Dulles Family Life Church

     Beth Moore tells this story about her first mission trip to Africa.  The conditions were unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.  She and her husband were in a totally unfamiliar, and scary environment.  Though staying in a hotel, it was far from a 5 star establishment.  What’s more, the hotel staff, though sincere, did not speak English, so communication was very difficult.  Moore had gone down to the lobby to try and get the staff to understand her need for a wake up call at 5:30 am.  However, almost immediately upon arrival, there was a complete power failure, and she found herself in total darkness.  She could see nothing, and was totally disoriented.  More, though she could see no one, she did hear whispering, but of course, had no idea what was being said, or who was saying it.  She was terrified.  Groping about, she did find a wall, and pressed herself up against it.  Still unable to see anything, she did begin to hear the sound of heavy footsteps, and they seemed to be getting closer.  Not knowing who it might be, more frightened than before, and desperately wanting to be found, she began to whisper “Here I am.  I’m right here,” over and over.  The footsteps came closer, and as her fear was about to explode upon her, she heard, “Baby, it’s me.  I’ve come for you.”  It was her husband, and upon hearing his voice, she literally leaped into his arms.  He’d come for her.  She was safe.

     We can see much the same picture in Mark 6:45-51.  The disciples had gotten into a boat and were rowing to the other side of the lake.  However, once they had reached the middle, a terrible storm struck.  The word tells us it was 4 am, the dark of the night.  The wind and waves were fierce and threatened to capsize the boat and drown them all.  Even so, though covered in darkness, scripture says that He saw them, and more, He came to them, walking on the water.  Like Moore, who didn’t recognize the sound of her husband’s footsteps, the disciples didn’t recognize their Lord.  Verse 49 says that they screamed in terror when they saw Him.  Immediately Jesus said, It’s all right.  I am here.  Don’t be afraid.”  Just like Moore’s husband, Jesus was saying to them, “Baby, it’s Me.  I’ve come for you.”  He comes for you and me still. 

     You and I will not lack for dark scary places.  Places where we have no idea where we are, or what is going on around us.  Places where we can’t clearly see or hear, and what we do see and hear will terrify us.  In the midst of it all, He will come, but it is very likely that when He comes, we’ll not recognize Him, and may even fear Him.  However, in the darkness, in the unknown, He speaks to our hearts.  “It’s all right.  I’m here.  Don’t be afraid.” There is no one, and no place that can give us such safety.  People fail, circumstances are ever changing.  He is not.  In life’s storms, earthquakes and darkness, He comes.  It is He.  Don’t be afraid.  He has come for you.  He is there.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     Last week in Heart Thoughts, I wrote about God’s us to “Go!”  I got a lot of feedback on that one, but one of the really good ones came from fellow pastor Kerry Willis.  He told me it was a good word, but he suggested another “good word” that comes from the Lord, and and that one is “Wait!”  I thought on that, and agreed fully.  I thought a bit more, and felt that there was another, equally effective word to hear from Him, and that’s “Stop!”  This week, and next, I want to share my heart on both these words from Him.  We’ll begin with His word to us to stop, and it can come to us in the most unexpected and alarming ways. 

     In I Samuel 15:16, the prophet Samuel has come to King Saul after his victory over the Amalekites.  God had told Saul to destroy everything, but instead, he spared the best of their possessions, as well as their king, Agag.  The Father sent Samuel to confront him with his disobedience, and Samuel said, “Stop, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”  This Samuel did, and though Saul listened to what was said, he denied it’s truth.  He rationalized and justified his choices and his actions.  In short, he didn’t listen, and in consequence, eventually lost both his throne and his life.  Has God ever dealt so with you?  Can you think of any “Samuel’s” He may have sent to you over the course of time?  How closely did your response resemble Saul’s?  What was, or will be, the consequence of not heeding God’s warning, His command, to stop?

     I have found that people, myself included, have a remarkable ability to rationalize and justify our actions and our choices.  God, in His perfect love and ways, has innumerable means to send the message to us to stop.  Stop our destructive patterns of behavior, stop our continued wrong relationship choices, stop our misguided career decisions, stop casting blame for our circumstances on others, and take responsibility for who we are what we do.  We must hear and listen to our Samuel’s, or eventually, God will cease to send them into our lives, as He did with Saul.  After this confrontation, verses 34 and 35 read, “Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul.  And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, for Samuel grieved for Saul, and the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.” 

     The Samuel’s the Father sends to us, with their messages to stop, will almost always be painful.  How we respond to them will make all the difference.  Will we continue to transfer blame, or responsibility to another?  Will we justify ongoing sinful behavior, hurtful words and actions to another, or will we heed the warning, and humble ourselves before Him, and in response to His words?  Will we, in a sense, continue onward with Samuel to Ramah, or like Saul, return to our “home” at Gilgal, settling into our same wrong choices and actions, and eventually, losing everything, including the blessing and presence of the Father? 

     If your Samuel has not yet come, know that He will.  Sooner or later, he will.  How will you receive His message?  When he says, “Stop and listen,” will you?  How you and I answer that determines everything.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     One of the most powerful and frightening words the Father can speak to us is the word “Go.”  It is a word we find both He, and His Son, Jesus speaking time and again to those they have called to follow them, and following them will always be a matter of “going.”  This was something discovered by Abraham, Moses,  Joseph, Elijah, John the Baptist, and each of the disciples.  If we are to be with Him, we must then go with Him.  As Beth Moore says, “In order to go anywhere, we need to leave someplace.”  More, we can’t take all our “stuff” with us.  Leaving is scary enough.  Knowing we are going to have to leave all of our stuff behind is terrifying, because it always takes us beyond our comfort zones.  Abraham, Moses, the disciples, all lived lives that mattered.  All heeded the call to go, and all discovered that answering that call took them far beyond their comfort zones.  If you and I are to live a life that matters, we’ll have to do the same.

     His word tells us that He’s the “God of all comfort.”  However, this is something quite different from having comfort as a god.  As Moore says, “When we make comfort our god, we cut ourselves off from the God of all comfort.”  The heroes of faith, all found themselves in decidedly uncomfortable places.  Dangerous places, life threatening places.  Places that were in no way “comfortable,” yet places where they intimately knew and experienced the God of all comfort.  Many of us read of the adventures and ministries of these great men and women of the Bible, and feel a desire, a pull, to live such a life, a life that really matters.  Yet, how many of us are willing to leave our comfort zones to do so?  How many of us, though we would protest at the idea, really have made comfort a god, and in doing so, missed out on the riches to be experienced in walking with, going with, the God of all comfort? 

     There is much we would like to do, but only if it can be accomplished from our spiritual recliners.  There are many places we would like to go, but only if we are allowed to bring all, and I do mean ALL, of our stuff with us.  We are willing to go, but only if we don’t have to leave.  All things are possible with Him, but nothing is possible in such a scenario as this.  We’re too attached to where we’re at, to what we have, and to our stuff.  We’d like to go, but we can’t..  Therefore, we never will know the life of the true follower, and in the end, and these words may sound harsh, we’ll not have lived a life that truly matters, for such a life will never be found within a comfort zone.  Yours or mine.

     Where may He ask you to go today?  To your difficult neighbor, co-worker, family member?  Into a situation that seems hopeless, and sure to fail?  To a ministry that offers nothing but His Presence?  Wherever it may be, you can be sure that it will not be found in any of your comfort zones, but it wll be alongside the God of all comfort.  Will you go?  Will you leave?  Will you follow?  This is what He asks us.  How do we, you, answer?

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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