Dulles Family Life Church

Do the right thing. That’s a common phrase. There was an even a pop culture movie favorite by the same name in the 80’s. It’s also, hopefully, an expression that followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to live by. Do the right thing, and God will see it, and God will bless it.

And, if we happen to be in an extremely hard place where doing the right thing is made all the more difficult, well, then the blessing and reward we receive as a result will be even greater…….we think. But, what if it isn’t?

Erwin McManus in his book, “Uprising,” writes, “Most of us have at least an unspoken expectation that if we do what is right, God will bless us for it. Not in the afterlife or in some obscure future date, but soon, if not immediately.” But again, what if He doesn’t? What if in the midst of tough, even painful circumstances, doing the right thing doesn’t bring immediate reward, relief and deliverance, but in fact only results in our circumstances getting more difficult, more painful, more seemingly, unending? How do we handle this, especially if we know, deep in our hearts, that not doing the right thing can get us out of that place, or even avoid the place altogether? The answers to these questions are what separate Sunday believers, from lifestyle believers. It’s what makes us either a follower of Christ instead of a casual observer.

I heard evangelist James Robison say recently that life’s earthquakes will either shape us, or shatter us. Which result we have is going to come down to the choices we make in the midst of them. Will we run screaming, seeking to escape them at any cost, or, will we choose to stand on the ground of Christ, the only sure ground available, except……oftentimes, that ground is invisible to our natural eyes. It’s only seen through the eyes of faith. Faith that comes from perservering in the midst of the quake. Perservering by choosing to do the right thing.

I think we have a completely skewed idea of what it means to perservere. I think most see it as a matter of somehow holding on till the crisis passes, till things can get back to “normal.” Till the circumstances we are in change, yet somehow, we can remain the same. This is not the Father’s idea of perserverance. It’s more just surviving the quake. It’s not the biblical model. It’s certainly not the Jesus model. Hebrews 12:2 says, “……fixing our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame…..” Of this McManus says, “It was not for the joy of the cross that Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified; it was for the joy He could see through the cross. It was a joy set before Him, and it remained with Him even through His crucifixion.”

Doing the right thing will most often be painful. At times, it may well involve our own cross. Will we seek to escape it, or, as Jesus, choose to see through it, seeing with His eyes, the joy that will be ours, is ours, when we choose to stand on the ground of Christ. Ground no human eye can see, but my friends, ground that most assuredly is there. It’s what’s going to decide whether we are truly followers of Jesus, or, when all is said and done, just merely casual observers. Interested observers perhaps, but limited interest, and in the end, merely casual. In our relationships, in our callings and ministries, in our moral choices, in the hardest decisions of our lives, will we do the right thing…..even if the right thing involves a cross? Will we choose, like Him, to see through the cross, to the joy set before us?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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Darkness.  This is not a time most of us embrace.  Sunshine.  Blue skies.  Ah, that’s the way life needs to be.  Needs to be, but isn’t.  So often, it isn’t.  I came across a quote from writer and pastor Dutch Sheets the other day.  He said, “The process of God always involves night.” 

It always involves darkness, but we shrink back from the darkness, the unknown, the heavy trial, the deep challenge to our souls, the place where we see nothing, feel nothing, yet must believe that He is there.  The book of Exodus tells us that “Moses entered into the darkness…….where God was.”  We’ll discover the same thing, if we dare to go forward, refusing to turn back, and trust that in the darkness, He is there, and He is working, and He will bring us through.  It is His way, and we have His word as the proof.

In Genesis, we’re told that the Holy Spirit of God hovered over the darkness during the work of creation.  In the dark of night, while he hid in a cave, God came to Elijah.  It was in the night’s darkest hour, in the midst of a life threatening storm, that Jesus came walking upon the water, and brought His terrified disciples safely to shore.  It was in the dark of night, that Paul and Silas, beaten, chained, and imprisoned, sang praises to God, and saw their prison walls crumble as a result of an earthquake, and earthquake that brought them no harm, but did bring them freedom.  It was an earthquake that came in the darkness.  Last, it was in the darkness of Gethsemane that Jesus, His spirit in agony, cried out to His Father, and layed hold of Him, and went from there to His glorious victory on Calvary, on the cross.  All these things happened in the night.  As Sheets says, God’s process always involves night.

Are you somewhere in that process today?  Are you in a dark night of the soul?  Is it the darkness of a lingering sickness that will not let go of you?  Are you in the midst of crushing circumstances that seem to block out all light, all hope, and all life?  Are you the parent who grieves over the spiritual wanderings of the prodigal child?  The husband or wife yearning for a marriage you know is His will for you, but which you don’t have?  Or, the person, feeling trapped in the lonliness of being alone, whether it’s as a single person, or the result of being the only believer in an unbelieving workplace or home, or…..as a result of being called to be His shepherd, called to lead His people, except, they oftentimes don’t wish to be led?  These can all be places of the night, places cloaked in darkness.  Don’t shrink back.  Like Moses, like Elijah, like Paul, like Jesus, keep moving forward, into the darkness, the darkness where God is.  He is, and He will, work out His purpose for you, for us, there.

As in Creation, His Spirit hovers over it, and in it, He will create something new and wonderful for you and I.  God’s process always involves night, but if we will trust Him, we will find that it involves a new day as well.  From the darkness of His tomb came life.  May your new day be filled with His life.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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Desires. We all have them. We are all, extremely vulnerable in them. It’s in the area of our desires that we seem to be most consistently attacked. I think Jesus understood this. So many times in the Word, He approached people in need, most often desperate need, with the simple question, “What do you want Me to do for you?” I think He wanted us to express not only what might be our deepest desire, but even more, would we, could we, trust Him with it.

John 14:1 may be a familiar scripture to you. Speaking to His disciples, Jesus says, “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in Me.” We are troubled about many things, money, children, jobs, needs of every sort, seemingly impossible situations, the real perplexities of everyday life. In, and concerning all of them, we have desires. There are results that we are hoping for, longing for. Jesus asks us, “What is it you want in this,” and, “Will you trust Me to bring it about…..in the way I see as best.”

Will we trust Him? Will we trust Him to work in the midst of our deepest desires and needs, to really bring about His best for us? What is it we hold so close to our hearts? Will we trust Him with that treasure? I heard Beth Moore speak on this verse and she put a twist to it I’d never heard before. She said Jesus calls us to trust both Him, and the Father. She said what we need to do is to bring that desire, that treasure, and place it between both the Father, and Jesus…..and leave it there…..in trust. Leave that person, that situation, that need, that deep, heartfelt desire, between Almighty God, and He who tells us He is the Author of Life. Leave it with Them, and trust it with Them. Can we do this? Can you do this?

Hope and trust are so closely linked together. Dutch Sheets says that the Old Testament word for hope meant “cord.” The root of the word, he tells us, means to bind together by twisting. “Hope connects. It binds us together with God.” When we bring our treasured desires to Him, leaving them with Him, with, between, the Father and the Son, we do not merely walk away. In our hope, our trust, we stay bound together with them, connected. We are not alone, and we are for sure, not without hope. “Don’t be troubled. You trust God. Now trust in Me.”

Can you bring your treasured desires to Him, to Them today? Can you believe Them, Trust Them? Can you leave it with the Father and the Son, and rest in the hope that connects you with Them? Nothing, no one, can touch or harm what you place with Them. It is safe. All of it is safe. Trust. Believe. Have hope. Be at peace……Be blessed. Believe God. Believe Jesus and……trust.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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