Chances

 I read something about the Father recently and I'll share it with you; "He is the God of the second chance...the fat chance....the slim chance....the no chance." What chance is there that you'll dare to believe that?

You may be one of the many who feel that they've run out of chances. You've had many, but they seem to have all slipped away. Maybe you've run out of chances. They've slipped away, either by your choices or someone else's. People may encourage you to "cheer up, look up, and buck up," but all you really want to do is just give up, You see no chances and even if you did, the thought of another failure, another loss, so frightens you, that you can't bring yourself to act upon it. To you, it may really seem that there is no chance.

Facing all this, I ask again if you could dare to believe that....there is? In Him there is. In Christ there is. In Joel chapter 2, God speaks to a people devastated by war, famine, and disease, all as a result of their own disobedient actions. Yet, in Him, despite their sin and rebellion, they had not run out of chances. He told them that if they would turn to Him and away from their own destructive desires, put their trust in Him and allow Him to work that....."I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts." He would give back what was lost to not only one wave of destruction, but four.

These waves of swarming locusts had left the people with nothing, yet in the midst of nothing God promised them restoration. Not in part, but complete. It's the kind of promise only God can make and only God can perform. Is it the kind of promise that you can believe? Is there a chance that you could take Him at His word and put your life in His hands? Not part of your life, but all of it? Not some of your heart, but the whole of it?

I don't know what kind of "locusts" have ravaged your life and sought to steal your hope. It may be that as you read this, the swarms of locusts around your life have blotted out the light of your hope. Dare to believe that they can never blot out the Light of your hope in Jesus Christ. With Jesus, there is more than just a chance. There is a guarantee, signed in His blood. It says that all things are possible with God for everyone who believes. He is the One who asks, "Is anything too difficult for Me?" With a word from Him, the cutting, stripping, swarming, and hopping locusts assaulting your life must draw back. In their place He will bring about a restoration. And what He restores yields a beauty and bounty beyond what was lost.

If you're looking at your chances today, you may not see anything to hold on to. If you'll look into the face of Jesus,  you'll see more than a chance. You'll begin to see, through His eyes, the possibilities. Possibilities that He means to turn into realities. The barren land will again bloom. The hope that died will live again. You can live again. Let Him make you to live again.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Departure

 "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand." 2 Timothy 4:6......"It ought to be our business every day to prepare for our last day." Unknown

When Paul penned these words to Timothy, he knew his time, life, and ministry were drawing to a close. He spoke of how he had lived a life that fought "the good fight" of faith. He felt he had accomplished that for which the Father had created and purposed for him. He was ready.

I think that Paul, from the moment he first encountered the risen Christ on the Damascus Road, lived with the sense of his calling and the growing depth of his relationship with Christ in the living out of that calling. In his imperfections he lived in the fullness of His perfect love. I think Scripture proves that as he faced his execution by the power of Rome, he was completely at rest that he would leave this world as to how he had lived for His Savior. He lived with his eyes ever upon eternity and His Lord. I wonder, do I? Do you?

More and more, I find myself in Paul's place. No, there is no executioner's sword before me, but death stalks all of us in this fallen world. I know with each day of life, my departure draws a day closer. My departure, whenever it may come, is at hand. Will I be able to testify that I have lived it out to the full? I believe I have been completely committed to doing so, but really, in every area of my life, have I? Did I really live with my eye upon eternity, or did I allow myself to get encumbered by the affairs of this passing world? Has my field of vision been so filled with what was passing away that I saw little if anything of what would never pass away....His Kingdom? Have I taken more notice of the kingdoms of the world than the Kingdom of God? I have testified to being a citizen of this Kingdom, an Ambassador of it? Does the witness and record of my life verify this? When my last day comes, when my departure is upon me, will I have accomplished all that He created me for and called me to? How much will be left undone?

Someone once asked if the testimony of our lives is one that shows that we lived in a manner that was worth Christ dying for. He didn't come so that we might be comfortable, well off, and experiencing as little trouble as possible. He came that we might be His, to know Him, walk with Him, and like Him, carry our cross. To live each day pressing on. Pressing onward, upward, and inward in Him. Too often in my life I lived for the approval of others. Now, the only One who's approval matters is His. To have it is, in the end, all that matters.

When the time of my departure does arrive, I want it to find me stretching, reaching for all of Him and all that He has for me. What better way could there be to leave this realm and enter into the fullness of His than that. May He find me so at my departure. May He find you so as well.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Unaware

 "When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." Genesis 28:16

I've a good friend named Kerry Willis, who among his many talents, is a gifted photographer. Kerry is currently serving as a District Superintendent on the Philadelphia District of our denomination. He is based in Cape May, NJ, a town I know something about as I lived and served the Lord there for a little over two years in the beginning of the 90's. One of the things Kerry does is post a great number of photos of the town and area on Facebook. So many are truly beautiful, but I view them with a kind of bittersweet regret. You see, in all the time I lived there, I never saw most of the beauty he puts on display.

I could come up with a myriad of reasons why this is so, but there's only one real one: I didn't see the beauty because I was so caught up in all in my life that had no beauty. That time was one where I was adjusting to a totally different kind of life and ministry than I had ever expected or planned for. I never planned to be divorced. I never planned on being a part time associate pastor. Heck, I had never planned on living in south Jersey at all. I was thankful that the Lord had provided this place for me, and He used that place to do His ongoing work of healing. But in His healing process I had missed so much. There was real beauty all around, but I never really saw it. This was not the place I really wanted to be and as a result, everything I "saw" was obscured by that attitude. I know now that as much as He did in me there, He could have done even more if I had been fully open to all He wanted me to experience in that place. Might there be a similar reality in your life? How much beauty are you missing in the place where you're "living" right now, simply because it's not where you really want to be? It's not the place you envisioned for yourself.

Jacob was a schemer and manipulator. He was a man completely obsessed with himself. God had put His hand upon him while he was still in his mother's womb, but that hadn't really made a great difference to him up to this point. He had tricked his brother Esau out of his inheritance and was now on the run from his brother's wrath. Self-preservation was central to his thought process. That's what filled his field of vision. Then the Lord spoke to him in a dream, promising His deliverance and protection. When he awoke, he made his statement that in that place of hiding, the Lord had been totally present, yet he'd missed him. He never saw Him. For me, in too many ways, my time in Cape May was much the same. I lived, I ministered and grew in Him, but I missed too much of what He had for me there. I missed so much of the beauty that I could have experienced in that place. Right now, maybe you are too in the place where He's led you to for this time in your life.

Kerry's pictures always bring that tinge of regret. Not "seeing" what his camera sees while I had the opportunity to see it reminds me of how much deeper my contentment and well-being could have been if only I'd have been willing to see. How much better could my time have been there and how much deeper and quicker the healing if my eyes had been fully open? I'd missed so much, and though I can go back now and see what I didn't see then, the reality is that I didn't see it then, and it cost me more than I want to dwell upon.

Where in your life are you, like I was, unaware of all the beauty He has for you there? Not just the beauty of your surroundings, but the beauty of His presence. How much of your life is being lived out unawares? Unaware of Him, of His blessings for you there, and of what He is doing in that place. A place you never wanted to be, but a place He seeks to reveal Himself to you in ways you never dreamed of.

May we right now renounce our living unaware. Unaware of all the beauty He has for us even in the unenvisioned place. In the unenvisioned place, He has for us the most beautiful visions of Himself. May we not miss any of them.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Vise

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 43:5....."Choosing to hope again is the first step toward healing." Dutch Sheets

Sometimes the circumstances of life make us feel like we're being held in a vise. A vise that crushes us on both sides, and all we feel is the endless pain that is ours in that place. It's not a part of popular preaching these days, but for those whose lives are fully surrendered to Him, such places will be theirs. In one form or another, one way or another, "the vise" comes to us all. 

I'm not sure I've ever shared this particular event before. It was in the first few months after the collapse of my marriage and ministry. I was working for a Coca-Cola distribution center, working on a delivery truck. We had gone into a convenience store to deliver their order, when I saw a little blonde haired and blue eyed girl. She could have been my daughter. I was completely unprepared for that, and so moved by my emotions that I had to step outside the store and find a secluded place to just.....cry. Such was the pain. I was already feeling a great depth of hopelessness due to the circumstances that made for my present life. Seeing that little girl was a fresh piercing of my heart and mind, reminding me of all that I had lost and the seeming impossibility of ever finding my way back from that place. Still, I composed myself, went back to the store, and got back to work.

It was not immediate, for sometimes the pain and heartache can be so great that it is all we can "see" or know, but the truth and promise of Psalm 45:3 did find its way to my heart and spirit. I realized that I had a choice. I could just give up, just lay down and "die," and believe me, the desire to do just that was overwhelming, or, I could choose to hope. I had been walking with Him now for 10 years. I had experienced His deliverances in a number of ways before, and though I couldn't understand why and how this present state had been allowed, I chose to not only trust Him, but to hope in and upon Him. I took Sheets' step toward healing.

Right now, in our fellowship alone, so many are suffering from every kind of loss, sickness, and brokenness. Perhaps you are as well. Perhaps you too find yourself in the vise. If so, my prayer for you is that you refuse to "die" there. Hope in Him. I, no, He guarantees you that you will not remain there. That store I write about was found in Charlottesville, Virginia. He didn't leave me there, but instead led me on a journey of new life and new experiences in Him, and now, in my old age, that journey leads ever onward to the ending of this time and the beginning of my eternity with Him. All of it founded upon hope in Him. Hope in the power, love, and life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I am not held in the vise-grip of suffering, but in the grip of His love. I always have been...even in my suffering. You are as well. Cling to your hope in Him. As His Word promises, it will not disappoint. The grip of the vise can never withstand the grip of His love.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Validated

 What is it that "validates" you as a person? As a man? As a woman? What is it that makes your life meaningful, that makes it matter? What is it that tells you that you matter? Is it found in your job, your income, your education level? Is it your degree of professional success, including ministry success? Is it found in the amount of recognition you've received? Have you received it by way of being a husband, wife, mother or father? 

So many of us define our value by what we do or what we have. If we feel like we've achieved what we want in these, we feel fulfilled, satisfied. Our lives have meaning. If we don't, well, we know the answer to that, don't we? There's no wrong in desiring any of the above. God does not see desires by themselves as evil, but He has never meant that we would find our value, our fulfillment, our meaning in the fulfillment of these desires. The truth of this is shown by what happens should any of them be lost to us. We can become empty and life loses much, if not all of its meaning. That's why so few feel secure in the realization of them. We live with fear of losing them, and fear will always end up destroying us.

I became a pastor forty years ago, and when I did I felt like I'd found what I'd been made for. It was the only thing I'd ever really loved doing. I loved it so much that my identity became completely wrapped up in being a pastor. A pastor was who I was, and not a man who was a pastor. I could not envision ever not being one. In the same way, I found meaning in my being a husband and a father. These were who I was. Pastor. Husband. Father. That's what validated me.....until all of it was lost.

I'll never forget the devastation of that time and I don't think He wants me to. As life came crashing down around me, my marriage destroyed, my daughter lost, my ministry ended, I didn't seem to know any longer who I was. I thought I did, when all were present. Now they weren't, and what did my life mean now? What value did I have now? In the rubble of the devastation, He came with answers, but it took time for Him to clear the rubble.

Over time, He began to show me who I really was. I was His. Yes, I'd known this, but somehow, it hadn't been enough. I had to be something, do something, achieve something. He said no, all I had to be was His. To be in Him. My value and validation came in that. Paul spoke of his relationship with the Father in Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, move, and have our being." Our reason for being is Him. To love Him and be loved by Him. To know He didn't create me first to be any of those things I'd lost. He created me for relationship with Him. I may have no longer been in the roles I'd lost, I was still His, a man of value and of purpose....even when I appeared to have no purpose at all. In the middle of all the rubble, I still had meaning in Him. So do you. As someone said, only God can tell us who we are.

Out of the rubble, He rebuilt my life, and though not all that was lost was restored, what He did in the rebuilding was richer and deeper than ever before. Yes, I still had and have desires, and I need to remain aware of how easily those desires can seduce me into allowing their realization to define me. When it happens, He always calls me back to Himself. I discover anew that it's in Him that I live, move, and have my being. 

Perhaps He calls you this day as well. Maybe you too have been finding your identity, your value, in what do or have. Maybe you live in fear of losing them, or have lost them. Discover as I did, and as I continue to discover, that life and purpose is not validated by what we are or what we've done. It's validated by who we are in Him and what He says about us. We can cease living in the trap of a false identity and meaning and simply come to Him. Come to Him, the One in who we live, move, and have our being. That my friends, is true validation.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Slideshows

 John C. Fremont was a cultural superstar of the mid-19th century. Fremont, an army major, had been ordered by the President to map out a vast area of unexplored territory in the far west of a young America. He spent several years doing this, gathering notes which become a bestselling book and winning him huge acclaim. He became a lecturer of great repute and people flocked to hear him tell of all the wonders he'd seen in his adventures. He was called, "The Pathfinder" and he captivated his listeners. However, most who heard him talk left the lectures inspired, but unchanged. They loved to hear of where he'd been, but they had no desire to leave their present comforts in order to see for themselves all that he described. No costly journey into the unknown for them. Still, there were some, a few, whose hearts were aroused, who had to see this glorious land for themselves. They wanted to walk where Fremont had, live where he'd lived, go where he'd gone. They were the ones who left everything behind in order to follow in the steps of The Pathfinder.

I tell this because I think it is the story of much of the church today, We gather each week to listen to someone(s) sing and preach about a Person and His Land. A Person and Land that pulls upon our hearts and invites us to come and know and experience them. We feel inspired, but in the end, we don't wish to let go of our safe, secure, and familiar lives. We're happy for them to tell us of what they've seen and experienced. We're stirred, but unmoved. Inspired, but unchanged. We enjoy hearing about this Person and Their Land, but we don't really want to go there. Not if leaving all is the condition for it. As with Fremont, those who really want to follow Him, go with Him, live in Him, are few, and possibly becoming fewer.

Have you listened to the Sandy Patty and Larnelle Harris song, "I've Just Seen Jesus," lately? To me, it's more powerful than ever, particularly these lyrics: "I've just seen Jesus, and I know He really saw me too. As if till now I'd never lived. All that I've done before, won't matter anymore. I've just seen Jesus, and I'll never be the same again."

In John 20:18, Mary Magdalene announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord." She would never be the same again. Soon after, the disciples saw Him as well. They too would never be the same again. I think it was not just because they saw Him, but because they realized that He saw them, really saw them as well. As the lyrics say, till that moment, they'd not really been living. From now on, they would. 

I don't think you and I can truly live until we've had such a moment. We can agree to believe. We can listen to the "lecture" and the accompanying music, agreeing with it all. We can raise our hands and even come forward to show how much we agree with everything we've heard. Yet, we won't take the final step. We won't come to the foot of His cross that we might enter into all He came, died, and rose to give us. The "slideshow" may have moved us, but in our hearts, we're unchanged. We can't bring ourselves to leave this fallen land for His land. We'll just continue to listen to lectures about it. 

Jesus the true Pathfinder and Pathgiver calls us to come, take up His cross, and follow the path He has cut into His wondrous country He's prepared for us. A path He means to use to make us pathfinders to someone else. Our choice is, will we go on listening to our weekly lectures and slideshows, or, with hearts ablaze, leave all to follow Him? If you've really seen Him, nothing can keep you from His country and from Himself. If not, lectures and slideshows will always be enough. If you've really seen Him. Have you really seen Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Humbled

 I recall one of our denomination's leaders saying some years back, "So many people come into our services and are stirred but not changed." That's a heart piercing truth, but not one that seems to pierce many hearts. Why is this so? How can this be?

I can't remember a time in the church when there hasn't been a great deal of talk about our desire for revival. 2 Chronicles 7:14 quotations abound; "If my people who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and will heal their land." So many pastors and churches have been pleading this promise, yet revival tarries. An awakening tarries. The heavens can seem like brass. Perhaps they are. We're praying, we're seeking His face, His forgiveness and His healing, yet it hasn't come. Not in the degree we say we hope for. The promise isn't being realized. What are we missing? The answer is before our eyes but our hearts remain blind to it. All of the power of the promise hinges on this: We're to humble ourselves before Him. We're willing to hold all night prayer vigils, to fast, to seek Him, but to humble ourselves? I'm not sure we know what that is or what it entails.

Gerald Fry says that the biblical meaning of "humbling oneself" is to be willing to be seen and known for who we really are. This is terrifying to our flesh. We're willing to pray, to seek, and for great amounts of time. But humbling ourselves to the point of being willing to see ourselves for who we really are and how we really live, think, and act, well, that's another matter isn't it? That means coming to His cross and dying to ourselves there. All the prayer and seeking in the world will never substitute for that.

I remember talking to a brother pastor and he was grieving over the loss of yet another relationship in his church and ministry. I knew all too well his pain. There'd been a disagreement, but rather than work it out, as Christ directs, they left. His pain soaked words were, "I'm so weary of one broken and lost relationship after another." Yet this is what we do. We, a people with a message of reconciliation with God, seem unable to ever reconcile with one another, and so, with Him as well. Why? Pride! Always at root its pride. So we go on, always looking for His fullness but constantly frustrated in our search and blind to the reasons for it. We want to know Him but stumble at really knowing ourselves. How can we come clean with Him if we won't come clean with ourselves? And it will continue to be so until.....we humble ourselves before Him.

Are we, you and I, among those so often stirred but never transformed? Wanderers looking for a spiritual high, either not ever finding it, or, thinking we have, soon become disenchanted and then moving on. All the while leaving a trail of broken relationships behind. James Robison has said that either the church in America will humble themselves and bow before Him or He will humiliate us and break our legs in doing so. I think the latter is taking place, in both the church and the nation. May we not wait for the breaking of our legs of pride, but be broken by His holy love and life, and in our brokenness, discover His healing and wholeness, and what He means true revival to be. He will hear from heaven. He will hear, and He will come. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

Blessings,
Pastor O