Dulles Family Life Church

     Motives.  They are at the center of all we do, and we can so often be deceived as to what they’re really rooted in.  Jesus tells us in the word to “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”  Now, I have so often prayed that this would be a reality in my life, yet, how willing am I to ask myself which of these do I want most?  Him, His Kingdom, His righteousness, or, THESE THINGS?  Am I willing, are you willing, to spend enough time in His Presence to discover the answer?
     You may be familiar with the passage from Acts 16, where Paul and Silas are imprisoned in Philippi.  While in chains, a mighty earthquake comes, destroying the prison, yet harming no one.  The jailer, undone by what he has seen, asked the, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  Paul answers, correctly, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, along with your whole household.”  That’s a wonderful passage, and I have often prayed it for my entire family.  However, the Lord pierced some of my darkness concerning it with His light, exposing some of my motives, in just what it is I want, and want those near to me, to be saved from.
     In any approach to Christ, what is it that we really want?  Larry Crabb, in “The Pressure’s Off,” shares how the devil can work so subtly in all of this with us.  Crabb says, “The dragon thoughtfully suggests, ‘Yes, you do want Jesus.  He’s the one who can restore your marriage, provide great ideas on raising kids that really work, and prosper your ministry….He offers methods to follow that will give you the life you really want.  What must you do to be saved from an unfulfilling life?……What can you do to be saved from persecution and trouble?  He’ll tell you.  Go to Him to find out what you must do to make life work.’….The dragon directs my attention from the person of Christ as the source of the deepest joy, towards the blessings of life as what I need to be happy.”
     How often has that really been my motive as I sought Him?  How often has it been for what I longed for Him to do, in my life, family, ministry?  How often have you?  How much energy have we expended trying to get God to do what we want Him to do?  When we are pressed on every side, or walking through the fire or flood?  When we are going through the wilderness of pain, sorrow, and loss, what have we most cried out for?  Relief, deliverance, or…..Him?  When we pray and fast for breakthrough, if we even do such, to what do we seek to break through to?  A tangible, material result, or…..a deeper place in Him?  Are we yearning for more of Him, or just more good things for us?
     Crabb writes, “True life is knowing God.  Jesus said so.  And the life is Christ Himself, not the bread He could multiply, or the corpse He could resurrect, but Him.  Being in Him, having Him in us, living with His energy, chasing after His purposes, loving what He loves, seeing Him form in us till we’re actually like Him-that’s life.”  Too often, my yearning has been for the bread, the miracle, not the Miracle Maker.  We are not wrong to desire good things, but when having them becomes our life motivation, and that can happen so easily (the dragon will see to it) we miss the best thing, and therefore, we miss everything.  Are you missing it now?
     Just what are you and I looking to be saved from?  Who are you looking to be saved for?  Where are your motives really centered?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     A number of years ago, the leaders of the particular “part” of the Body in which I serve, came up with an idea for having your church grow.  They did a survey of what pastor’s of certain sized congregations, be they 100, 200, 300, and so on, did on a daily basis.  Their thinking was that if a pastor would follow that “routine,” so to speak, they would eventually “grow” their church to the same size.
     I’m not sharing that to put ridicule on those leaders, but rather to show just how captive we, you and I, can become to that kind of thinking.  In my years of ministry, really in all aspects of my walk as a believer, there has been a sense that if I just do what is right, I wll get what I want, because….well because God owes me, He’s under obligation.  It may not be stated that bluntly, but if I will be truly honest, it’s a feeling that has been very strongly embedded within me, and perhaps in you as well.
     For verification, one need only go to the local Christian bookstore and see what is on the bestseller lists.  How many of them are “formula” books, that tell us if we will do this, we will achieve success in whatever we do, be it marriage, business, raising children, even ministry.  We do our part, and God will do His.  It all seems so right.  After all, aren’t we living right and doing right?  God will be pleased, and He will bless, and….He will give us what we want…..success.  His Word guarantees it, doesn’t it?  But, what happens when success is not the result?  What are we left with then?
     Look around the landscape of the church.  It’s filled with people who are flawed humans for sure, but to the best of their ability, they did it “right,” yet their marriages ended in divorce, one or more of their children has walked away from God, and in the process, entered into open lifestyles of sin.  Ministries continue to struggle, jobs continue to be lost, financial problems remain a burden.  Why?  What are we doing wrong?  Maybe the better question is, what are we missing in all of it?  Could it be we’re missing Him?
     Larry Crabb, in his book, “The Pressure’s Off,” writes, “You’re looking for a method to make life work…..Whatever method you choose becomes your master……That goal is your idol.  It must be abandoned……You want to know what’s effective.  You aren’t asking to know what’s holy…..You seek the Better Life of God’s blessings, over the Better Hope of God’s Presence.”  In His Word, we’re told, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  In our wholehearted pursuit of blessing we will always end up further and not nearer to Him, most especially when the realization of those blessings doesn’t come to pass.  What we have then is frustration, bitterness, and anger.  Someone has failed, someone has to be blamed, and it is usually some combo of God and us…..and we end up further removed from Him than ever.  You see, a lifestyle that is consumed with following a formula is a lifestyle that puts “self” in full control.  The Father is the engine that powers the vehicle, but it is we who decide the direction in which we’re going.  We can never draw near to Him in such a way, and even if we do achieve some of our goals, i.e., our idols, they will still leave us empty inside, missing out on His Best, while we settle for the good, or the better.  As Crabb writes, “I’m troubled byt how unquestioningly we live out our determination to make this life work.  All our hopes for happiness are bound up in it.  It’s as if we believe this is the only world we ever plan to inhabit.”  How close to home that does that statement hit you and I?  How much of your lifemeaning, wellbeing, and happiness is tied up in how well your present life is working?
     Life is not about getting from A to our desired B.  We were not created for that.  It’s about getting to His heart, to His life.  There is no formula that will guarantee happiness.  Suffering and heartache are a part of this life, and no one will be immune to it.  We may spend our lives in futility, chasing after “point B,” and miss it all, because we never pursued Him who so desperately pursues us.  His promise to us in the midst of our family, job, financial or ministry frustrations is not that all will meet with success, but that in all of it, we may meet with Him, the highest Good.  The perfect heart, and the perfect love.  We will never have our best life here, but we can have all the best of Him…..now.  Which are you and I pursuing today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     In the book of Ezra, chapter 8, there are a couple of scriptures that are really giving me pause these days.  Artaxerxes, king of Persia, has given Ezra the priest permission to take a number of previously captive Israelites back to their homeland and to Jerusalem.  He was even provided gold, silver, and supplies for the journey.  Still, it would be a dangerous trip, with enemies all along the way.  Ezra knew that if he were to ask the king for troops to protect them, they would be given, but as he gathered the people to pray before the beginning of the journey, he says this in verses 22-23, “We prayed that He would give us a safe journey, and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled.  For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and to protect us from enemies along the way.  After all, we had told the king, ‘Our God protects all those who worship Him, but His fierce anger rages against those who abandon Him.’  So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and He heard our prayer.”
     From the perspective of 2500 years into the future, reading this is quite inspiring.  What great faith!  We applaud them.  Yet, I wonder, how many observers, maybe even some of those gathered to pray, saw this as just a bit too radical, too unrealistic?  It was a dangerous journey, they would need protection.  The king would provide the needed “protection.”  Wasn’t it insane to make this choice?  Re-read Ezra’s words.  They’d been testifying to the faithfulness of God.  It was their witness.  Now that witness was being put to the test.  Did they really believe the God they said they believed?  Would they really risk everything to show their trust in a God Who expected them to take Him at His word, even when it looked like the very height of madness to do so?  How many well meaning people, a number of them other “believers,” were telling them just that?
     Fast forward to 2011.  How much of your life testimony has been about trusting, believing, obeying God?  How many people have you talked to about doing that very thing?  Now, just where is He requiring you to do that, be it your ministry, family, job, or future, and with no more assurance that the fact that He has promised to come through?  How many well meaning “voices,” a number of them “believers,” would tell you, are telling you, that such an outlook is way too radical, that you’re taking His word much too literally, and that your decision to believe Him really does look …..insane?  In short, why, at least in western Christianity, is this kind of a lifestyle seen as abnormal?  More, does it seem abnormal to you?
     I have begun to pray of late that God make me on the inside, what I appear to be on the outside.  I preach and teach much about falling prey to fear, discouragement, unbelief, and more, yet, if I’m truthful, there have been too many times when I have fallen victim to those very things, and when faced with the choice of believing Him totally, taking His promises literally, wondering if I was, if not insane, at least quite foolish.  How did we come to the place where taking Him at His word, living out His commands literally, began to be seen as the path of the fanatic?  When did it happen that those who decided to obey Him fully, surrender to Him completely, and to follow Him ANYWHERE, came to be seen as strange?  When Jesus first sent His disciples out to minister, He commanded them to “take nothing with you.”  Nothing.  No supplies, money…nothing.  Nothing but faith, and trust.  Again, it’s inspiring, yet who among us would truly be willing to go under such guidelines?  Of course, we tend to think He’d never ask it of us to begin with.
     We need to live lives that prove He’s alive.  How can we do that when we show we’re every bit as anixious and afraid as those without Him?  All we can be in the end is…..ashamed.  We are called to be on the inside, all that we’ve been appearing to be on the outside.  It’s scary, unrealistic, and really does look insane to the flesh….the unbelieving flesh.  Yet His word tells us that the people who gathered to pray with Ezra made it to Jerusalem, and they rebuilt the city.  The others, the ones who thought them crazy?  I’m sure some were deeply affected by the faithlives of those they’d questioned.  Some may even have made the journey “home” themselves.  The rest?  They died in captivity, which is where unbelief leaves us.  Where is your belief, or lack of, leaving you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     I have just finished reading Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love.”  It has done more than challenge me, more even than convict me.  It has exposed me.  Psalm 51:6 reads, “But You, (the Father) desire truth in my innermost being.”  For me, I have always seen this as my lifelong, at least my life since I have come to know Him, quest.  It has revealed to me that there has been, if not lies, certainly deception in that “being.”  Could you dare to admit that maybe, the same is true of you? 
     In his book, Chan says, “Dare to imagine what it would mean to take the words of Jesus seriously.”  Elaborating on this, Chan writes, “We’ve conditioned ourselves to hear messages without responding….We go to church to hear a well developed sermon and convicting thought.  We’ve trained ourselves to believe if we’re convicted, our job’s done.  If you’re just hearing the word, and not actually doing something with it, you are deceiving yourself.”
     For me, the exposing of the deception came in the form of Jesus’ command to “Love your enemies.”  Since I had been praying that He would indeed grant me “truth in my innermost being,” God used that command to expose all the ways I had used to avoid obeying it.  That’s not how I’d seen it, but if I have a belief in the literal truth of His word, I had to ask if I had really, fully, been living that out as concerns some deep wounds I had suffered in my life?  I knew in my heart I hadn’t.  I’d been exposed, and His light would no longer allow me to justify it in any way.
     How about you?  Do you believe His word is to be taken literally?  Do you believe we, you and I, are commanded to take His words and literally live them out?  If the Bread of Life is literally every word that proceeds out of His mouth, are we living that?  These are pointed questions I know, but just when are you and I going to answer them?  Now….or that day we stand before Him, giving account for our lives, and for what we’ve done with them?  Chan writes, “We’ve developed a habit of listening to the word of God and not obeying it.  If we take Scripture literally and actually apply it, we won’t have what our flesh desires, so we walk away sad, or we run to the church where no one else is doing it, but they seem ok with that.”
     I have one last illustration to share with you today.  Beth Moore tells the story of her daughter Melissa’s choice at a young age to fully yield to Him in the course of what was a very hard choice.  Her words to her mother were, “When I teach my children to follow hard after God, no matter where He takes them, I want them to know that their mother does what she teaches.”  How does that speak to you?  Do we teach forgiveness but not give it?  Do we preach obedience, but not practice it?  Do we speak about surrender, but not live it?  As I said, Chan’s words cut into my heart.  Are they cutting into yours as well?  If we truly want truth in our innermost being, these are questions we cannot avoid, and indeed, are questions that will pursue us into eternity.  Just when will we answer them?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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     In her book, “Believing God,” Beth Moore quotes Isaiah 55:10-11, which says, “As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  She follows this scripture up with a searching question of herself, and of us as well.  She asks, “Do I (we) really believe these words, and if I do, how does it show?”
     How does it show, especially in light of verses 8-9 which precede this passage?  “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord, “And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”  Here, the Lord calls on us to believe His words, even when His actions seem to conflict, do conflict, with His promise.  I believe what He says to us is, “Trust My word as you also trust My heart.”
     I was tested in this as recently as yesterday.  Some very promising things seemed to be coming together in our ministry and fellowship.  Much needed things.  Then, I received news that it was not going to happen, and I was left with the question, as all of us so often are, “Why?”  God didn’t answer my “Why?.” but instead asked me “What?,” as in, “What will you now do?”  In my discouragement, I could feel His Spirit speaking to my heart, asking me, “Does this immediate thing, unexpected as it is, mean that My promise to you is empty?  Is your faith founded only on answers that please you, or is it founded on Me?”  Isaiah 55:8-9 came to my mind, and later, when speaking with a friend, it was spoken to me again, confirming His voice.  I believe if we will seek Him out, even in our deepest disappointments, He will, in infinite ways, always confirm His Word, as well as His heart.  As Moore says, “Faith is not the denial of reality.  It is a belief in a greater reality.”  These are days where you, me, all of us, are going to be confronted with what the devil says is reality.  Our choice will be, will we believe in the “greater reality” that is Him?
     God’s ways and thoughts are so often, most often, not the way we would do things, or choose.  Too often, they make no sense, and really do seem to be in conflict with His promise.  To the disciples, Christ’s death on a cross certainly was in conflict with His promise of an abundant life, except that it wasn’t.  It wasn’t what they would have chosen, but it was the only way to the Father and to life.  Jesus said to them, “What I do now you don’t understand, but later, you will.”  In the midst of what we don’t understand, will we, can we, trust Him, and believe Him?  Before us is the “reality” that we see, but beyond is the GREATER reality that we can’t see, not with earthly eyes anyway.  Which one will you believe, and if you do believe, how does it show?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Tags: Heart Thoughts by oshell
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