Dulles Family Life Church

     Likely you’ve seen the ads asking the question, “Got Jesus?”  Now, I’m not putting them down, as I’m always for putting forth His name, but I am wondering that when we ask them if they “got” Jesus, just what Jesus are we asking if they’ve got?  What Jesus have you got?  I don’t mean to be confusing, but when we invite people to receive Him, just who are  we inviting them to receive, and how are they receiving Him?  How have you?
     I’m asking this question because it seems we are trying so hard to “market” Christ, make Him appealing to those who don’t “know” Him, help them to see just how much good He can do, how much He can add to their lives.  The choice then seems to come down to it not being His Sovereign grace piercing the darkness of our hearts, convicting us of our lostness due to sin, and convincing us of our desperate need for Him, but rather one of letting people know what a benefit He is, allowing them to see how much sense having Him in their lives makes, and then choosing to “accept” Him.  You may think I overstate this, and maybe so, but how often have we, myself included, presented Him as someone who can really “add on” to our lives, make them better, happier, more successful?  Intended or not, He ends up being seen as someone who can be a valuable part of our lives, along with our marriages, children, jobs, activities, goals, dreams, and so on.  I don’t if it’s my own thought, or someone else’s, but I wrote down in my notes awhile back, “Instead of being absorbed into His life, we want Him to adapt His life to ours.”  When we ask people if they have Jesus, when we invite them to come to Jesus, is this the Jesus we call them to?  Is this the Jesus the apostle Paul called, and continues to call us to?
     In I Corinthians 1:23, Paul writes, “…..but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles.”  Paul preached a Christ who loves us too fiercely to ever be willing to merely adapt to our lives, to become a helpful part.  He preached the Christ that the Father sent, who for sure calls us to an abundant life, but a life that can only be offered because He went to the cross, and a life that you and I can realize only if we’re willing to go to that cross as well…..and die there.  Die, that we may live.  Paul said that this Christ was a stumbling block, a folly, to so many.  One translation uses the word “nonsense.”  Coming to, following such a Christ, makes no sense, but this is the Christ Paul preached, presented, invited people to, as did Peter, as did John, as did the 1st century church, and this message, this Christ, as the book of Acts says, “turned the world upside down.”  It was a supernatural message, bringing about supernatural transformation, as it will still do today, if we’ll dare to proclaim it.
     A compliant Jesus who’s willing to adapt to our natural world, never disturbing our comfort zones, will transform nothing, no matter how many “get” Him.  Christ crucified, victorious over death and sin in all of its forms will.  Do you have that Jesus, or does He continue to be a stumbling block, plain nonesense, to you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     In his book, “When God Shows Up,” RT Kendall quotes I John 4:16, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”  He then asks this question, “I wonder if you have reached the stage where you just rely on God’s love for you?”  We may think we can give a fast “yes” to that question, but perhaps we ought not  be so quick about it.  Have we really reached that stage?  In what are we really relying on in our day to day lives?  Maybe before we answer the question as to whether we are relying on His love for us, we might instead ask, “Have we really received it?”  Are we letting God love us?  Are you letting God love you?  Answering that honestly may take more time than we think.
     After reading what Kendall said, I wrote in my notes that I wanted to live my life relying on His love.  I wrote it because I had to admit I had lived too much of it outside of that reliance.  Maybe you have too, but the reasons for it may be a bit different than what we first think.  I’m coming to see more and more that living in the kind of reliance Kendall speaks of requires a level of surrender we often are not willing to go to, and not going to it leaves us relying on ourselves.  When that happens, our awareness of His love and its power in our lives seems to be superficial at best.  Oh, I know that many struggle with believing God truly loves them, but in the end, believing that comes to a matter of trust, and real trust will always involve a surrender.  If we are going to live in total trust of His love, I think we will have to also live in total surrender to it.  Otherwise, I believe His love will always seem something distant and surreal, as will the power of that love.  There are countless reasons to not believe in His love, life circumstances, the enemy’s lies, feelings and emotions, and the influences of “significant others” in our lives who have either loved us very imperfectly or loved us not at all.  There are THREE reasons to believe He does.  The Father tells us He loves us.  Jesus, His Son, has shown us He loves us, and the Holy Spirit, daily, even moment by moment, continues to confirm that He loves us.  It’s for us, you and I, to believe, to yield, to surrender to that love, and with the surrender, we overcome.
     Francis Chan, in his book, “Forgotten God,” quotes James 5:17, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently.”  His point is that Elijah, Moses, David, Joseph, Peter, Mary Magdalene, and so many others, were men and women just like you and I, but they prayed to, trusted in, and received and relied on the love God had for them in Christ.  As a result, they lived lives that had not only their own limitations, but also of the awesome size of the obstacles and challenges they faced….just like you and I.  They overcame because they believed in, relied on, the Father’s deep, abiding love for them.  Could you and I live such lives?  According to James, we can, but it will require us living, really living, in the depths of the reality of His love.  As Chan says, “It is safer to avoid situations where we need God to come through, than to stake it all on Him and risk God’s silence.” 
     Such risk taking is frightening to our flesh.  It is to mine, but wherever we are today, He calls us to “risk it all” on the guarantee of His love for us.  No, we can’t force Him to work in the way we wish Him to, but if we truly are relying on, receiving His love, than we will trust, and rest in the love that will, in His time and way, bring us to His best for us.  God loves you.  You have heard that many times.  Will you receive it, rely on it….today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     Beth Moore, in her book, “Believing God,” suggests that one way of growing in our faith is to journal what she calls, “Godstops,” that is, places where the Lord has answered our prayers in very real and wondrous ways.  I think that a great thing to do, but I also think that if we’re not careful, it can leave us in a much more shallow place than He desires for us.  I think this as a result of personal experience.
     Our flesh has a remarkable ability to forget the countless blessings He bestows upon us.  True, recording times when He has answered prayer, whether in great or small ways, can help bring them to mind and even build faith, but somehow, God’s answered prayer from yesterday can seem to lack power or meaning in today’s need or crisis.  The problem is not with God, but us.  Like I said, our flesh tends to forget things in a hurry.  The Father’s relationship with Israel is a record of His rebuking them again and again for forgetting His awesome works in their midst throughout their history, even though they had written accounts of those works.  What was lacking was not proof, but a deep level of personal experience with their God.  They’d experienced His answers but not His fullness.  This has happened all too easily with me in the past.  Maybe it has with you too.  As a result, He’s led me to ask for something more, something deeper in those Godstops Moore speaks of.  I am asking for touches, no, more than touches, experiences, rich experiences of His fullness, of His life.  I am so thankful for His material, financial, and even relational answers to prayer, but somehow they can never impact me like a time of truly being with Him.  They may be forgotten, but a real time with Him, with His fullness, can’t be.  Those are Godstops that will not only grow our faith, but enlarge our lives.
     God in His mercy and grace, hears our many cries for help, and He answers with gracious provision.  Our problem is what we most want in the way of provision is that which comes from His hand and not His heart.  We want the things he gives desperately, but our desire for Him rarely seems to have such passion.  Psalm 34:8 invites us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  We may have experienced much of His goodness through His provision, but when was the last time our hearts and spirit truly “tasted” His goodness…His fullness…..His life?  Because this tasting of His life can so often be lacking for us, the power of His last answer to our need can be lost in the midst of the urgency of our current need.  Because we’ve so rarely tasted, experienced Who He is, we tend to to know much about Him, but knowing Him?…..Not really.  What we have then is doubt, anxiety, fear, but this isn’t His desire for us.  Psalm 94:19 says, “When doubts filled my mind, Your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.”  His comfort came from the experience of His Presence and life.  The “Godstop” was not about His hand, but about His heart, His love.  Such a visitation is not easily forgotten.  When’s the last time you and I had one?
     I want more, much more, than a God who complements my life.  I want a God, a Father, who fills it.  More than His hand, I want His heart.  A heart that, in Christ, truly transforms.  His provisions may so often leave us unchanged, but can anyone truly be in His Presence, experience His fullness, and remain the same?  Can you?  Would you dare to “taste and see?”

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     I’ve been confronted of late as to what Christ really is in my life, my ideal, or my life?  Paul said that for him, “to live is Christ.”  Meaning that his life was not his life at all, but totally filled with, yielded to, and controlled by the Holy Spirit, Who is Himself the total personification of Jesus Christ.  How deeply can I speak what Paul spoke?  How deeply can you?  Is Christ an ideal we try, in our own strength, and with very mixed results, to emulate, or does He so fill our lives that, like Paul, we are living the life of Christ?
     Now, this may sound a bit heavy to you at first, but I think I can simplify it a bit as I share with you something Francis Chan writes in his book, “Forgotten God-Reversing Our Tragic Neglect Of The Holy Spirit.”  After quoting Galatians 5:22-23, which lists the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, he asks whether we exhibit more of this fruit than the unbelieving culture we are surrounded by?  He asks, “If God truly lives in you, shouldn’t you expect to be different from everyone else?”  That’s convicting enough, but what he writes next cuts to our hearts, or should.  “What disturbs me most is when we’re not really bothered that God living in us has not made much of a noticeable difference.  Most churchgoers are content to find a bit of peace rather than ‘the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.’  We want just enough peace to survive the week….or day.”  We want Christ in bits and pieces, but I don’t think we truly want all of Him.  When people want to emphasize a difference, they often say, “It’s as different as night and day.”  That is the kind of difference that’s to exist between an unbelieving world, and His people who profess to believe.  The difference between night and day, darkness and light, death and life, but…does it?  Do you, are we, living a life, living lives, that truly set us apart?  Do we know what a life filled with joy, peace, love, is?  When we face a crisis, or come under intense pressure, when we’re dealt with unfairly, mistreated, overlooked, how are we responding?  Colossians 1:17 says that “all things hold together in Christ,” but we cannot believe this, live this out, in our own strength, it takes the fullness of the Spirit in us to hold fast to Him Who is immovable, even when all we know around us is falling apart.  If Christ is merely our ideal, we’ll fall with it, but if  for us, like Paul, living IS Christ, we will stand with Him, and He’ll not only stand with us, but live through us, with the fruit of His Spirit shining through, and in ever growing ways.  It’s as different as night and day.
     Somehow, I think when Christ is merely our ideal, He’s little more than an idol to us.  Ideals don’t transform, but a living Savior and God does.  Has He, is He, transforming  you?  A.W. Tozer, writing more than 50 years ago said this, “I wonder how many Christian believers there really are in the world today whose spiritual lives have been transformed by the acceptance of the fact that the Holy Spirit has come as a Person and that He is willing-yes waiting-to do all for us that Jesus would do if He were here on earth?”  He has come, not as an ideal to imitate, but as a Person to transform and make new.  He He come to you?  Is the life you live now as different as light from darkness, as from the unbelieving world around you….as from the life you lived before you called Him Savior?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     I’ve been trying, off and on, since early this morning to come up with something to write about today.  I made several attempts, but somehow, I just couldn’t sense Him anywhere in anything I was trying to say.  In truth, I really didn’t have a sense of Him at all.  I wasn’t feeling bad so much as I wasn’t feeling anything.  Athletes would say they felt flat, and I guess that comes closest to describing things.  I felt, still feel, spiritually flat and decidedly unfruitful.  I’m wondering if a couple of things I’ve read recently from Larry Crabb and Francis Chan might not be timely for me.  Maybe for you too.
     Chan, in his book, “Forgotten God,” talks about how we have got to truly come to grasp the fact that all who claim to have come into a life transforming, soul saving relationship with Jesus Christ, need to know, not just in their mind, but in their spirit, that in the Person of the Holy Spirit, God is literally dwelling within us.  Not just know in a kind of intellectual agreement, but in our innermost being, as our reality.  When this happens, as he writes, our feelings, emotions, circumstances and lacks are not what define our day.  What defines our day is the truth that the Almighty Creator of the universe, Master and Sovereign over all, including all that we feel or face, dwells, lives, is alive within us.  That’s the reality that defines both our days and our lives.  Which is defining you and I right now?  Romans 8 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…”  What is bearing greater witness with you and I right now, what we feel or face, or what the Holy Spirit Himself is saying?
     The other “thing” coming to mind is something Larry Crabb said in his book, “The Papa Prayer.”  He was commenting on Matthew 21:18-22, where Jesus tells the disciples they, by faith, will be able to speak to any mountain and say to it, “…be thrown into the sea, and it will be done.”  Most often we tend to feel this means we can speak to any “mountain” that stands between us and getting to where we want to go, or getting what we want to have.  Crabb feels it speaks far more to the mountains that stand between us and true and deep intimacy with Him, true fruitfulness in Him, as opposed to barrenness.  We’ll never lack for things that seem to keep us from His intimate Presence, whether emotional, circumstantial, or spiritual, but because He lives within us, we can speak to those mountains that seek to block His life from us, and see them removed, not because of the power of our faith, but because of the power of the God in Whom we have faith, in Whom we believe.
     We’re each going to face such mountains, and if not today, one day, and sooner than we may think.  What will define our response, the reality of His abundant life within us, or the feelings, thoughts and attitudes they seek to give rise to?  What’s defining your day today?

Blessings,
Pastor O

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     It’s been 25 years since I was a student in Bible College, but I still remember the “routine” that I, and most other students lived.  Few, if any, were full time students, and almost all had families.  Classes were offered both in the day and evening, but since most all of us worked full time, by far, the greater number attended the night sessions.  This meant that after working 8 hours, we would rush home, eat, dress, and then rush off to class.  We did this 4 nights a week, 4 hours a night, for 9 months of the year.  Most of our professor’s seemed sympathetic to the demands this lifestyle put on us.  Most, but not all.  Not Professor Charles Baldwin, professor of Biblical Studies.  He was extremely demanding in his assignments, and in the quality he expected of us in carrying them out.  Many, including myself, saw him as too demanding, that he needed to make our road easier, and some, not including myself, even told him so to his face.  He would hear them out, never responding harshly, but continuing to expect the same results from all of us.  Few, if any, understood his reasoning.
     I remember that he especially loved to teach on the letters of Paul to the church.  Since his tests were extremely tough, one had to take very good notes.  All these years later, I clearly remember writing in my notes some of the professor’s thoughts concerning Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33.  Paul details the long list of trials that he had walked through, being beaten many times, jailed, stoned, and adrift at sea, to name just a few.  He didn’t do so to boast of himself but rather on the sustaining, victory giving grace of God.  I remember Professor Baldwin, sharing with we future pastor’s, these words, “Unless you have walked through more difficulty than Paul has, you have no reason to give up, and even if you have, you still have no reason.”  In the years since that time, Paul’s, and the professor’s words have come back to me, for the desire to give up has come many times, as it has, I believe, to you as well, but, do we have reason to?
     The longing to give up comes when we lose hope, and when we begin to feel alone and forgotten.  Surely Paul was tempted to feel just that as he floated amidst a ship’s wreckage at sea, and when he was beaten, persecuted and pursued, betrayed by fellow “believers”, or just carrying out his daily responsibilites in ministry.  Yet, he didn’t, and because he didn’t, the results can be seen in his words in 12:1, “….Let me tell you about the visions and revelations I received from the Lord.”  Paul’s walk, which was in imitation of Christ’s walk, the Crosswalk, led him through fire, flood, darkness, and pain, and the opportunity to give up was always there, but if he had, he would never have received the visions and revelations of the Father he beheld in chapter 12.  Neither will you and I.
     Recently I heard Rev. Harry Jackson of Washington D.C., share about his victory over throat cancer two years ago.  He was given a 15% chance of survival.  The treatment and recovery were arduous, but he trusted God in all of it, though not without those times of wondering if he should just give up.  He was asked what he learned in the midst of it all.  He said this, and I share it with you.  First, “God see where we’re at BEFORE we get there”…..so, we can rest and relax in Him no matter where “where” is.  Second, he said that, “….in every crisis was an opportunity for a total spiritual makeover.”  In his crisis, the Father was able to bring out and cleanse so many things that had been lurking in his life and that he’d not known, or maybe cared to know were there.  Last, in the midst of all his questions in this time he came to realize he needed to, “…..get hold of the Answergiver before any “answer.”  He emerged from this place not only healed, but in a place with Jesus he never knew possible.  He recieved “visions and revelations” he would never have known had he given in to his emotions and feelings and simply given up.  Again, should we give up in the midst of our own crisis, neither will we.
     I understand now why Professor Baldwin chose to teach as he did.  He knew, by his own experience, we were not being called to an easy road.  Hard as it may have seemed then, there would be many crisis moments ahead, and he would be doing us no favor by making it as easy and comfortable for as he could right now.  Many of the “complainers” I mentioned, especially the very vocal ones, are no longer in ministry.  Please know, I’m making no judgement on them, and many may have had very valid reasons for stepping out, but in the cases of those who just lost hope, how many visions and revelations have they missed, have they never beheld, because they perhaps, gave up, lost hope, believed they could not go on?  What would you and I miss if we should do the same?  We may, in every sense be “shipwrecked” and adrift, but we must be assured, He knew where we’d be before we got here.  Even in this place, we must rest in Him trust in Him, and know that even here, He is preparing for each of us, our own visions and revelations.  Visions and revelations of Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O

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