We Have Reason To Rejoice

Dalyn Woodard shares on knowing that we are God's and that He will finish what He started with us. We don't have to wonder if we're saved or if we're going to make it to heaven. The message, "We Have Reason To Rejoice" is about 39 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, July 29, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 31 ~ Turning On The Power

Last night the wind blew too hard and our power went out. As I sat in the dark with Leah I felt horrible. I'd been sick all day and as the house grew hotter my stuffy head felt worse and worse. But there was nothing that I could do. I laid there, whined some and tried not to feel too sorry for myself. I can handle stomach bugs OK but aches and sore throat and ear pain and not being able to breathe I don't do well. I couldn't make it any cooler. I ate popsicle but that didn't help. All I could do was wait it out. I felt very thankful when the power came back on an hour or so earlier than the power company estimated.

It sucks to be powerless, and last served as a reminder of what powerless really means. It means the incapacity to change the situation and make things better or right, to stop the wrongness. The difference between spiritual powerlessness and electrical powerlessness is that we don't have to wait on a company made up of fallen people with limitations much like our own to figure out and repair the problem. God has already done the work. The power is not out. The lines are not down. The switch is just off. When we turn to Him and ask for help, He flips the switch and His grace gives us the power and the strength to carry on, to see, to change and to do what's right.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 30 ~ Delayed Gratification

When a baby wants something he or she cries, and if it doesn't come immediately they cry more and more loudly. At some point during the transition from child to toddler they usually begin to learn that you don't always get what you want the second you want it and that it doesn't help to throw a fit about it every time. And yet fit throwing is common enough during the toddler stage to get it called the terrible twos. Then comes a point when we come to learn that sometimes we have to wait. Sometimes we have to wait until we sleep and dream because only in our dreams will we get that particular wish. Sometimes we need to wait until we are older and more mature. I asked my parents for a motorcycle when I was four or five, and I am pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten it even if they had had the money. Sometimes we need to learn to be responsible and show ourselves to be that. Sometimes we need to work for what we want.

Learning to accept and even appreciate delayed gratification is a sign of maturity.Today I want to put away the childish impulse to throw a fit and get mad when I don't get my way or when what I want doesn't happen quickly enough or at all. I will be thankful for the reward that is to come that will be more appreciated due to the wait, what was endured during the wait and the effort it takes to arrive at the place where what is better is mine. Lord thank you for teaching me to wait.

Unshackled Moment ~ July 29 ~ Yet I Will Praise Him

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High

Psalm 92:1

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Psalm 100:4

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

It truly s a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and I have learned from experience that having an attitude of gratitude does actually make a difference. You really can't hold onto anger or be bitter and be grateful at the same time. But being grateful is not about self deception or selective blindness. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes life is unfair and painful. Sometimes it feels like everything is going wrong or at least not going right.

My boss and I had one of those days at work yesterday. No one got hurt and nothing blew up, but we didn't get one thing accomplished that we needed to. It wasn't for lack of trying. Some of it just doesn't even make sense. But thinngs just weren't going together as they should. Things were breaking when they shouldn't. And so on until my boss finally called it a day and quit in frustration. We'll try again today.

At one point he said, "One of us must not be doing right. You think it's me or you?" Because we feel that way sometimes. We  reap what we sow, so when things go wrong we wonder what we've done to tick God off. While it's true that we reap what we sew, it's also true that no matter what you plant or how diligent you watch it, you're going to get weeds in the garden.;  It's part of life in a fallen world. And it's also true that while you planted your good fruit seeds the enemy comes along behind you and plantes tares in the night.

Sometimes we get lax and sit on our laurels and let things crop up in our life that lead to judgement. But sometimes things just go wrong. Life is hard sometimes even when there are things to be grateful about. Just because we can and should praise God with a thankful heart doesn't mean we're looking at the world through rose colored glasses. Sometimes we're simply getting a glimpse of what is to come.

Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls ~ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Unshackled Moments ~ July 28 ~ Learning To Fly

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

~Philipians 3:14

Sometimes life is difficult, and it feels like there is little or no help. Sometimes it feels like we're all alone trying to push our way through a hole too small in order to escape our cocoon and fly free as the new creature we've transformed into. We want the struggle to be over. But sometimes there is a reason to the struggle, even when we can't see it.

If you see a butterfly or moth struggling to free itself from a cocoon, don't help it. That's right, don't. The process of the struggle makes sure they aren't free before they're strong enough to survive and it cleans their wings so that they can fly. The struggle is a necessary part of the transformation. And the same is true for us. If God fixed everything before we had to struggle, we'd never grow and learn to press on toward the goal.

Today let us keep the faith and a thankful heart and not grow weary or bitter over the struggle. Let us push through the obstacles by the power of the Spirit so that we can learn to fly according to His will and purpose.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 27 ~ More Lessons From Toddlers

Yesterday I saw a young woman at church holding her baby. I'm not sure how old the child is, but I'm guessing he's a litle younger than my grandson and almost as cute. He smiled and waved at anybody and everybody who gave him any attention as he rested in Mommy's arms. At one point a friend of mine walked over to the woman and her child and waved and smiled. He waved and smiled back at her. She smiled even more and held out her hands offering to hold him. At which point he waved and leaned back into his mother, retreating into her safety as much as possible. He didn't get upset. He didn't stop smiling, but he made it clear he felt he was right where he belonged and had no desire to be elsewhere.

I want to be like that little one. I want to be able to offer greetings and smiles and happy interactions without fear, insecurity or judgement that brightens the day of those I come in contact with, and all the while I want to do it from the safety of my Daddy's arms. When someone invites me to step away from my Father, I want to react by retreating more closely into Him without  ceasing to kindly and lovingly interact with the world. Today I want to be a toddler who won't leave Daddy's arms for anyone or anything. That's one way to come to Jesus as a child.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 26 ~ Weary

I wake up in the morning, and I raise my weary head.

~ Jon Bon Jovi

For three days in a row now I have woken up with this line from the song "Blaze Of Gory" going through my head. The only good part about it is that I hear it in Jovi's voice rather than my own. This line is the opening of the song, and it tells a lot about the man the song is about. He has not rested. He slept, but when he  wakes up he is still weary. The song is about Billy the Kid's life on the run, and while I am sure that life was not a restful one, I had not considered the opening line of the song's meaning before.

But I did think about it once I began waking up with it. It would have been bad enough if the entire song was stuck in my head, but that first line playing repeatedly like an old wax record with a scratch stuck on repeat was too weird. I hadn't listened to that song in a long time. Why come up now? Why only that part? Why three days in a row? Why? Because I am weary. I have been sleeping, but I have not been resting at night.

I am weary. The sad thing is that I didn't realize it. Oh, I knew I woke without much energy for a while now. I knew I felt tired. But I really didn't realize that I had reached the point of wariness. In my mind, weary just feels heavier than tired. But once I realize I am weary I realize there's an answer. I have been trying to fix my exhaustion with relaxation and pleasure and breaks from work and responsibilities. But Jesus said that when we are weary it's not a vacation we need or early retirement but Him. He said. "Come to me if you are weary, and I will give you rest." True rest is found in Him. When we lay our burdens on Him, the burdens of our past, the burdens of what is to come and needs to be done along with the burdens of the present, and exchange them for God's will and directive for our life which by grace the Spirit helps us carry, we discover a yoke that is easy, and burden that is light, and rest for our souls.

Today I will push in close to Jesus as my source of rest. I am thankful for the reminder that no matter what the problem Jesus is the answer.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 25 ~ Blow Out

I try to spend time in prayer every day where I am fully and completely focused on the prayer, where nothing is in the way. I try to express gratitude and have a thankful heart all through the day. Some days I'm better at it than others, but the more I do it, the more I see how much I don't do it enough. Some days I don't even want to enough.

The day before yesterday though I was able to pray a perfect and pure prayer. Help. That's it. The back tire on my motorcycle went flat, and as I felt the bike going out from under me, I pulled up and out of the lean I had thrown myself into in order to make the curve. The bike wobbled and fish-tailed rapidly. If there had been a car coming the other way I would have been in even more trouble as I was lucky to keep the bike up and on the road. Keeping it in my lane through the turn wasn't going to happen.

I remember that prayer. Help. And as I remember te feeling in my gut as the motorcycle seemed to go less solid, I have no doubt that the grace of God kept me from going down. My guardian angel got some overtime pay. I'm still not exactly sure how I got the bike through the curve, over to the side of the road and stopped. But once I did I had a moment of thanksgiving without hesitation or distraction. My hands were shacking. I felt a little nauseous for a few minutes, but I was praising and thanking God. The moment of crisis pulled everything together within me and directed it to God while pushing everything else away. There were no random songs or thoughts or anything like that getting in the way of my prayer.

I'm grateful that at that moment I instinctively and reflexively reached out to Jesus. I'm grateful that afterward I spontaneously spent time in praise and thanksgiving. But now I want more. I want to be able to enter in to prayer as focused as that, where everything else in the world is gone  and it's just me and God, on a regular basis and without a crisis. I don't want it to take  the threat of immediate death to make me let go of the  world and it's distractions and put all my attention on Him. Today I will let the world fade away and focus on Jesus.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 24 ~ Free From Shame

There is a common saying in recovery that we are only as sick as our secrets. It's not totally accurate. For example many of us who get clean and sober find out in recovery that problems we were hiding or playing down were only being hidden to ourselves. The rest of the world seemed to realize I had a drug and alcohol problem long before I could admit how bad it was to myself. That said there is some truth in the idea that our secrets will make us and keep us sick, and that truth is not new.

To be free of the past confession must play a part. There are two ways to be free of the past. First, to be free of the weight of guilt and shame, in other words forgiveness. The second way to be free of the past is to be freed of the repetitive cycle. We've all heard it said that those who do not learn from history (i.e. the past) are doomed to repeat it, but the truth is that we can know areas of bondage are killing us and controlling us without breaking the cycle. Knowledge and learning won't set us free from the shackled of true slavery.

The psalmist David understood the problem is spiritual rather than mental. If it were mental, then just learning our lesson would be enough. But a spiritual problem needs a spiritual solution. David wrote in Psalm 32: 3-4 that, "When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer." When we keep silent it kills us inside. The shame and fear eat away at us like a cancer, stealing our joy and our strength to walk free from the very things that we hate about ourselves and our past. We find ourselves in that vicious cycle of repeating our personal sinful history as though we are incapable of learning any better.

Secret shame is one of the enemies greatest weapons against us because there are a lot of things in our lives human nature says we should keep silent about. There are things we feel ashamed of and have learned to push down and cover up rather than expose. These might be family problems, compulsive or repetitive sin, addictions (chemical, spending, eating, sexual addiction, to name a few), or any area of bondage where we feel shame as much if not more than guilt when we fail to walk free of it. Silence might seem like the best, safest way to handle it, but silence always leads to more pain and guilt and sickness inside. It eats away at us, at our spirit. And it always affects other parts of our lives.

We go through the motions of faith and responsibility of  the day to day life of a believer with a mask on to keep the world around us from realizing that we’re dying inside. Nobody knows we have these secret sins that are keeping us from moving forward. No one knows about it except God, and when we are alone in the dark with our fear, insecurity, shame and guilt, ourselves. In those scary and rare moments we can be honest with ourselves we know about it. God knows about it.

David shows us how he found freedom from the guilt and shame of a past which including murder and sexual sin. "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' And You forgave the iniquity of my sin" ~. Psalm 32:5

It almost seems to easy doesn't it? Why is confession so powerful? Well, it's not so much the confession itself as what the confession represents. As long as we are hiding our shackles we are in effect saying that either there is no problem and or that we can figure out a way to free ourselves of it, to control it. But when we admit the nature of our bondage and shameful sin we also admit that it is beyond our control, that we can't fix it.  There is something intrinsically broken and sinful in every human being. Merely human efforts (learning and understanding, behavior and location modification, counseling and therapy, etc.) cannot cure the sin problem.

My brokenness, like yours, is very complex. Jesus said that He can to heal and restore the sick, those who know they have a problem, and not the well or people who can pretend they are healthy when they are not. If we want to heal and be set free from the cycle of sin in our lives and from the pain and misery that shame breeds, we need to be honest with God and ourselves and each other.

Shame says we need to hide, that if anyone actually knew for sure, if we admit, then......But David ended Psalm 32 with the amazing truth that God is our hiding place. He ends with joy. "For You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory." ~ Psalm 32:7 Despite his sin and failure he wrote a song of victory because he had been forgiven and set free. You’ve been forgiven. You have been set free. Your lying schemes, forgiven. Your lustful acts, forgiven. Your self-seeking manipulation, forgiven. Your religious hypocrisy, forgiven. All the guilt, all the shame, all the stuff you’ve been carrying maybe for years and years and years... you can be set free. God has come in the person of Jesus to set you free.  But the key to that forgiveness and freedom is admitting and confessing that we need it.

The War Is Over

Dalyn Woodard shares on having peace with God and access to Him that brings life rather than death. The message, "The War Is Over" is about 22 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 23 ~ Stress Echo

Later this morning my wife is undergoing an echocardiography stress test more commonly known as an stress echo. Leah has some issues with her heart, and this test gives the doctors the opportunity to see how well the heart is working and make sure it's pumping the blood as it should. Leah will be hooked up to a monitor and put under physical stress (probably some mental and emotional as well considering the circumstances) while medical staff stand by to observe the condition of her heart and make sure she stays alive. It's a little scary, but it's important to know because she wants to be around for quite a while longer, and those of us who love her want her here too.

Those who have found relationship with our Creator through Jesus have been given a second chance and a new life. We have undergone a heart transplant. But how can know how healthy the new heart is? Stress echo. Just observe the condition of the heart under stress. When we're tired, under deadline, things aren't going our way, etc. how does our heart react? Do we echo the love and mercy of God we ourselves have received and continue pumping the life's blood of Christ, or does our heart cramp up cutting off life and causing only pain, misery and weakness? The healthier we are spiritually the more our hearts will echo the rhythm of the Lord's heart. But while it's nice to relax, you can't get an accurate reading of the condition of the heart when it's at rest. It's when the stress starts that we get a clear picture of how healthy we really are.

Today I will remember that when the stress of life begins to wear and rear at me that this is my opportunity to make sure I am in good shape with God. I will turn to Him and allow the Great Physician to strengthen my heart so that I can stay alive in Christ.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 22 ~ Glasses

I lost my glasses yesterday. I have a pair for distance, which I am attempting to use to see well enough to type this, but the no line transition bifocals that allow me to see clearly both close up and distance are gone. One day I will get a new body to go with the new heaven and new earth and won't need glasses anymore, but until then I can't see wll enough to read or do much of anything without some help. 

It occurred to me this morning that we are a lot like my eyes that are wearing out. Due to a separation from our Creator we can't see quite right. We get used to it. We squint and try to figure things out, and we guess at what is floating in front of us, hoping we get more right than wrong. We may have enough problems to know something is wrong with our vision or we may even think we see fine, as we are supposed to. There's a reason why Jesus described men following men rather than God as the blind leading the blind. 

Then one day we discover grace and find a relationship with God, and it's like putting on glasses with the perfect prescription for the  first time. The Spirit actually dwells within us and makes it possible for us to see rightly. We can function as we were created to by the power and grace of the Spirit. But because of our flesh our view through the glasses is still impaired to varying degrees. As Paul put it, we see through a glass darkly. The more of our self will we keep alive the worse we see. It's like smudges on our glasses. The more we surrender to God's will for us and crucify self with Christ the less interference, the fewer smudges there are. We see better. We can see the truth. 

Today I will try to use the power of grace available to me to keep my glasses clean by keeping my self will out of His way. The Spirit is the perfect prescription to see clearly, and I do not want to struggle with the blur. And I will look forward with eager anticipation when my eyes are fully opened to see Him and know Him without any barriers. 

Unshackled Moments ~ July 21 ~ Dry Rot

Living faith is never found on it's own. Like a spider web that can not be made or keep its shape must have anchor supports to exist or continue existing, faith can not stand alone. It must be accompanied with expectation. Now, I have written before what I have learned about expectations being dangerous and the building blocks of anger and resentment. I most certainly still believe  that when it comes to selfish expectations, especially those concerning God.

Faith can not live without expectation, but expectation can certainly live without  faith. Desire can easily be confused for faithful expectation. We believe we have faith when what we have is hope or optimism where we try to manipulate circumstances and even God with our positive thinking. I believe in the promises and goodness of God so things have to go the way that I want them to. That is a return to selfish expectation that leads to disaster.

Faith believes and approaches God. Faith says grace makes it possible for me to go to God, so I'm going to go. Faith says God is good and loves me even when life feels bad, but it's not about convincing ourselves that the bad and the pain aren't bad and pain. It's not about deluding ourselves into thinking things are going well when they suck. Faith says things are indeed painful and bad and out of control and overwhelming but the closer to God I can get the more I will somehow understand and see and know His goodness and love, regardless of whether or not  it  happens as I would want.

We feel the storm rock the ship as the waves crash down on us. We cry out,  "Lord save us! The ship is going to come apart and we're going to die!" What we want is Jesus to step into the moment and say "Peace be still" to the storm. Sometimes He will. Sometimes He does.  It's awesome. But sometimes what He says is "Don't be afraid. I called you to sail to such and such a place and I will get you there. You will live and not die from this storm." Then the waves keep crashing, the wind keeps whipping, and we still feel like hurling. Nothing has changed.

If our expectation is selfish at this point it  will feel like God has failed us, let us down and doesn't love us anymore. Our faith will break apart and be as useless as a lifeboat with no bottom. It may remain tied to the ship, but dry rot has made it worthless. It can't hold our weight. But if we have faithful expectation when the Lord reminds us that He will see us through the storm, we relax. We may not see how, but we expect to reach our destination in tact, not because the storm is gone. The storm becomes irrelevant. Whether it stops or becomes a hurricane is immaterial. All that matters is who God has said He is, how God says He loves us and His word that says the storm is not our end. We expect God to be God, in His way, in His time, but we fully expect to set foot on shore. We're not going to drown.

When we have that kind of expectation, our faith is still living and can not dry rot. It is not and never will be a matter of if we have enough faith, believe and desire hard enough, that God has to do what we want. But it will always be true that if our faith in who He is lives we will expect Him to show Himself mighty and good.  We will stay in position to move best in the waves, because we will keep our eyes on Him knowing that He is the North Star that we can trust to keep us on course no matter what changes around us, We don't fail, we don't give up, and we don't turn of course when we have a faithful expectation in God being God and caring for us.

Today let us repair the dry rot of our faith by looking to Jesus, the author and completion of that faith, with an expectation to see and experience His love and power in our lives this day and every day. Let us look for it with the child-like wonder of a kid who wonders what neat thing his Daddy will do next and not as a cynical who insists anything has to be done his  way.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 20 ~ Drop It Like It's Hot

I wish I could say that I always want to help others do what God wants them to do, that I could always be a blessing to another. But no. Struggling  to break free of bondage? I'm your man. I'll pray with you and for you. I'll counsel with you and share how God set me free. If you want what I have, one way to get it is to go through the process I went through, and I'll be  happy to help you do so. But ask me to help someone be blessed with a blessing I would like but haven't received (and may never receive)? Then I can get a little ugly.

It's not really sour grapes, since that is to disparage what you can't have. It's not disparaging to see something as a treasure you can't posses. It's just sour selfishness. Why on earth should I help you get what God has denied me?  The very idea makes me angry and my chest tight. Envy hurts. Maybe that's why it's one of the Big Ten.

Leah and I watched a movie together last night in which one of the main characters was a writer struggling to get published. She'd spent so much of her time, effort and (parents') resources trying to make  her dream come true only to be rejected by every publication she tried. She arrives home one evening to find her roommate excited. She's being published....the roommate, not the writer. She wrote a little something and sent it in. Her article will be on the cover. It's her first time to do anything like that. Leah and I, and probably everyone who watches the movie knows how the poor writer feels. We understand completely when she pretends to be happy for her friend and then goes outside and screams. Putting ourselves in the shoes of the writer we get angry at the roommate. How dare she?  How selfish do you have to be to not see how much that would hurt to your "friend" who hasn't been published yet?

In prison it's a bad idea to talk about getting parole. Because someone who didn't get it may get angry, which could turn into a fight, which can get you hurt and or cost you your parole.  Can't relate to this one?  Well how about when you or a friend is so happy to discover a baby is on the way but then you remember that other friend  who's been trying to have a child unsuccessfully for years? How do you balance rejoicing and being sensitive to the other's pain at the same time?

None of these situations or any others would be a problem with envy. I  want what I want, not what God is giving me, and I want it now, and if I can't have it no one should have it. We show that in our hearts there is at least part of us that feels the relationship should be God denying His will for ours and not the other way around.  We overlook and dismiss blessings in our loves that others only dream about to focus on the pain of not getting what we want in one or two areas. Then we selfishly would deny others whom we are called to love the pleasure we so desperately long  for. Sound foolish and petty? It is. It's also so completely natural we all do it to some extent. Don't eat that cake in front of me while I'm dieting you jerk.

So how do we escape the pain that comes from not getting what we want and from the envy of those who got or are getting it? The same way we escape other bondage. Surrender. I wanted to....I want...I...It's not about me, and your life is not about you. Not if you want to be free it  isn't. To gain your life you have to lose it.. Part of the losing it part is coming to a place of surrender that says what God wants for me and has given me is more important to me than what I want. In fact I lay down my wants and desires and dreams at the cross as a sacrifice. Let God return them as a blessing  or give me something else as He chooses. I will rejoice and be glad in His will. In reveling in relationship and rejoicing in God's desires and will for us we can escape the pain and frustration of our own will being thwarted. Whenever I feel the pain that  comes from envy I see an area of my life where I have either failed to surrender or have taken my will back. The pain reminds me to let it go, to drop it like it's hot before the acid of bitterness burns a hole in my heart.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 19 ~ Mine Or?

This year I celebrate five years in relationship with my wife Leah and five years clean and sober. The latter made the former possible, and the former made the latter amazing. The past five years has also been the longest most faithful chunk of my life walking with God, which is actually what made both of the other two achievements a reality. Five years seems like forever. It feels like a long time. It feels like the blink of an eye and barely begun at the same time. So when it's been long enough to start feeling like it's always been this way but still short enough to remember the lifetime before that contradicts that  other feeling, how does one get an accurate perspective on what the time might mean?

While thinking of this I looked at the idea is the most valuable thing we have and can give is our time. It's the only thing we own that can't be replaced when lost in any way, shape or form. Five years is more than 10% of the time I've been alive. That means that what feels in so many ways to be nothing, to be just the beginning is also a bigger chunk of my life than the traditional tithe amount of finances? Why is it that 10% feels like so little when it time living a life worth living, clean and sober with the woman  I love, but when it comes to giving time and money back to God (I'd have neither commodity without His  provision and grace) it feels like such a huge chunk and sacrifice?

Selfishness. Plain and simple. God gave me life. First natural birth and then spiritual second birth. After years of rebellion He welcomed the prodigal home and gave forgiveness and grace to this  wayward son. Then He gave me freedom from the chains and addictions I found myself bound by after walking in my own will too long. Then He gave me my treasure...my relationship with my wife. All of these are amazing gifts of grace I could never cause, earn or deserve. And yet I treat them as though they are mine. It's my life how much will I give to God. It's my relationship with Leah, how much time will I sacrifice for God and ministry? Wrong.

It's not mine. None of it is. I am His, and all my life belongs to Him. Not 10%. All of it. I can and do rejoice in the gifts He has given me, especially the time and closeness with Leah, but I need to learn to let Him control that time as much as my will. I don't want the importance of my marriage and sobriety (and they are both important and God wants them to be valued and respected by me) to  become a backdoor to selfishness rather than a celebration of the goodness of God.

God has given you blessings as well. All of us who have given ourselves to Him have been given something back. Today let us rejoice in and celebrate the life worth living and the things in it that make it so. They come from God. But let us remember Him first and that all we have is His.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 18 ~ Mission Impossible

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

Galatians 5:24

What a statement! And we thought the Old Covenant, the Law,was hard! The New Covenant only has two requirements: love perfectly and die to self. That's much more impossible. As my wife is fond of saying, it's a condition of the heart, and our hearts are sick. We can't do it, not consistently, not long. To try is to set ourselves up for failure. And yet that is exactly what we have been called to do. Thank God His grace gives us the power and ability to do the impossible. Today let us rely on the grace and strength of the Spirit to walk in His will.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 17 ~ Serial Killers

“Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they repose in Thee,” 

~St. Augustine

Fighting sin sucks. Standing our ground and waging war against the selfishness and addictions that keep us in bondage is draining and difficult. It is often tempting to just give in anyway since we're going to lose eventually. I used to do that all too often. "You know you're going to drink sooner or later," I'd tell myself. "Might as well get it over with and make this knot in your stomach and the shaking hands and the headache and the blah blah blah whine whine whine go away." And I would cave. The longest I held out in this battle of the wills with myself was around three months, but that was at the end of a 15 month sober streak.

You can't struggle with temptation and win. The word of God tells us to flee temptation. not to fight it. You won't win. Because what makes it tempting is the fact that at least part of us wants to give in, wants to engage, wants to slip back on the chains and get comfortable in our sin and satisfy the craving, whatever that craving may be. But that won't work either. True satisfaction never comes from feeding addition, giving in to sin, or living for self. Nothing is ever enough. Within seconds of crossing enemy lines and collaborating with the one trying to keep us in bondage, trying to steal and destroy the freedom and every good thing our Daddy wants for us and ultimately trying to kill us there is relief. There's a sense of relief when the struggle ends and the pressure and anxiety are removed, even when the result is bad. I've known many people, including myself, who have at least once had  rest and sleep for the first time in too long shortly after being thrown in a cell.; Relief is not the best goal, and when it comes at the expense of us returning to the slavery and bondage of our spiritual Egypt, it never lasts long either.

The relief is short-lived and the struggle begins again. Sometimes in a few seconds, sometimes days but sooner or later the guilt over giving in and doing what part of us hates and what we've promised ourselves and others and God that we were going to do better about grows and the pressure builds again. It's a cycle of sin and destruction. And we can not fight it. On Criminal Minds they attribute the same behavior to serial killers who kill, have a cooling off period, fight the passion and pressure that builds, give in and hunt, kill again. The problem is the the pleasure of the kill diminishes every time and the cooling off period, that short peace, gets shorter and shorter.

Trying to answer the pain and pressure by pursuing pleasure turns us into slow-motion serial killers who kill the part of us that is a new creature, innocent and just before God over and over by introducing sin back in to soul of the sinless. God gives us a clean slate and makes us knew, gives us life and through the same selfishness that caused us to need His sacrifice in the first place we make sure we need it  again. We return to Egypt. We put back on the chains. We dance on our way to self-destruction.  That's what always happens when we try to fight our old nature and resist temptation with our own wills, with our own minds and in our own strength.

We are made to find rest in our relationship with our Daddy. We are set free by His grace and power and not our own. It is that same grace and power that keeps us free and gives us the ability to continue in the right direction. And when the sirens call again? When temptation whispers to us in our own voice? When the dissatisfaction grows once more as pressure to return to Egypt? He is once more the only answer that brings life.

Today I celebrate 62 months of being clean and sober from drugs and alcohol, but before I can preen about that too much I remember that in the last few hours, within moments of waking I failed in other areas, I shook my hands to feel the shackles and felt relief at the familiar comfort of their presence and my selfishness still in tact. One day I will be completely like Jesus and unable to hear  the ghost of the man I was before calling me to sin. Until then, I need to quite trying to fight that old nature, quit struggling with sin, quit resisting temptation, just quit trying to do it and surrender to the only One who can. We all need to stop acting like serial killers hiding in the remaining darkness of our hearts targeting our own souls.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 16 ~ Just Plain Bad

I am not a very good husband. In fact I am not a good husband at all. Thankfully my wife would vehemently disagree with that. She would argue that I am a good husband, and I am extremely grateful for that. But she's wrong. I know she's wrong because I am not even a good man. How can a man who is not good be a good husband? 

I am a preacher, but I'm not a good Christian. In fact I am a very bad Christian. My first instinct is to do my own thing, and my own thing is rarely if ever what God's thing is. I struggle with unbelief. Not that I don't believe in God or the truth of His word. But I have trouble at times believing it for me rather than for you.  I don't do a good job of walking in the will of God. Quite often I can't even want to. But there are some who  know me who would say that I am indeed a good Christian. They are wrong.

There are even some who despite knowing my past mistakes and failures would say that I am, when all is said and done, a good man, or at least more good than bad. They are wrong as well. I am not good, but over the past several years I have been able to live in such a way that people often see me as good or at least decent, as a light in the darkness, a good Christian, and a good husband, So what is the deal? Are they all grading on a serious curve, or failing to see through some disguise and pretense on my part? No. There is no grading curve on our actions, and I simply do not have the skill or energy to act against my nature often enough to make people believe it, especially my wife who I spend almost all my free time with.

No it's not about my being good and not realizing it or about being a good actor. It's grace. The grace of God is more powerful than even my broken human nature. Grace is not the freedom to be yourself. It's not the freedom to be you in all your selfish glory. It's the freedom and power to be the you that you can't even pretend to be very long, the you that you were created to be, the you that you wish you were. It's the power to  love instead of being selfish, to chose God's will over your own, to do what's right instead of what's wrong. It's the power to defeat the idea that we've always been this way and therefore always will be, whatever "this way" is. 

Today I can be what I am not and never could be on my own. I can be and act like a child of God, I can be a loving and unselfish husband, I can be a good man who believes the truths of God are for all of us, even me. But it's not me. It's Christ in me. And I'm telling  you that on my own I am not, never have been, never will be any of those things. I am hedonistic, narcissistic, self junkie. If the grace of God is powerful enough to set someone as messed up as me free from the bondage of self, then imagine what it can do for you. And the beauty of it all is you don't have to do anything other than give up the fight. Surrender. It's that easy. Ok, it's that hard, but it sure beats hating what you see in the mirror of your soul when it all gets quiet and dark. 

Unshackled Moments ~ July 15 ~ Remembering To Dance

My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening to active assistance, is simply bad; and I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else.

~ C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Sometimes I forget to dance. 

~ Kristin Woodard

I read the above C.S. Lewis quote during Leah's and my reading of The Problem of Pain a couple of days ago, and it's been on my mind off and on since. The second quote I read this morning, and it struck me as just as profound as Lewis'. Now, I don't know what prompted my sister-in-law to write that she sometimes forgets to dance, or exactly what she herself actually meant. There was no context, only that one sentence. But my first thought when I read those words was, "Me too."

Sometimes I forget to dance. Quite often I fail to rejoice. I say a quick thank you to God when I appreciate something or when something goes my way, and at the end of the day I publicly declare five things that I am grateful for on that particular day. Then, I rest easy feeling that I have a grateful heart and all is well. But being thankful and grateful are not necessarily rejoicing. And let me be honest here, there are plenty of days I spend way too much time griping and complaining. Just because I can remember to be grateful throughout the day and at its end doesn't mean that I have been grateful the entire day.

Philippians 4:4 tells us to rejoice in the Lord always. Always, a word that means at all times and on all occasions and guarantees by its very presence in that verse that we will fall short. Rejoice, to take delight in the Lord and His love for us. I usually enjoy my motorcycle rides to and from work, even when I don't enjoy them, I don't mind them as long as it's not raining or too cold. But yesterday I took much delight in the ride home. I actually laughed out loud with joy a couple of times.  Leah asked me why I felt so grateful for that ride and why I had fun, and I told her I often enjoy my rides. I just don't often put it on my gratitude list.  That's true, but yesterday was different. I don't know why. I didn't really think about it until now. Perhaps it was due to not hurting much for the first time in weeks made it easy to feel joy. Maybe the time I spent in solitude with God during the work day  improved my attitude in ways that I didn't even realize needed improving and made it impossible for me not to rejoice.

I don't know.  I do know that I bounced to the beat of my Pandora music praising God all the way home and took much delight in every curve and turn on the way home. I know that I danced on that bike and in my spirit  on the way home. I know that it's been far too long since I have done so. I know that sometimes I remember to dance, but that most times I don't. Most of the time the aches, pains, stresses and worries of life take the joy of the music of the day away. But life is good when the Lord is a part of it, even  when it's hard and there's pain. Today I will listen to the music of praise in the world around me and try to ignore that which conflicts with my dance with my Lord. I will dance with the One who brung  me and brought me through it all to this moment where I can find rest and joy in Him.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 14 ~ Healing

Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.

~Mark 1:29-31

Healing, is an act of mercy and grace. Even natural healing is a miracle of the Creator's love for His creation, a great design that allows the broken to repair itself. Sometimes that doesn't or can't happen though, or sometimes that natural miracle will take too long. And sometimes during those times, miraculous healings outside the realm of the natural method occur when we receive a special touch from God. These are exciting and make great testimony of the love and power of God. They also make life easier. But there is a purpose to them. We have the difficulties of our illness and shortcomings removed so that the removal of them may bear witness of our God's great love, power and way of life and so that we can be of service. Healing is not God's way of feeding our addiction to instant gratification. He is not caving to the tantrums of a spiritual toddler demanding to feel better now. If our going through the slower and more natural method of healing will make us better able to respond to Him and find our strength and hope in Him, or for that matter if simply finding the grace to go on without being healed at all and learning to turn to Him in the midst of and despite our pain, then that may be what happens.

God uses what we are going through to bring us to Him and make us able to be a light and of service to others. We might always feel and believe that the most miraculous and comfortable alternative would serve that purpose best, but God knows better. He knows when taking away our sickness instantly will lead to immediate service, and when it won't. He also knows when years of being bed ridden will lead to lives that produce lives like Eliza Hewitt , who wrote the words "Sing the wondrous love of Jesus; sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansions bright and blessed he'll prepare for us a place. So no matter what we are going through, and whether we find miraculous relief or not , let us turn to God and not away. Let us remember His love is enough and what matters, even if the healing doesn't come (and even if it does).

Unshackled Moments ~ July 13 ~ Loving More Than Mere Kindness

By Love, most of us mean kindness—the desire to see others than the self happy. And not happy in this way, or in that; just happy. What most of us mean by God is not so much a Father in Heaven, as a grandfather in heaven—a senile old benevolence who, as they say, liked to see the young people enjoying themselves, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be said at the end of each day, that a good time was had by all.

~ C.S. Lewis ~ The Problem Of  Pain

It's all to easy to use the idea of love and goodness as an excuse to be selfish. If God is love and if God is good then why would He let life be so hard? If God isn't going to make my life easy and make me happy I will. If God loves me then He would want me to be happy and this makes me happy so I should be able to do it, whatever selfishness "this" is, without consequence because of grace and love. Balderdash.  God actually loves us. He isn't merely kind to us. He doesn't want us to merely feel good. He wants what's best for us. And that means at times that what He wants for us won't feel good. Sometimes love means helping someone become the best them they can be and so includes things like learning to clean up after yourself, going to the dentist even when it scares you, not playing in the street, not running with scissors and many many more things which may put a damper on the fun of the moment and therefore feel unkind but in the long run will result in a better and closer relationship with God and produce spiritual fruit in our lives far more satisfying than our selfishness. Refusing to allow us to follow our every whim and worship at the altar of our instincts and impulses does not prove that God is not good or that He doesn't love us. On the contrary it shows just how deeply He does. Sadly though, one of the side effects of the free will He gave each of us means that there will be times because of our choices and or the choices of others that life is hard, tough and miserable. Still, God is good. The key to surviving the suffering with our joy intact and a closer relationship with our Creator is to, as Lewis wrote, discover how, despite perceiving a suffering world, God is indeed still good and to come to the understanding that God's goodness and the pain of life do not cancel each other out all the time, but when they do, praise God, it is the pain that is canceled, because nothing cancels out the goodness of God.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 12 ~ Wrong Password

I just gave myself a little fright. I tried and failed to log into my email account, more than once. What scared me a little and frustrated me more is that I felt absolutely sure that I entered my password correctly, I knew that I hadn't changed it, and it should be letting me in. The username is automatically filled, so that part wasn't even in question. As I took in a breath to express my frustration and anger at my stupid email provider I happened to notice that my caps lock was on. Click. Easy fix, and I logged in without problems.

So what went wrong, besides the fact that I didn't rest well last night and have had no caffeine this morning? Nothing really. For good reasons, security, they set their page up so that ******* show up instead of the characters I type. Because of this I can not see that it's typing caps when it shouldn't be and vice versa due to the caps lock being on.  Knowing that I hit the right keys I don't understand why it's not working and start to worry about something having gone wrong with my account or of being hacked, and I do it all again, getting more and more frustrated with each fail and afraid that they will lock me out if I get it wrong one too many times.

They'll do that. After a few failed attempts to put in the right password they will shut the account down and lock you out. We do the same thing with people. After a certain number of failed attempts to prove trustworthiness we shut down that account, whether it's a friendship account, family account. business account or what have you. The number of attempts may vary, but every person has a limit, and once it's reached the relationship is closed until the untrustworthy one jumps through enough hoops to prove they deserve another chance.

I am so grateful that our Daddy isn't like that! His mercies are new every morning, which is good because it usually doesn't take long into the day before I've already fallen short of Holiness and Righteousness. When it comes to reacting and doing right, I simply can't get the password right. My fingers can't type the characters without mistakes and I can't seem to ever know when the caps lock is on. But thanks to His amazing grace, I can have forgiveness, peace to rid myself of the frustration and fear, the guidance of the Holy Spirit to reveal the problem, and then the power to type it right doesn't even come from me. That's what grace is all about. It not only bypasses the security that we could never get through on our own, but makes it possible for us to live as we should. It is the forgiveness for the failures and the power not to fail at the same time.

Today let us cling to grace and let go of condemnation, fear and frustration. We can go right into the presence of God. The blood of Christ covers all our mistakes. The power of the Spirit is in us so that we can please Him who created us. Rejoice our password has been accepted and we've been allowed in...even though we got it wrong!

Unshackled Moments ~ July 11 ~ Survivng The Swamps Of Sadness

Right now I will be transparent and admit that I am feeling overwhelmed and defeated, attacked and robbed.  I can get that way. The truth is that although much, if not most, is "right" with life and I know that I have been extremely blessed, when it feels like Satan and life are teaming up to kick my butt, rob me of the blessings I believe God wants to give me, make my life harder, stop or punish what is good and generally steal my joy it's all too easy to surrender and let the joy slip away. Even though I know what I feel isn't true and that self pity is dangerous and addictive it can be so hard to shake. Sometimes knowing you're being foolish and are wrong doesn't make it easy to let go and get right. Maybe I'm the only one, but I seriously doubt it.

The thing is that when God has blessed you and wants to do more, when you have found the peace and joy that comes from relationship with your Creator the enemy conspires with your old nature, with circumstances, with emotions, with the wrong wills of others, etc to stall or destroy your spiritual progress. It's not paranoia when they're really out to get you, and the enemy is a roaring lion seeking whom he may destroy.

No sometimes knowing the truth doesn't make everything OK like a magic finger snap. Sometimes we have to walk through the funk. It sucks, but one of the truths that our circumstances can't change is that God's grace is sufficient. Remembering the truth and that what God says is more real than our feelings, regardless of what or how strongly we feel them may not be an instant fix, but it can make the fix possible. The truth may not be instant freedom, but it is what makes us free. The truth is that God is good, even when life feels bad. That God loves us, even when it seems like curses outweigh blessings. That as long as we go toward Daddy when we feel lost and it hurts instead of running and hiding from Him or turning to another solution we can have hope. The trial will end...eventually.

The plans of the enemy will be thwarted and love will conquer fear and doubt and pain. It will happen. I can't promise how quickly it will happen, and I can assure you that there will be times when it takes longer than we would like, but it will happen. Don't give  up. Don't turn away from God before the break through. Don't get stuck in the mire of the funk. It takes a lot of energy to get through the slough, but we have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don't sit down and sink into the swamps of sadness. Move. Don't die. Even if all you can do is cry out to God you're making a move in the right direction. Keep calling. Keep asking. Hard times are part of life, but they are also temporary.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 10 ~ The Killer Is Waiting Behind The Door!

"In a thousand trials, it is not just five hundred of them that work 'for the good' of the believer, but nine hundred and ninety-nine, plus one."

 ~ George Mueller

The are hardships that we go through that God never intended for us to have to face. But doesn't God know what's going to happen even before it happens? Yes, but  that doesn't mean that it is what He wants for us. God has granted mankind a special and powerful gift called free will. In some ways it makes God a little helpless and powerless like we are when we watch a movie and start talking to the screen, telling the heroine not to go back in the house because the killer is waiting for her there behind the door. She never listens. When we feel tension for a character in a book or movie it's because they are about to do something or have something done for them that we know will result in something that we wouldn't put them through. But this isn't fiction. It's our lives, and God is not completely a powerless viewer despite giving us the free will to ignore His voice and walk back into the danger zone time and time again.

He has the power to tweak the script. He can work things so that they can work for good, despite the choices we have made and the choices others have made that have effected us and that were mistakes or that should bring only destruction or were intended for evil against us,  He can make those disasters work for our good and the good of others. Every experience can eventually bring about good for us through God as long as we continue to turn to Him and submit ourselves to His will. So even when we've been falsely accused or mistreated and thrown in the pit for decades like Joseph, God can rework the script to bring about deliverance for us and many others.

The path I have walked is much different than the one God would have preferred from the time of my youth, without doubt. And yet, today I am in relationship with Him, walking with Him and helping others. Part of the way I can help others is because of the empathy and understanding I have because of what I myself have gone through. Just one example of God using my bad choices and the choices of others that broke and nearly destroyed me for good. But He  can't put His script into action in our lives until we surrender to His will. As long as we keep our will first we will continue to be deaf to His cries for us to avoid the danger that is so obvious to Him.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 9 ~ The Lord The Day Has Made

This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Many of us know this verse. It can serve as a great reminder that God is in control even when it doesn't feel like it and when things aren't going the way we want or expect. But how often in the truth of belief that shows in the fruit or results of our thoughts, attitudes and actions do we get it mixed up and reversed? Why is  it that all too often we live it as this is the Lord that the day has made.

We confess that God has made the day but the way we respond to our circumstances and situations of the day all too often defines how we see God. We declare God is good and faithful when we feel it, but when we feel confused, frustrated, depressed, etc. we wonder where He is.  God must not really love us if He allows us to hurt. If God made the day why does it suck? If I am supposed to rejoice and be glad why doesn't He make it  so that I feel like doing so?

These seem like logical questions at the time our spirits ask them, but what they reveal is less logic and more idolatry. When we let how we feel dictate our response to God and the truth of who He is, we are worshiping at the wrong altar. We are serving and submitting to the god of feeling. When we place how we feel above what God says about His nature and care for us, we declare our belief and faith in the heresy that our feelings are more accurate and real than the truth of God.

Today let us not serve the false god of our  emotions.  Let us dethrone those self centered thoughts that makes us see God through the filter of how we feel. Let us instead let the wonderful and awesome God we serve define how we feel and see the circumstances of our day, so that we can remember that feelings lie, that He is indeed Lord of Lords and Master and that despite what we may be feeling and going through we can and should rejoice and be glad. Why? Because He loves us and has given Himself for us. Because we are free to have relationship with Him. Because this suffering is but for a moment.

Broken Like A Baby Elephant

Dalyn Woodard shares on the truth that for Christians the chains that are holding us back from walking with God have been removed. In realizing that, we are free not to return to habitual sins and the darkness of the past. The message, "Broken Like A Baby Elephant," is about 32 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, July 8, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. Below the sermon is posted the song the lyrics were quoted from in the beginning of the message. It is "He Is Love (Love Has Come),"  Jonathan Lewis & Christ for the Nations Worship. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 8 Hating Life

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

John 12:24-25

I used to hate my life. I had no life worth living, and really had no life. I existed. I existed for moments of pleasure scattered here and there among the seemingly endless days of misery. I did everything I could to manufacture pleasure, or, failing that, to escape the misery through distraction and oblivion. I waited for Death, courted her and called her to me.  This is not what Christ meant when He said that those who hate their lives in the world will keep it for eternal life.

The truth is that I loved my misery in a twisted way. Loved may not be the right word, but I lived dedicated to myself. I spent each moment either trying to please my self or escape myself. My life was totally and completely self centered, and that means I fell in the category of those who loved their life to destruction. It takes more than dying. It takes more than destruction for a seed to bear fruit.

While it is true that for a seed to fulfill its purpose it must be completely undone and that looks like destruction, it's not been destroyed. It dies in line with the plan of the Creator, and that allows life to overcome death. If that seed is ground into powder it will never grow. Living destructively and hating our life is not the life God desires for us. He doesn't want us to hate life in the way we would think of hating life. He just wants us to value relationship with Him and love Him more that loving and living for what this world has to offer. Today let us die to self and this world and live for relationship with our Daddy and find in Him a life we can love.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 7 ~ The How And When

Samuel, the prophet of God,  anointed David to replace Saul as king over Israel.  David spent years, many of those with his own highly skilled army, knowing that he was called of God to be king. But he never attacked Saul. He refused to take the king's life even in self defense. In other words, although David knew that he would be king, he did nothing on his own or in what would make sense to people to make it happen. He waited for God to make it happen in His own way and time. That's not easy to  do, but it is by far the best way to live. Today let us wait for God to establish the things that He wants to establish in our lives and wait on the rest. He doesn't need our help to bring about what He has promised to do, only our submission and obedience.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 6 ~ Controlled Burns

I remember once as a child my father and I were on our way from fishing on some of my grandfather's property to my grandparent's home when I noticed my grandparent's neighbor's field was on fire. Most of the land was engulfed in flame, and I felt something needed to be done right away. I pointed the fire out to my father and declared that we needed to call the fire department. My father told me that there was no need to call anyone. The fire had been set intentionally. He called it a controlled burn.

I had never seen such a thing, and it didn't make any sense to me. My father explained that from time to time a controlled burn helped make crop land more productive. It burned off woody plants that interfered with crops. It rid the field of old dead plants, and somehow the fire renewed the soil and promoted new growth. It seemed counterproductive to destroy in order to make things better, but it worked.

Our life can be like that field. We are called to bear fruit, to have a crop for God. But after a while our soil can get old, plants that were supposed to produce fruit have died and their remains are littering the fields of our heart, and weeds and woody growth threatens to choke out all new growth. So God allows a controlled burn. We may freak and become afraid. We want the fire put out. Now. It burns and hurts. It's destructive. It doesn't make sense. But we're not understanding what God is doing. The unwanted and unneeded needs to be removed to renew us and make us more productive. Today let us not fear the fires that God allows in our life. Let us not become angry and bitter when they are not removed right away as we would prefer. Something good is being done, and we will be the better and more productive for it in due season.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 5 ~ The Lever Of Love

I have written more than once that The Beatles were right and all you need is love. I believe in certain ways the ideas that I attempted to express in those times were right and still are. But at the same time, I didn't have it quite right. I realized this when my wonderful wife wrote Love Is Not Enough ~ Outside The Inside Of Me. She said it far better than I could, and I believe it's well wroth the time to read it. But if it's true that it takes more than God's love to heal us, change us and bring us to Him (God's love inspired the actions, but it was the life, death and resurrection of Christ the has the power), it also takes more than our love to respond to Him.

Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey Him, keep His commandments.   It's true. Of course, it's true. Jesus said  it, but if we're not careful that truth can take us to the wrong place. It can leave us vulnerable to condemnation when we fail to obey, because we start to believe that if we love we will have the power on our own to do right, and therefore if we don't obey it means that we don't love. The truth is that if we love God we will obey him, but it's not just our love that makes that possible. No matter how much we love God we don't have the strength, will or  power to follow Him and obey Him on our own.

It's also a truth that with a lever we can lift or move a much greater weight than we ever could without one. But that statement doesn't mean anything without understanding how a lever works. We will simply find ourselves standing before the object we need to move with a lever saying, "Ok, I have a lever now what? Why can't I move it?" You have to know how to put the lever into its proper use to make it work.  We also have to know how to put our love to its proper use to move the mountains in our life and gain the power to obey when we couldn't before. "I have this love for God. Now what?" The answer is not to try to use our love to enable or force ourselves to obey but rather to use is to surrender and submit. We give up and give ourselves over to God out of love for Him.  And in our submissive state He can move through us, boosting our power with His own. It's through His power, and only His power, that we find the ability to obey Him.

Our love leads us to the proper position to walk with God. It is not itself the power to do so.  Just like a lever lying beside an object won't move anything until it is put in the proper position. Let us not get sucked into the lie that twists God's truth that tells us that if we love God we will somehow find it within ourselves to keep His commandments. We never will have that power. But love is the key to finding the position that allows God to move the mountain of our sin and selfishness and lifts the weight of our brokenness out of the way so that we can walk with Him and  obey Him.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 4th ~ The Purpose Of Coffeee

"My Mom doesn't understand that coffee has a purpose," Leah told me this morning in response to my asking her why her mom had bought decaf coffee. Before having my morning caffeine injection I can't imagine the pleasure or purpose of caffeine-free coffee. To addicts like me, coffee has a distinct purpose. Yes, I enjoy the taste. I love coffee. But truthfully the flavor just makes it palpable. I drink it for the caffeine. Caffeine helps me get going, helps me keep going and takes the edge off my pain. Yes, for those who don't know, caffeine is a natural pain reliever. It also helps me prevent headaches and other withdrawal systems because I have made caffeine a necessary substance through regular and high use.&

Yes, I understand that coffee, real coffee that has caffeine (extra if possible), has a purpose, and I can joke that there is no other reason to drink it. I can say, being only half serious, that my mother-in-law doesn't get it, because she drinks decaf. It's mostly in fun, and it's pretty trivial in all truth. But there is a similar situation that isn't trivial. Sometimes we forget that worship has a purpose. We like the way it tastes, the way we feel. But it can be a surface thing that we just do like drinking decaf coffee. It tastes right, but it's been robbed of its purpose and power.

Worship has a purpose. It has the power to take us out of our circumstances and into the very presence of God Almighty. It has the power to relieve us of the bondage of self in a way that little else can. And it's part of the process of getting going and keeping going in our walk with God. We have less power to walk as we should when don't worship with all our heart with spirit and truth. Yes, we can just mindlessly go through our day with praise and or music that gives glory to God, and we can keep gratitude in our forethoughts and similar. These are good things to do and enjoy, even if they are only on the surface. There are a lot worse things we could have pumping into and out of our brains. But if it only stays on the surface it's like decaff coffee. It tastes right, but it's just not quite real. Worship has a purpose. Let's help ourselves to a few big cups today.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 3 ~ Be The Tree

Billy Graham has often been quoted with his response to the idea that it's hard to believe in God because we can't see Him. He points out that we can't see the wind, but we can see the effects of the wind. For some though it's easier to believe that there is a God than it is to believe that God really, deeply loves them. They can't see it. They don't know how to believe in it.

We can be like the trees. Those who can't see the wind can see the effects of the wind on the trees. Those who can't see God's love for them should be able to see the effects of God's love for them as it changes and effects how we love and treat them. Today let us be the evidence of God's love to those we encounter. You never know how much difference a cool breeze can make when someone is going through a hard time.

Words Of Life

Dalyn Woodard shares on the subject of using our words as God would have us use them. Words have the power to give life or bring destruction. In the message, "Words of Life," which is about 58 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, July 1, 2015, Dalyn shows why how we use our tongue is so critical and how to tame it. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 2 ~ Wielding Our Weapon Correctly

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand... And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God... 

Ephesians 6:12-13 & 17

Most Christians are familiar with this passage, including the verses I omitted where Paul lists the armor of God. Everything listed in the armor is defensive and protective with the exception of the sword. The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon in the Christian's spiritual arsenal. And as verse 17 tells us, the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. So the word of God is a sword that pierces, a weapon, offensive as well as defensive. We get that. It's hard not to. We use it for defense, to protect ourselves, and all too often we use it to attack and tear down others.

Now wait a minute. It is an offensive weapon. We are told to use it, right? Yes, but let's keep the whole weapon analogy in context. Remember how this section starts? Verse 12 introduces the armor by telling us before the analogy that we don't wrestle, or fight or war with flesh and blood. The word of God is a spiritual weapon for use on a spiritual enemy. Our fellow human beings, even the most hateful, hurtful, anti-Christ people on the planet are still flesh and blood. Every one of them. Before we are told the word of God is a sword we are told not to use it on people. Do we speak the word of God to people? Absolutely. But we are to to do it in such a way that imparts grace, not as a weapon. It is used as a sword against spiritual things, but it is the Bread of Life to those who will eat of it.

Let's remember to present the truth to people as food and not steel. If we are following Christ it should be our desire that those attacking and persecuting us find the same love and grace in Christ that we have  found, not leave us alone and hurry up and die and go to hell. We, like Paul goes on to call himself in verse 20, are to be ambassadors of Christ to our human enemies. Ambassadors do not wield weapons against those they are sent to.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 1 ~ Offended Christians: A Spiritual Oxymoron

of·fend·ed:  əˈfendid/ adjective resentful or annoyed, typically as a result of a perceived insult.

It happens. Christians get offended. We get offended by other Christians, and we get offended by non-Christians. People step on the toes of our feelings and we retaliate.  We lash out with words, we cut people out of our life, and we justify our actions by telling ourselves and others how ungodly the other person acted. It happens.

But it shouldn't. For a Christian to be offended for long enough to react negatively is both foolish and a sign that we need to get a little closer to our Daddy, to surrender self a little more, that we are slightly (or greatly) off course with God's will. First, it's foolish because to expect a non-believer who has no access to the power of the Holy Spirit to act like anything other than a messed up human being is a sure way to be disappointed. The same is true of expecting fellow believers to always be in God's will and do what's right. It's also a sure way to disappoint yourself again. None of us are perfect, not yet. It's not going to happen. We're going to fall short and let ourselves and others down. We're going to blow it big time occasionally and hurt people. Other Christians are going to do the same. The difference is hopefully that we will realize when it happens, ask for forgiveness, try to make it right, get closer to God and improve, so that down the road it will happen less and less. We give God more and more control of our lives and in the process we are transformed into more of a loving child of God and less of a messed up self-serving person.

But it's more than just foolish expectations. It's sin. Yes, I said it. For a Christian to stay offended is sin. To be resentful is to be unforgiving. If we hang onto our right to be annoyed at others we are not also capable of blessing those who curse and despitefully use us. You can't be resentful and a blessing to someone at the same time. Both being angry at those who hurt or threaten us and holding on to resentment are in direct opposition to the love that Christ called us to and a failure to follow the example of the One who died for us when we were totally and completely in the wrong. And just one more parting thought. We are called to deny self and pick up our cross and follow Jesus. But in order to perceive an insult or wrong someone does to us is to be focused on ourself and what they are doing to us, how it effects us and how it keeps us from getting and or feeling what we want to. It's selfishness.

The correct response is to see that person who injures us, who attacks us, who annoys and insults us, with the eyes of Christ. Jesus values that person, even the one trying to abolish and destroy everything He came to provide. He loves them. We are called to do the same. We are going to fail. We are going to react with anger and fear rather than love.  But let's make an effort to give more of the reigns to God so that it happens less and less. Let our love lift Him up and draw others to Him rather than pushing them away so that we can be right or less offended, The cure for being easily offended has absolutely nothing to do with changing how the world around us behaves and everything to do with letting God change us, our reactions, our behavior, fill us with our love for others and the compassion and forgiveness Christ showed us. So that when people see how we respond, or better don't respond, to what would make most people annoyed and resentful in a way that shows the compassionate, gut-wrenching love of the Lord instead it will be a testament of the power of God to change lives and make us new.