Unshackled Moments ~ April 10, 2018 ~ Freedom Hymn

I push, I pull

Go back and forth finding myself pounding on a locked door

I try to make it out alone without your help

But I know I'll never win this war

I can never be, never be, free without you

I can never be, never be, me without you

This is the sound of chains breaking

This is the beat of a heart changing

This is a song of a soul forgiven

This is my freedom hymn

The above is the opening  verse and the first part of the chorus  of Freedom Hymn by Austin French. I heard it for the first time last Saturday night, and I had never heard of Austin French before I pulled out my phone to Shazzam the song. It turns out that he was a contestant of a singing competition similar to the Voice. Freedom Hymn is an awesome song, and I will probably include the video with this., but for now I want to focus on the line This is the sound of chains breaking.

After I listened to the song for a second time a few minutes after I found out what it was, I spent some time thinking about that line. The sound of chains breaking led me to the sound of freedom. My mind went to the sound of the gate closing behind me as I walked out of prison. That was the sound of freedom. I heard that door shut and stood on the right side for a change and looked across the yard at the trees and saw my father waiting to take me home. It was an awesome moment. But the thing is, the sound of that door wasn't really any different than the slamming prison doors I had been hearing every day for seven and a half years. It still sounds the same when I go into  a jail to minister. Sometimes it shakes me up when I hear it, even though I know I will be walking out. That day, it was the sound of freedom.

My mind shifted to the sound of a hammer striking a nail. That is not a sound  that we would normally associate with freedom, and the people standing around Golgotha two thousand years ago seeing the nails being driven into the hands and feet of Jesus, hearing the hammer strike the nail and hearing His cries of pain were not thinking that they were hearing the sounds and seeing the sights of freedom.

Sometimes the sounds and sights of freedom aren't that much or any different than the sounds and sights of despair and anguish and death. They can sound so similar that we may not even realize we are in the moment when defeat turns to victory and freedom rings out. The disciples that dared draw near enough to see and hear the horrors of the crucifixion believed all hope was lost. In fact, the opposite was true. Three days later they knew.

Our personal freedom hymn may not sound like rejoicing. It may sound like our worst fears come true, but if we turn to Daddy in our despair and trust Him, He can use the most horrible sound, sights and feelings of defeat to bring us to the place where joy and peace reign, where death loses its sting and life is full of freedom and worth living. We can't break our own chains, but the good news is that we don't have to. Jesus broke them when He endured the nails and the cross on our behalf. Who the Son sets free is free indeed.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ April 9, 2018 ~ Service Isn't Always Sufficient

When trouble comes, do not say: “Why should this happen to me?” Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people and their troubles and you will forget about your own. Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while, it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not so important any more, except as your experience can be used to help others who are in the same kind of trouble.

- Meditation portion of the April 7 entry of Twenty-Four Hours A Day

I read this Saturday, as many in recovery did, and I am not about to say it is wrong. That's because it's not. It's good advice. Much like it's good advice to play the movie through when tempted to pick back up the chains of bondage. Play the movie through is great advice much of the time, and will help during times of temptation. Until it doesn't. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink (p. 24 Alcoholics Anonymous) or drug or whatever addiction or habitual sin has had us bound in the past. At those times, our will power, memories, determination and coping techniques will not be enough. We need God.

Just as there will be times when trouble comes that thinking of others having it worse, or what a relapse will do to others or even throwing ourselves into service for others will not be sufficient defense against relapse. When life doesn't just throw a curve ball, but beans you with a sucker pitch right behind the eyes and you can't think straight, you need more than the fact that someone else may have it worse to pull you from the pit of despair and the trap of self pity. It is good to remember that we are not the only ones who have it rough, and that others may even have it worse. It is very good to deny self and serve others. We are called to do that. But when these things are not enough to relieve the fear and despair of life, we need to know what to do. We can't put our hope in relief through service or distraction or seeing someone else's pain as worse than our own.

At those moments when life has kicked us in the gut and we can't breathe and we're scared to death we're going to die if something doesn't change, when all we want is to wake up from the nightmare and have someone say this isn't real or escape the giant we are facing, no coping technique is enough. Not even good things like helping others. It's not that it's bad advice. It isn't. It just isn't enough.

The whole purpose of the life of Christ was to serve others. Yet this service did not take the anguish and the fear away from what He had to face. When preparing for the nightmare to come in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed and asked for another way. His solution to the problem did not come in remembering the suffering of others or in focusing on how what He was going through would help others. His answer came in surrender.

And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

- Luke 22:41-44

Did you catch that? He surrendered His will to Daddy's, and then He received spiritual strengthening. The circumstance didn't  change. His stress level didn't go down. In fact, it was after He was strengthened that He sweated drops of blood. So how do we know that He received strength? Because He rose from there and faced His fear and followed through with what He was called to do. A short time before this moment, thinking of us was enough for Jesus to to tell the disciples He must go to the cross and, knowing that, to go to Jerusalem. But when the real pressure came, relief only came in crying out to Daddy for help and in the surrender of the will, even in the face of the most extreme fear.

When self pity nudges us for attention and invites is to the pity party, throwing ourselves into service of others is a great way to decline the invitation. But when fear and despair come in like giants, bludgeoning us with their huge, spiked clubs, the only place of refuge and strength is to run to Daddy. Just as when reminders of what has gone wrong in the past and what might go wrong in the future are insufficient as defense, surrendering to the Spirit is the only power that can defeat the siren's call of our old nature.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Canyons Of Soul

Sometimes we go through life with canyons hug from our soul by what we have or are going through. These places of emptiness and need carved out of our hearts by pain, anger, bitterness, fear and more. Darlene Woodard shares on these canyons and the only way to fill them. The message, "Canyons Of Soul," is about 2 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, April 8, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Echo ~ April 7, 2018 ~ Love Is All You Need

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

February 26, 2015.

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

- Matthew 22:37-40

Are you looking for a life of purpose worth living but feel sick of fighting to know what's right, to remember all the religious do's and don't's, and to do them? Why not trade them all in for two rules, that are really just one rule, and follow Jesus? It's so simple that a child can understand and do it. Love. That's what it all boils done to. The Beatles actually had it right. All you need is love. Place relationship with your Creator above everything else. Do things that will bring you deeper into that relationship, that improve your conscious contact with He who called you to come. Don't do the things that increase the distance between the two of you.

Come to understand that God loves you, YOU, just as you are and not as you should be, to steal a great truth from Brennan Manning.  The messed up, broken, confused, scared, angry and rebellious, self-hating ego maniac that you are at the depths of you is so precious to Him and valued by Him that He took the weight of your past, present and future, you know, the weight that's crushing you, upon Himself and died in your place, and mine. Understand that? Got that value in your mind? Good. Now don't treat yourself as less than precious, as if you have no value. Treat and look at yourself as though you are worth the King of Kings being beaten and executed to pay your ransom because the Creator of the whole universe declared you worth that much. Awesome. That's how we are to love ourselves. Now that you got that, treat everyone you run into like they are that precious and valuable too.

That's it. Just love. But wait! That doesn't sound easy at all! Nobody said anything about easy. I said it's simple. It's not easy. It's impossible. It's so unbelievably hard to even think about doing well that most of us would rather have a list of 600 plus do's and don't's that we can fail at than to just fail so epically at only one.  But we don't have to have the ability to do it. Jesus said that if we will choose to follow Him and seek relationship with Him that He will live in us and we can live in Him. Awesome. The Lord of the universe will live in me and love through me and make it possible for me to live and love as He does. And all I have to do to have that relationship with Him is accept that He accepts me, believe He made the way, choose what the Father wants over my wants (deny self). 

Abba, I belong to You. You bought and paid for me on the cross. Help me to surrender every part of myself to You today so that You can love through me unhindered, even when it comes to seeing and loving me. Help me not to do the things that would take me away from You are would cause someone else to run from You or feel farther away from You. Draw me closer to You today. Amen.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ April 6, 2018 ~ Let Grace Take Guilt

This morning I spent some time reading in Leviticus. Now, I know that a lot of Christians don't care much for the Old Testament, especially areas such as Leviticus. It's not fun to look at the law of God, especially since we are no longer under the old law but the new law of love, which is much more difficult. And of course it raises questions about why did God allow this or that and not allow other things. I am not addressing any of that today.

But I noticed something about the nature of Daddy and grace this morning in reading through the oracles for sin offerings. If someone sinned, they were to bring an offering to receive forgiveness of that sin. They were told to bring a lamb of certain standard. But, if they couldn't afford the lamb, then there was an alternative. If they couldn't afford that, then there was something else they could bring. And still less and less was demanded, until finally the poor could bring a bushel of flour. Even under  the harsh restrictions of the old law, the purpose of which was to show us that we needed a Savior because we could not fulfill the requirements of the law, there was grace. Daddy showed His love for all by making a way of pardon for those who had fallen short. And He never said do this or die and if you can't then make an offering, and if you can't afford the offering you're screwed.

Even those without resources were given grace. This standard served as a foreshadowing of what was to come in Jesus when He would pour out His life to bridge the gap between our ability and resources and the standard of holiness justice demanded. It is so easy to slip into condemnation and feel that we are lost because there is no way for us to make right our wrongs. We can not make amends for all that we have done. We simply don't have the ability or resources. We don't deserve forgiveness and relationship with Daddy. So we don't run to Him. Instead we struggle through life in defeat and guilt. But we don't have to do that! Grace made a way. Jesus paid the price. Today we don't even have to come up with a bushel of flour to find forgiveness. All we need bring to the altar is ourselves. Just as we are, blemished, broken and stained. We bring our feelings of worthlessness, our guilt, our shame, our rebellion and our failure and say, this is who  I am and what I have.  It is  Yours God, to do with as You please. And He takes it and, in exchange, gives us the riches of rightness with Him, paid for by the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

Today, let us not seek to pay our way. Let us not seek to deserve and then feel unable to come to Daddy because we don't deserve. Instead, let us lay aside the weight of guilt and shame and the burden of the past on the altar of love and freely receive the relationship and love He so desperately wants us to have from Him. Forgiveness isn't free, but we don't ever have to pay the price. Daddy doesn't want or need or effort and our sacrifices. All He ever wanted was our heart, and He has done all that is needed to make it possible for us to bring that to Him.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Judas In Us

Dalyn Woodard shares on the who and the why of Judas  as a disciple and betrayer and how his faults are found in all of us. But Jesus loved Judas and loves us, even when we betray Him. The message, "Judas In Us," is about 51 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Moments ~ April 4, 2018 ~ Homework Sucks

I don't know about you, Dear Reader, but I always hated homework, with a few exceptions. The first exception to the homework sucks truism that I discovered was reading. I'm not talking about, class read pages 38-495 of the most boringly written of all textbooks kind of reading. No, I'm talking about books. The Summer Of The Monkeys, Little Pilgrim's Progress, and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, about a girl who runs away to live in a museum, were a few of the books that made my elementary years less, well, less like school and more like wonder.

One of the things that caused me to clash with my teachers in junior high was my despising of homework to the extent that I did just enough work to earn a C. If an assignment had 20 questions I would answer 14, leave the rest blank and turn it in. The only person this bothered more than my teachers was my mom. But one of the worst things about eighth grade was when my reading teacher managed to make reading feel like homework and sucked the joy out of even that.

I bring this all up, because even now, at 47 years of age, I dislike the idea of homework. And I don't think that I am the only person who has gone through periods where recovery is approached like homework.  We do what we are told, read what we are supposed to read, and begin to learn a lot of good information. We can tell people what they want or need to hear. We can parrot back the nifty sayings and quote recovery books and scriptures. We know what we need to do, what everyone else in our situation needs to do. We can fill in the blanks and sound wise. And, if you are anything like  me, and you slip into this mode of going through the spiritual motions like it's an assignment and you're trying to earn a good grade with the bonus reward of recovery, it becomes drudgery. The shine fades quickly. The reason why there are cliches about how horrible it is to have a head full of recovery and a body full of chemicals, is because that is the usual result of studying recovery and amassing knowledge about the problem and the solution.

Whether it's staying clean and sober, or simply walking with God, amassing understanding and filling the head with knowledge is never enough. It is lifeless, and before long, the spirit falters and the recovery dies. We may stay dry, for a time, but unless the waters flow with new life again, the spirit will slip once more into the bondage of self. Because while knowledge is a good thing, it is not enough. The secret to true and lasting freedom and a life worth living is not found in knowing more information. It is  founded in knowing the One who frees us. It is not what we know but who.

If reading spiritual things and scriptures becomes homework and our prayers become our daily assignments to check off and grade ourselves on how we did, then going through the motions will be little more than  that. An exercise in futility. But when the spiritual steps we take and the reading and prayers we do to supplement them are about relationship, it makes all the difference. I can get lost in the process, filled with wonder about what I am learning and the God I am getting to  know. It's not drudgery, it's not mechanical, and it's not even a process. It's a pleasure. It's getting to know Daddy and having fellowship with the Spirit, and becoming more and more grateful as the extent of what Jesus did for me becomes more and more clear.

I hate homework, but I study more today than I ever did in school. Just this morning I spent some time talking with Leah about something new I had learned about Jesus from a passage of scripture I have probably read a hundred times or more. Recovery and discipleship does not  have to be drudgery or difficult work. We're not trying to earn a degree here. It can be alive and filled with wonder and discovery. The difference is in the approach. If the goal is knowledge, so that we can escape certain negative results of life, it will never fill us with the joy and passion that comes from falling in love with Daddy and simply wanting to know more about Him, more about how He loves us and more about how to get close to Him and love Him more and more.

If the spiritual life has begun to feel like a burden, cut class and ditch the homework. Play hooky from the legalism of religion and the assignments of programs. Instead spend some time with Daddy, just for the sake of getting to know Him.  Ask the Spirit to make you aware of God's love for you and to fill you once more with the wonder of relationship.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.