Only those who relate to Him closely can follow." Chris Tiegreen

The late Jamie Buckingham regularly led groups of men through parts of the wilderness that the Israelites traversed in the journey out of Egypt. These excursions always had at their root the teaching of deep spiritual truths that can only be discovered in the deserts and darkness of life. One of the happenings he tells us of was when he led the group up a mountain pathway in the night. A night that was filled with shining stars. Each man had a working flashlight, but Buckingham challenged them to not use them and to rely on the starlight from above. Most of the men accepted the challenge, but a few gave up after a short time and turned on their flashlights. As they continued upward, the men with the flashlights lagged further and further behind. They were only able to see a few feet ahead at a time and only saw what was directly before them. They were blind to all else. The men with Buckingham went further and further on because their eyes adjusted to the light given off by the stars, and they were able to see not only much further ahead, but also much more that was around them. The stars revealed real beauty to them, and all were very thankful for it. Those with the flashlights never saw any of it. They missed it all. There is a lesson for us here.

Those without Christ rely upon "artificial lights" given out by the world as guides through life. Jesus said such light, the light we think we have, is not light at all. It only leads to deeper darkness and a deeper lostness. Those who depend upon it are like the men with the flashlights. They become blind to all else, especially the true light that shines and came down from above. The men with the flashlights could not believe they could truly see without them but in truth, saw little or nothing of what was really there. Those who depended upon the light of the stars saw all the wonder that was right there before them. Scripture calls Jesus Christ the Bright Morning Star. He said and still says that He is the Light of the World. Yet countless millions either will not believe that or don't know that He is. They rely on the artificial flashlights of this world. Flashlights that give just enough light to lead you over the edge of a cliff.

It is a terrible tragedy to go through life without His Light to guide to life everlasting. It's an even greater one when some who do so also profess to be His followers. They never seem to be able to let go of their flashlights. They keep getting lost in the darkness. Jesus said He would be our Light in the darkness. His Light would shine in our remembrance of what He has spoken to and promised us. It would be revealed in our hearing His heartbeat and the whisper of His voice. When even all the artificial light has been lost, His Light remains. His Light leads us on.

This world is shrouded in the darkness of sin and death. It, and all the artificial light it offers will eventually pass away. It passes away as I write. His Light will never pass away, will never cease. As the darkness increases, so will the availability of His Light. He invites us into it. He invites us to lay down our flashlights in exchange for His eternal Light. He is the Light that is the Way through, the Way home. His Light insures we will not fall off the cliff. Not in this life, and most importantly, not in eternity. The flashlights of this world always eventually run out. His Light never does. Leave your flashlight behind. Let His Light open your eyes to all He will lead you to. The Light of the Bright Morning Star is shining. Can you see it?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Strange Fire

 "Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." Galatians 1:7

In Leviticus 10, two of Aaron's sons, who like their father, were priests of the Lord. They were consumed by God's holy fire for the act of offering "strange fire" to the Lord. They had burnt before Him a different kind of incense then He had commanded them to bring. They had disregarded His command, a command they fully knew, and brought a different incense. God called the result, "strange fire." It was fire He did not, would not accept. The severe example with Aaron's sons serve as an example of how seriously God takes not just obedience, but what it is we present before Him, and present to His people in His name. 

To some degree, the church has always had among it some who have tried to offer up "strange fire" before Him and before His people. Doctrines and teaching that run contrary to His revealed and authoritative Word as given in Scripture. Paul, Peter, and all the apostles were confronted with it throughout their ministries. Those who have followed them have as well. Today, in His church, I think more "strange fire" is being offered up than perhaps we have ever seen, and they are doing exactly what Paul wrote of in Galatians; distorting the gospel and troubling the church. Many are being led astray and away from His Truth. This despite repeated warnings in Scripture to neither add nor take away anything from the revealed Word of God and it is happening as concerns nearly everything that has been seen as orthodox belief down through the centuries. Human sexuality, sin, the means of salvation, heaven, hell, what is meant by holiness, the role of repentance, even the very Person of Christ. At root, they distort, undermine, and reject the authority of Scripture. They give unto Christ attitudes that He never possessed, and see Paul, Peter, and other writers of the New Testament letters as ignorant men held captive by the values of their culture. They have ruptured many denominations, causing great damage and strife. They'll continue to do so. In the end, they will fail, because God will always have His witness, and His witness will prevail. But oh, the pain and heartbreak caused to the Body of Christ and to the heart of the Father.

Upon my ordination back in 1987, the man who ordained me, Charles Strickland, as he prayed over me, gave me what I believed was a commission. He said that strange winds (strange fire) were blowing through our denomination. My task was to preach the Word. Proclaim it. Be true to it. Let no other word or words diminish it. I have sought to be true to that. I hope I have been. I know I am not alone. As those who do distort the gospel grow louder, I believe there will be a stronger response in the church. I believe we will see a reformation, a coming out of that which is falling in upon itself and forming a fresh, new move of His Spirit. Strange fire will have no place there. Christ as He is, not as we would make Him will be exalted. His Word will be the final authority in all things.

I write this last after a break of a couple of hours. At that time I read an article by a man named Michael Brown who lays out how many are now comparing Bible believing Christians to the Taliban of Afghanistan. It seems the popular thing for celebrities in particular to do. The Taliban, a group that beheads Christians, murders gays, rapes women, burns their prisoners alive, drowns them in cages, and seek to kill any and all who oppose them. Meanwhile, Christians, the Church, seek to save the lives of unborn babies, feed the hungry around the world, drill wells in places where there is no clean water, be among the first to respond to natural disasters, and seek to serve and show love to all people, including those we disagree with. We don't seek to force anyone to believe in the Savior we follow, or live according to the Word of the God we love. We simply will not be forced to accept beliefs and forced to participate in activities that violate that in which we believe. For this we are accused of being hate mongers and extremists. None of this is going to diminish. If we are truly His, we are going to have to stand firm on our foundation of Jesus Christ. There can be no place for strange fire among us. We must continue to proclaim and follow Christ as He is and trust in His transforming power. There will be a cost. Jesus told us clearly there would be. May we, who call ourselves His, trust in His strength to carry us through it all....to the ultimate victory He promised us and still promises us.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Invited

 "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church of Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever." Ephesians 3:20-21...."God's will in the realm of earth's affairs and human circumstances, is that humans respond to the reality of His love and power by issued invitation." Jack Hayford

Like so many others, I watched with fascination, excitement, and spiritual hunger at all that was unfolding at Asbury College just short months ago. His Holy Spirit was moving with great power upon all who gathered upon the campus of that college. Many thousands flocked to the small town of Wilmore, KY, hungry to experience Him.

Like any move of God, it didn't take long for criticisms of this move to arise. Things were not happening as they believed they should. There wasn't any preaching they said. It was just ramped up emotinalism, stoked by a great deal of singing they said. People's sin wasn't being directly addressed, they said. Without that, there could be no repentance, they said. There was a time when I may very well have been among those critics. That time is long past.

When I came to Christ, I knew very little of what true worship was. I knew a bit more, but not much when I entered the ministry 5 years later. I knew how traditional services were set up. You had 2-4 hymns, an offering, a song special, and then a sermon. We called it a worship service, and then everyone went home. It was not until the mid to late 90's, when a close brother in Christ, also a pastor, and a lover of true worship of His God, helped me to enter into a true understanding of worship. The growth in my understanding continues to this day.

The modern church has stumbled into a mind-set that we need to frame our worship upon what attracts people more than what attracts Him. Style of music, atmosphere, and even special effects are used. Intended or not, we fall more into entertainment than worship. God is there, but is He really welcome? Is what we call worship all about Him, or all about us? Perhaps the answer is found in how changed we are when we emerge from these gatherings? Did He really lay hold of us, or did we just have some emotions stirred, some vague proddings from a not so close Holy Spirit?

At what is now called the Asbury Awakening, the move of God began in response to a simple, regular student chapel service. Most in attendance left after its conclusion. A small number remained. One, moved, convicted, and broken by the message he'd heard preached, a message the preacher himself thought had been a failure, began to weep. He confessed the sin in his life, repented of it. Those few around him were similarly moved upon. They, the few of them, began to worship Him, simply singing choruses and hymns. No instruments. No effects. Soon, word spread around the campus that something was going on in the chapel. More came. More had the Spirit move upon them. More melted before Him. More confessed their sin, were broken before Him and made whole by Him. From there came a move of God that continues to spread out across the nation and the nations. Yes, it began with a message from a preacher's heart, but it was spread and sustained by the worship that came in response from the hearts of those who heard the message. To my knowledge, it was the last message preached in all that took place at Asbury. God used it to spark a great wave of worship. Worship that invited Him to manifest Himself in wondrous ways. Ways that few in attendance had ever experienced. That will always be the fruit of true worship. Is it the result, to any degree, in ours?

None of this is to downplay the role of preaching in the church, or the need to guard against blatant emotional outbursts. I believe the need for prophetic preaching is greater than ever, but all we do, including preaching, needs to focus on pointing to Christ, to the Father, to His Holy Spirit, and be a desperate invitation for Him to come. To saturate us, lay hold of us, embrace us in ways that we don't want to let go of. Worship that invites Him to not just observe what we're doing, but to allow Him to do what He seeks to do in our midst.

There is a lot more to say, and I've probably already said too much. I pray that our fellowships will be focal points of Holy Spirit activity. That we will gather in holy anticipation and invitation of and to His appearing. That they would not be gatherings we come late to and seek to leave as quickly as possible. Places where we experience Him to do "exceedingly abundantly beyond all we ask or think."

Blessings,
Pastor O

Injustice

 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.  Luke 23:34....."Our sense of justice makes us cry out, 'Somebody ought to pay for that.' Jesus says, 'I paid for it. Let it go.' " Gerald Fry

We live in a fallen world where injustice seems to reign. Horrible injustices have been heaped upon individuals, people groups, and nations. There exists no one who, in some form, has not experienced injustice in their lives. Some terribly so. It's not right. The above exclamation is true. Someone ought to pay. Justice demands that it be so. Someone did. His name is Jesus.

From our 21st century viewpoint, we don't really grasp the horror that crucifixion was in the ancient world. Those being crucified were dehumanized in every way. Stripped naked, beaten almost to death, then brought to the site of their crucifixion to undergo perhaps the most horrific death conceived by humankind. Jesus, perfect man, fully God, without sin, was subjected to torture, ridicule, and all manner of abuse. They mocked Him as He hung on the cross. Laughed at Him. At the foot of the cross, those who carried out the deed gambled for his clothing. As they did so, as all around the cross shouted abuse at Him, He asked His Father to forgive them. Forgive them. Those who did this horror to Him, He asked that they be forgiven. How? How could He do so? Someone did need to pay. I want them to pay. Someone did. Jesus Himself. On the cross, He took the sin of the world, the curse upon the human race, and through His sacrifice, offered life and forgiveness to the very race that murdered Him. As the great hymn goes, "Such love! Such wondrous love!" All who come to Him in faith are offered this forgiveness, this salvation. As a more modern chorus goes, "He was punished, we went free." It's a mystical truth that God's wrath against sin was dealt with through Christ on His cross. We want revenge. He offers grace and healing. It doesn't seem right. Someone should pay. Jesus paid. Jesus paid it all. That is the beauty and the mystery of His work of Atonement for our sin.

I rejoice daily that Jesus paid it all. Paid for all of my sin. Brought me into a new life. Paid the debt I owed but could never pay myself. That the punishment I deserved was taken upon Himself. Justice was served. He was punished. I went free. He breathed forgiveness to His tormentors. Why is it so hard for me to do the same? Why do I, in the face of the injustices I have faced in life, continue to, at least in some part of me, harbor this sense that someone has to pay for it? Someone has to pay for suffering I did nothing to deserve. Insults I bore for no reason. Lies spoken about me. Betrayals heaped upon me, and much more besides. My flesh cries out, "Someone," and in many cases, "that one," needs to pay. Why is it so hard for me, the one who has been forgiven despite my many sins against not just others, but ultimately Him, to forgive what has been done to me? Why is it so hard for you?

The reasons go far deeper than what can be explored here, but I think in the main, we who have been forgiven, little realize the depth of our own sin. What it has done to others, to Him, and ultimately to us. I think too that we understand little of His forgiveness. We take it for granted, feel little gratitude for it, and have little understanding of what it cost Him to give it. We think we're entitled to it. Somehow, we don't think others are entitled to ours. Those ones must pay. They can't be allowed to get away with it, even though His forgiveness to us allowed us to "get away with it." He forgave freely. I, we, rarely do.

I have journeyed far deeper in the process of forgiving. By His grace, He enables me to give grace.  The enemy will always seek to hinder this, bringing to mind what others have done. I have found that whenever this happens, I can overcome it by simply asking Him to bless them and forgive them. When I do so, the devil flees. 

All of us are victims of injustice, but none of us to the degree of Christ. He forgave them all. By His life and grace, we can too. By His wound we were healed, and that healing is extended within us and out of us to others, no more deserving than we are. Justice was served in Christ. If Christ lives within us, let justice and His forgiveness be served through us to those who don't deserve it any more than we did and do, but whom He died and rose for. Just as He did for us. Justice is satisfied in Jesus Christ. So....let it go...to Jesus.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tombstones

 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  John 20:1....."The blessings of salvation began the day Jesus blew the doors off a tomb." Chris Tiegreen

I've been thinking a bit recently about the stone that sealed the tomb of Jesus. Tombstones were meant to be something that separated life from death. Those who had died were placed in a burial tomb and then the tomb was sealed with a large stone. To remove a tombstone was a very difficult thing. The stone was a symbol of the finality of death. Yet, as Tiegreen's above quote shows, Jesus "blew the doors" off of His tomb and in doing so conquered the power of sin and in its greatest form, death.

The stone was rolled away from the tomb of Jesus Christ, but I'm wondering, in our own lives, what "tombstones" may still be remaining that seek to block His life from ever reaching the areas of death that are found there? Where do we need stones to be rolled away that have continued to keep us from His healing grace and life? Stones of unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment. Stones of fear, addiction, confusion. Stones that have formed because of lies we've believed, or forgiveness that we can't really believe He has given us. The tombstones that can accumulate in our hearts and lives are many. We can even begin to "worship" these stones and we don't wish to have them removed. Our tombs have become comfortable, familiar, and we don't want to leave them. We've grown so used to their darkness that we shun the light that comes with Christ. Charles Wesley wrote in his great hymn that his spiritual dungeon flamed with the light of Jesus Christ, that he rose from his spiritual death and went forth and followed Christ. Even the most miserable dungeon, tomb, can become our home if we have been there long enough. Yet He stands before every one of them, and with a Word those stones, even the most massive and seemingly unmoveable, simply roll away. He stands before yours. With one word He'll remove it. Will you have Him speak it?

Whatever your "Tombstone" and however many you may have and how securely the enemy may have sealed it, it cannot stay in place when Christ speaks His life and freedom to it. The tomb that held Him is empty and has been for more than 2000 years. May whatever that has entombed you, as well as the stone that seals you in with it, be rolled aside by the One whom no tombstone can withstand. He stands there, whispering your name, calling you forth. Take that step towards that stone.....and behold as He rolls it away.....and you're free.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Bevere

 I thought I'd share today three statements from one of my favorite authors and speakers, John Bevere

"A religious spirit holds fast to what God DID while resisting what God is DOING." I've seen a religious spirit defined as a type of demonic spirit that seeks to replace an actual relationship with God with the keeping of rules and traditions. This spirit has no problem with agreeing with many acts of God in the past, and in fact, would have us focus on what He has done so that we are blind to what He is doing. This is how professing believers are deceived into magnifying what He has said into a list of rules to keep, rules that they believe give life. It also allows for the rise of traditions within a body that become sacred. So sacred that the tradition is exalted above the Person. Erwin McManus asked if Jesus was being lost in the religion that bears His name? I think to a great degree, He has. We look to systems, behaviors, formulas, and methods far more than we do Him. We talk and think about Him more in the past tense than as an active participant in our lives. A great part of the church has fallen into this trap. During the great move of His Spirit known as the Jesus Revolution, many young people said that what drew them to Christ was that He was being proclaimed not only as real, but totally real right now. They sensed that He was a living Person, not a historical figure. The enemy has no problem with us being engaged in religion, even if it's about the God he hates. He trembles at the thought of anyone coming to know the Living God in a living way. The Word come to life. Does he tremble when he beholds how we relate to Him right now? Are we religious, or are we alive?

"Do we love the dream and the vision more than the dream and vision Giver?" This is a very legitimate and piercing question. Many pastors have become so enamored, so obsessed with the vision or dream they believe the Lord has given them that it has become the central force in their life. Everything is invested in realizing the fulfillment of the dream, the realizing of the vision. Their eyes are on nothing else....including Christ. The dream and vision has become their idol. They worship it and the process of realizing it above even the worship of the God they believe gave them the vision in the first place. This can happen very easily in fellowships where pastors have been strongly encouraged to "get a dream or vision" for their ministry from Him. So eager can they become to have one that what they believe has come from Him actually originates with them. I believe He does give HIS dreams and HIS visions to His people, but they come to those whose hearts are closely in tune with His. And they are realized by those whose hearts remain attuned to and focused upon Him....all through the journey to their realization. If you believe you're pursuing a dream from His heart, has realizing that dream displaced Him in your heart?

"Simon the Magician's pursuit was for the anointing of God, not His character." The story of Simon is outlined in the Book of Acts. The Holy Spirit was moving powerfully after the Day of Pentecost and hundreds, even thousands were being converted. Simon the Magician had a reputation as something of a miracle worker and he was one of the ones who professed to have received Christ and witnessed amazing miracles through the disciples. As Peter and others ministered to those who were coming to Christ, they were laying hands upon them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Upon seeing this, Simon offered Peter money if he would lay hands upon him that he too might receive the Spirit, that he too might have this anointing. For this Peter severely rebuked him, saying he asked out of an evil motive and called upon him to repent of it.....Few of us would feel we are anything like SImon, yet how many of us long for a powerful ministry anointing from Him? We long for His anointing, but do we also long for His character and integrity to accompany that anointing? Simon's heart and desires were crooked. Where might ours be the same? Where might our hunger for ministry anointing and success outweigh our desire for His righteousness?  Where might "Simon" be lurking in our hearts?

Just a few thoughts from John Bevere. Something for each of us to contemplate.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Restoration

 "Behold, I am making all things new." Revelation 21:5....."He came to restore every single thing that sin has broken." Paul Tripp...."He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as the curse is found." Isaac Watts

Secular humanism denies many things concerning the Christian faith, but two of the foremost would have to be the reality of sin and its enslavement of the human race, and the reality of Jesus Christ and His work of atonement for the human race through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Sin entered the humanity through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Ever since we have been held captive by our sin nature. Those who would deny this are legion, but somehow, in their denial, they can never account for the presence of evil in this world and how it works in and through the hearts of men and women. They can't account for why and how we have been powerless to "evolve" past murder, genocide, the traffiking of women and children as sex slaves, and the overall growing disdain for the sanctity of a human life. All these and many more. It is obvious that we humans are powerless to free ourselves from the reality of sin no matter how much we may deny its existence. Hence our need for a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ, He who is both perfect God and perfect man. He paid the price for our sin on the cross and through His death and resurrection offers life in place of death, hope in place of despair, joy instead of mourning, and peace instead of chaos.

Milton wrote of "Paradise Lost." Humanity lost what it was created for by the entrance of sin into all of creation, starting with us. We have been trying to regain paradise ever since and falling further from it all the time. Only one Person could do that and has done it....Jesus Christ.

I watched the powerful movie "The Passion Of The Christ," for the first time in a number of years the night before Easter Sunday. I was moved once more by the scene where Jesus, beaten and bloody, has His mother Mary come to Him as He crawls up the steps in Jerusalem, carrying His cross. She cries in great anguish, but He whispers to her, "Watch, as I make all things new." In His death and resurrection, that is exactly what He did. Through His sacrifice, He invited us into His work of restoration. The restoration of what sin has cost us and the restoration of the life we were created for. I can testify to this personally, as can millions more. My own sin and the sinful actions of others have cost me greatly. Great was my loss. Greater still is the restoration He has accomplished in my life in spite of it. Starting with my heart and extending ever outward, He has made all things new. He continues to make all things new.

Isaac Watts' beautiful hymn, "Joy To The World," contains that powerful lyric,  "He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found." Whatever sin has cost you in this life, no matter how deep the loss and the consequences, know that the saving blood of Jesus Christ redeems and restores both it and you. His healing grace extends to the furthest reaches of the effects of all sin. Nothing is beyond the reach of His redemption. Believe that. Receive that. He has made all things new. That is the greatest reality. Let Him do so in you....today. Now. Why delay and longer? The King has come. Receive Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O