Hell's Hallway

 Followers of Jesus have almost made a cliche of the saying, "When the Lord closes one door, He opens another" I believe that is so, but the timing of that opening is in His hands, as well as the shape of the door and where it leads to. In the meantime, it's our part to "wait in the hallway." Someone said that "when one door closes and no other door opens, it's hell in the hallway." The hallway of waiting can truly be an agony for those who seem trapped there. How we handle the hallway determines everything.

I heard a singer named Ricardo Sanchez tell the story of a severe spinal injury suffered by his son. He learned of it just as he deplaned at the airport. When his wife told him that the medical staff said that they needed to prepare for the worst, that the boy was not likely to survive, Sanchez sank to his knees before God. Right there in the airport. All those passing by saw the strange sight of a man literally on his face before God. He took no notice. He simply prayed. 

The Doctors said the injury to his son was of the same type that had paralyzed the actor Christopher Reeve. He had no outward reason for hope, but he, like Abraham, dared to "against all hope, believed." He could do so because in the midst of outward hopelessness, he heard the whisper of His voice saying, "It's not over." For 4 hours he remained where he was, praying, as his son was taken into surgery. In the 5th hour, his wife called him, telling him that the surgical team could not account for why they had been able to repair the damage, but they had. With every voice screaming, "It's over," the still, small voice of Christ whispered to his heart, "It's not over." 

What happened with Sanchez's son is not a guarantee that He will move in the same way for us when we come to hell's hallway. But we are guaranteed that the fullness of His risen life will be poured out upon us there if we'll receive it. The door we want may not be the door He opens, but it will be His door and His way. He will, as promised, bring eternal good for us and great glory for Himself if we will go through it.

Sanchez said that "in the hallway we always cry out 'Why?' Then he made the picture of the letter Y with his hands. He said the crook of that letter formed a valley, the valley in which we find ourselves. If we continue to demand to know why, we remain in that valley, that hallway, trapped. Then he moved his hands to demonstrate that if we extend our hands upward, in wholehearted worship, that even in the hallway we will come to know what it is to be lifted out of the pit of miry clay. Even the darkest of pits and most paralyzing clay. 

All of us in the journey will come to a hallway with seemingly no way out. Will we insist on asking "why?" or will we worship? We can worship even in hell's hallway. The next door will always be found if we will dare to look up....unto Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Answers

 Singer, author, and speaker Sheila Walsh tells of an instance in her ministry where she was speaking at a "Women Of Faith" conference and relating a story about her 10 year old son. They'd been in for a check-up, and after a number of tests, found some concerns in the bloodwork. She pressed the Doctor for more information and he told her that it might well be anemia, but there was a chance that it was leukemia. It would be another several days before they'd know for sure. Walsh, heavily burdened, went to the Lord and it was in His Presence that a number of emotions came forth. Anger, fear, sorrow, she opened them all to Him. The time came to return to the Doctor for the test results. It was anemia. She shared the story as a testimony of the wonder of His grace. Afterwards a woman approached her and told her that she also had a son and a problem had also shown up in his bloodwork. She said, "I got the other answer." Walsh, embarrassed and feeling she had offended the lady, began to apologize, but the mother stopped her, saying that there was no need for that. She said, "Whether you get the answer you pray for or the answer you dread, the grace is the same."

In this "name it and claim it" religious world we live in, where we seem to feel that blessing, abundance, and a carefree life are our due, even our right, such truth can be hard to accept. Most of us have often quoted 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you," but I think we quote it with the belief that His grace will sustain as we wait (comfortably) for the answer we want. Anything else is unacceptable. This attitude will always cause us to miss the deeper, deepest experiences of His amazing grace. Only the grace of God can take us through that which is humanly unacceptable.

I believe in the might and power of a healing, restoring, and prospering God. A miracle working God. I believe He does these things abundantly. I have observed them and experienced them. I have received so many answers that I prayed for, more than I prayed for. I have also gotten, like Paul in 2 Corinthians, who sought to have what was causing Him great anguish removed, the answer I dreaded. I didn't know why and He didn't explain Himself, but He gave me His grace...abundantly and extravagantly. The same grace that came with His "yes" came with His "no." In truth, it was in His "no" that I began to really discover the depths of His all sufficient grace. 

It may be that today finds you where you were yesterday and will be tomorrow; praying about some deep need or heavy burden. Your own particular "thorn in the flesh." His answer will come and my heart's desire for you is that it will be the answer you seek, but if it should be the one you dread, His grace will be poured out upon you. It will be mighty. It will be amazing. Amazing grace. It will be....His grace...for you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Chosen

 I was moved by a story I once heard evangelist James Robison tell. Robison was born as a product of rape. His mother had many severe emotional problems and was an inconsistent part of his life. Through his childhood, he moved from place to place, never having real roots anywhere. He said one of the most painful memories of that time was playing with other children, especially when choosing teams for games. Though a good athlete, he was always "the stranger," and always the last one picked. He developed a deep sense of inferiority that remained until Christ entered into his life. He said that the sense he had when he came to Christ was that he heard the Lord saying to him, "I pick you." Rejected throughout his young life, he had been found, received, and loved by the One who knew him before the foundation of the world. With the Father, no one is ever the last one picked.

I don't think we struggle with anything more than we do our own self-image. We're born into a world that is eager to reject, shun, and forget us. To some degree, we all feel as if we're at some point, "the last one picked." Many who seem to have everything going for them would very likely confess in the deepest part of their being just how inadequate and lacking they really feel. Shame has a stranglehold on so many lives. So many things about ourselves we just can't accept, and we're sure no one else will either. Our sorrow over this can be so intense that we can't even speak it, not even to Him. But He knows. And He comes. And He chooses us. Just as we are. Others may not like what they see, but they make their observations based on severely limited information. They don't know who we are. He does. He made us, and nothing anyone says or does, or what we have done alters His view in any way. His Word says we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and He is expert in bringing out just how wonderfully made we are through His work in us.

I discovered this for the first time at the end of my first year at Bible College in Colorado. In my short time there I had made some of the deepest and most rewarding friendships I had ever known. Now, those that I'd grown closest to, made the deepest bonds with, were leaving, taking up assignments in places far from where I was. I felt very alone and forgotten. I ended up in the parking lot of the Bible College. In those days, the college stood on a hill surrounded by a vast prairie. I felt empty and wondered where He was in all this. It began to rain, and I I remember thinking, "What's next, a tornado?" What was next was the sudden emergence of....the sun....and a rainbow. I had the overwhelming sense that He knew right where I was, and the rainbow, as it was for Noah, was a kind of covenant promise that our walk together had miles and years to go, and He would be with me in all of it. I've never forgotten that rainbow, and it reminds me that He's chosen me, is with me....and that He loves me, regardless of what others say, do, or think...or if they leave. He picked me and He picks you. In Him there is no condemnation or shame. It may be raining in your life today, even 40 days worth. Look up! For there WILL be a rainbow. He's not forgotten you and He knows right where you are. He chooses you. Now...choose Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O

He's Here

 I remember once stopping by the home of a pastor friend to say goodbye. He and his family were moving to Florida and I was saddened at the loss. He'd been a great ministry comrade. I knew we'd remain friends and that I might even see him again, but the sadness came from the knowledge that what had been would not be so now. Things change. Life changes. People come into our lives and at the same time leave our lives. As a Pastor I expect I've seen more than my share of that, but it's an experience that all of us share to some degree. Oftentimes it's a case like this, of saying goodbye. Sometimes it's one of having to let go. Whatever it is, it can be painful. It will be painful, and it can leave us feeling empty and alone. Yet in such times, for me at least, there came forth an even greater realization of the sufficiency of Christ. He is One to whom we never need to say goodbye, and even if we do, and some have, He will not say goodbye to us. Not on this side of eternity. He is the One who says, promises, that He will never leave us or forsake us. Paul's letter to the Romans promises that "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ." Over and over, that has been my life experience in Him. I may have been, may be lonely, but I have never been alone. Not even in the darkest hours.

Maybe I've shared this before, but for me, the sharing of it never grows old. I was at a very lonely and scary time in my life. Going through a divorce, out of the ministry, feeling so isolated and alone. I was alone, living on a deserted church campground. I tried to call some people, but no one I reached out to was there to connect with. I tried to pray, but my prayers didn't seem to get past the ceiling of the room I was in. Finally, I opened my Bible to 2 Timothy 4:16-17. Paul writes of being brought before the judgement seat of Rome. "The first time I was brought before the judge, no one was with me. Everyone had abandoned me....But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength." That was more than 30 years ago, but what happened still seems like only yesterday. He came into my brokenness, and the words of Proverbs, that "there is One who sticks closer than a brother," became powerfully alive to me. I remembered that I had sometime before highlighted those verses in yellow. At that moment, those words seemed to be literally on fire. The memory still gives me chills.

That wasn't the last time I needed that truth, that I desperately needed Him. There have been many goodbyes. To best friends and to family who were called home to Him. To cherished friends, who though still "here" are not here with me. I have also had to say goodbye and let go of those who have chosen to leave me personally, or the fellowships I've pastored. I've also had to say goodbye to and let go of people who for whatever reason, He was asking me to release. All are painful. Some very much so. In all of them, over and over, the Jesus who came and stood with Paul was the Jesus who came and stood with me. If it has not been so with you, it can be. It must be. In the midst of the most painful "goodbye," He will be there beside you. The One who sticks closer than a brother...or sister. The One who never leaves or forsakes. The One who in this ever changing world, never changes. The One who, as Hebrews promises, is "the same yesterday, today, and forever."  Wherever you are today, let Him be so for you. He will come. He has come. He is there.

Blessings,

Pastor O

The Way Home

 I once heard some words spoken by the Rev. Billy Graham to a young woman whose life was in total devastation, at least in part by her own wrong choices. I don't know all of what Dr. Graham said to her, but I do know of this part of it. He told her, "Sometimes we have to take the long way home."

The long way home is a journey many have undertaken. I had to. I remember a time in the mid 70's as a student living a directionless, drug saturated life, filled with shallow relationships, I walked past a small building where the campus "Jesus Freaks" regularly gathered. My heart was empty and I knew it. As I was walking by, I noticed an open door and one of the "freaks" standing in the doorway. With eyes shining with life, they joyfully encouraged me to come and join them. In the depths of my being, I knew what was inside was what I yearned for. His Spirit called to my heart. Even so, I shook my head no, slowly turned, and continued on "my way".....into 5 more years of meaningless and empty life. I was taking the long way home.

The Bible is filled with examples of those who've done the same. In the Book of Ruth, Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons left their homeland of Judah for Moab in order to escape a famine. They were never to have done that, and in their time there, Elimelech and his sons died, leaving Naomi and the son's wives, one of whom was Ruth, alone. A devastating plight for a woman in that time. Soon after, Naomi, and Ruth, who would not leave her, began the journey home to Judah. Ruth 1:7 reads, "and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah." Naomi had taken the long way home.

Sometimes the long way home can be the result not so much of our wrong choices and actions, but our delay in the realization of God's given promises and dreams. God gave Joseph a dream concerning his destiny. Joseph had no idea the realization of the dream would involve long years of slavery, prison, and separation from those he loved the most. He was taking the long way home on a road designed by God Himself. God did so because He knew that it was that road alone that would transform Joseph into the man he needed to be in order to secure the dream becoming reality. Joseph, a prideful and arrogant young man, wasn't ready to realize the promise he'd been given. It was the long way home and His work in him along the way that would transform him. The same would be true of David, a shepherd before a soldier, and a vagabond before a king. It was true also of Peter, John, James, and all of the disciples. Might it be true of you as well?

You may be on the long road home today, whether from your own choices, as I was, or by God's design and working in you. 5 years after that encounter on my college campus, He set me on my own road home. Home to One who had made me and never ceased to call me. On the road the circumstances will sometimes conflict with the promise and the dream. Press on. Stay the course. Enter in. He knows the way. He owns the road. He'll get you home. It may be the long way, but it is the way. The Way, the Truth, and the Life. The home we were created for. The home that is the Father Himself.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Broken

 I once read an account of the revival that took place in Hebrides Islands, off the coast of Scotland in the 1950's. A small group of believers were particularly burdened for the young people of the islands. One night, a young deacon stood up and read Psalm 24:3-5, "Who may ascend unto the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart...He shall receive blessing from the Lord." The young man then said to those gathered around him, "Brethren, it seems to me to be just so much humbug to be waiting and praying as we are, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God." These prayer warriors, in a brokenness they'd not known before, sought Him with a new found humility. A few weeks later, the Holy Spirit came upon the islands, shaking them and their people to their very foundation. They would never be the same.

I read that and wondered if such a revelation as came to that young man needs to come to me, and you as well? How often have we prayed for the Lord to do something in another that has not yet been done in us? How often have we prayed for rebellious children to have their spirit of rebellion broken while we ourselves have that same rebellious attitude? How often have pastors and leaders in a fellowship prayed for certain "stiffnecked" people to "get right," to be softened before Him, while they themselves are every bit as stiffnecked and every bit as hard? How often have we prayed for others to have more love in their lives for those around them, when we ourselves lack that very love? How often have we, the church, cried out for revival, for God to send overwhelming grace, while we have been so resistant to being overwhelmed by that grace in our individual lives? Nancy Leigh DeMoss writes, "The greatest hindrance to revival is not others unwillingness to humble themselves--it is our need to humble ourselves and confess our desperate need for His mercy."

When we come together with other believers, other pastors, other leaders, what are we more prone to do, complain or confess, accuse or admit, justify or repent? These are hard questions, but I've been pastoring for a long time now, so much of it praying for a move of His Spirit, for revival. For my world to be shaken as were the Hebrides Islands. Maybe you have too. Has it happened? Could we dare come to the place the young Scotsman came to? Could we be seeking for Him to do something in others that has not yet been done in us? Have we been trying to go to the hill of the Lord with unclean hands and impure hearts?

Many of us may have often quoted and prayed 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If My people, called by My name will humble themselves and pray, seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land." In our doing so, how often have we thought that those being addressed were others and not us. He calls us to ascend His hill, but it doesn't seem we've been able to do so. We all want to go there, but seemingly on our terms and not His. We can only come broken. The way up....is down.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Disappointment

 Disappointment. We all experience it at some point. Things don't turn out as we had hoped. Life has not turned out as we had hoped. Disappointment can be so hard to cope with. Seemingly impossible at times. Never more than when we find ourselves disappointed with God.

When I first came to Christ, I remember being told about the "beautiful plan God had for my life." This was exciting. My life desperately needed beauty. It was so good to know that things would now be different. Let the beauty begin. I was ready. What a shock to learn the beautiful plan had a few stops that were decidedly not beautiful at all. I wondered if I had been misled. Had I believed in a God that wasn't able to bring "beauty from ashes" just as He'd promised? When would the plan begin to unfold? I was disappointed with God.

A great part of our problem is that neither those who proclaim it or those who hear it, really understand what God's idea of beauty really is. We,as we do with so much else, define beauty as to what we see happening on the surface. Our idea of a beautiful plan is one where He brings us through this life with as little pain, loss, and heartache as possible, and as great a supply of material and temporal blessings as we can hold. Then, He takes us home to heaven. Our idea has no place for a cross, for any kind of suffering, for any kind of real sacrifice or pain. We've believed in an illusion, and the result will always be disappointment. Especially with our being disappointed in Him. He hasn't "delivered." We've prayed, believed, even begged Him for a desired result, and it hasn't happened. We feel like we did everything right. We followed the "steps" and memorized His promises. Why hasn't He done something? But He has. He is....if we had eyes to see it.

I have had places of deep disappointment with Him. My disappointment came because my eyes were focused upon the outcome I wanted, and not upon the Lord who was working in me and in the circumstances around me. He was dealing with so many issues in my heart and spirit. My sense of entitlement, and yes, my sense that somehow, He owed me. I'd kept my part of the "bargain," now He needed to keep His. It was all about me and He was simply a "tool" I needed to get what I wanted to have and where I wanted to be. I wanted a beautiful life. He wanted a more beautiful me. Just as He wants a more beautiful you. How's the process going for each of us?

The Lord does give us beautiful things and He does satisfy so many of our here and now desires, but His deepest work is to make us more like His Son, Jesus, and He uses our disappointments to bring the dross in our hearts and lives to the surface, that we might be more and more His silver and gold. He polishes us until He sees the face of His Son in us. In Romans 5 Paul writes that we have been given a "confident expectation" and that this expectation "will not disappoint us." In our disappointments, He works so that our expectations are changed from being focused on what we want to have or see Him do, to simply having a full expectation of Him and His goodness. In the midst of even pain and suffering, we have a steadfast confidence in His goodness and love. We know that somehow and someway, He will bring beauty from ashes. This yields a hope in Him, not in the outcomes we want. We live in all places with a joy, hope, and peace that yields true beauty in our lives.

Scripture says that the hope He gives, "will not disappoint." It won't disappoint because it is rooted in Christ and the knowledge that He is in control, that He, as the Bible says, "holds all things together." He said we would have trouble in this fallen world, and trouble always brings some level of disappointment. Yet the trouble cannot sway what He is working in us and doing around us. As Romans 8 promises, "He works all things together for good." Even our disappointments. Weeping may last for the night, "but joy comes in the morning." Hold on in trust in the midst of every disappointment. Where you are is not where He'll leave you. He really does have a beautiful plan. Let Him show you how truly beautiful it is.

Blessings,
Pastor O