Chaos

 In the Bible translation, The Message, Psalm 51:10,12 reads, "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails." 

These were the words of David, the king of Israel, whose life was in ruins, and all by his own actions. In rapid order he had seduced and committed adultery with the wife of his most loyal soldier, Uriah. When every attempt at covering up this sin failed, he had Uriah killed. Adultery, deception, murder. The result, in David's own words, was chaos. The Bible says that "God made the world a place to be lived in, not to be a place of chaos." Lived in. Not to exist in, but to live in as we were created by Him to live. In His abundance, joy, peace, and wholeness.

Your life may be in ruins today. Chaos may be reigning in it. Whether this is the result of your own choices or the actions of another or many others, would you dare to believe that God can, in Jesus Christ, make a "fresh start" in you? Read the creation account in Genesis 1. One translation says that "He hovered over the chaos of creation." Out of that chaos He created beauty and wonder beyond description. What might He do with the chaos and ruin of your life if you'll place it all in His hands?

I know something of chaos. There was a period where, as it was with Job, one disaster after another was taking place. I was being rocked by relational, financial, and situational chaos. Panic was pounding at my door, bringing with it its companion, despair. Yet, just as He came to the disciples in the chaos of the storm that threatened to drown them and calmed the sea, so did He enter into my chaos. As He delivered them, so He delivered me. He came to them. He came to me. He'll come to you.....no matter how intense the chaos, no matter how deep the darkness and despair.

Too many today are living in what David called "gray exile." Are you? Would you be released from the gnawing, colorless life that you find it impossible to escape from? A prison cell that every key you've tried has failed to open. He holds the key to that cell. He will bring you out into His freedom and fullness. He will breathe a fresh wind into your spirit. He will transform your world into a place that you can live in. Live as He created you to live. Let your "sails" be empty of all that is not Him so that He may fill them with all that is. Step into your Genesis week.

In his gray exile, David fell to his knees, broken before his God. Broken by his own choices and actions. In repentance he sought forgiveness, wholeness, and restoration. He found them in Him. If your own exile is the result of your choices, your rebellion, your sin, won't you do the same. He brings no condemnation. He brings life and healing. Won't you have it? 

No matter the reason for your exile, if you call to Him, He'll come to you there, take hold of you, and lead you out.....into the world and life He means for you to live in. Yes, it will have imperfections, challenges, and trouble, but it will be filled with Him, who is Lord over them all. A life founded on His hope, joy, peace, and love. A life that chaos can't overcome. The chaos has already been conquered. The exile ended in Him. 

Blessings,
Pastor O

How?

 "Amazing Love, how can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?" Charles Wesley....."No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good." C.S. Lewis...."Only those who know their lostness are eligible to be found." Chris Tiegreen

I have never liked the question, "Have you accepted Christ?" It makes it sound almost like we're doing Him a grand favor to allow Him (the honor) of coming into our life. Someone said the better question is how, in light of how black our sin, could He ever accept us? How could He accept me and how could He accept you?

Wesley's above hymn, And Can It Be, has long been the song I most identify with. I lose sight of its truth sometimes, and I need to be drawn back to it. I need to know again just how amazing His love is, and how amazing it is that He could not only love me, save me, and above all, die for me. Me! Someone who lived his life against His Life and Truth. Me, who in so many ways, mocked Him, used His name as a curse, and blasphemed that name in countless different ways. Me, who lived many years not caring at all about Him, His life, His love, and His sacrifice on my behalf. Me, who if the bare, horrible truth of it all were known, would have been standing in the crowd on that terrible day in Jerusalem shouting, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" I would have been there....and so would have you.

I've a pastor friend who, in his messages, often says to his people, "We're not the good guys in the story." It's completely true. The human race has a sin problem. We're born with that and we can't free ourselves from it. It sets us against God, and each other. It makes us His enemy. The beauty, the wonder, is that He is not our enemy in return. He created us for Himself and the sin of our human parents brought a separation that we could never breach. Our sin demanded justice. It demanded our death. We have been born under a death sentence that we had no ability to commute. The Father, in His love, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to accomplish what we couldn't. His death on a cross satisfied the need for justice. He broke the curse of sin and death for all who believe upon and follow Him. That's the Gospel Good News. Christ came, lived, died, rose, and conquered death for all will believe upon Him. I'm so thankful that I received that Good News and the Savior who brought it. I'll also never cease to be amazed, as was Wesley, that He would come for me, die for me, rise for me, and save me, when I lived so willingly against all that He is. How? How could He do it? How could He do it for me, and how could He do it for you? For a sinner such as me.....how?

Someone said that the truth and depth of our repentance is shown by the depth of our remorse for all the ways we have failed Him and sinned against Him. I, like the apostle Paul, am so thankful that I'm forgiven, but I cannot lose sight of how black the record against me was. That's why I need to hear and sing this hymn again. I cannot forget how undeserving I was and yet, in His love, He came...for me. For you. How?

How could He accept me, and you? I don't know, but He will. We need to own our lostness and our need. We need to own our condition. He, not us, is "the Good Guy." The Good Guy offers us life....and pardon. Have you received it? Can you sing the hymn? If you never have.....please, PLEASE, do it now.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Spirit Wind

Ancient seafarers went about in ships that used one or more banks of oars. This was because there were times when the wind was silent, and to continue onward, rowers, who were usually slaves, would propel the ship across the waves. However, they could only do this in spurts. At some point, they would exhaust themselves and have to stop and remain motionless in the water. For the sailors, wind filling their sails was treasured above all else. I hear the Holy Spirit speaking in this.

The church today has countless "rowers," but it seems, so little wind. Our rowers can get a lot done. We're busier than ever. We're constantly moving, going out in our witness to a lost culture. We build programs, craft strategies, write books, and hold and attend conferences. We seek to impact both ourselves and the culture with the reality of Jesus Christ. Yet in all of it, we are exhausted. Pastor's, pointing to burnout, are leaving the ministry in shocking numbers. Congregations are comprised of people who may hear His Words of Truth but who rely upon the remedies of the world for depression, addiction, anger, and emotional, physical, and spiritual lameness. We look for rest in the same places that it does. Vacations, 3 day weekends, or escapes into entertainment, sex, and sports. We claim to follow the One we call The Great Physician but have medicine cabinets filled with as many or more drugs as our unchurched neighbor. His Word tells us that the Government of all things is upon His shoulders, but we look to secular governments to care for us, becoming as dependent upon it as those who are without Him. I'm not claiming these are evil in themselves or that a believer can never use them, only that they have come to take the place of Him who is above all things, including these things. Because of it, we exhaust the limits of what we can do and end up "floating" listlessly, without the wind of the Holy Spirit. We've "rowed" with all our might and discovered we have gone nowhere.

Jesus, speaking with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John 3, talks of what it means to be "born again," made new in Christ. He says, "Humans can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. So don't be surprised by My statement that you must be born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." There lies the root of our problem. We want to be able to explain naturally that which is supernatural in origin. God's Kingdom is a supernatural one. We can do nothing by our own efforts to add to it or build it. There are books on how to bring revival to your church. There are ministries that guarantee they can bring in 100 new converts in the coming year. Revival and conversion are the result of the Spirit's work alone, and Jesus said that we cannot know or control the coming or movement of His Holy Spirit. All we can do is place ourselves in a state where we are ready to receive His fullness when He moves, and that state is one of emptiness so that He may make us full. 

Have we been at the oars long enough? Are we exhausted enough, empty enough for Him to now fill us? Have we had enough of human activity that takes us nowhere? Can we instead, in brokenness and at His cross, seek His face, His heart, and His Spirit until He comes, filling our long dormant sails, carrying us to we know not where? In all of it made new, renewed, transformed and empowered. The wind is blowing. Let it fill your sails.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Saturday

 I heard a pastor named J.D. Greear say that we live most of our lives on Saturday. He was speaking of the day between Friday, when Christ was crucified, and Sunday, when He was resurrected. Friday was the day of catastrophe for the disciples. They were shocked and traumatized. They had been promised that there would be a Sunday, a day when Christ rose. They had a promise that was yet to be realized....on Saturday. On Saturday they had to face the horror of what had happened, and all the questions of why, and the real doubts they had about the fulfillment of His promise to them. Greear says that in many ways, Saturday is where we live as we face the real horrors of what life in this fallen world can entail, especially when the happening of those horrors are so recent. We have questions and we have doubts. Maybe you're living there right now in your faith journey. If not, you will be.

Questions and doubts will happen in our journey with Him. Mary was the first to see the risen Christ. When she told the disciples, they didn't believe her...until they saw Him. Thomas wasn't there, so when he was told, he said, "Unless I see the nail imprints and  touch His wounds, I won't believe" Then Jesus appeared, and Thomas experienced the reality of His resurrection. Charles Spurgeon said that our doubts will either take us deeper into intimacy with Him, or further from Him. We will have doubts and we will have questions. Christ calls us to bring them to Him. We have to face them. He does not promise answers in them. He promises Himself as we walk through them. One day, He promises, we will understand. Right now, He is with us. Greear says that when Christ appeared to Thomas, Thomas got a revelation of who He was. This is what He will give us in all of our doubts and questions. He will come in the way we most need Him and He will give us a fresh revelation of who He truly is, as He comes. Greear says that the wounds of Jesus assure us that He will never leave or forsake us.

A friend made me aware of a family in their church who just lost their two youngest sons to a mysterious virus that attacked their brains and nervous system. It took their lives and took them quickly. We can only imagine the shock, pain, and trauma they are now experiencing. Surely they have questions and doubts. Where was He? Why didn't He heal them? Is He really good? How could He bring good from this? Friday has happened, and now they're living in Saturday. They have the promise of Sunday coming, but all they see right now is the darkness of Saturday. Yet Christ is there, and He will not leave them alone, comfortless, or without hope. Everything I've seen in this situation tells me that they are pressing more deeply into Him. In their sorrow and suffering, they trust and believe Him for Sunday. He is with them, suffering with them, and giving Himself to them in their suffering. Horrors happen in this fallen world. They cannot keep Him from invading them with Himself.

If you're living in Saturday right now, you surely have questions and doubts. Face them. He doesn't fear them. One day, He will answer them directly, but right now, He gives you Himself. Keep walking, trusting, believing His promise of Sunday. It will come. He is with you. He will not leave or forsake you. His wounds guarantee that.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Yesterday

 One of the greatest blessings I've experienced in my walk with Him is all of the wonderful people I have come to know. One of them is a brother and friend named Bob Yarbrough, and I want to share something that took place with him more than a decade ago. It still speaks to me, and hopefully to you today.

Bob is a former pastor and missionary, and we would often meet for breakfast or lunch. When we did, our talk often centered on the wondrous ways of our Lord. We would talk of the dreams and visions we felt we'd received from Him but had yet to be realized. We spoke of disappointments, and yes, our failures. Yet these times were not times of defeat but of a shared hope, a reaffirmation that what the Lord had promised, He would do. 

Upon leaving one of these meetings, Bob shared an exhortation from Isaiah 60:1. He said that he had learned to live each new day with the realization that yesterday was gone and that this new day was to be faced with the reality that the Father had already redeemed it, and was one that was filled with opportunity, promise, and yes, miracles. We could live in and with the truth of that verse, "Arise, shine, for your Light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Yesterday may have been covered in darkness. Yesterday may have been filled with defeat and failure. And Yesterday must be given to Him. If there is sin to confess and repent of, do so. If there is heartbreak and disappointment there, bring it to Him. If there are shattered and lost dreams there, place them in His hands. With Him is where all our yesterday's must be left. There may be things we cannot get past in a day, but we need not be held captive in the new day by what took place yesterday. We may still deal with the circumstances and effects, but we do so dependent upon the infinite resources of the One who is our Source. In each new day we can live in the fullness of His healing, wholeness, hope, and comfort. Regardless of what took place yesterday, we can arise, shine, and behold the glory of the Lord to shine upon us. 

Charles Wesley, in his hymn, "And Can It Be," wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay. Fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eyes diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." Let us come out of the dungeons of our yesterdays. Let us be free of the weight of our chains of disappointment, failures, fears, and our sins of yesterday. Let us arise. Our light, the light of Christ has come in this, our new day. The glory of the Lord has risen upon us. Let it rise upon you.

I write this on the morning of my new day. Is it your new day as well, or, do you remain in yesterday's chains? Bring your yesterday's, all of them, to His cross. Leave them there. This is a new day, filled with His light, love, hope, and power. Arise and shine. Your light has come. His glory has risen upon you. Leave the dungeon of all your yesterday's.....and come forth!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Splinters

 "Come unto Me......." Matthew 11:28

I think a passing rite of childhood is getting splinters in our fingers or hands. They hurt. So much so that we ran to our mother with the pain. We wanted help, and she wanted to give it. However, the remedy almost always involved pain. In my case, a pair of "tweezers," where she would lay hold of the splinter and pull it out. That hurt too, and I didn't like it. I always hoped there would be another way. There never was. I "ached," literally to have relief, but I feared the recipe for it. Mom knew best. She knew to leave it there would cause a festering, leading to infection. That small splinter could be deadly. They still are.

Life in this fallen world has a way of causing many "splinters," some of them large and deadly, to impale us along our journey. Physical ones for sure, but even more deadly, emotional and spiritual ones. They can and do happen at any age, but instead of running to Him with them, we fear what might, indeed, be His remedy. So we hold back. We try many kinds of means of self-medicating them in an effort to remove them, or just live as best we can with them. We fear the pain that likely will be involved in bringing them to Him. He will for certain remove them, but it is also certain that His doing will hurt. Sometimes, many times, a great deal. Healing is rarely easy.

Sarah Hagerty says that most of us have years worth of splinters that we've never brought to Him. We fear the various "tweezers" that He might use to remove them. The splinter hurt going in and it will hurt, even resist being pulled out. Our facing the many types of splinters we've gathered in this life can be just as, even more painful than the event that brought it about. So we hold on to them, and instead of the spinter being removed and the cut left being cleansed and made whole, they fester in our mind, heart, and spirit. They become infected, and the infection spreads throughout our being. And all the while, the ache and longing for healing and relief remains and grows along with the infection. We can feel it a hopeless state, but there is always hope with Jesus.

In those childhood memories, I remember one of those splinter times, on this occasion, with my grandmother. I remember the pain, just as I remember her gently taking my hand, speaking soothingly as shed did so, and with her tweezers, pulling the splinter out. It did hurt, but somehow, her soothing words eased the pain a great deal. In the same way, the Lord Jesus stands before us and call us to Himself. Our splinters hurt, but if we will come, His grace, like my grandmother's soothing words, will comfort us and saturate us as He as gently as He can, removes the splinters that have caused us so much harm. The splinters are gone and His healing and wholeness come. Whatever pain may be involved in the coming is far outweighed by what is gained by it. We gain not only His healing. We gain Him.

As I said, we all accumulate splinters in this life. What have you done with yours? What will you do with them right now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Call

 I once heard a genteel southern lady in her early 60's tell of how she'd felt led of the Spirit to start up a ministry in her home for recently released female prisoners as a means of helping them transition back into society, and at the same time, minister to their souls. She said the beginning years of this ministry were extremely difficult, far more than she'd expected. She'd always believed that the Father had a destiny for her, but found herself asking Him, "Lord, is this it?" If you're following what you believe is His call upon your life, I expect you've asked the same.

Pastors are leaving the ministry at a frightening rate. In articles about this, a number of reasons are given; exhaustion, depression, financial or family pressure, or just plain spiritual burnout. Ultimately, they come to the place of thinking they've no other choice but to step away, to resign. I make no judgement. A commitment to true ministry will require more sacrifice than anything else you could do. It's a 24/7 "job." There are no real "off days" involved in the calling, so I make no judgement. And there's another aspect to all this. You don't have to be a "professional" in terms of ministry and serving in His Kingdom to also be a part of this exodus of a life in and for Him. There are so many who want to "resign" their current state in life and all that goes with it. Their marriage, their family, their church, even their walk with Him. Turning away, turning aside, can seem like the only available option to one who feels they simply can't go on. Yet there is another, if only we'll allow Him to open the eyes of our heart to see it. Even in the midst of our deepest disappointment, discouragement, and despair.

Last week I wrote of the wounds I'd suffered in life and in His calling. I left out something I want to share today. After the collapse of my marriage, I had to leave my ministry and calling. The hiatus would last a little more than a year. In that time I discovered that there was something far greater, bigger, and more powerful than any wound, disappointment, or defeat that I could experience. I discovered the power of His call upon my life. The longer my time out of ministry lasted, the stronger the sense of His calling became. I longed to return to the very life that had brought so much pain. I could because His call so captivated my heart and life that nothing could turn me away from it. The wounds and pain were real. His call and Lordship were more real. In that year away He reminded me and rebuilt within me an understanding of the sacredness of His call. Like Jeremiah, I knew that I could not keep within me what He had placed there. I had to fulfill His calling.

In knowing that, I began to understand as well that my call was not about MY destiny and MY legacy. It was about being faithful and being obedient. It was about fulfilling His call no matter where it was He placed me and no matter what I encountered in that place. I learned anew that whatever the frustrations, disappointments and hurts were, His call, which also included His magnificent presence, would sustain me.

So often in the Old Testament, when God called a man and placed before him the seeming impossible, He promised, "and I will go with you." He doesn't simply call us to a task. He calls us to Himself.

Wherever you are in His call today, and there are none of His whom He has not called to some work in His Kingdom, may you re-discover the sacredness of the call. He has sent you out but not alone. He goes with you. He will sustain you. The results of it all have to be left to Him. Your part, our part, is to be faithful in the call. That is our true destiny. That's also our true legacy. Faithful to the call....to the very end.

Blessings,

Pastor O