Unshackled Life Ministries: 2015

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 31 ~ The First Step

Well, we made it through another year, and it's New Year's Eve. Tomorrow begins the new year, and
in truth, other than changing the calendar and remembering to write 16 instead of 15. there won't be a lot of difference between today and tomorrow. But it is a point that we mark as a new beginning and often the new year is when many people try to break the bondage of addictions and bad habits. If that is you then remember that it won't likely be easy. If what you want to eliminate from your life had not become at the least ingrained and at most a chain of bondage it would have been set aside naturally as soon as it became undesirable.

The first step to any recovery, whether from addiction or a habitual sin, wrong attitude or behavior, is to realize that we can't change it or stop it or control it on our own. The first step is not admitting we have a problem. The first step is realizing that we can't fix ourselves. That our habits and addictions have become our master. We don't like to admit that, but we can't find freedom without understanding that we're slaves that are in need of emancipation. How may times have we thought about changing something and then decided it's really not that bad or not worth the effort it will take to change it? How many times have we trued to stop or start something better in its place only to have failed to stay stopped or not continued doing the improved thing? That's powerlessness. We are powerless over our old behavior, and determination won't be enough. Hitting reset at the start of the year won't last long, and we'll soon find ourselves in the same place that we were on New Year's Eve. In order to find freedom something different must be done. Seeing that we need something else, something to help do what we can't do is the first step to freedom and lasting change.

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.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 30 ~ The Promise Of Peace

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

- John 16:33

This verse may be familiar to you, Dear Reader. What does it bring to mind? Do you think back to a particular saying of Jesus? Maybe consider the general way He spoke and the kinds of things He said and think those words of love and hope and healing are the words that Christ spoke so that we will have peace? Peace is important. Anxiety and worry can actually kill us. But peace doesn't come because we get to a place where there's nothing to worry about. It doesn't get made all right so that we can finally relax and let all the stress go. If we hope to find and have peace by eliminating what's currently stealing our peace we'll be in for a long wait.

You see, Jesus wasn't referring to the Sermon On The Mount or the many parables that He spoke in this verse. This is the last verse of the sixteenth chapter of John. Jesus is taking care of business and making preparations to face His execution. He starts this chapter off by telling those He's leaving behind that they will be persecuted and run out of the fellowship of the religion in which they were raised. He tells them that the people who kill them will think that they're doing a service to God by ending the lives of these followers of Christ. Jesus is about to die. He tells His followers that it's going to be just as frightening and rough for them.

He's leaving them. They're about to be on their own for the first time in three years. The Counselor is coming, but they don't understand what that means yet. The disciples are horribly confused. What does He mean we won't see Him for a while then we will? What's He talking about? Jesus tells them that the time is coming when they will desert and abandon Him and all be scattered from Him and one another. At that dark moment when they have faced the fire and failed, when they have bolted and run out of fear and left God to face the cross alone, when they have fallen short of every promise to be faithful even to death, when it looks like all their hopes for a Messiah have been killed with Jesus on that cross, they can be of good cheer. They can be courageous. Why? Because despite all appearances to what they'll perceive around them at the time, that's when Jesus will be overcoming the world. That's when the war is being won eternally!

We don't have peace because everything is right with the world. We have peace because of what Jesus did on the worst day in history. He suffered and died and won the war over sin and death to purchase our eternal freedom and bring us into the family of God. The whole ship may be falling apart around us and we have yet to learn to walk on water, but we are now God's and nothing will change that. So we have peace as the water splashes over us. We can indeed have peace that passes all understanding today and in the upcoming year. But it won't be because we're blessed with the removal of all the things that should cause worry and stress. That wouldn't pass understanding. What gives God glory and doesn't make sense to our understanding is when we have peace in the midst of the chaos, in the darkest hours, in the confusion, while being attacked by the enemy of God and facing things that bring fear.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 29 ~ Mail Order

As I came in from work yesterday evening, I stopped at the box to check the mail. The only thing inside was a little note from our mail carrier that read I'll bring your change tomorrow. My first thought was, "wouldn't that be nice?" I knew what the note meant. Leah mailed something yesterday and left money for postage with the package in the mail box. She left more than enough, and the carrier didn't have change, I knew it was about the nickels and dimes or pennies Leah overpaid, but I couldn't help but think of what the note said.

I'll bring your change tomorrow. This is the time of year when it's easy to start thinking about what we would like to change, to improve, to add or remove to our habits and lives. Even people who don't make resolutions often can't help but think about the change they would like to see in their lives. Wouldn't it be nice if we could order our change out of the catalog? The mail carrier could bring it to our door just in time for the new year.

The reason many people don't make resolutions is because so often they don't work. Resolving to do things differently often doesn't last long regardless of the time of year that we decide to try. Change is hard work. It takes a lot of effort and constant attention to prevent slipping up and doing something or not doing something without thinking about it. And there are things we've gotten so used to doing that they have become a part of who we are. Overcoming those traits, even acquired traits, in order to stop doing them or to make room for developing new habits sometimes takes more than determination and hard work. Sometimes it takes a miracle.

And you can't order a miracle from a catalog. No, the mail carriers will not be bringing the change we want to see in our lives. But there is One who can. God said to make our request to Him. He is our ever present source of help in times of need. He is the One who sets the captives free, breaks the chains of bondage and makes old natures transform into new ones. I'm not saying that it doesn't take any effort on our part. It takes a lot of effort to bow the knee and surrender. In fact even that takes a miracle, because it's only by His grace that we are able to want to surrender, much less do it. But if we surrender to Him, He will guide us to the change that we need. He will take us from our old self centered lives to a life worth living.

We can ask Him to remove those things from our lives which block our relationship and our service to Him and give us everything we need, including new hearts and attitudes, to be of maximum service to Him and others. If we do this every day, the old things in our life can come to be without the need to figure it our for ourselves. He will take us to and through the transformation.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Unshackled Moment ~ December 28 ~ Spokes On The Wheel Of Life

Help us to grow closer together as we grow closer to you.

The above sentence is something I ray quite often about my relationship with my wife. We all have relationships in our lives that we are happy with but that could always be better, that we want to be better. We also have relationships that we desperately need to be better. It's easy to get caught up in trying to do the things that will improve relationships to such an extent that all our focus is turned toward repairing or improving the relationship. I have certainly been guilty of this. It's logical. If we want a relationship to be better, we have to work for it. Even Christian book stores are filled with books on how to improve relationships.

It is vital that we clean up our side of the street, to do our part to seek forgiveness and make things right for the wrongs that we have done, big and small, old and fresh, that have damaged relationships. We also need to keep our attitude in check so that we don't keep making things worse. But after that, we really need to let it go. The answer is not in pursuing a better relationship with our spouse or parents or sibling or child or or or. The answer is in pursuing a deeper relationship with our Creator.

He must be our deepest love. Our relationship with Him must be the one we desire most to improve and repair, by the power of His grace. But wait. Relationship with others are important, we shouldn't ignore them, right? Right. I am not saying to isolate and say well this relationship isn't good enough but it doesn't matter because I'm pursuing God. We all connect and interact with others. That is how God made us. Each relationship in our lives is like a spoke on a wheel. There's a spoke for our father. One for our mother. One for our partner. One for each sibling. One for each child. One a piece for friends. There is even a spoke for our relationship with ourself. Individual make ups will vary, and some have more spokes on the wheel of life than others. But we all have these spokes.

The problem comes when we treat God as though He is just another entity with whom we have relationship, another spoke on the wheel. He's not. He is the wheel within the wheel that stays fixed and unmoving as the spokes rotate around Him and travel in toward Him, connecting to Him. As the spokes reach the center, they come together. The closer to the center, the closer the spokes are in relation to the others.

When we keep God at the center, where He set Himself, and pursue that relationship above and before all others, we move toward Him, toward the center. We can pray for our other spokes, that their relationship with our Heavenly Daddy will also improve and that they will grow closer to God. Sometimes we can encourage and help them to grow closer to Him. Sometimes the situation is bad enough that we can't yet participate in the relationship. The spokes have to much distance between them for interaction. But if we keep moving to the center and praying for the others to do the same, we can rest assured that we will meet in harmony at the muddle. In the meantime, as we al get closer to the One who made the wheel and all the spokes in the first place, we will find the relationships improving and we grow closer to one another.

We surrender all, even our relationships to our Lord. We allow Him to do the work that needs done in our lives to make us more like Him and who He wants us to be. We leave the work in the lives of others to Him and prayer (with the exception of children that are still young enough that we are to be faithful to train them and raise them up to pursue Him and know Him). The rest will repair itself. It may not happen as quickly as we like, and may not occur in the ways we would expect or plan if we were in charge, but it will happen.

So let us rejoice in the relationships that we have that are right and good, while praying for all involved to grow closer to God. Let us surrender the ones that aren't right to the Father so that they don't become something we pursue more than Him and pray and wait and continue to pursue Him above all else. One day we will wake up and find ourselves more tightly knit together.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 27 ~ Pump Up The Volume

When I started down Recovery Road I learned early on in the journey the importance of gratitude in order to maintain the proper spiritual condition needed to continue to stay free. The scriptures are filled with instruction and encouragement to have a grateful heart. In everything give thanks and enter His gates with thanksgiving are just a couple that come quickly to mind. I have experienced the truth that a grateful heart is a force that frees the soul.

A few years ago, after a motorcycle accident, X-rays showed spots on my lymph nodes around my lungs that looked like cancer. I prepared for the biopsy surgery by spending time making sure I stayed in a good place spiritually. Still there was an understanding that my life might be coming to an end. I began working on my bucket list. I wanted to make the time I had left with my wife and family count, however long that might be. I came across a bucket list idea that consisted of writing down five things grateful for every day for a year. I loved the idea and began implementing it immediately. It was an awesome experience, so much so that when the year ended I continued the practice. I shared the little gratitude list in my Facebook page each night.

I've missed a few days here and there over the past three years, but the "Five things I am grateful for today: posting has become a consistent part of my life. Recently I began to wonder if it really made a difference. I can be grateful without having to publish a few things I am grateful for, right? Well, right....and wrong. Over the last couple of weeks that I have taken a break from the gratitude list the volume of my praise and the level of gratefulness throughout my day has dropped. I wish I could say that wasn't the case. Over the past years of maintaining this practice I found myself going through my days looking for things that should end up on the list that evening. I spent little moments throughout every day noticing things to be grateful for and giving God praise and thanks for them.

Many times I forgot something that I intended to make the list as I reviewed my day, but at the moment they happened I had those moments of thanksgiving and gratefulness. Within a few days of knowing that I would not be writing my list down in the evening I stopped searching for things to put down. I realize now that I began to go through my day without noticing many of the things that just a little while ago would have filled me with wonder at the blessings of my life.

As we approach the end of the year, many will be reviewing the past 12 months. Yes, we need to look at areas of our life we need or want to improve, but if you inventory the year, I would encourage special encouragement to look for the blessings and things that happened this year to be grateful for. Then as we start a new year and many start trying to improve and incorporate new and better habits I would say that increasing gratitude and praise on a daily basis should be high on the list.

Maybe taking the time to write down one or a few things you're grateful for every day might work, whether it is published on social media or kept in a private journal for personal review or texted to a friend, just something more tangible than a mental note. Maybe something entirely different would work better for you. I would simply look for a way to turn up the gratefulness keep the praise flowing throughout the day. There's no need to wait four days either. A thankful heart doesn't need to be ruled by a calendar, but give whatever you come up with enough time, perhaps at least 30 days, to begin to make a difference before doing any evaluation. Make being grateful an action verb and a regular practice. I will begin posting my gratitude list again this evening. Maybe I will see yours.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 26 ~ Love

Advent has ended, Christ is come. Let all the world rejoice. But we don't rejoice. Not everyone, and certainly not all the time. In everything, every moment and situation we do not find the time or the ability to have a grateful heart or to rejoice in the Lord. There is a Christmas song, probably more than one that mentions that this is the time of year that we remember Love has come. And it is. The last week of Advent, the week I took vacation from writing, has love as its theme.

Perhaps there is a part of all us that hears about that love and feels unimpressed and unmoved by the idea of it all. Love is an overused word in the English language. I loved Christmas dinner and all the amazing food my mother cooked. For that matter, I love my mother and my father. I love my nieces and nephews that were running around the house and the ones who weren't there. I love my wife. She is my treasure. I love my new Batman T-shirt and my boots. I love the Texas Tech Red Raiders, and I love that they are going to play LSU in their bowl game next week. I love Christmas music and staying up late to watch Christmas movies.

I could go on and on. We love all kinds of things with all kinds of love. When I write those words, I assume most people don't think that I have the same type of feeling for Christmas dinner as I do for my wife. We mean different things depending on the context when we say the word love. For that matter, there are meany times when we use the word to illicit a response or find a way to manipulate someone else when it isn't felt at all. So we can sometimes get a little ambivalent about love.

Really, I think we sometimes don't understand what it means when we say or hear that God loves us. Actually, I would say most times. We don't have proper context to assign it meaning. We know it should be a greater type of love than that for a wife or family member, but we act more like God loves us more like a football fan loves their team when they are winning but won't stand by them when they have a bad season.

For love Christ came. The Father loved the world to such a great extent that He sent His Son. The Son came and died for love. The Greeks understood that love is a complicated idea. I love cherries and my wife, but that love is not even remotely the same idea. So they had different words for the different ideas. The love that brought Christ to Bethlehem and took Him to the cross is called agape in the Greek. It means the highest form of love. Whatever the highest most pure form of love is, that's the way God loves us.

The problem is that we don't even comprehend that. We can strive to love with pure love, but we fall so short. We don't love God perfectly. Nor do we love anyone or anything perfectly, purely or without pollutants. So how can we understand something we have no experience to associate meaning by? We can understand certain concepts and ideas though, even when we never quite know the reality of the concept ourselves. There is an amazing and deep love that a person can have for someone who does not return it. Perhaps years go by while one person rejects all other options and waits patiently for the other to notice and return the love. Getting nothing in return they give their heart completely. In fiction eventually the feeling would be mutual and the two would become a couple, because we can't stand the idea that such love not be rewarded and victorious. But all too often it's not. That's how God loves us. Like the lover anticipating the happily ever after with a bride to be that most times forgets He exists.

And there's the love that makes a mother willing to die for her child or a soldier fall on a grenade to protect his brothers. Yeah, God loves us that way too. The cross shows that. However we attribute the greatest idea of the purest love, that what we can find in Jesus. As we put Christmas behind us and turn our eyes toward a new year, let us go forward with an awareness of great love. Hold the definition, highest love, close to heart so that we can keep in mind our best understanding of what it means when we say that God loves us. Then, let us pray to return His love in the same form.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 19 ~ Come Let Us Adore Him

Joy, to be fully realized and experienced must be accompanied by the giving of thanks or gratitude. Any moment of joy that does not include gratitude will be short lived. But when joy includes thanksgiving it can cause the joy to continue, much like a perpetual motion machine that harnesses the steam coming of an engine, pumping it back inside to further power the motor. True gratitude causes and produces joy, which in turn increases gratefulness and produces more joy. When joy is lacking, the natural instinct is often to search for pleasure and happiness. But the joy found in such a way usually does not last long or is counterfeit to begin with.

The better path to increase joy is to start with praise and thanksgiving to the One who is our source of authentic and power filled joy. Joy that can't be stolen or broken is joy that comes from the Spirit of God into our lives when we spend time in the presence of God. And the quickest way into the throne room of the Creator King is praise and thanksgiving. Like the shepherds who believed they were entering a barn with a manger and were unaware that they knelt before a throne, what we perceive with our senses is so much less important than the spirit of worship in our hearts. Come let us adore Him, for in our worship and gratefulness of who He is and His love for us is the source of all lasting joy.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 17 ~ The Lord's Joy

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

- Nehemiah 8:10

I have heard this verse so many times quoted just as it is above. This happens so much that I bet many believe that the above is Nehemiah 8:10. Occasionally you se the phrase Do not grieve, for added before it. A google search of images of Nehemiah 8:10 is dominated by the verse quoted in one of these two ways. But that's not the verse.

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

- Nehemiah 8:10 in it's entirety.

When it's seen like this it's harder to forget that the phrase the joy of the Lord is your strength has a context to it. It's not a stand alone mantra after all. It's easy to get caught up in some idea that joy is our strength to such an extent that when we feel weak and overwhelmed we also feel justified in trying to manufacture joy. We try to force joy, to create joy out of a hope for joy. We fake it til we make it and pretend to be happy. Choose joy we tell ourselves and others so often that trying to walk in joy begins to feel hypocritical because it's a mask we wear rather than a true state of being. No one is really that happy we tell ourselves because we're not happy under the surface. Our joy is either fleeting or a farce.

One thing to keep in mind is the context of the verse. Nehemiah declared the joy of the Lord is the strength of whom? Was he saying this to good people under good circumstances? No. These were basically refugees. They had returned to Israel from exile as slaves and prisoners of a conquering nation. They returned to destruction and devastation that had been a direct result of sin and failure to walk with God. They were surrounded by the wreckage of the past. As they tried to rebuild they found opposition rather than help and encouragement. In fact their enemies wanted to keep them from rebuilding so badly that the men had to work with a tool in one hand and a sword in the other. Finally the walls of the city were completed and they had time to reflect and read the scriptures. Nehemiah read them the law of the Lord, and upon hearing it and understand the standard their lives were to be measured by and the great extent of their failure and short comings they were mightily grieved. They were devastated. The standard is holiness. Their lives were a mess, filled with sin. In that moment of revelation and despair Nehemiah told them to eat, drink, share with others, worship God and stop grieving. It is His joy that would be their strength to go on from that point. The word translated strength is actually stronghold, a place of refuge and safety from the enemies and the elements. It's a place to hide.

When everything is messed up, when we've messed up, when life, our circumstances, our enemies and our past all say there is no hope and no point, there is a safe place where we can flee and be protected from all of that. That place of safety is the joy of the Lord. But that place is not joy. If we forget that joy is not the answer or the hiding place then we begin to search for joy as though it were the holy grail. Joy is the answer, look for joy. The enemy doesn't mind this at all, because it's looking for the wrong thing. In fact, he'll be all too happy to give suggestions of things and people that could provide joy and escape. In the end they only bring disappointment and bondage. No, joy is not the answer.

And it;s not joy in the Lord. Mentally or in practice making that little prepositional change makes a huge difference. While there is a call to delight ourselves, or take joy in, who the Lord is and in His love for us, even that is not our strength, our power to keep going in times of failure and hardship, in times of destruction and desolation. Our joy in Him and in our relationship with Him will fall short, because it is our joy. There is nothing of us or in us that is strong enough or consistent enough to rely on.

Nehemiah's call was not to remember or meditate on joy and find strength. His call was to first worship God. The refuge is a result. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23. We don't run on our own anything. To do so is to walk in the flesh or to be carnally minded. We run on, are fueled by and are guided by the power of the Spirit. It is literally the Lord's joy that is our stronghold, our strength, not ours. His joy is what we can rely on, just as it is His peace that passes understanding and is there for us in the midst of storms and His love that changes how we treat others and ourselves.

Don't search for joy. Don't try to create it or maintain it. Search for the One who came at Christmas and rose on Easter. Come and worship Him. In closeness to Him we find the things we can count on. They are not ours, but His. The Lord's joy is our strength.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 16 ~ J.O.Y.

Sometimes it is so hard to tap into the joy of the Lord, and even harder to tap into the joy of the season. We know it's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year with joy to the world. Yet, we want to scream for most of it and feel more frantic and frustrated than joyful. We get so wrapped up in ourselves, what we have to and need to do, what we won't be able to do, how everyone and everything around us is effecting us and effecting our ability to accomplish our to do lists, etc. There are times when taking a step back and getting the focus off self can make all the difference between being miserable and having joy. The truth that being self centered is the root of our problems does not change just because it's the Advent/Christmas season. It may even be more true. We can turn our eyes on Jesus and watch the anxieties and frustrations fade away as we give of ourselves in service to others, even if that service is no more than returning rude behavior with a smile and love. There is an acronym for joy that can help us find it: J. Jesus first, O. others second, Y. yourself last.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 15 ~ The Gospel Of St. Thomas

I finished writing the Unshackled Moment for December 14, Unspeakable Joy, and shared it on Unshackled Life Ministries' Facebook page, as I usually do. After I posted the link on ULM, I switched back to my personal account in order to share it on my page as well. It was then that I noticed the only birthday Facebook could tell me about today. My friend Thomas was born on the 14th of December. I immediately thought that his story would have been a better tale of the joy the season than what I had written for the day, But while I won't be telling it on his birthday, there's no reason not to tell it.

If you had met Thomas in 2010, you would have met an amazing man. Nearly 50 years old, he didn't have much. He had a hard job that he never complained about and only expressed gratitude for being able to work. He had a car that barely ran, thanks to his hard work, that wasn't running when it was given to him. Everything else he owned would fit in that same car. He had an apartment in an apartment complex that many people would be scared to visit, much less live in, and he loved that he had it right up to the moment he died there. And up to the moment of his death in October of 2010, Thomas had joy. That joy wasn't part of his life or who he was when I first met him. But within a few weeks, you would rarely see Thomas without a smile that reached his eyes. Most of the time when the smile faded what replaced it was compassion as he reached out to someone who was hurting and in need. And while compassion colored his face, joy still sparkled in his eyes as he swore life could be worth living.

When I first met Thomas, he was a homeless and hopeless drunk and addict. And to the world he may have seemed even worse than that and may have appeared to not rise much higher. After all, he never accumulated much. He never had a nice place to live in a nice and safe part of town. He never drove to that nice place to live that he didn't have in a nice car. The majority of his friends were drunks and junkies. But if you spent more than five minutes with the man, you saw what I believe many saw in Jesus, an undeniable joy more real than a smile and a heart so full of compassion he wept for the hurts of others as quickly and as easily as he laughed.

Thomas shared the gospel or good news of hope that a beautiful life worth living can be raised from the ashes of destruction and despair just by walking down the street. It was his joy that caught the eye and sold his message. Today I have a life worth living and a hope that I try to give to others. It really is good news. We can be free, and we can be friends of God. What I long for is the joy that Thomas had that makes that gospel impossible to ignore. The promise of Advent is that because of Jesus that joy can be ours. Looking at the Gospel of St. Thomas, I know the key to unlocking that joy is found in gratitude and relationship with God, a relationship that is possible because of the two sided coin with Christmas on one side and Easter on the other.

The Legacy of Thomas by Dalyn Woodard

Monday evening, around 36 hours from the time of my writing this, an honest, extremely hard-working, dependable, kind and gentle man, who lived his life to help anyone and everyone he could, regardless of race, sex, orientation or social standing became a victim of a senseless act of violence. A true handyman and jack-of-all trades he could help repair almost anything from carpentry problems and auto repair to broken lives died all too soon at age 49.

At the same time the this amazing and inspiring man was being killed, the final chapter of the life of a viciously violent drug addict and alcoholic who had spent decades lying, cheating, stealing, and yes, even killing came to an end. This horrible drug addict's autobiography included more time behind bars than most Americans spend years in school, a track record of hurting and deceiving everyone who came in contact with him for more than a brief period. He was a man who lived only for himself, to hell with everyone else, and spent his life doing drugs, consuming alcohol, and doing whatever was necessary to keep a supply of both in his life.

The selfish addict was someone you would've done well to avoid and your life probably turned out better if you never met him. The handyman was someone I wish everyone could have met because everyone who did meet him came away bettered by the experience. I knew them both, and the thing that is so hard to believe, but is nevertheless true, is that they were the same man.

The handyman I wrote of was all the more beautiful because he was the butterfly that resulted from the life and transformation of an addict caterpillar. As a child I found it hard to believe that the beautiful butterflies I loved to watch so much developed from ugly old caterpillars. If you could not see the process how would you ever believe that a creature crawling around in the dirt could become something so completely and unrecognizably different to fly from flower to flower bringing joy to those who saw it? The truth of this transformation and the process that causes it has always been one of my favorite miracles of nature. It is the only way I can come up with to accurately describe the awesome, miraculous and wonderful transformation of Thomas Grimes.

The Thomas so many mourn today and whose death shocked his neighbors, because he was not someone you would expect to see involved in anything ugly and violent, like his death was, was a completely different man and looked nothing like the addict who wrapped himself in the cocoon of a twelve-step program and let God grow him wings and paint him with all the beautiful colors of the angels. His life and the process of transformation will always be one of the most inspiring and beautiful miracles I have ever witnessed.

I knew Thomas well. I had been in the same prison white he wore for so long and knew that world. I saw him crawl into the rooms of recovery ready to die but not wanting to, hurting, sweating and scared. The caterpillar had existed for far too long, and the soul of Thomas ached for something else, anything else. Give me recovery or give me death, he once told me, twisting the famous revolutionary quote to fit himself. He then proceeded to launch a revolution against himself. He wrapped himself in the cocoon of the program, but this was no hibernation. Thomas dove into action, working the steps more quickly and thoroughly than I believed possible.

I will always remain grateful for the gift God gave me in allowing me to witness the transformation of Thomas. I saw him admit his powerlessness, and I could see the truth begin to shine in his eyes as he went from doubter to a man who believed. I knelt with him as he surrendered the man he was and made a decision to let God make him the man he had been created to be. I heard the anxiousness in his voice after he finished an inventory so honest and thorough that it made him physically ill. I listened to his inventory and cried as he glowed and changed before my eyes and we burned his former life in a parking lot. As his inventory went up in smoke, the Thomas butterfly began emerging from his cocoon, and the man so many love and mourn today was born. I do not know why God chose me to be the witness of that precious moment, but I will always be grateful for it.

Thomas knew the freedom he sought for so long. The obsession to drink and drug stayed with the cocoon and there was almost no trace of it in the butterfly that flew from that moment. But Thomas didn't stop to rest. With true gratitude and a determination not to ever revert back to his former state, Thomas became willing to have God change everything about him and remove all the character traits of the caterpillar. He prayed for the Master Artist to erase the markings of who he had been and paint him with completely new and beautiful characteristics.

Thomas looked back over his previous incarnation and honestly saw and accepted the damage he had done as he chewed his way through the lives of others. He set out to make it right, planting new life from seeds of sorrow. I saw the constant self-examination of his new wings and how quickly he did what he needed to do to clean them off if he somehow sullied them. He stayed as close to his Creator as he could, listening to the soft and gentle wind that guided him from one life to the next so that God could use him to pollinate and bless the lives of others. As a result of the action he took and his surrendering to the molding, shaping, and coloring of the Master Artist, Thomas became a new creation. He transformed into a man few who knew the former caterpillar would recognize or be able to believe had been the same creature. He spent the rest of his life flying and telling all the caterpillars he encountered that would listen that they were never meant to crawl on their bellies forever. He said with his actions more than his words that it was ok to look up from the dirt and decay, that they too could be transformed as he was and fly, beautiful and free.

I could not exaggerate this transformation. I could not use an analogy poetic enough to capture the true wonder and beauty of what occurred in Thomas' life. Thomas Grimes recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body. He awoke from the state of being spiritually dead to living a life that revealed the truth and power of God to all who saw him. He found the solution and shared it. He died clean and sober and let it be known that we can all do the same if we want.

Today I am hurting. I cry as I write the truth about the transformation I can not do justice to in words that a man I knew as friend and brother experienced. There is a hole in my life today because I know there's one less butterfly in this world. But I do not hurt for Thomas. His metamorphosis is now complete, and he flies in the eternal garden of his Creator. I miss him, but more than that I wish to honor him. I meditated on the question of what I could do or say that would please my friend. This morning I imagined Thomas saying to me "help make more butterflies," share the story of his life and mine so that others may know there is a solution, there is hope, and most of all, I imagined him saying to me, "keep flying, keep flying and allow the Master Artist to paint my wings, never return to the ground to try to be the caterpillar again, live the legacy of Thomas."

Monday, December 14, 2015

Unshackle Moments ~ December 14 ~ Unspeakable Joy

Joy, unspeakable joy

And overflowing where no tongue can tell

Joy, unspeakable joy

Rises in my soul, never lets me go

- Chris Tomlin

How do you write about a joy that you can't speak about? Written or spoken, words are words, and for something to be indescribable with the tongue it is equally elusive of definition and description with a pen or keyboard. Joy is the Advent theme that I have the most trouble with in all honesty, because it's the one that I count on most, the one I feel the ghosts of the most, and the one that I can't quite seem to catch when I need to. All too often, my circumstances rob me of my joy because I haven''t gotten down the ability to tap into the joy of the Lord with the consistency needed to guide my life.

I know that it's more than pleasure or happiness and that it isn't produced by, or defined by, our circumstances or emotions. In fact, it can have more effect on them they they can have on it. I have seen it. Well, I say I have seen it the way that I say that I've seen the wind. I've seen the effects of the wind.

I've seen the effects of the joy. I've seen the light remain in the eyes of a man dying of cancer. He had so much pain he could barely move, and yet there was a spark in his eye and a tone to his voice that could only be described as joy. I've seen it in the lives of others, such as my Ma Woody and my father. I've seen a true but lesser version in the lives of those who love each other well. I've even experienced this breeze of love that brings joy even in the midst of hardships. My wife has made this possible, but I still can't describe the breeze, much less the gale force winds of joy the love of God creates.

I have a hard time having faith in something that I can't even speak about or describe sometimes. And yet, while I don't feel the wind as often as I know I could, I do feel it from time to time. I know it's there. It's not a matter of seeking it out or proving it exists as much as it is a matter of learning to adjust my sails to catch it. Joy has come through the Son, ministered to us by the Spirit because of the great love of the Father. This Advent season and beyond let us ask God for the grace to adjust our sails so that we can catch the winds of His joy in every circumstance, during the roughest of storms and the calmest seas. We may never be able to describe that joy that gives us strength and doesn't depend on things feeling or being a certain way, our way, a comfortable way, but we can feel it. And when we fill our sails with it, it can take us across any and every sea, and keep us safely moving to the shores of the kingdom of God.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Grinch's Joy ~ Third Sunday Of Advent

Dalyn Woodard shares an Advent message on the third Sunday of Advent.Using the story of the Grinch, he shares on the joy that doesn't depend on our circumstances or situation. It isn't based on feelings or emotion and can't be quenched by what we go through. The message, "The Grinch's Joy" is about 13 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, December 13, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 12 ~ Can't Buy Me Peace

They say that money can't buy love, but people still try. Love isn't the only thing that we try to buy but can't. Another is tied together with love, and that is peace. I say it's tied together, because you can't have one without the other. True love casts out fear, and where there is no fear there is peace. Still, we try to obtain it in ways that don't work.

There's an insurance company that claims to be selling peace of mind. But while insurance might take some anxiety away, it's never enough to give true peace come what may. My wife and I have a friend whose family resources were decimated last year when he faced death for a few months hospitalized and unable to work. He lived praise God, but even with the best insurance available their savings were taken out. Saving for a rainy day is a good idea, but what do you do after the storm has passed and there's nothing left and no time or way to get it? Money can replace houses and vehicles, but not people, not homes and not the tokens of a lifetime.

My wife and I just taped our washing machine together in order to try to get it working long enough to get a few loads of much needed laundry done. I didn't think it would work, but we tried. So far so good, although I really think I need to go in there and see how much water is on the floor at the moment. Tape can hold the machine together for a while, but it won't hold forever. And the things we do and use to try to hold our lives together won't work forever either. That's why under all our savings, health insurance, safe vehicles, and everything else we do to try to feel secure there is still fear. What if what happens is too much for the measures I've been able to make? What if what I've done fails or stops working? What if....

What if we put our trust in the only One that we can trust without having to fear failure. God never fails. He is able to hold, to protect and to provide. When our love is to Him and from Him our peace comes from Him too. And that is a peace that the rest of world doesn't understand. It might nit make sense. But in the midst of the storms it remains. Peace has come, peace with the Father and peace from the Father. The peace that Jesus left with us, God's peace What a cause for great joy.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 11 ~ No Time

Sometimes in the midst of all the chaos and stress and uncertainty of life it can feel like nothing we do can really make much difference. Actually it can feel like what we know about achieving and maintaining peace can be the opposite of what we need to do. More and more needs to be done. There's so much to do that we'll never get it all done. We're overwhelmed with the weight of it all. The idea that to make it better we should take time to stop, get quiet and spend time with God just doesn't make sense to us. But God's ways are not our ways, and while it makes no sense to us it is the exact thing that we need to do. The chaos and stress and weight of it all simply build until we can not function at all unless we take the time to access the peace in the midst of the storm that is available to us through the Holy Spirit. Taking the time that we don't feel like we have really gives us what we need to keep going longer than we ever could without stopping. Much like stopping for fuel on a road trip may feel like a deficit time wise, but without those stops the journey can never be completed.

So, as the more we feel like we don't have time to stop, the more important it is that we do just that. Take a break, make the time and give and get our spiritual hugs from Daddy. We simply can not go on without it. It's in that time spent with God that we can find the peace that gets us through the storms that keep coming.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 9 ~ Negative Space

I admit that I am not feeling the peace all that much at the moment. No, I don't feel peace. I feel, well, I feel sick. I've been sick for almost two days now. It's hard to feel peace when you feel queasy. Tied in with that is the understanding that I am supposed to preach this evening. Right now, every time that I start moving around I get sick again. I want to preach tonight, but I also know that I need to give a replacement as much notice and time to prepare as possible. So, I need to decide soon if I will try it or not. I have also missed two days of work that I can't really afford to miss and may have given this bug to my wife. She wasn't feeling well when she left this morning.

Logically, what I should feel is panic, anxiety and worry. I can't afford to miss work. My boss quite literally has to shut down the majority of his operation without help, and I'm his help. So if I don't work there's a lot he can't get done. If I miss too much will he replace me? I don't get paid when I don't work. The type of work I do doesn't have sick days and the benefits mainly consist of a cup of coffee from time to tie. It took me months to find this job, and I have little reason to believe that finding another would be quick or easy. Any time that I am not in the process of making my boss happy with my work I should worry about making him dissatisfied. I don't want to fail to step up and do what God has called me to do, but I should be afraid of getting to the church and being too sick to preach and not have given anyone time to prepare. I don't want to make the wife I love so much sick or make her life more difficult. My stomach muscles already hurt from what they've been through over the last two days of being sick, and it makes perfect sense to be worried about and fear the pain that will come should I get sick to my stomach again.

But though it would be logical and make sense to feel anxiety and worry, I don't. I don't feel good, and I don't feel what I would classify as peaceful, but I am not anxious. I will work on tonight and trust that I will be able to get through it, and at the same time I will let someone know there's a possibility that I may need someone to step in. I know it will be OK either way. I do feel a tad better today than I did yesterday, and I am confident that I will be able to return to work tomorrow, but if not it will be OK. My future is in God's hands, not mine and not my boss's. God will provide and care for our needs. And I am not in a state of worry about Leah being sick to her stomach any more than I am worried about her Lupus. I spent some time praying for her and gave it to God. He will either give her healing or give her grace.

When I looked at it, I realized that I do have peace. I am not afraid or anxious. I learned something through this experience. I have said before something that a friend of mine often says, not everything I think and not everything I feel is real. But I never really thought through the corollary, that a lack of feeling also does not define truth. Just because I don't feel an emotion that I would describe as peace doesn't mean that I don't have peace. Sometimes in photography and painting, the negative space, what isn't there, is as important or more important than the rest of the image. Negative space is important in our lives as well. It may be more important to realize the absence of fretting, of worry of fear than it is to feel some emotion that we would call peace.

I share this today to encourage us all to not get hung up on not having an emotion or feelings that we sometimes associate with being where we are supposed to be spiritually. Sometimes it's more about the negative space. Sometimes we can rejoice and take strength from the truth that we are not in the state that we would be in if we were not spiritually well. Have faith, give glory to Him, and just keep going, even when the emotions are lacking.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 8 ~ Mery Christmas, War Is Over

The search for peace takes on many different forms. There are so varied approaches to to the hunt, and it somewhat depends on what you're hunting for, how you are at the moment of the search defining peace. For some it's an end to fighting, whether that be between nations or spouses or children or strangers at Wal-Mart. For some it's more about not being anxious or stressed or worried. For some it's all about not being afraid of the future. So depending on what variation of peace is desired the way we look often changes.

But what if we want them all? Every variation and category, if it's peace it's wanted. Then it gets so much easier, because it becomes so obviously impossible that we know we have to look to the miraculous for it to happen. We know absolute peace of every kind and in every situation can only come from God. We could never pull that off. So what do we need to do to access that peace of God that passes all our understanding and ability to attain?

Surrender. Surrender is the key to peace. We were at war with God, determined to run a successful rebellion against the Master of All in order to be the ruler of our own life. Once we surrender to Him we not only become His children but citizens of His kingdom. The war is over. But how over depends on how much we surrender. When Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant, the U. S. Civil War officially came to an end. But for some of the individuals involved it didn't end until a later date. Some because they did not receive the good news that the war had ended, and for others because they themselves refused to surrender and held onto their anger and hate. If you are a Christian, then you have surrendered enough to have the war declared over. But we lived as rebels for so long, we have to adjust our lives and attitudes to being in a state of surrender rather than rebellion. Sometimes that means our actions are too much like the old rebellion than the new surrendered and pardoned citizen.

The more completely, and unconditionally we are able to surrender to the King who came and made a way for us to make peace with our Creator and His will for our lives, the more peace we will have. The less fighting we'll have to endure, whether that be fighting with others, fighting and struggling with and within ourselves, or fighting for security. If we simply lay down our arms and stop fighting, if we surrender, we can have peace. But there can be no lasting or true peace as long as we maintain our right to rise up and fight. For the spirit of peace to reign in our hearts, the spirit of rebellion must be dethroned so that a baby born in a barn, killed on a cross and raised from the dead can have His rightful place as King in our hearts and lives.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 7 ~ Christmas Cheer

The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.

- Isaiah 9:2

There's a lot of talk around this time each year of Christmas cheer. The idea seems to be that we're supposed to be happy and carefre, and if we're not, if we're hurting or tired or frightened or lonely that we're just Scrooges and need to get with the program. Some of us are happy. Some do have joy and peace and actual goodwill toward their fellows, but all the manufactured jolly chipperness is enough to make some want to hide from the season. It isn't fun to feel broken and hurting and like you're dying inside. Living in the shadow of death is miserable, and it only gets worse when it seems like we're supposed to just get over it and be happy already.

The good news is that holiday cheer is not a commandment of God. You don't have to put on a smile and pretend everything is OK to please God. In fact, that is the last thing He wants. Jesus didn't come to cheer us up. He came to shine a light on our darkest shadows. Light doesn't make shadows feel better. Light destroys shadows. The greater the light the less shadow there are, and if you have enough light coming from every direction no shadows remain. He didn't come to teach us how to mask our sorrow or give us rehab so that we can function in our brokenness. He came to heal our brokenness and comfort us.

If anxiety increases for you this time of year because it feels like you have to perform, to act the part on some stage fulll of Christmas cheer, be encouraged and be at peace. You don't have to be anxious. You don't have to fret. You don't have to act. Just cry out to Jesus and seek His light. Let Him have access to your shadows.. He loves us as we are, not as we should be. So much of our fear and worry and stress can be replaced by peace that doesn't depend on circumstances when we simply follow the light to Him and bask in the warmth of His love rather than try to manufacture cheer.

Peace ~ Second Sunday Of Advent

Dalyn Woodard shares an Advent message on the second Sunday of Advent. peace, it;s more than something that will come one day. It's available to us now. The message, "Peace" is about 20 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, December 6, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 6 ~ Looking For Peace

Definition of PEACE
1 : a state of tranquility or quiet: as
a : freedom from civil disturbance
b : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom
2 : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
3 : harmony in personal relations

As I drove home from work yesterday, I felt rushed and stressed. The rushed feeling came from wanting to be home. I don't usually work Saturdays and I haven't been able to spend as much time with Leah this week as I'd like. So I wanted to get home. I felt stressed because I knew that today I would be giving the message for the Second Sunday of Advent with its theme of peace. It always seems a little off to consider Christmas a time of peace to me. I know that there is a promise of pece to come, an eternal, total and complete peace, but what about now?

Then I topped a hill and saw this sunset to my right. I pulled over and snapped a few photos and then just sat there for about thirty seconds. It overwhelmed me, and I began to praise God. I felt my inner turmoil quiet and the stress fade away in the wonder of who God is and that He loves me. And that Dear Reader is one example of peace that is available to us now, and every day at every moment, because Christ came that we might have relationship with our Creator and experience the blessing of quiet within our souls and an end of strife with God.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 5 ~ O Uncomfortable Night

Sometimes things simply do not go our way. It seems like nothing goes right. As Christmas approaches it can feel overwhelming as the perfect gift for that loved one gets harder and harder to find and the supply of money and time melt away like snow in East Texas refusing to stick. The store is sold out of the secret ingredient that makes your dish special, and there isn't an unbroken pie crust to be bought in town. You're so blasted with work and doing those "have to" things, that you haven't had a chance to go shopping, and if a miracle doesn't take place soon, your wife is going to end up getting a Christmas present from a gas station. But just because things aren't falling into place doesn't mean that God is not with you or that you are out of line with His will.

I imagine Joseph must have thought that first Christmas was a lot more stressing than blessing. Here's a man, don't really know how old he is, but he's grown, finally getting the wife he's hoped for and the chance to continue his line with a son. Now the girl turns up pregnant with a story about an angel. It's too much to take. It's unbelievable. But he loves her, so he's going to put her away quietly. Then he has a dream, and the angel tells him Mary's story is true, go through with the wedding, raise that boy. So he goes ahead and marries the girl, but waits on the honeymoon until after the birth of the child. But I would bet he still had his doubts from time to time until that little boy grew to be so righteous that he made the nicest kids in the neighborhood look like whiny brats. So here is Joseph, finally married with all the responsibility and a baby on the way, and suddenly he has to travel?

Can you almost imagine Joseph getting the notice of the census demand to return to his hometown and asking Really? Now" She's due any day. What else could go wrong!? Never ask that question. What else could go wrong? There could be no place to stay in a small town when everyone has to return at the same time. Bethlehem gets a lot of grief over having no room in the inn... the inn, as to give the impression that in the little town of Bethlehem there was only one inn. Try getting a hotel room in Nacogdoches on the weekend of the SFA Homecoming game without booking it a year in advance. It's not easy, and there are quite a few hotels here. Now, surely if the inn keeper had known that Mary carried the Messiah he would have kicked someone out and made room, but really, would the Word that took on flesh to live a life of service and give His life for the world put someone out so He could have a bed? I don't think so. I think Jesus would have felt grateful for the barn and given God the Father thanks and praise.

But Joseph probably wasn't all that happy. Now they're in the barn, miles from home and family and friends that would normally be right by Mary's side to help aren't there. This is a special child and the conditions for His birth surely couldn't seem ideal, and Joseph was a carpenter, not even a shepherd. It's hard to imagine that he had a lot of experience helping with births. Oh God, how are we going to make it through this? How am I going to get it all done? Help me not make a mistake that ruins everything, please.

But Jesus came, And the angels rejoiced, and the shepherds dropped in. Mary survived and so did the baby. The night became one that the whole world would celebrate and call holy, as though everything went perfectly. But for Joseph it was a hectic evening where he couldn't provide for his wife the way he would want. It was cold, dirty, and the best he could do for a delivery room was a cattle stall that he had to clean out himself. God was there. The night was blessed. It was indeed a holy and special night. But it most certainly was not a comfortable night, a convenient night or a perfect night.

The story of how Jesus entered the word brings us hope, hope that we can have relationship with the Father and that Jesus is coming again as the triumphant King, but it also gives us hope that God can bless the most messed up, out of control circumstances and situations and use them for His glory. Life doesn't have to go as planned, or our way, or perfectly, or comfortably, or conveniently in order to go wonderfully and blessed. So today and this season, as the things happen that always seem to that increase the stress and diminish the appearance of blessings on the season, remember that the most blessed and wonderful day of Christ's birth didn't go so smoothly either. Don't give up hope. Rejoice! For God is with us.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 4 ~ Immigration

"Shout for joy and be glad, for I am coming to dwell among you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. 11 “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day and become My people.

- Zachariah 2:10-11

Did you know that if we had to be vetted in order to be received into the kingdom of heaven that none of us would make the cut? I can see the angels picketing and demanding the borders of Heaven to be closed. We, every single one of us, were, after all. the enemies of God, the ruler of Heaven and Earth. We lived lives that destroyed holiness at every turn, filled with misery and terror, leaving destruction and broken lives in our wake. If Heaven examined our life to decide friend or foe we'd be declared dangerous and refused entry.

No, God the Father could not declare a single person who ever lived to be an ally of righteousness, holiness and goodness. So the Creator of all created an immigration loop hole. He made a way for His enemies to become His adopted children. The sons and daughters of the King don't have to prove themselves to become citizens. They are citizens by right of their relationship to the King. For all who wanted to become one of His children, He granted the power to do just that, and He ended the war between us and Him, declaring a peace between us. He forgave every act of aggression against Him and His cause. He sent His only begotten Son to pay the penalty of death that the law demanded for our crimes. He sent His Spirit to live within us to teach us and to give us the ability to live as citizens of righteousness and that power to forsake the life we lived when we were enemies.

This is why we rejoice. This is why we celebrate. Christmas is the time to remember when God the Father put forth His plan to end the war between us and Him. Easter is the ratification of the treaty. The King sent His Son to live among us and to bring us to the Father as brothers and sister . He cut through all the red tape of the law and made us the people of God. Instead of picketing our immigration the angels of Heaven rejoice over our adoption. This is the hope of Christmas, and we eagerly await His return to take us to our new home.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 3 ~ Christmas Magic

As little children, we would dream of Christmas morn and all the gifts and toys we knew we'd find.

- David Meece

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.

- Clement Clarke Moore

The Christmas season is a time filled with wishes and dreams. Christmas is a fabled time of magic where dreams come true. But the reality often falls very short of the fable. Dreams often don't come true, this time of year or any other for that matter. Sometimes we do get what we wish for only to discover that it doesn't fill the need or satisfy the soul. Family and friends return to their homes and visits end. The food is eaten and gone. Gifts lose their newness, break or even work just as they should and last a lifetime and still don't provide true joy, inner peace or the love that we so desperately need.

Magic is defined as the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. So, in one sense the idea of Christmas magic is very real. In another, it is not. A supernatural force, actually The Supernatural Force, the Creator of all, has eternally altered the course of events. But there's nothing as simple as "apparently." Creation has been altered, really and truly altered. And the alteration is continuing it's process toward full and complete restoration to what it was all supposed to be. There is a magic of Christmas available to us all this time of year and every day throughout the year. The magic is the power of God that was started with the birth of Christ and finished with His death and resurrection that alters the course of our lives so that we can access the very throne of the Father, receive the power to become His children and have the Spirit of Christmas, which is the Spirit of Grace and Adoption known as the Holy Spirit, to come and make His home within us and give us the power to do what we could never do before, walk with God and have relationship with Him. When our dreams are to have peace, joy and love in our lives despite what's going on in our lives and the world, when we dream of, wish for, long for a closer relationship with God and the time when we will spend eternity with Him, we can know that those Christmas dreams will come true. Not only will they come true someday, sometime in the future, but we can receive glimpses and tastes of them now. A tasty treat of the eternity to come that is better than all the sugar plums, gifts and toys of childhood dreams.

So today let us open our hearts and our lives to the truth of Christmas magic, the gift of grace wrapped in love that came with the birth of Jesus.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 2 ~ The Naughty List

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout

I'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town.

So begins what has to be a terrifying song for those who have any self awareness combined with a belief in Santa. There's one good reason to outgrow belief. The truth is that the idea of good ol' Saint Nick isn't so great if we really stop and think about it. It that's what Christmas were truly about we'd all be in big trouble wouldn't we? The next verse tells us about that list that Santa has to check twice for some reason. I never knew why. Maybe he does it because he just wants to find someone to put on the good side.

As I write this, I am wearing a T-shirt that reads IF YOU'RE NAUGHTY I WON'T TELL SANTA. I'm no snitch, but really, who are we kidding? Unless you lower the standard of good to much lower than the perfect standard of holiness there's no one good, no not one. Not on our own anyway. Even grading on a serious bell curve won't help. That's what's so depressing about the idea behind Santa. The Santa story expresses what we all know to be true, that we should be good. But nothing in the song or in any of the Santa stories tells us how to manage that. We can't do it.

So the time of year when Santa is coming would be about as much to look forward to as the Boogeyman being on his way, if it were true. Here comes yet another person to point out where we don't and can't measure up, if we're honest. Be good for goodness sake. But we can't. Not if good is to be perfectly loving and caring and kind and.......We just hope that we might be a little more good than we are bad, as though being 51% good is enough. And if we try to say it is, let's get a second opinion from one out of the many that each of us has damaged or hurt in some way while living during the 49% not good time.

But thankfully we're not eagerly awaiting the coming of Santa but Jesus. Jesus didn't say be good for goodness sake. Jesus said be perfect, even as God the Father is perfect. He said you have to be good, and realize that good is pure holiness, because anything less isn't really good. But He didn't say do that or get a lump of coal, achieve perfection or wish you had when the consequences arrive. Instead He said this is the standard, but since we can't do it, He'll pay off our shortcomings with His very life. Then comes the Spirit to give us the grace and the power to do what we can never do on our own, walk righteously.

We can look forward to the coming of the King, because it's not about a list of who's been good or bad but who is His. He gives us the power to belong to God as one of His children and to walk in goodness. He doesn't set the standard and leave us on our own to reach it or maintain it. That's wonderful news, since none of us can. We can rejoice in hope this Christmas and every day because the great gift of grace promised and fulfilled in the birth of Christ sets us free from the weight of the Naughty List. O Come O Come Emanuel and set us free.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ December 1 ~ Sappy Christmas Movie Truth

"No one wants to get hurt, but our wounds are where the light gets in."

I have a confession to make. I am a fan of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. I know they're sappy, cheesy, and predictable with soap opera level acting at best for the most part, but yes, I love them. The good, the bad and the ugly I could watch them all. Or almost all anyway. I don't watch that many each year, because I love Christmas music as much, probably more, and it's one or the other. Since my wonderful wife also enjoys Christmas music and has better sense than I do when it comes to Christmas shows... I try not to make her suffer through too many bad movies and too much football this time of year. Yes, I love her that much.

But a couple of days ago, I turned on the Christmas movies to watch while unfolding the branches and putting up our main tree. We watched about a movie and a half. The second one, by far the better of the two in my opinion but still a B- quality flick at best, almost got bumped up to a B+ by having the line in it that I quoted above. Still, one great line does not a great book or movie make, and it already gets graded on the curve just for being Christmas themed.

This time of year can be more painful than any other as we involuntarily hold our life up against the standard of peace, joy and love surrounded by perfect and happy relationships with all mankind, especially family and those in our immediate locale. It's easy to see that our lives aren't perfect and even harder to ignore than usual as we prepare to act happy to be with people we don't want to be around or feel won't be happy to be around us. The loneliness that can hurt so much all year long can magnify to unbearable. Rejection and loss can weigh more than we can carry. What is supposed to be a time of celebration and joy can simply point out all the reasons we have not to rejoice, every little hurt intensifies and excuses our instinct to hide in a corner licking our wounds rather than sing for joy.

People who feel more miserable at Christmas than less tend to start dreading this holiday about two seconds after the first sales start, sometime in October. But the glaring imperfections of our lives during the season can be a blessing. Sometimes the pain and problems are as impossible to ignore as a string of lights that just won't shine. And that's a good thing. If one bulb is out, we might can ignore it. Perhaps it's on the back side of the tree and we fail to even notice. But when an entire string goes out, something has to be done.

Our wounds are what cause us to realize that we are still in need of a Savior. Our lack and our pain and our inability to do it all and fulfill our own lives or the lives of those we love make us feel the need for Emanuel, for God to be with us. And because of the King born in Bethlehem, we have access to Daddy and help. We can cry out to Him and hope with a secure assurance that we will be visited by The Comforter. If there is an area, in our lives that doesn't measure up, let us use it to drive us to the manger to bow the knee to our Savior, rejoicing with the understanding that healing, restoration and glory are coming and that we can look forward to the time when there will be no more need, no more lack and no more brokenness. Until that time arrives, let us reach out to others in love and not be afraid of the wounds that have showed us that we need a Healer. Without them, we'd be dying and lost in the dark without being able to receive the hope that seeing the Star in the night brings.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ November 30 ~ Making Room

The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

- Luke 10:41-42

'Tis the season of distractions and have to get dones. We have a list of things to do, so much that we'll probably fail to complete it. This is an every day, all year situation, but even more so as Christmas approaches. There are events and gatherings to prepare for or just be able to get to. There are decorations to put up, gifts to buy, food to prepare. And all the work that goes in before getting started on those things are even possible. There are also deeds of service and charity that increase this time of year. Traveling and work conflict and both demand our time and attention. None of these things are wrong or bad or need to be neglected.

But Jesus wants us to come sit with Him and spend time with Him. Martha was busy and worried about many tasks, all of which were probably necessary. There was a house full of guests, one of whom was THE LORD. They needed to be fed and cared for. Social dictates demanded a certain level of hospitality, never mind the actual physical needs. Martha was concerned about her responsibilities, and blowing off responsibilities is never a spiritual calling. But while we are to be responsible, that is not the priority of life. The need to do and have to do lists should always take a back seat to the need to spend time with the Savior. Our life is found in relationship with Him, and we maintain that life by maintaining our time at His feet being like the Mary we don't usually hear about this time of year.

Mary had the right idea. This needs to be done, but Jesus is more important. I'll get to the other, but I need to be with Him first. Don't let the distractions of what needs to be done crowd Christ out of your schedule. Make room for Him in the inn of your heart and minds. He is not an after thought. He gets the throne of our lives. He's not waiting out in the barn.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Great Expectations ~ First Sunday of Advent

Dalyn Woodard shares an Advent message on the first Sunday of Advent. hope, expectation and waiting do not have to have the negative connotations that we sometimes attribute to them. They can be a source of great joy and peace.The message, "Great Expectations" is about 21 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, November 29, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.