Alone

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But Christ stood with me and strengthened me." 2 Timothy 4:16 I recently watched a 40 plus years old interview of Billy Graham. He was asked what the greatest problem facing people might be? His answer surprised the one doing the interview, and likely most who watched it, both then and now. He said he believed it to be loneliness. I agree with him, and if it was so then, how much more is it now with technology and social media isolating us from one another to a degree that brother Billy could not have envisioned? Loneliness has invaded every corner of our culture. Husbands, wives, children, friends. All of us know it. We are seeing a frightening number of suicides by all age groups, but especially among teens. Most, in the notes they leave behind, speak of feeling utterly alone, uncared for. It is so in the world, and it is so in the church. How many of those that we "welcome" each week, leave our gatherings feeling the deep pain of loneliness? How many enter through our doors each week yearning to be noticed, accepted, loved, and then left unfulfilled? I realize that this is not completely on the church, but how hard do we really try to bring people into our life communities? There is a wide difference between being a welcoming church on the surface and one that really seeks to bring people into an authentic Christian community. At a church I once attended in Richmond, Virginia, there was a greeter everyone called "Pop." He was a large, gregarious man. He was not well educated, or distinguished looking, but every week, as people came in, those who were in his vicinity were swept into his embrace, as he said, in words you knew were true, "Welcome! God loves you, I love you." The pastor of that church said he asked a man who was attending for the second time why he had returned. His reply was that he wanted to be embraced by Pop once more. He wanted to be told that he was loved. How many like him are we not seeing? Not just in our church gatherings, but in our everyday affairs, in our everyday encounters with the people who are all around us? Somewhere, if it still exists, is a photo of me at one of the endless parties I once lived for. All around me are people, yet I saw in my face what I knew then was in my spirit. I felt totally alone. Surrounded by people, but alone. I knew when I looked at it that I'd reached the end of myself. I knew I couldn't live like this anymore. All of us have felt abandoned, isolated, and betrayed. The pain is great. We know, like Paul, what it is to have no one "stand with us" in our heartache. Yet there is one thing that will be true if we will allow Him. He, the Lord Jesus, will come and stand with us, to strengthen us, lift us, comfort us, and love us. He will never fail to do so. Little more than a month after seeing the photo, He came to me, entered my heart, and nothing has been the same ever since. Since that time there have been a number of places where I felt the pain of betrayal, abandonment, of being forgotten. We will all experience the loneliness that these things bring, but we don't have to experience them alone. He will come. He will stay. He will not leave. You may feel that no one sees you or knows where you are. It's a lie. He is the One who sees you. He knows right where you are. Call to Him. He will come. His guarantee is written in His blood. Blessings, Pastor O

Red Dot

"Then the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?' " Genesis 3:9 Have you ever found yourself in a mall or an airport trying to get your bearings? You can see what's all around you, but you don't really know where you are in relation to everything else, and particularly in relation to where you want to get to. Then you come to that large stationary layout with a floor plan. There is always a prominent dot, usually red, that tells you, "You are here." All that brings me to another question for each one of us. Where is our "red dot?" Where are we really at? In relation to others, in relation to Christ? We can see what's around us, but does what we see really tell us where we are spiritually? Do we even know? Where are we in our walk with Him? Where are we in our marriages, families, friendships, and ministries? Do we have a sense of where we want to be but don't really know how we're to get there? How do we really "get our bearings?" How do we get to where He wants us to be? To where He is? I think it starts with His words to us in Scripture; Be still and know that I am God. Busyness is the great enemy of intimacy with Him. Distractions keep our attention on everything but Christ. There are plenty of "roadside attractions" to sidetrack us from Him. Our red dot can be found in so many places He doesn't want us to be, but we won't know that until we stop, be still, and tune our hearts to Him. We won't discover who He really is or where we're really at, until we're still before Him. How does our "dot" get so removed from Him? There's more than one reason, but I think the greatest is that we're hiding from Him, and we find unending ways to do so. Sinful behavior is certainly at the top of the list, but we can hide in plain sight in so many ways. Jonah has plenty of company in his running from God in order to avoid His will and call. He ended up in the belly of a fish. Where and to what has your running and hiding brought you? Here's the beauty in it all. If your red dot is now in a place you never thought you'd be, a place you never intended to go, don't panic. Stop running and hiding. Simply be still, listen to His whisper of grace. Surrender where you are to Him. Call out His name, and He will come. He will come and take you to where He wants you to be in all aspects of your life. Your red dot and all that comes with it has to be surrendered to Him, otherwise you'll keep running, keep hiding, keep wandering, and always going nowhere. There's only one place your dot needs to be; right in the center of His heart. When that happens, you'll never need to ask where you are because your know where you always are. At home in His heart. Blessings, Pastor O

Sing

God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, Job 35:10 I think we all have those days and times when we don't "feel" like praying, praising, singing, or reading Scripture. Our emotions are leading us. If we follow them, they'll take us ever further from His Presence. In these times, in these desolate places, we need to believe that He is the God of desolate places. At root, we need to choose to believe He is who He says He is. We need to surrender to His Truth and not to our emotions. Maybe you're in such a place right now. Nothing about your circumstances, needs, or what seems to be points you to Him. It all points away from Him. It is here that we're faced with a choice; will we run towards Him, or will we run from Him? Don Moen is a worship leader that I listened to a lot back in the 90's, a time when He was reshaping what I believed about worship. I began to learn how He was able to lift me above what I might be feeling and into the realm of where He was. It was then that I began to understand what John had gone through on the Island of Patmos, a prison island. His emotions, feelings, and spirit had to have been at a low ebb, but he heard the Holy Spirit calling him to look up, not down or around, but up....to Him. As He did so, he saw a door opened into the throne room of his God and Father. He saw everything from the perspective of His throne room. Things as they really were and not how they seemed to be. True reality is not found here in this passing realm, but in eternity. In that which never passes away. I just watched a video featuring Moen, singing a song simply titled, "I Will Sing." His song spoke to all I've just written. Despite his heartache, his questions, his crushing emotions, and his fading desire to go to his Father, he would sing. He would pray. He would praise, and because he would, he, like John on Patmos, would also see that door unto His throne room opened as well. So will we. He knows we, like His Son, Jesus Christ, will enter into desolate places. He wants us to discover that He is Lord of the desolate place. How we feel at a particular time doesn't change that. He challenges us to believe, to trust,.....and to sing, to pray, and to praise. When we do, if we will, we will see Him, and when we see Him, the words of the great hymn will come true for us; It is well with my soul. My friends, it is well because He is with us. You may be in the desolate place. Take heart. He's the Lord of every desolate place. Even yours. Blessings, Pastor O

Rise

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” John 11:43....."The blessings of salvation began the day Jesus blew the door off a tomb." Chris Tiegreen I heard a song the other day where the lyrics, based upon the above Scripture, have the Lord Jesus calling Lazarus to "rise and come forth." Rise seems to be a word Jesus often used, with cripples held captive by their mats to the dead, or like Lazarus, held captive by his tomb. All it took to break the power of the disease, the chains, even death and its tomb, was a word from Christ. Nothing has changed in the last 2000 plus years. He's still speaking those words to those who can hear them. Can you hear them? Will you hear them? As a pastor for more than 40 years now, the hardest part of ministry has been seeing people remain on their "mats," held captive by addictions, the past, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and every sort of wound that has never been healed. I have seen people, even His people, who still have much of their lives still entombed by things that they have done or have been done to them. To all of them, to all of us, to you, He speaks and calls, "Rise, and come out!" In those words, in His invitation, is infinite power. All of it focused on us, on you. I love that quote from Tiegreen. He literally "blew the doors off" of His tomb, Lazarus' tomb, and our tomb if we will have it. All the power of death in all of its forms is rendered powerless by His risen life. A risen life that He offers to us. Not just in some future time, but right now. Right here. Death could not keep Him, and it cannot keep us. Tomb life is no life at all, so why do we stay there? The darkest and most terrifying tomb we could ever imagine cannot keep His voice and His presence out. He will penetrate it and His words, if we will listen and receive them, will snap every chain, put to flight the deepest darkness, and blow the doors off of the strongest tomb. All we need do is to, by His grace, rise, and come out, come forth. I know what it is to be crippled by what has happened in life. I know what tomb life is like, along with all the hopelessness and despair it brings. I'm well acquainted with deep dark places. I tell you, His voice, His call, can be heard there. The devil may have convinced you that all is beyond hope and help. It's a lie. All you need do is call upon Him, for He has been calling upon you. He stands at the immovable stone, the doors of your tomb, ready to blow the doors off, already calling you forth. All that needs be done has been done. Leave your mat, your tomb behind. Rise, go forth, and follow Him......Someone said that in the place of total desperation and helplessness, all you need to do is cry out from your heart, "Jesus, come and save me." It's true. I did, and He did. Lose the mat. Lose the tomb. He calls to you. Rise up. Come out....to His risen life. Blessings, Pastor O Blessings, Pastor O

Wineskins

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” Mark 2:22 Old wineskins were softened by soaking in water for several days and then rubbing olive oil into them. John Bevere It's very common to associate the old wineskins with old people and the new with the young. Common, but wrong. While it's true that many elderly people get stuck on how God "used" to move and work, hardness of heart and resistance to His ways has never been confined to an age group. I have met many young believers whose hearts are as stiff and unbending as the oldest of wineskins, but there is a cure. It's found in Bevere's above quote, and It's so simple that I have to wonder how we so consistently miss it. Our hearts can become stiff and unbending very easily and quickly. It's the result of drifting from Him as the center of our existence. Other things, idols, draw us away. Away from Him and away from His heart. This will always yield hardheartedness in us. We become old wineskins, rigid, unbending, unfit to hold the new wine of His Holy Spirit. Our only hope is to recognize what has happened in our faithwalk, and undergo the cure Bevere speaks of. We need to soak in Jesus Christ. We need our spirit to become completely immersed in Him. This comes through His Word, His Presence, and His whispering into our hearts. Whispering His Life, which our wandering has caused to greatly recede. As we soak, something beautiful is also happening. He rubs the oil of His Holy Spirit into every crack and crevice that has appeared in our hearts during our drifting. What had rendered us hard and ill fit for what He created us for, is revived, renewed, and made like new again. The stiff and rigid heart and spirit that we'd been walking in has been replaced by the supple smoothness and beauty of His Life. Where, regardless of our age, have we become old wineskins? Where has our neglect, our drifting, our stubborn desire to have things our way, produced a heart of stone, and the loss of a heart of flesh? Where do we need to confess that this happened, to repent of it, and to come to Him. To come to Him that we might soak in His presence and life. Soak until every part of our being has been drenched in Him. Where do we need Him to rub the oil of His Holy Spirit into the cracks, cuts, and crevices that our actions and attitudes have created? Do we have the courage to confess and address where we, regardless of our age, have become old wineskins, of no use at all to Him or His church? He is constantly pouring new wine into His church. Not new doctrine or a new, different understanding of His Word, but a new and deeper understanding of what He has said and is saying now. If our hearts have become too dry and cracked to receive and hold it, He calls us to Himself. To soak in Him as He rubs the oil of His Spirit into our spirit and our heart. He has new wine for us. Have our hearts become to dry and brittle to receive it? Blessings, Pastor O

Tasteless

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. Matthew 5:13.....One reason men pay so little attention to the Gospel today is the tasteless living of so many Christians. Vance Havner I have Havner's quote in my prayer journal, and whenever I come across it, it grips me. It seems easy to read Matthew 5:13 and agree with what it says but never ask ourselves if it applies to us. In our faithwalk, have we lost our flavor? Have we become tasteless Christians? Dwell on that for a bit. Elsewhere in my journal I have another quote, I believe from A.W. Tozer. "Has anyone ever remarked about us that there is a strong presence of the Holy Spirit about us?" People, even unbelievers, sense when someone has an intimacy with Jesus Christ, that they know Him, that they keep close company with Him. Scripture tells us that the disciples were recognized as having been with Jesus. Do people recognize that we keep company with Him as well? The Holy Spirit is moving across the face of our nation and the world right now a move of the Spirit is happening in many places and we can praise His Name for that, but in so many other places, such a move is not happening. A great part of the reason is the presence of tasteless churches, filled with tasteless "believers," preached to and led by tasteless pastors. They are present in their communities, and many may know that they are, but they are not a flavor and an aroma of Jesus Christ. They are not impacting a lost world by their presence, and sadly, are instead impacted by the values of the surrounding culture. I don't want to lose sight of how the above verse closes. Not only is the salt thrown out because of its being tasteless, it's ground under the feet of those who pass by. Much of the church, as they have lost their savor, have also lost their power. It's resulted in their being marginalized and ignored by the world that so desperately needs them to be alive in Christ. That world spirit is grinding them under its feet. May we, His church, repent of anyplace where we've become tasteless believers, and seek His renewing and empowering. May we do this corporately and individually. We are called to represent Him as He is wherever we are. In our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and yes, most especially in His church. Has anyone lately, as Tozer asks, remarked on there being something radically different about us from most people, that we have a sense of the supernatural God about us? If not, perhaps it's time to repent of our tastelessness and seek a refiring of His Holy Spirit. To be, perhaps for the first time, a savor and aroma of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Blessings, Pastor O

Jesus Asks 2

Here's part two of some questions Jesus asked of His disciples and listeners. How do we answer? What do you want Me to do for you? Matthew 11:8 What is it really that we would ask of Jesus? Do our requests come anywhere near to the magnitude of who we believe Him to be? I think that many of us ask for little because we believe so little. Therefore, we "see" so little. There's a wonderful chorus with the lyric, Our God is an awesome God. Yet, awesome is a word that we have completely devalued. We call a good hamburger awesome. We should be awestruck by who He is, but are we really? Then there's the issue of not really knowing what it is we want. We want so many things and we don't deeply desire any of them. We're like children at Christmas. We have to have the toys we ask for, but when we get them, we quickly discard them and end up playing with the boxes they came in. If Jesus stood before you and asked you this question, "What do you want Me to do for you?" What would you say? What would you ask for? Would it be worthy of His glory? Do you believe I am able to do this? Matthew 9:28 If we really would ask of Him great and wonderful things, impossible things, do we really believe that He is able? He's not just a big God, He's an infinite One. He has no limitations....except the ones we place on Him. What are the limitations we place on Him? Do we measure Him in terms of our biggest problem or need? Which is greater in our sight and thinking? He has wrought some wonderful miracles in my life, but one stands out. I never thought that I would own a home. I desired it, but I just saw it as "impossible." I didn't have the funds, and the few attempts I'd made had almost been laughed at by bankers. I was about to sign a lease on another apartment when I received an email from a banker I'd talked to who was also a believer. He told me I'd been approved for a $200,000 mortgage. I hadn't even applied. This should never have happened, but it did. I had resigned myself to my situation, but He had "so much more for me than this." It was a miracle and it ended up being an investment that helped secure my retirement. He gave me what I never thought could be realized. In our deepest and most pure desires, do we really believe He can bring them to pass? Who do you say that I am? Matthew 16:15 Everything about the first two questions is really answered in this one. Who do we say He is? Who do we really believe Him to be? Almighty? Good? One who loves to give good gifts to His children? Not a Santa Claus God, but a holy one who always has the best interests of His people at heart. Do we believe Him to be greater than the sum of everything that could ever come against us? Do we believe that if you put every need you had, every impossibility that you face, every fear that can grip you on one side of a scale, and then God Almighty on the other, that He will always infinitely outweigh them all? That if we put all our sin, our past failures and heartaches, and our deepest wounds on one side of the scale, and the Lord Jesus on the other, that all are forgiven, healed, and cleansed? All of it comes down to who it is we believe Him to be. Who we say that He is. Who do we say that He is? Blessings, Pastor O