Dulles Family Life Church

     Freedom is something much desired, but so little realized in the lives of many.  I think that’s due in part to our having so little understanding of just what real freedom in Christ is.  While it’s true that Christ receives us as we are, it is His and the Father’s heart to bring us into the fullness of their life, to make us like them.  We come to Him in chains, but the chains are to be broken, yet so often they’re not.  Why?  I think the answer, in part at least, is found in something I heard evangelist James Robison say recently.  He said that when we are free in Christ, “We are free to fight effectively in the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit.”  I think this is what Paul meant when he wrote of our fighting, “The good fight of faith.”  So many feel that life in Christ means to never again be tempted, whether by addictions, habits, attitudes, desires, or what have you.  We feel that if we’ve “given” these things to the Lord, even given our lives to Him, then they should vanish from us, never to return.  This is not the life experience of the follower of Jesus.  It was not the experience of Jesus Himself, for the Word tells us that after tempting Him in the wilderness, the devil departed from Him “until an opportune time.”  There will always be opportune times for the enemy to come against you and I.  Our freedom comes from the fact that where we were defenseless against him in our own strength, we can be more than conquerors in His.  As Robison says, we are made so by the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit. 
     What “opportune times” are taking place in your life?  What issues are there through which the enemy can come against you?  Galatians 5:1 says, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  In Christ, we’ve been set free, but it is our part to keep standing firm, vigilant, and above all, with and in Him.  Saturated with, filled with, His Holy Spirit and power.  There will always be opportune times.  Physical, emotional, even spiritual exhaustion.  Times of deep stress, whether as a result of relationships, jobs, finances, parenting, and more.  It is our part to determine to stand firm, and it is Christ’s to impart to us the power, by the Holy Spirit, to overcome, to be free, and to stay free.  In Christ, the chains are broken, but the devil stands nearby, holding our old shackles, alway hoping to fit them to us again.  He cannot, will not, so long as we stand firm in Him, fighting, in His strength and power, the good fight, the victorious fight of faith.
     It is for freedom He has set us free, set you free.  Are you free?  Are you staying free?  Is the opportune time upon you?  Is satan nearby, “rattling” those chains?  Stand firm in Him, and fight, in His power.  It’s for freedom He set you free.  In His life, you are free.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     Breakthrough.  For most of us, there is a situation, relationship, problem, need, over which we have been praying, possibly for a very long time, to “breakthrough” on.  In the “old days,” it was called “praying through” on a matter.  That is, praying, seeking, asking, knocking, until we broke through into the Presence and Wonder of the Father.  This is a definite spiritual discipline that sadly, we see little of today.  However, believe it or not, it’s not what I’m writing about this week, at least not directly.  I do want to talk about breakthroughs, but not so much as concerns a breaking through to Him, as God breaking through to us.
     Last week, during one of my devotion times, I wrote down a desire that I know was placed in my heart by Him.  A desire for myself, for the fellowship I pastor, for all of His church.  What I wrote was, “To see Him break through the barriers we’ve erected between He and us, and for Him to break out of the “boxes” we’ve placed Him in.”  I think before we can ever truly break through to Him, He must first break through to us.  Isn’t this really what grace is all about?
     We talk much of having a deeper life in Him, of having a rich, close relationship with Christ.  Yet, this does not seem to be the experience of the majority fo the Body of Christ.  A few minutes of “Daily Bread” in the morning, reading our “verse of the day,” and then going out to take on the world, nominally with Him, but in truth, mostly, if not completely on our own.  And, far too often, falling flat on our faces.  Why?  Because we do have barriers between ourselves and Him.  We have placed Him in a box that we can control, that is safe, or so we think.  The types of barriers are many, from fear, to misunderstanding His nature and character, to unforgiveness, unhealed wounds from the past, or just plain spiritual laziness.  As for the box, well I believe the main issue is one of control.  The idea of following a God we cannot control is frightening, and definitely not safe.  It’s easier to have Him follow us.  So, the abundant life, which really means an abundance of life, is not ours, and as long as the barriers exist, the box is kept, never will be.
     Paul, writing in II Corinthians 5:4, is speaking of the day when our earthly bodies are exchanged for our eternal, heavenly ones.  He says that we will be “Swallowed up by everlasting life.”  This is true, but I don’t believe it begins with the end of our lives here, but instead, their beginning with Him in the here and now, but before it can, the barriers have to fall, and the box must be thrown away.  Has it happened yet with you?  Will it?  If so, when?  With God, the time for such things is always “Now!”  This is your, my, now time.  Will we step into it?  Will we be swallowed up by His everlasting life?  What’s your answer to that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     I was having breakfast the other morning with a brother named Bob Yarbrough.  Bob, a former missionary and pastor with many years service to Him, and I were talking of the ways of the Lord.  We shared with each other dreams and visions we felt were from Him, yet had not been realized, as well as disappointments, and yes, failures.  Yet this was not a time of defeat, but a time of shared hope, a reaffirmation of what the Lord has promised He would do.  As we were leaving, Bob shared an exhortation from Isaiah 60:1.  He said that he had learned to live each new day with the realization that yesterday was gone now, and the new day was to be faced with the reality that the Father has already redeemed it, and it is one filled with opportunities, promise, and yes, miracles.  In short, we could live in and with the truth of that verse, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.  And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”
     Yesterday may have been shrouded in darkness.  Yesterday may have been filled with defeat, even failure.  Yesterday may be given to Him.  If there is sin, confess  and repent of it.  If there is heartbreak and disappointment there, bring it to Him.  If there are shattered and lost dreams there, place them in His hands.  With Him is where all our yesterday’s must be left.  Yes, there are some things we cannot get past in a day, but we not be held captive, today, in what has taken place yesterday.  Each day is a new day, and day by day, we can live in that new day, receiving His healing, wholeness, hope, and comfort.  We can, regardless of what we have walked through, and where we have been, arise.  We can shine, and each new day, the glory of the Lord can rise upon us.
     Charles Wesley in his wonderful hymn, “And Can It Be,” wrote, “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night.  Thine eyes diffused a quickening ray.   I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.  My chains fell off, my heart was free.  I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.”  Yesterday is a dungeon to so many of us.  We live there weighed down by the chains of our disappointments, failures, shattered dreams, and yes, our sins.  Yet, Jesus calls us forth from them.  We can arise, for our light, the light of Christ, life, and freedom, has come.  The glory of the Lord has risen upon us.  Has it risen upon you?
     I write this on the morning of a new day.  Is it a new day for you?  Or, is your spirit held fast by your yesterday’s?  There is only one thing to do.  Place them in His hands.  Leave them in His hands.  This is a new day, filled with His light, love and power.  Arise and shine.  Your light has come.  His glory has risen upon you.  It is time to leave the dungeons of yesterday.  Come forth!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     I just returned from our denomination’s annual meeting in a place called Sprouse’s Corner, Virginia.  If you’ve never heard of it, it’s ok.  99.9% of the world’s population never has either.  In the midst of the elections, reports, and so on, God, as He always will, managed to speak.  For me, He did so through the words of Dr. H.K. Warrick.  Dr. Warrick said that, “So many of our people come into our services and are stirred, but not changed.”  He spoke truth, and it pierced my heart, as I expect it did for so many others as well.  The question is, why is that so?  How can that be?
     There’s so much talk about revival across the church today.  Much talk, but I fear, very little of the real thing.  Again, why?  II Chronicles 7:14 is a much quoted verse by many.  God, speaking to Solomon, warns him of the liklihood of Israel turning away from God, but also gives a sure remedy should that happen.  He says, “If My people, who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”  I think churches and pastors everywhere, our church and myself included, are pleading this promise to the Lord, yet revival tarries.  How come?  We’re praying, we’re seeking His face, His forgiveness, His healing, yet it’s not coming.  The promise hasn’t been realized.  Why?  Could it be the very difficult and much overlooked sticking point of humbling ourselves before Him?
     Writer Gerald Fry says that the biblical meaning of “humbling oneself” is to be willing to be seen and known for who we really are.  We are willing to pray and seek, and for great amounts of time, but humbling ourselves, to the point of being willing to see ourselves for who we really are, well that’s another matter isn’t it?
    I was speaking with a brother pastor the other day, and he was grieving over the loss of yet another relationship in his church and ministry.  There had been a disagreement, and rather than work it out, as the Father directs, they left.  His words, spoken in pain, were, ” I am so weary of one broken and lost relationship after another.”  Yet this is what we do.  We, the people with a message of reconciliation, seem unable to ever reconcile anything.  Not with others, not with ourselves, not even with God.  Why?  Pride.  Always, at root, it’s pride.  So we go on, wandering in our journey, always looking for His fullness, yet never finding it.  We want to know Him, but we seem unwilling, and unable to know ourselves, and it will continue to be so until we…..humble ourselves before Him.
     How about you and I?  Are we amongst those who are so often stirred, yet never transformed?  Are we wanderers, always looking for a spiritual high, yet never finding it, or if we think we’ve found it, soon becoming disenchanted, and once more finding ourselves wandering, all the while leaving a trail of broken relationships behind?  The wanderings must stop, and it’s time to be more than just stirred, much more.  It is time to truly humble ourselves, open ourselves to Him, to ourselves, to one another, and to be known.  Known for who we are.  In return, He will move, He will bring healing, and the revival that has tarried for so long, will come.  He will hear from heaven, He will move, He will come.  Maranatha.  Come Lord Jesus.

Blessings,

Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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