Dulles Family Life Church

The word “home” strikes a chord in all of us. It’s a popular theme in our culture, and always has been. In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy’s quest was to find her way home. Several generations of pop singers have crooned the ballad, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” The classic TV series “The Walton’s” came forth from a hugely popular holiday movie entitled “The Homecoming.” When a host wants us to feel at ease and secure, they tell us to “make ourselves at home.”

We are all of us, longing for home. How many of us have truly found it? How many of us are living far more as displaced persons, persons without a home? We’re looking for the road home, but where is it? Dorothy had the yellow brick road, but what about us, what road is there for us to follow?
In the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, God is speaking to His people Israel, a people taken from their home in Judah, and led away into captivity in Babylon. A people held in slavery for 70 years, with an entire generation having heard of a long lost home, but never seeing it. They were longing for home, and it was to this longing that the Father spoke. In verse 19 He says, “I will make a pathway through the wilderness for My people to come home.” There was only one road, one pathway that would take them back, and that pathway was found in Him. It is still found in Him, though Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the Pathway that leads home, and home is far more than where we grew up. It is the home we were created for. It’s found in His heart. The pathway to home leads through the heart of the Father. It’s there and there alone that we’ll find what we long for. God’s heart, and our homeland.

I grew up just outside the city of Pittsburgh, and spent the first 29 years of my life there, never gettting much more than a few hundred miles away. All that changed when He called me into His life. Within a year, He called me away to Colorado, a place I never dreamed I’d be. From there He led me to Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, and back to Virginia. I’ve lost track of how many “earthly” homes I’ve known. It was in those places, many of them dark and lonely, that I learned where home really was. It was in Him. He was my home. In those dark places, whether an abandoned campground in rural Virginia, or an unfurnished apartment in Richmond, places that were decidedly not home, I discovered where my home was. In Him, His heart, and His love. Jesus was my pathway home. He still is. Is He yours? Have you found the pathway home yet?

He’s the pathway before you. Walk upon Him. Find your way home. Home to His heart. He’s calling to you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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I came across this thought from Erwin McManus while reading his book, “Soul Cravings.” He writes, “When we live in an intimate relationship with God, we are able to love ourselves, and become passionate about loving others. When we are disconnected from God, we find ourselves increasingly empty of love.” The word, or I should say, the name that flashed into my mind was :”Immanuel.” It’s the name God Himself told King Ahaz of Judah would be the name of the coming Messiah. He says is Isaiah 7:14, “Look, the virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel–God is with us.”

I have heard that truth expressed so many ways through the years. Immanuel, Jesus, is literally God Himself, with us. There’s such beauty, comfort, peace, assurance, and strength in that, and yet……and yet, we seem to realize so little of that realtiy in our day to day lives. If what McManus says is true, and our hearts know it’s so, why do so few of us experience these things? More, why is the love he writes of so little known in so many lives? Lives that readily profess to being His, yet lives that too often not only seem powerless, but to our shame, loveless as well. If the God of love is with us, how can this be so? Obviously, we don’t understand what “with us” really means.

I heard a speaker, whose name I neglected to write down, say, “There’s a difference between someone standing beside us, and someone standing with us.” I think too often, we see Jesus as being someone who’s around us, even beside us. He offers counsel, encouragement, in effect, moral support, but in the end, it’s up to us. What we do, we do in our own strength. Jesus is more a cheerleader, or in today’s pop culture, a “Lifecoach.” That is not the Jesus the Father proclaimed the coming of to King Ahaz. It’s not the Jesus Who came. It’s not the Jesus Who is. The question for each of us is, are we truly experiencing Immanuel? Do we really know what it means for Him to be with us, filling us,
empowering us, guiding us, where His voice is not merely a voice among many voices in our lives, but the One voice, the voice heard and followed? The One of Whom it’s said, “sticks closer than a brother.”

This Immanuel will never leave us empty, yet empty may well be how you feel today? It’s how you felt yesterday, and the day before, and the day before. It’s how you expect to feel tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and….. Jesus is no lifecoach. He is Life itself. Are you yearning for that life? Are you ready for it? The Father sent Him to fullfill His purpose in this world, and also to fulfill His purpose for you. Let it be so now. Enter into the fullness of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. God with you. How? Simply bring yourself, all of yourself, all your emptiness, all your striving, all your lack, and place it all at His feet. In return for all that you have given Him, ask Him to replace it with all of Himself. He will. It’s Who He is. Stop standing alone, apart. Stand with Him, Immanuel. God with…….you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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In John 6, Jesus has just challenged His followers, telling them that to follow Him will require total devotion, total sacrifice. This offended many of them, and most ceased to follow Him at that point. Verse 67 says, “And Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, ‘Are you going to leave too.’ ” To this Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life.” Most of us would “amen” that statement from Peter. We agree, and even profess belief that His Word does give eternal life. However, how much of this life are we currently walking in? How much of the power of His Word are we actually experiencing?

So many of us read His Word, study His Word, even memorize His Word, yet the reality of its power seems so far from us. What we say we believe seems to be so far from our day to day experience. Why? In some cases, it may well be that His words offend. What they call us to offends our flesh lives. Surrender, sacrifice, total commitment. The flesh will not have these things, and will always turn away. For others, it may well be what Jesus points out in 6:63-64, “And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you don’t believe Me.”

Unbelief will never experience the wondrous power of His Word. Still, I think it is something more than a lack of faith. I think it has far more to do with intimacy. Intimacy with Him. Intimacy that draws us into knowing Him. Knowing Him who not only has the words of eteranl life, His is the very Word Himself, the living Word. We will never in our day to day lives experience the wonder and power of His Word if we are not also daily experiencing the wonder and power of Him, of Jesus. Those that departed were ones who followed Him at a distance. The Twelve walked with Him. Daily. They didn’t experience Him in part, but the whole. Are we?

The power of His Word is undeniable. Psalm 148:5 in The Message reads, “He spoke the words, and there they were.” He spoke, and what He spoke was, is. We can’t experience this by merely reading about Him, talking about Him, speaking at Him. We experience this by entering into Him, His life, His Word. His Word is life, but we’ll not know that, live that, until we truly enter into it. It will never come from a distance, but from intimacy. Such intimacy can be, is, frightening. The flesh of those who departed knew what it was doing. The flesh can’t survive such intimacy with Him. It’s doomed, and will always turn away. To the flesh, His Word is many things, but it will never be alive. It will never experience its power. It will never experience Him.

All who claim to follow Him will come to the place that His followers did in John 6. They, we, will be faced with the choice of do we go on, surrendering ourselves, all of ourselves to Him, or, do we turn back? Do we enter into a closeness with Him beyond anything we ever have known, where we experience Him and the power of His life, His Word, or, do we turn away? Perhaps you’re at that place now. His Words and His life call you deeper, your flesh, your desire to maintain control, call you back. Forward, into Him. Backward into…..well, as Peter said,

if you will not go with Him, to whom will you go?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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