Dulles Family Life Church

     Desire is a potent force in our lives.  Unfulfilled desires are even more so.  What do you do with those unfulfilled desires?  Especially in the light of Psalm 37:4, which says, “….He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Ah, you say, but the first part of the verse says that will come about IF  we first “delight” ourselves in Him.  Now, I don’t want to get into a theological discussion here, but I will say this:  I think there are countless people who truly, in all their ways, have set their hearts to delight themselves in Him.  I also believe many of them live each day with a number of deep, pure, yet unfulfilled desires.  There are many singles with deep, holy desire to have a rich and rewarding marriage, but they don’t.  Many childless parents, long for the gift of a baby to be brought into their lives and home, but it doesn’t happen.  Many pastor’s and kingdom workers labor long and diligently in His fields, longing to see the harvest come, yet it has not.  As you read this, your own heart may beat with the strength of seeing some great desire come to pass in your life, or in the lives of those you love, but it hasn’t yet happened.  Will it ever?
     I have no specific answer for that, but yet I do have an answer, though it may not be one you wish to hear.  It’s an answer He gave me through something I heard Beth Moore say a few months ago concerning these desires.  Before I do, let me tell you how I had always viewed the matter of our desires.  I had always thought that if we took our desires to Him, asking Him to either fulfill them, or remove them, and if, after doing so, they remained, then it was His intention to eventually bring them to pass in my life.  Then I heard Moore say that there are some things, perhaps many things, that He will never take the desire for away from us, and that they may remain unfulfilled, but that in the midst of them, He will teach us new and amazing truths about the depths of the sufficiency of His grace.  That we would realize in ways we never thought possible, that His grace is sufficient even in the midst of our deepest, yet unfulfilled desires.
     Our desires, even our most pure, can imprison us when they go unfulfilled.  They can also sour our view of a loving and good God.  Brethren, I am not telling you, or myself, that these things we so passionately desire will never come to pass in our lives.  What I am saying is that our deepest joy and peace will not be found in the fulfillment of the desire, for we’ll never lack for desires,  but in the gift of His grace, His love, His presence, in the midst of the lack.  We look to Him not merely for the fulfillment of our desires, but for the fulfillment of our lives, our very being.  His grace is sufficient, His life is sufficient, and having that, I think, is the true fulfillment of our heart’s desire.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     Victory.  It’s a much talked about, but sadly, too little realized term in the body of Christ.  We pray about it, sing about it, preach about it, but to what extent is it really present in our lives?  If we have, as the powerful old hymn says, “Victory In Jesus,” then why are so many of His people living in defeat?
Beth Moore says that so many believe He can save us from our sins, but not our situations.  We believe He can defeat death, but not our circumstances.  We trust in a victory that will get us to heaven, but not in one that will lead us into true life.
     Pastor Che’ Ahn says that ultimately, it comes to our asking ourselves this pointed question.  Do we really believe that Jesus Christ totally defeated the enemy on the cross, and in His resurrection?  Do we?  Do you?  Can you believe that the forces that are attacking your life, marriage, children, livlihood, even your walk with Him, were defeated, not partly, but totally, at Calvary?  Has every scheme, every plan the enemy can throw at you, already been thwarted at the cross?  Can you believe that even if your greatest fear were to come to pass, even in the midst of that, you have not been defeated, but still have, and will realize, ultimate victory?  I jotted these words down, spoken by a pastor who had lost his only son to suicide.  “I have been to the bottom, and the bottom is solid.”  As Moore says, “Whether it be an extreme high or low, no one can join us there but God.”  He has joined you where you are right now.  Do you know that?
     One of the biblical terms for satan in the bible is “Destroyer,” and he certainly lives up to his name in so many ways.  How much destruction has he wrought in yours, and in the lives of those you love?  Do you really know, and believe, that he cannot destroy what is in Christ, what is covered by Him, what is under His blood?  Somehow, we have lost the wonder of this truth, that there is power, unlimited power, in the blood of Jesus.  Hebrews 7:17, speaking of the ministry of Christ, the perfect High Priest, says He does not fill the office by merit of being of the tribe of Levi,”….but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.”  If His life cannot be destroyed, neither can that which His life, His blood, covers.  Does He cover you today, and if so, do you truly believe this great truth?
     The destroyer has been destroyed by Him…at Calvary…at the cross…at the tomb…with His rising.  Do you believe this?  Not partly, not mostly, but totally?  Believe me, you and I are going to be tested in our answer, if we already aren’t being so.  The worst may come, but in it, we may stand on the Rock of Christ.  We will have victory, if we will believe….totally.  It will be, as Moore says, “With blood, sweat and tears.  His blood, our sweat, and the tears of us both.”  All because we believe that the power of a life that can’t be destroyed, is the life we live, that lives within us.  The destroyer has been destroyed.  Totally.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     I was listening to the Keith Green song, “Rushing Wind,” today, and was moved, as his songs so often move me, by the powerful simplicity of the lyrics.  “Rushing wind blow through this temple, blowing out the dust within…..Holy Spirit I surrender, take me where You want to go.  Plant me by Your living water.  Plant me deep so I can grow.”
   As I listened, I wondered how much “dust” may have accumulated in my heart?  How much of my life truly needs a fresh wind of His Spirit blowing through it, blowing out the things that, like dust in our homes, have accumulated through neglect or complacency?  Things that I may deem precious, but when placed alongside the beauty that is the fullness of life in His Spirit, nothing more than dust.  Or, as Paul put it, “garbage.”  Either way, I desperately need those times of a fresh wind of His Spirit blowing through my life.  Do you as well?  It’s very easy as we journey through this life, to accumulate a lot of “traveling dirt.”  We can get used to it, and come not to be bothered about it.  We just accept it as part of the journey.  This would certainly not be the sentiment of Green, who also writes in this song, “Separate me from this world Lord, sanctify my heart for You.  Daily change me to Your image.  Help me bear good fruit.”
   I wonder just how much we understand of the term “sanctify?”  Do we really know its meaning?  Do we want to?  I understand the need for the church to be relevant to a lost culture, but we will not be relevant by being outwardly clean versions of themselves.  As I remember an unknown writer putting it, “The world doesn’t need a religious version of itself.”  It doesn’t.  It needs a holy one, walking in His Holy Spirit power, bearing good fruit, bearing His image.  Truly relevant to the world, and in heaven as well.  We cannot be that with the dust of this world filling our lives, hearts, and minds.  We need the rushing wind.  We need it now.
   Green’s song is of course speaking of the wind that came upon the church in the 2nd chapter of Acts at Pentecost.  In a little more than 2 months, the church will be celebrating “Pentecost Sunday.”  How much of that will be a tired remembrance of what has been, rather than a true celebration of what must be, what is and can be for those who…..are willing to have the dust blown out of the temple, both theirs, and the one they attend?
   One more line of the song.  “Jesus, You’re the One, Who set my spirit free.  Use me Lord.  Glorify Your name through me.”  We may all agree He’s the One, but has He truly set your spirit free?  Can He truly use you and I?  Are we living lives, dust free lives, that really do bring glory to His name?  That is what a sanctified, set apart life is all about.  Is that what your life is all about?  I believe the winds are truly beginning to blow.  Will they be blowing through you and I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     Back in the 1980’s, there was a very popular mini-series titled “V.”  The storyline concerned the earth being visited by a race of humanlike aliens who came in seeming friendship, offering, with their advanced technology, a style of life not believed possible.  In reality, the aliens were not human at all, but lizardlike creatures who saw the human population as a food source, and aimed to enslave, and literally devour them all.  Most never saw through the disquise, and many perished before, in good Hollywood form, the “goodguys,” those who hadn’t been deceived, were able to expose and defeat them.  Only in Hollywood.  It was make believe of course, but I wonder, is not something very similar going on in the life of the church?  Possibly even in your life as well?
     In writing “Heart Thoughts,” I always have a great desire to offer encouragement and hope, but I’ve come to realize that sometimes, that is not our greatest need at all, but like so many of our truly deepest needs, we’re not aware of that.  In Mark 8:22-25, some people of the village of Bethsaida brought a blind man to Jesus and pleaded with Him to heal him.  Jesus led him outside the village and then, after literally spitting on his eyes, and laying His hands upon him asked, “Can you see anything now?”  The man looked about and answered, “Yes, I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly.  They look like trees walking around.”  Jesus then put His hands upon the man’s eyes again, and, “As the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.”  A question I would ask today is, how much of what you and I “see” both around and within us, looks like trees instead of people?  In short, how clearly are we seeing the realities of our outer lives as well as our inner ones?
     Like the mini-series “V,” the culture of the church has been invaded by the culture of the world, and it is touching every aspect of the life of the church, and the lives within it, yet do we recognize that?  In the book of Nehemiah, Tobiah the Ammonite was the greatest enemy of the people, seeking at every turn to thwart God’s purpose in rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple.  His purpose was defeated, and Nehemiah led the people in vowing before God to serve Him alone and with all their hearts.  Nehemiah then returned to Persia for a period believed to be 2-3 years.  When he returned, he found the people living in total compromise, intermarrying with the non-Jews around them, and worst of all, Tobiah, their great enemy, was living in the Temple itself.  Nehemiah, confronting all this, threw Tobiah, and all he owned, out of the Temple, then cleansed it.  I know, pretty radical stuff.  Still, I have to ask.  Has Tobiah found a home in your church?  Has he found a home in your heart?
     What happened in Jerusalem and in the Temple did not happen overnight, and it will not with us either.  Sin always comes disquised as something else, generally our friend.  It’s purpose however is always to devour us.  It can look like our friend and ally, but has alwasy been, will always be, our enemy.  Tobiah, who hated everything about the Father and His people, now felt at home and in comfort in the very house of God.  To what degree may that be happening with us, both as a body, and as individuals?
     I read something very convicting recently.  Carlos Annacondia, who’s been greatly used of God in South America, saw true revival come to his church and nation after “He became ruthless about sin in his own life and the life of his family.”  Ruthless.  It’s not a pretty word, and believe me, I’m not advocating “witch hunts” in our congregations.  The ruthlessness starts with you and I, in our own lives, our own homes.  It’s time to throw Tobiah out.  When he is gone from our lives and homes, he will find no place in our fellowships.  The lizard will have been exposed.  The good guys, those who follow Him with all their hearts, will win.  Only in the Kingdom.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     I heard singer, writer and speaker Sheila Walsh talk recently about a truly devastating time she and her family had gone through in the last few years.  Due to some very poor investment decisions by her husband, they had suffered tremendous monetary loss with very serious consequences to their overall security.  Walsh said that she had grown up poor, and that one of her deepest fears was to lose everything and be thrown into poverty.  As this was unfolding, she continued to be one of the speakers in the “Women of Faith” ministry.  She said she continued to  talk and tell her listeners that there was no situation or problem that the Lord could not get them through.  She told her interviewer that she believed this, but didn’t know how it could be so for her.  In the midst of this darkness, she said she heard the Lord speak into her heart, “I didn’t come to get you through this.  I came to live in you through this.”
     The difference between the two will determine just how you and I will walk through the potentially devastating dark times that may lie ahead for all of us, at least to some degree.  Most of us know that life contains some very difficult, painful, even crushing places, but how do we view His response to that?  Do we feel that His purpose is to “get us through them,” somehow surviving, living, going onward?  Or, do we hear Him in our hearts, telling us that it is not “survival mode” He is seeking for us, but a “more than conqueror” lifestyle He is looking to to place in and through us?  As He whispered to Walsh’s heart, the Father doesn’t wish to merely get us through life.  He longs to live His life through us.  How much of His life is He living out through you and I today?
     Evangelist and writer James Robison said that, “We need to have a head on collision with God.”  Head on collisions can be messy to say the least.  If one happens while we are driving, and we emerge from it unharmed, we call it a miracle, and it is, but a head on collision with God?  What could be the outcome of that?  Would God even want such a thing?  Yes, I believe He would, does, and I think such an encounter lies ahead for many of us, maybe all of us.
     His Word in Lamentations 3:23 says that His mercies are new every morning, but is the Lord truly so to you and I, or has our relationshio with Him gotten so safe and comfortable, that we sometimes forget that He’s even there?  The Almighty God of the Bible is anything but safe and comfortable.  As was said of Aslan the Lion in The Chronicles of Narnia, “He’s not safe, but He’s good.”  Could it be that whatever you are walking through today is exactly what Robison talked of?  Could it be that you have had, are having, a head on collision with Him?  If so, what are you going to do in response?  Hunch down into survival mode, or rise up, in Him, to conqueror status?
     I believe that so many, too many of us, go to our churches and home groups week after week, never once truly expecting to encounter the Almighty God of the universe.  Not in the worship, the prayer, or the message.  We depart from His presence exactly as we came into it….unchanged.  Can we not wonder why the Father, who longs for deep intimacy, and to transform us from “glory to glory” might not seek such a head on encounter with you and I?
     Like Walsh, He speaks to our hearts.  His purpose and desire is to not merely get us through, past, or even over this time.  It is to live in and through us with all His power and for all His glory.  We may, like her, believe He can do it, but wonder how He can do it with and for us?  This is a new day, and whatever it may look like, it is filled with His new mercies.  Mercies that will be poured out upon and through us.  You may have had a head on collision, but trust in His goodness.  You will emerge unharmed.  You will not emerge unchanged.  It will be His miracle for you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     I stopped by the home of a good friend to say goodbye.  He and his wife are moving to Florida, and though we will surely remain friends, and even possibly see each other from time to time, still, it brings a sadness, for what was will not be so again.  Things change.  Life changes.  People come into our lives, and at the same time, they leave our lives.  As a pastor, I expect I’ve seen more than my share of that, but it’s an experience all of us have to some degree.  Oftentimes, it’s a case, like today, of saying goodbye.  Sometimes it’s a case of having to let go.  Whichever it is, it can be painful, and it can leave us feeling empty and lonely.  Yet, in this time, for me at least, there comes forth and even greater sense of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.  He is One to whom we need never say goodbye, and even if we do, and some have, He will not say goodbye to us.  Not on this side of eternity.  He is the One who says, promises, that He will never leave us or forsake us.  Romans tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.  Again and again, that has been my life experience.  I may have been, may be, lonely, but I have never been alone.  Not even in the darkest hours.
     I may have shared this particular dark time before, if so, bear with me, because I think it needs repeating.  I was at a very lonely and scary time in my life, going through a divorce, out of the ministry, feeling very isolated and alone.  I was in fact, by myself at the time.  I tried to call some people, but none that I called were able to answer.  I tried to pray, but even that did not seem to bring any comfort.  Finally, I opened my Bible and began to read in 2 Timothy, Paul’s speaking of his being brought before the judge in chapter 4, verses 16-17.  “The first time I was brought before the judge, no one was with me.  Everyone had abandoned me….But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength.”  That was 20 years ago, but I can still remember what happened as though it were yesterday.  Into my brokenheartedness He came, and the words of Proverbs, that, “There is One who sticks closer than a brother…” became real to me in a way never known before.  I remember that I had sometime before highlighted those verses in yellow.  At that moment, the words literally seeemed to be on fire.  It still gives me chills.
     That was not the last time I needed that truth, needed Him.  There have been many goodbyes.  I have said goodbye to best friends and to family, who have suddenly been called home to the Father.  I have said goodbye to cherished friends, who, like today, though still “here,” are no longer here with me.  I have also had to say goodbye, and let go of, those who have chosen to leave, whether it be me personally, or the fellowship I pastor.  In turn, at times, I’ve had to be the first to say goodbye to people who, for whatever reason, the Lord was asking me to let go of.  All are painful, some very much so, but in all of them, again and again, the Jesus who came and stood with Paul, was the Jesus who came and stood with me.  Has it been so for you?  In the midst of the goodbyes of your life, have you seen Him beside you?  Have you truly experienced the One who really does stick closer than a brother, the One who will never leave or forsake?  The One, who, in the midst of an everchanging world, never changes.  The One who is, as His word says, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
     Wherever you are right now, would you let Him be that to and for you?  He will come.  He has come.  He is there.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     Bad news.  No one likes it, and some of us will go to extraordinary measures to avoid it.  As a young man, lacking both money and mechanical knowledge, I perfected what I thought to be the best way to deal with what might be signs of real problems with my car.  If, while driving, I began to hear ominous engine or transmission noises, I would raise the volume on the radio.  My reasoning?  If I couldn’t hear them, they weren’t really there.  I know, it sounds pretty unbelievable, but is the way you may be dealing with “bad news” in your life any less so?
     In truth, the “lifenews” that you and I receive in our day to day living can sometimes be far more than merely bad.  It can be devastating.  The unexpected loss of a job, or a retirement annuity that had been carefully planned for, but with the sudden economic downturn, has completely disappeared.  It can be the spouse who has announced to you that they’ve met another, and they’re leaving.  It may be the child who has chosen to walk away from the Jesus they once knew, and entered into a lifestyle that takes them far away from both Him, and you.  The bad news may come right there in the church, the place where we thought we could feel safe.  A leader, respected by all, fell into immorality, and left their ministry, family, and church.  A trusted ministry partner and friend comes and tells you they and their family are no longer happy here…they’re leaving.  There is also bad news of another type.  God’s answer of “No.”  We had come to Him with our dreams, our plans, hopes and desires.  We lay them at His feet, seeking His blessing upon them, and….His answer is “No.”  Bad news.  Disappointing news.  Tragic news.  Heartbreaking news.  It does happen, and all too often, at the very worst of times.  What are we to do?
     God never promised us we would not have days of bad news.  In fact, in Psalm 112, He says we most certainly will, but He adds this, “Have no fear of the day of bad news.”  How can He say that?  Doesn’t He understand he pain this news has caused?  Doesn’t He know what the consequences of this news will be to me, my family, the church?  He does and in our heartbreak, His heart breaks.  In our weeping, He weeps with us.  Yet, what He tells us is that in the midst of what may well be the very worst news we have ever received, is that we are to trust Him.  In the bottom of the pit, we make a choice to live out what I heard Beth Moore once call, “bottom line faith.”
     One of the things I am praying for in our fellowship is that He would break the attitude of fear and mistrust of Him that exists in so many hearts.  As long as this fear and mistrust towards Him exists in any life, it is a tool the devil can and will use against us.  As Moore says, “Mistrust breeds more mistrust.”  What is being bred in your faith life today?  How are you responding in your day or days of bad news? 
     No one wants to hear bad news, but we will never escape it by turning up the volume of noise that surrounds our lives.  The problem will only grow worse.  We must not ignore it, nor can we panic.  What we must do, is come to Him, bringing that news, and all our accompanying feelings and cares concerning it, and place it, in surrender, at His feet.  Paul said that he was
:….convinced that He was able to keep (all) that He had committed to Him against (and until) that day.”  Even the day of bad news.  Will you do that, or….will you just turn up the volume?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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