Church guide

Living In Haran Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32...."The faith journey does not get easier. We get stronger." Erwin McManus Somehow we hold to the idea that walking with Christ gets easier as we go along. That can be a subtle message in a great deal of our teaching and preaching. Things will go the way we want them to if we have enough faith and check enough of the right "boxes." We just have to learn the right formula, and life will become a lot more rewarding and certainly more comfortable. This may be the westernized gospel, but it's not the gospel. Jesus told Simon Peter that the devil had asked for permission to sift his life. When Christ added that He'd already prayed for Peter to come through it in victory, its clear that the Father had granted the permission. Jesus didn't say that the path would grow easier for Peter, but that he would grow stronger on the path, and in his growing strength, he was to minister that strength to his brothers. Our flesh hates pain and adversity, and its natural response is to do anything to avoid it. We want Christ to make a way for us around it. Christ is committed to taking us through it, and in victory. And along the way, we're to live, we're to thrive. In the darkness, in the pain, in the loss, we show forth His resurrection life. We give witness and testimony to a life that has overcome death and the world. It doesn't mean that we're untouched by the pain and loss, it means that their chains cannot hold us. We continue to move onward and upward in Him. In Genesis 11, Terah, the father of Abraham, has lost his son Haran. Afterwards he takes his family and moves away. He was intending to enter the land of Canaan, but only got as far as the village of Haran, and that was where he settled. I've often thought that Terah stayed there because the village carried the name of his beloved lost son. He couldn't go past it, couldn't get past the grief of his loss. The pain and sorrow kept him in their chains. So many of us have settled in our various "Haran's." We can't get past the loss, the defeat, the failure. God calls us on to His fullness, but we live in our lack, in our loss. Terah stayed in Haran, living while waiting to die, yet not really living at all. How like him are we? McManus says that a great proof of life after death is life before death. That is, life that is really alive. Life that is abundant and full in Him. Death, and all that is attached to it could not keep Christ, and death and all its effects cannot keep us. We can live fully alive in the midst of our sorrows and losses. They are real, but He is more real. Where in your life are you living in Haran? Don't die there while you still live. Press on in Him. The journey will not grow easier, but you will surely grow stronger, and as you do, He will open up a ministry for you to help all your fellow travelers on the way. Haran is the place of loss, Canaan, the promised land, the place of life. Have you settled in the first, or do you journey on with Him to the fulfillment of His promises to you? Where are you living? Blessings, Pastor O

Three Words "Suddenly Jesus was standing there among them! 'Peace be with you,' He said." John 20:19...."Then He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' " John 20:22..."Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" John 20:27 In this post-resurrection encounter with His disciples, I see three words Jesus speaks to them that both they, and we desperately need to hear and receive. His resurrection was and is a transformational event and experience, and it is meant to be for all who are His as well. To fully receive these words will usher us into that experience, and our need for that experience is indeed.... desperate. When first Christ appears, the disciples are in hiding, in fear of their lives. Think on this; the greatest happening in human history, the resurrection of the Savior of the world has taken place, but they didn't know it. They had likely heard about it, but its reality hadn't taken hold of their lives. They were in turmoil. Into the turmoil steps Jesus, and He speaks what their hearts and spirits most need to hear and receive.....Peace. His peace. Erwin McManus said that only two people can fight and win the inner battle within us all, Jesus Christ, and us. We "fight" by surrendering and granting Him entry. He "fights" by simply proclaiming His victory over everything that seeks to rob us of peace and keep us in that turmoil. He need only speak that peace to us, but our deep need is to receive it into our hearts and spirit. He has spoken it to you. Have you yet received it? Next He gives what their weak and fearful flesh so desperately needs, His Spirit. He breathes upon them His Spirit. This is a precursor to the outpouring of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At that time, His Spirit would be poured out in its fullness. Here, in this room, He breathes His Spirit upon each of them. And His Spirit brings to them strength in place of weakness, hope in place of despair, joy in place of sorrow. He commanded them to receive His Spirit, and they did. He has commanded us to as well. Have we? Have you? Or do we, like the disciples, cower in the various "rooms" we retreat to, hide in? He gives His Spirit willingly. Do we receive Him willingly? Last, He appears again to the disciples, and Thomas, who wasn't present in the previous encounter. Thomas doubted the reality of their report. He wanted to "handle" Christ himself. Jesus appeared in the very midst of his doubts, and did indeed allow Himself to be handled. He then spoke not only to Thomas and the others with this command, but to us as well; "Don't be faithless. Believe!" His peace, His Spirit, receiving them are contingent upon our believing Him. For that to happen, He'll allow us to approach Him, the Lord of glory, and "handle" Him, if that is what is needed for us to believe. But to us He'll speak that same command, "Believe!" And if we will, we'll receive His peace, His Spirit, His Life. Three words; Peace. Spirit. Believe. All center upon Him. All are agents of transformation. All are meant to define our lives. The presence of His peace and His Spirit, and the steadfast faith and trust in Him to believe....in all that He's said, and all that He's done. Have you heard these words? Have you entered into this life? He's come to your room, and He speaks to you these words. Do you hear them? Do you receive them? Or do you stay in the room...hiding? Blessings, Pastor O

The Coal Mine "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.' " John 11:25....."We were not created to exist and survive. We were created to live and thrive." Erwin McManus What mode of life defines you today? That of existing and surviving, or living and thriving? To give a clear and honest answer demands that we allow the searching of our hearts and the ways of our lives. I think if we will yield to that searching, the majority will fall into the first category. Our flesh may be offended, but let's dare to examine what the fruit of our lives really is. How much stress, anxiety, worry and fear exists in you? What amount of energy goes into your concerns about money, relationships, jobs, children, and ministry? Where has "the thief" entered in to destroy whatever inner peace you might know? How many mornings have you met with the attitude, often unspoken or unexpressed, that you just hope to make it through another day? How often do you feel like the hamster spinning on the wheel that goes nowhere? Back in the 60's there was a great song called "Workin' In A Coal Mine," One of its lyrics went, "Workin' in a coal mine, going down, down, down." The song was about the futility of the singers life, and that lyric can describe the day to day living of so many; "goin' down, down, down." We are existing and surviving, and this is not what Christ came for, died for, and rose for. He came, died, and rose, that we might have life, resurrection life, and have it abundantly. He keeps the sheepfold, but we have allowed the thief, satan, to break into the fold. Christ stands at the gate of the fold, but we allow the enemy to come over the wall by way of his fiery darts aimed at our minds, hearts, and spirits. The power of His resurrection life is meant to extinguish every one of them, but we live too much in our own life, and not nearly enough in His. So he is able to steal from us that which Christ gives; peace, hope, joy, strength, and love. And we end up, each day, "workin' in the coal mine." Christ is risen. The meaning and effect of this truth is infinite. Death and all its effects is conquered in His resurrection. He invited us into the very kind of life He Himself lives in. In the midst of a fallen world, He gives a risen life. Our residency in the coal mine is ended, and our citizenship in the Kingdom is given....if we'll receive it. If we'll believe that such a wonderful life is real. It is real. As real as He is. As real as is His resurrection. To enter into such life is to leave behind forever the survival mode, and enter into the abundant one. Have you ever entered into that life? The risen life is one that brings you ever higher and closer to Him. It's one of ascent, and it has no other direction. Will you come to it now? Will you cease to exist and survive and finally begin to live and thrive? Come out from the coal mine. Enter into the Kingdom. Put to flight the thief. Embrace the King. Blessings, Pastor O

The Price "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it." John 3:16-17....."God's favorite word is 'Come!' " Robert L. Sterner Any realtor, retailer, or person selling goods of any kind, will tell you that what they're selling is worth whatever the buyer is willing to pay. It doesn't matter what someone else sees as the value. It only matters what the one who wants the object sees as its worth. It's the central law of buying and selling. Scripture tells us that all who come to Christ have been "bought with a price." and that the price is the very life and blood of the Son of God. This world may tell you that you're worthless. People in your life may have told you, times without number, that you are worthless. Jesus Christ came into this world of darkness, death, and sin, and says to you, "So precious are you to the heart of My Father that He offered Me up for you in order that you might have life in Me." We are born, all of us, with a death sentence upon us. We are born shackled by our sin nature, and we have no power in ourselves to free ourselves from that sentence. Sin demands the sacrifice of One who is perfect, sinless. None of us can meet that demand, and as a result, the human race is hopelessly lost. We desperately needed a Redeemer, and the heart of the Father responded to that need by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to be that sacrifice. He came to a world that most often seems not worth saving, to a human race that also appears so often to be the same. The One who is precious beyond words, came to we who have been labeled by the enemy of our souls as worthless, and took our sin, and its penalty upon Himself. Sin and its penalty had dominion, but He bought us at the price of His life, by His blood shed for us on the cross. The One who is priceless, gave Himself up for us, for you and me. Such was our worth, your worth, in His eyes and heart. Now, if you've been exposed to the truth of His Word and Life, you know all this as factual. You've heard it many times before, especially at Easter. So here's a question for you, and for me; why, in our thoughts about ourselves, do we continue to see ourselves as worthless? How has the enemy been so successful in convincing us that we have no real value, that this God who so freely gave us His Son, still demands that we prove ourselves and our worth to Him, and on a daily basis? Why are we always telling ourselves how stupid we are, how not worth loving, how rejected? We are born with a desperate need to be loved, and spend our lives pursuing that, yet rarely, if ever finding its fulfillment. In the marketplace of the world, we are consistently told we're of no value. In the economy of the Kingdom, the Father tells us we have a value to Him that words can never express. And He didn't give us only His Words, He gave us His Son. That was the price He was willing to pay....for you, and for me. Scripture tells of the one who was willing to sell and give away all that he had in order that he might lay hold of the "pearl of great price." No matter what others have said about you, no matter how deeply the world has planted the idea of your own worthlessness into your heart and spirit, you are the pearl of great price to Him. He was willing, is willing, to give all in order that you might be His. He already has. On the cross. And that is where He invites you to come. To the cross, His cross, and find there, forgiveness, healing, freedom, redemption. At the cross, sin, our sin, your sin, is dealt with. It's power is broken. It's chains struck off. At the cross, He speaks His favorite word to you, "Come." It is not an invitation to come to church, or a Bible study, but to Him, at His cross. He came down to us that He might raise us up to Himself. We are the pearl of great price, and He has given all to have us. All we, you need do is come....to the cross. Will you? Blessings, Pastor O

When Truth Sleeps "They came and woke Him up saying, 'Master, Master, we're going to die!' Then He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, 'Where is your faith?' " Luke 8:24-25...."The disciples knew the sea and what their condition was. They had allowed their circumstances to convince them that the 'truth' was their imminent death. But they were wrong. Truth was asleep at the back of the boat." Henry Blackaby What do we do when Truth, for us, as it was for the disicples, is "asleep in the back of the boat?" In our journey with Him, we will all come to that place. The place where everything that is against us will appear far more real than the One who has promised to always be with us. The place where the raging winds and waters scream that they are our reality, and that He has forgotten us. I have been in that place more than once, but there's one spot where the memory of those raging winds and waves is burned into my memory. The place where I thought that the truth was the winds and waves and the sure destruction that they held. In that place, their power seemed more real than the promise of His. Our church was in the midst of seemingly impossible financial conditions. We had stepped out in what we felt was His leading, and signed a lease that doubled what we'd been paying for rent in our former location. A lot of prayer and conversation preceded this, and everyone professed to be on board with it....except that when we made the move, we found that professions often don't match realities. Several key families decided they weren't going to go with us. They left, and with them, their financial support. Our reserves quickly dwindled, and by our second year there, we were in desperate need. Each month the question before us was whether we could pay our rent. The pressures increased, especially upon me. The "winds" and the "waves" grew stronger and higher, and the harder I fought against them, the more intense they grew. Eventually, all I could see was what was against us. Nothing I did could stem the tide, and in all of it, I couldn't see Him. Like the disciples, I could only cry out, "Lord, we're being destroyed. Where are You?" I'd reached the end of my own abilities in the situation. And that was the key, for it was there that I finally entered into the beginning of His. I had been trying to "save" the church. I lost sight of the truth that it wasn't mine to save. It was His. I had been looking to my resources, our resources, and was blind to His. I had been in control of the "boat," and because of that, Jesus, the Truth, appeared to be asleep. But it was appearance only. When I took my weak, exhausted hands off the rudder, I found He was never asleep at all. He immediately put His on. And His miracles began to unfold. Special gifts and offerings came from seemingly nowhere. In countless ways, He moved, delivered, made a path where there was none. Despair was replaced by hope. Seeming death by new life. If Truth had been asleep in the back of the boat, it was only because my, our desire to deliver ourselves had put Him there. When we yielded all to Him, we found He'd been aware all the time. The winds and the waves ceased their raging, and the Lord got us safely to the other side of all of it. And none who made that "voyage" were ever the same after it. When Truth sleeps for you, how do you respond? Do you row harder, fighting the waves and wind in your own strength? Or do you allow yourself to see that He only sleeps because you've been unable to believe and trust Him? I had never faced such monetary pressure before. I never had to trust Him so deeply in the financial realm. When I did, I was broken by the strain, but in my brokenness, I discovered in a new and deeper way, His Truth. And in the midst of what seemed my and the fellowships approaching destruction, came the Truth of His Presence and deliverance. Before, I was more familiar with the threat than His Truth. On the other side, I had learned that no threat can hinder His Truth. I still learn that today. There are many "other sides" yet to get to. Truth will be in the boat with me, and with you. Do we let Him go on sleeping as we exhaust ourselves trying bring about our own deliverance, or do we simply yield to His hand, and find ourselves on the other side? Blessings, Pastor O

Altars "Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness." Malachi 3:3...."We have no shortage of gifts to bring to our altars, because the world has no shortage of altars." Chris Tiegreen...."All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you will sacrifice yourself." Alexander MacLaren I think the meaning of an altar is slowly being lost in the church. If we do think of them, it's usually as something from Old Testament times when the Priest offered sacrifices to Jehovah God, or more recently, as something that once was present in the church before we realized we needed to be more "seeker friendly." I never really got that concept, because what better place is there to seek Him than at His altar? In any event, I think we've lost the reality of what it is to bring an offering to His altar, and that was is placed on His altar is given over, completely, to Him. Add to that reality the truth that regardless of how we might view it, we make offerings, sacrifices, on seemingly countless altars throughout the course of our days. Indeed, every day. Tiegreen says, correctly, that the world offers us no shortage of altars upon which to offer sacrifice. The altars of success, accumulation, applause, legacies, reputation, pleasure, and on an on. More, that everyone of those altars can be found in our churches, and in the ministries that compose them. We can offer the sacrifice of not only ourselves in the pursuit of them, but of our marriages and families as well. And as we do so, we can be deceived into believing it is all given up for Him, when in fact, we make sacrifice to all that is not Him. I know. I've made "offerings" on most of those same altars. Ministry success, the esteem of my peers, recognition in the church, the advancement of my agenda, the fulfillment of my desires. I thought it was for His glory, and a lot of it was, but I didn't see the mixture involved. I didn't see how much of my own glory was "mixed in." I was missing two great truths; God doesn't share His glory with anyone or anything, and that any offering made to Him must be pure, "without blemish." Too many of mine had more than a few blemishes. I'd wager that too many of yours do as well. In the lives of the Old Testament Patriarchs, we see them at various stages of their journey, building an altar to Him and making sacrifice there. Nor more so than in the life of Abraham, when he built an altar to the Lord and was offering the very life of his cherished son Issac. He was willing to give to God the one he loved above all. Above all except his God. Such is the call to those who are His. As MacLaren says, all along the way of our walk with Him, we'll be called upon to make the sacrifice of ourselves; our hopes, dreams, desires, plans, all of ourselves to all that He is. What do you and I do when that call comes to us, and it will come? When it does, two altars will be before us. His, and that which is not Him, against Him, and seduces us into giving glory to that which is false while missing the One who is True and Truth. Wherever you are on the course, those two altars lie before you. When you come to them, you'll be faced with the choice of upon which you'll offer sacrifice. Have you already made that choice that it will be upon His, or, does there remain a lingering question? Which one of the countless altars of the world seduces you? Fire always consumes the altars offering. Which fire will consume you? The Holy Fire of God, or, the unholy fire of the one the Word calls, The Destroyer? A terrifying question. How do you and I answer? Blessings, Pastor O