Crashing the Gates of Hell!

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“Can you pray for the confusion in my head,” Justin asked. “I have this battle in my mind that I keep losing.” He pointed to his forearms and showed me the heroin tracks running up and down each arm. This was his third time in jail as a 23 year old and he was waiting yet another date in court. Justin wanted to be free of the bondage to heroin but he knew all too well that the moment he got out of jail he would find himself with a hit a mere two blocks from this place.

 

This desperate plea of Justin brought me back to Israel and the groundbreaking place of Caesarea Philippi. At this location Jesus asked His disciples “Who do you say I am?” Peter boldly proclaimed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” A few verses later Jesus responds to the Peter saying, “…on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,” (Mt. 16:15-18).

 

The “gates of Hades” are not just physical gates but spiritual gates, which are holding Justin in bondage. Satan, “the father of lies,” has convinced him that his only hope for the agony within his soul is heroin. Yet, Jesus makes a promise…He came to storm the gates of hell, to liberate the captives, to give freedom so that we can walk in the love of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Caesarea Philippi was known as a cultic worship center to the god Pan. Pan controlled Hades, the underworld, and had the power to take souls captive. Unbelievably horrible things occurred at this place. And yet, here is this utterly dark place is where Jesus chose to declare He would crash the Gates of Hell and release the captives. I can just imagine Jesus shaking His fists at the shrines on the side of the mountain where the sights and sounds of Pan worship were all too common.

 

Oh, there are so many “Justin’s” today-held captives to the lies of satan-who is hell bent on keeping as many as possible living a life of destruction. Jesus lays out an alternative in Matthew 16:13-28. Jesus’s strategy includes four key points, points that will empower His followers to crash the Gates of Hell. To do so we need: A Heartfelt Confession, a Holy Community, Heaven’s Gospel Call, and Healthy Cross-feet. Over the next few weeks we will look at these four keys which enable followers of Christ to crash the gates of hell and liberate beloved children of God.

 

My recent encounter with Justin in jail brought me back to the promise of Jesus in Matthew 16. Jesus came to crash the gates of hell and empower a community of disciples who are willing to follow Him into the darkest places with the LIGHT of His message of TRUTH. I believe the Holy Spirit is reviving the TRUTH from this passage and preparing a people who will victoriously crash the gates of hell, not in their own power, but in the power of King Jesus. Will you join me as together we seek to live into the promises of this text and expand His kingdom so that every square inch of this world is filled with HIS GLORY.

An Unexpected Miracle in Israel, From a Way-Too-Logical Jesus Follower

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May you be blessed by Ruth Catron’s reflection on Oceans’ Israel trip:

I always wanted to take this journey to Israel, but logically and logistically the timing never seemed right. I’ve been a follower of Christ since the age of 10, knew of Him since I could understand the oral and written words of my godly parents, Sunday school teachers, and extended family and friends, yet the stumbling block for the Holy Spirit’s work was my mindset of logic. I truly believe the Bible and know in my heart that everything written there actually happened. Yet somehow in my own life, I “reserved the right” to judge the life-moments by the reality of life. If it didn’t make sense in my head, I found it difficult to comprehend. Thankfully, God decided to bring me to a place to pierce through this logical mind and draw me into His realm of amazing, God-logic-it took until age 60, eye-roll on my part!

I approached this trip to Israel with way too much logic, planning, packing, checking off my list, and ultimately, over-packing. I attempted to prepare physically, with the logical realization that it would be quite warm and my normal agility may be challenged in order to experience every site on the action-packed daily agenda listed on our itinerary. My one huge failure was to prepare the part of me that logic often can’t reach-my heart. So, with an excited expectation for what I would see, and a cautious expectation of what my body might go through, along with the knowledge that I was traveling with two amazing teachers of God’s Word, I walked on the airplane with my logic all intact.

I was not disappointed one bit as each day was filled to the brim and overflowing as our guide, Boaz Shalgi, shared the history of the land and our teachers of the Word, Tim Spykstra and Bryan Vander Tuig, opened the Bible at each place we visited. But, then I began to notice an unexpected miracle that my logic wanted to dismiss. I can’t tell you what day or on which site it began but that it happened several times. I do know that it was subtle, with me just thinking it was the logical thing to happen at the time on these very warm days and I thanked God each time for the refreshment He gave through it.

I specifically realized what God was orchestrating while on Mt. Carmel. Tim was sharing from the Word and from his heart from 1 Kings 18 and 19 about Elijah and the events on this mountain and thereafter. I’ve taught this story in my classroom for 20 years and knew it well. But as Tim was down on his knees before the Lord and us, and as my own heart was repentant like the Israelites after seeing God’s miracle of sending fire down on Elijah’s soaking-wet sacrifice, a strong wind came out of nowhere and refreshed our group. It was illogical that it was anything but a normal breeze, and yet God opened my eyes to see beyond my own logic and to realize His logic! His sovereign hand guides everything in this world, in my life, in the stories of the Bible, and He allows events that are beyond our logical comprehension. Yes, I knew these truths before. But, my heart and mind needed an unexpected, unplanned wind of His Holy Spirit to fall afresh on me, to put the logical me aside and let the fresh, cool breeze of the Holy Spirit flow over me as I laid aside my logical plans for my life, my limited, logical expectations for what God could do, the pride of my own abilities and knowledge, and then to allow Him to renew a right spirit within me.

In 1 Kings 18:39, the people of Israel fell face down and said, “The Lord, He is God!” Then my own heart fell down and said, “The Lord, He is God!” I will not limit God by placing my own logical expectations on Him. His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts higher than my thoughts (Isaiah 55:8) even the winds and waves obey Him (Matthew 8:27). For some reason, I needed to travel all the way to Israel to get a glimpse of the unexpected and “illogical” ways of my Lord God. How I desire to daily look to my heavenly Father and declare, “The Lord, He is God!”

Ruth & Boaz

 

The Land Proclaims The Faithfulness of the Father

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Shalom from Israel! 

From the heat of the desert of the Negev…

…to the beauty of lush Galilee…

Our Good Father proclaims His Faithfulness to His children who trust in His promises!  The land shouts of a Father who longs to be with His people and bless them with His love. All He asks is that we trust His perfect love.  This was made real to us as we spent some time in a cave in Bethlehem:

God sent His One and Only Son to be born in a cave similar to this to show us the way to the Father. As Philippians 2 says:

He became nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in the appearance of man He humbled himself and become obedient to death even death on a cross! (vs. 7-8).

As we walk around on the same ground where the Lamb of God who was born in the fields of shepherds and delivered Himself to Mount Moriah as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. The 3rd day He walked out of a borrowed tomb in Jerusalem to become the forever King of the Universe!

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (vs. 10-11).

And praise be to our faithful God that all who have  been baptized into the promises of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have become sons and daughter of the King of Kings and LORD of lords!

 

 

Attracting the Dove – Don’t Brake for the Snake

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Have you ever seen a sign on a bike trail that said, Brake for Snakes?” Yes this is real thing that my son TJ and I stumbled upon the other day riding on a trail near our house.

Have I ever mentioned that I am I’m no fan of snakes? So this sign definitely made me cringe, as the probability of encountering one of these slimy creatures was highly likely. Sure enough-a few minutes later- a huge, ugly, scary snake slithered on the pavement just ahead of me. I am happy to report that I did not scream. I did abruptly brake, but not because of the sign but rather out of sheer fear of being swallowed by the serpent. So as I breathed a sigh of relief I heard a crash. Ah….my son was riding the slipstream on my rear wheel and the sound of all metal on metal reverberated as his bike hit a fence barrier next to the path.

 

As he picked himself up off the pavement, fresh with bloody road rash, from the ground he said to me, “Dad next time-just RUN OVER the snake!”

 

I think of that statement often as I ride along peaceful paths and wonder if at any moment there will be a snake sunning on the trail. I know I have nothing to fear because my bike is bigger then the gardener crossing the path. But still…..

 

So what do snakes have to do with Doves? Glad you asked. J In the spiritual realm fear will always quench the Holy Spirit. Fear will cause the Dove to depart. One of the greatest tactics of satan is to capture our minds with lies that will lead to be fixated on fear. If he can get us to focus on the unpredictable snake in front of us often the result is that we are paralyzed in our tracks. The “snake” is different for each of us, it may be insecurity, past failures, besetting sins, health issues, money problems, job loss, family situations, an unstable future, etc.

 

The age-old serpent delights in robbing us of our peace and continues to exaggerate the problems plaguing our mind.

 

But hear the Spirit say to you “don’t brake for the snake!” You are riding on the shoulders of the King of the Universe who has crushed the head of the serpent at the cross (Gen. 3:15). Remember you rest on the Righteous One who encourages you with truth:

 

“I saw satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you,” (Luke 10:18-19).

 

Four years ago my family stepped out in faith, and throughout that time the Father has tirelessly pressing home to my heart and head not to brake for the lies of the snake. Go ahead and ride over his deceitful obstructions. The Father reminds me to focus my faith on the promises of His word. The one whose shoulders we ride upon.

 

Remember these words from one of the greatest chapters on the Holy Spirit:

 

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which you cry out Abba Father!” (Romans 8:15)

  

Keep focused on your Abba Father’s love for you and the Dove will stay near!

 

 

Attracting the Dove – Just Be!

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The sun was barely peaking over the eastern horizon as sipped my coffee in backyard. “It just doesn’t get better than this,” I thought to myself as I opened the Gospel of Mark. Enjoying the coolness of the morning I mediated on the baptism story of Jesus –focusing particularly on when Jesus emerged out of the water and He “saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove…” (Mark 1:10). As I imagined this scene I glanced up and spotted some birds on the housetop next door. This sparked the thought of how cool it would be to see a dove!

 

Just then I heard cooing nearby, as I turned and looked, there on the peak of my neighbor’s roof was a mourning dove. I got so excited! I ran into the house and into the bedroom, scared Patty who was still in bed, and grabbed my phone for a picture. “Ah…this will be more than perfect for a blog post,” I thought to myself as I rushed out the patio door to capture the moment-but alas the dove had disappeared.

 

My spiritual high became a low quickly.   As I explained the scene to Patty, she sympathetically stated, “Maybe you were supposed to sit and just be.” Don’t you love it when God speaks to you through someone else? Too often I miss out on the work of the Holy Spirit because I’m rushing around, striving to capture something when the Father wants me to Just Be in His Presence and soak in His love as Jesus did at His baptism.

 

The Spirit wanted to underline this lesson for me as I read a few minutes later in the devotional Come Away My Beloved:

 

O My child, I have waited long for your coming. My eyes have grown weary with watching, and My heart heavy with longing for you. For I have said, “Rest in Me,” but you have striven, I have said, “Stand still,” but you have continued to run. I have called but you have been listening to human voices. Turn to Me. You do not need to do more. For you will find your quest ended…My child, I have need of nothing. I desire only your love…Abandon to Me your whole being…For when your life is wholly lost in My life, there is never anything but gain…So come first to Me. Yes, come until the stream of your life is swallowed up in the ocean of my fullness (p. 102-103).

 

I heard the Spirit loud and clear that morning, Just Be! How He is teaching me and creating in me a longing for the “stream of my life” to be “swallowed up in the ocean of His fullness” given to those “remain in His love,” (John. 15:1-17).

 

And would you believe that the next morning, as I once again basked in the vibrant Colorado sunrise, drank my coffee, and read from the book of Mark. Two doves came to visit and I didn’t run to get my phone!