Dulles Family Life Church

     I heard Beth Moore relate this story the other day.  She was in her ministry offices, along with her staff of about 10 other women.  She was in an office down the hall, when she began to hear loud singing and dancing coming from the lobby.  She immediately went to see what was happening, and upon arriving, found that God had moved in a wonderful way in response to a deep need and concern they had been bringing before Him for a number of months.  She jumped into the celebration.  The lobby was visible to all passerby’s, as it was completely encased in glass, and while they celebrated, a woman walked by, and appeared to be dumfounded by what was happening.  Moore, feeling a need to explain, opened the door and related to her that God had just miraculously answered prayer, and she and the other ladies were rejoicing together.  The passerby gave her a puzzled look, and continued on.  Moore returned to the celebration.  A few minutes later, that lady was back, and with her was a woman with tears streaming down her face.  Moore opened the door again, and the lady who’d been passing by, asked, “Can you pray for my friend too?”  They brought them both in, and covered them in prayer, and with love.  After recounting this, Moore said, “We need to invite people to dance to the song He’s given us.”  I wonder, what is the song of your life and mine?  Just what are we inviting people to dance to?

     The beautiful song by Casting Crowns asks that, “….my lifesong sing to You,” and most definitely it must, but our lifesong must also sing to the world that watches us.  As they watch our lifesongs, what are they hearing?  I think, sadly, in too many cases, they are hearing a cacophony of sour notes.  Bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, strife, despair, discouragement, hopelessness.  Instead of lives that put forth the harmony of lives lived in the fullness of the Father, they are hearing songs that often sound like they’re being played backwards.  The world, those who are longing for a new song, will never be drawn to such music.  They already have enough of it in their own lives.  They needn’t come to us for more.

     Psalm 40:3 says, “He put a new song in my mouth….”  Has He put one in yours?  The beauty here is that at any time, in any place, He may, will, give us a new song, an even greater song.  A song that sings to Him, and to a world longing to hear such music, longing to sing such music.  Circumstances, problems, pain, heartache, none of these can prevent that.  Psalm 42:8 says, “…..and at night, His song is with me.”  He is a God who can, will, give songs in the night.  Even the darkest of nights.  Are you ready for such songs?  He is ready to give.  Certainly the world is ready to hear.

     As you and I go through this day, there will be many a passerby.  Will we live in such a way that our lifesongs invite them to dance to the song He’s given us?  Too many of us are hearing our songs through ipod headphones.  We may hear it, but no one else does, and more, those headphones keep us unaware of them in the first place.  What we have in Christ demands a celebration, not a funeral.  Everyone loves a party, and the people of God have much to party about.  The multitudes of passerby’s would love to come…if they could only hear the music.  Will you share it?  Let the party begin.

Blessings,

Pastor O

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     Last week I wrote about the fear of commitment that exists in so many of our lives.  Ultimately, that fear will impact our relationship, or lack of, with Christ.  In writing that piece, I used several quotes from author and pastor Erwin McManus.  Today, I have one more, and it comes in the form of a question, a question that sooner or later, each of us will have to answer.  He asks, “What do you do when Jesus dies right before your very eyes?”  Each of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, relate directly, or indirectly, what His disciples did after He was crucified.  They ran.  They hid.  They prepared to go back to the lives they had left to follow Him.  The Jesus they had invested everthing in, was dead, gone.  What else was there for them to do?  What else is there for you and I?

     You may think that a puzzling question, for I think, hope, that most of us believe He truly has risen from the dead.  He’s alive, and we believe that.  What happens though, when in the midst of our wholehearted following of Him, He “dies,” and right before our eyes?  Think on this for a moment.  You have a deep sense that what you’re doing in your life, be it ministry, marriage, career choice, or a major move from your present locale to a very distant one, is directly by His leading.  You are convinced He is calling you to follow Him.  He has been, is, leading you step by step in the process.  His Presence is real, and powerful, and then…..everything, and I mean everything, collapses around you.  His “presence” can’t be sensed, He’s nowhere to be found.  He has died, and right before your eyes.  What do you do then, when the dream has died, and with it, all visible hope?  How likely are you and I to choose the same path as the disciples?  To run, hide, to go back to what we came from, and out of?

     I began to follow Him in August of 1979.  He led me step by step from a home setting that was all I’d ever known, to a distant Bible College nestled at the foot of the Rockies, into a marriage that I was sure was from Him, to my first church assignment, and then, I was sure, to a small town in Virginia.  There were difficulties, mistakes, failures. along the way, but there was no doubt, He still went before me.  Then, in August, 1989, almost 10 years to the day it began, it all collapsed.  My marriage failed, and soon after, my ministry was lost.  Everything had changed, nothing was as it had been.  Where was my Lord?  My Jesus, so real and alive, had died before my eyes.  I now knew the feelings and fears of that had to have been going on in the hearts and minds of the disciples.  I was left with questions, many questions, but no answers.  The pat, religious answers I’d had before didn’t stand up to what I was experiencing, but here’s the ray of hope in it all.  The Father is never put off by our questions, for as McManus says, “Your questions will lead you to God.” 

     The Gospels that relate the death of Christ and disciples response, also relate what followed all of that, how Jesus appeared, again and again.  All of them, especially Thomas, the Doubter, had questions, and though He may not have answered all as they had hoped, He did give them one, indisputable truth.  He was not dead.  He was alive, still with them, and would continue to be with them, each step of the way.  Where one dream may have ended, another was begun.  It’s what I’ve found in my own life.  It’s what I continue to find.  That August of 1989 was not the last time I was to experience the sense that He had died in the midst of my following, but, and this is the victory that overcomes, neither was it the last time I was to experience His sudden appearance in the midst of all that seemed lost, giving a new hope, a new dream, a new life.  The questions are still so often there, but I have found, as McManus says, that they really do lead you to Him.  Has Jesus died before your eyes in some way?  Have you deep, soul wrenching questions?  Ask the, and without fear, for they’ll lead you to Him.  The Jesus who will still, always, live.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     Commitment.  That word can bring a lot of different responses from us, but I think the most frequent one would be fear.  We have a deep fear of commitment, and as a result, we see a great wasteland as concerns our lives and our culture.  We fear commitment because we fear to trust.  To commit to someone or something is a definite act of faith.  You have to believe that the person or thing you commit to is trustworthy.  As Erwin McManus says in his book Soul Cravings, “The more trustworthy you can determine the source (of commitment) is, the shorter the leap of faith.”  I think most of the current evidence would say that’s a pretty colossal leap for most of us.  We don’t trust many, and many of us, maybe most of us, don’t trust God.

     Psalm 37:5 calls us to, “Commit everything you do to the Lord.  Trust Him and He will help you.”  The great stumbling block in any relationship is trust.  Can we trust the person we commit to?  If we go by the evidence we can see, the answer seems to be, “No, we can’t”  We desperately want to trust, but something within us, some deeprooted fear, prevents it.  We seem to always hold something, some part of us, back.  We leave a door open, a way out.  This is why so many of us have left a trail of broken, unhappy relationships behind us.  We could not commit, and we could not trust, or, someone else could not do so with us.  Why?

     McManus says that we are created with a deep need to believe in something, to trust in something, in someone.  The Father intended that it would be Him.  When sin entered into the world and our lives, the trust factor was broken, and broken by us, yet it left us not trusting Him.  Someone had to work to restore the trust and the relationship.  That was Someone was Jesus Christ.

     Our current culture makes a lot of seeking for truth.  We want to know what truth really is, and many of us spend our lives seeking it.  We end up knowing much that is true, but we never know the Truth.  McManus, speaking of Jesus says, “He never said to His disciples, ‘This is the truth.  Follow it.’  Instead…..Jesus’ claim was nothing less than ‘I am the truth.’….He was telling His disciples that the truth isn’t an answer, it’s a Person.”  Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  Until we know, really know Him as Truth, we will never rest in trust.  We will never be able to commit anything of value to Him, and since we can’t trust He who is the ultimate truth, neither will we really trust or commit to anything or anyone else.  We’ll just drift, further and further from one another, and tragically, further and further from Him. 

     McManus writes, “God stepped into human history so that we would know that He is not only the source of truth, but that He is utterly and completely trustworthy.”  That, my friends, is true.  Is it true for you?  Has He stepped into your life in such a way that you no longer merely know about His truth, you know Him as the Truth?  Have you made that leap of faith?  Or, are you drifting?  Seeking, even finding some things that are true, yet missing each time He Who is Truth?  Can you, will you, commit?  It may indeed be a giant leap for you, but if you’ll dare to take it, you’ll find His arms laying hold of you in the midst of it, drawing you to Him.  Commit to Him.  Trust in Him.  He’ll do good for you.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     The Bible speaks much about living in darkness, just as it speaks much about living in the light, His light, and while there are many who live in one or the other, I think there are more, many more, who live in a place found between the two.  That place would be the Shadowlands. 

     The Shadowlands isn’t a place of total darkness, for there is some light that breaks through, and into it.  Yet it could never be described as a place of light, a place where one’s sight is unhindered, and all things become clear to our eyes, especially the eyes of our heart and spirit. The truth is, most things appear very murky and ill defined.  Nothing seems to really be as it is.  We’re easily fooled, or as the Bible calls it, deceived.  That’s life in the Shadowlands, and it’s a life that many of us are living today.

     There is a beautiful scripture found in Matthew 4:16, based on a prophecy from the book of Isaiah, concerning the coming of Christ.  It says, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.  And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.”  Without Christ, we are all of us a people sitting in the darkness.  When Jesus, the Light of the world comes to us, that light shines in our darkness, and if we will receive and believe Him, He will lead us out of the darkness and into His light.  Christ came to take us out of the land where death casts its shadow, and lead us into His land of life, and light, and abundance.  What happens though is that somewhere along the journey of following Him, we stop.  Something from that land He has called us out of still holds us.  Death continues to cast its shadow upon us, trying to lure us back into the darkness.  We end up living in a netherworld, neither dark or light.  The Shadowlands.

     Are you a citizen of this place?  Is there something that still has a grip on you, that hinders your walk with Him, keeps your from moving onward, following Him into ever increasing light?  Unhealed wounds?  Habits, no, addicitons, that we cannot seem to be free of?  Attitudes, bitterness, unforgiveness?  Unfinished business with others, with Him?  Whatever it is, it’s caused us to be trapped there.  Trapped in a land where we cannot see clearly, where we are easily deceived, where all is not what it seems, and what it seems is not what it is.  It’s the Shadowlands, and in it is more dark than light, and more death than life.  Did you know that you can leave it, that it’s not His place for you, that you can truly be free of the land of the shadow of death?  Free now, free in Him.  How?  By giving that “thing” that holds you there to Him.  Confessing it, offering it, surrendering it to Him, and in doing so, breaking its power over you…..forever.  It’s your “ticket” out of Shadowlands.  A ticket that has already been paid for by Him, by His blood, shed for you, shed for me, on His cross.

     It’s time to come out of the land where death casts its shadow.  To fully come out.  Into the light, and into His land.  There is a Shadow for us to live in.  His.  Psalm 91:1 says, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the Shadow of the Almighty.”  That is the place for us to dwell.  It’s found at His side, all along the journey, as we dwell there….with Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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