Unshackled Life Ministries: 2016

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Unshackled Echo ~ December 31 ~ Still So Far Gone

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

May 30, 2013 as So Far Gone.

"I wanna be so far gone in you

So far nothing else will ever do

I wanna be so far gone in you

in you..."

~ Thousand Foot Krutch

There are times when I look at my life and the situations in it and realize that I've gotten one or two degrees off course. I'm not talking about slipping into the deep end of the pool of self or backsliding, but rather simply realizing that God and my relationship with Him do not quite have the priority that they should have. It's easy to slip into the performance mentality at that point and start thinking of all the things that I should be doing. I need to pray and meditate more. I should read and study more. I need to make sure to put God first in my life, etc.

And there's nothing wrong with those things, especially the last one. The idea of putting God first in my life is a good one. It's even scriptural. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..." I've heard repeatedly that if I put half as much energy in pursuing God as I did in pursuing those things I'd become addicted to that I wouldn't have trouble walking with God. I agree.

I don't want religion in my life. I want relationship with Christ. I don't have to prioritize my wife. When I wake up I don't have to make a choice to put Leah before other things and try to spend time with her. I love her so much that when I have a moment of free time that is also free for her my only desire is to spend it with her. It's not a choice, because there is no choice. I want to spend my time with her, and I do that every minute that I can. I have to try to force myself to socialize some and include others in my life, because it would be very comfortable to isolate and hole up with Leah and shut out the rest of the world. But I can't be of service very well when I do that. I've found the most satisfying compromise is to make sure I do my visiting when Leah can go with me. That way I get to see family and friends more but don't lose a minute with her.

I never once woke up and said I'm going to put drinking and drugging first in my life today. I didn't have to. It already was. There were times that I isolated and sought oblivion and nothing else. There were also plenty of times that I went to work, spent time with family and friends, etc that I was not alone with my addictions. But they were always right there. I was either using during those times or trying to figure out how and when I could use again.

I could structure and organize my life and put God at the top like a chore on a to do list. But I don't want that. It makes God a burden. Spending time with God becomes something I have to do to keep from messing up my life, to earn His blessing and power in my life, and that's no way to have relationship. I don't want Leah to feel like she has to spend time with me to keep from losing me. I want her to want to spend time with me the way I want to spend time with her. I'm sure God feels the same way about me.

I want to be so in love with God that my love affair with my wife pales by comparison. I want to be so consumed with relationship with Him that I don't try to put Him first it just happens. I want to be unable to go anywhere or do anything without my conscious contact and awareness of God being a part of that time. I want to be so far gone in my relationship with Jesus that there's no area in my life where I can say here I am spending time with Him and here I am not.

For years the first thing I did upon waking was reach for something to chemically alter my body and mind. I didn't think about it. It never got written down on a to do list. It was as natural a part of my day as breathing. The last thing I did each day was ingest something to change the way I felt. And all through the day my life was chemically altered. My desire today is not to feel the need to put God first. Instead I want to be so in love and consumed with that relationship that the presence of God becomes as much a part of each moment of my life that it is as much a part of who I am today as the drink and drugs were in the past.

The above was the first Unshackled Moment written, so early on in the ministry that it wasn't even called an Unshackled Moment. As I reach the end of another year, I know that I am blessed. My feelings for Leah are the same, even after another three and a half years as they were when I wrote this. I have to fight not to isolate with her, because there is no one I would rather be with. I know that there has been growth and improvement in my relationship with God as well, and I am grateful for that. Still, as Steve Camp said, "the closer I get to You [God], I see I am a stranger to Your holiness." It seems like the more I grow and learn, the more I see that one thing I didn't realize was how much farther I have to go. I'm still not there. But this is still my desire, and I pray that it becomes yours, Dear Reader, to be (still) so far gone in love with Jesus and that love be ever increasing. This is my prayer for myself and for you in 2017. God bless you and have a happy new year.

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

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

Friday, December 30, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 30 ~ Dare To Be The Light

Imagine a teenage girl from a foreign land swept up with other girls her age. She is carried to a rich man who chooses her over the others, and suddenly she learns that she is to be wed to this man she does not love and had never even met. Her older cousin, whom she lived with because both her parents had died years before, could not stop things or help her in any way other than to advise her to hide her heritage and do her best to please the man. It's a horrid tale to imagine. Would you want to trade places with this girl or have any woman you care about in her shoes?

Some of us have had a rough year. It may even be that there have been times you wondered if God truly cared, understood what you were going through or had just left you twisting in the wind. And yet, I would be willing to bet you had a better year than the the girl in the story I started with. That is not a hypothetical or fictional tale. This girl lived. She was real, and I wouldn't be the least surprised if she felt unloved or deserted by God. What had she done to deserve this fate, and why wouldn't God save her from it? The man she married wasn't only rich, he was the king of Persia. She became the famous Queen Esther, able to save her people from genocide after risking her life by approaching the king without being called for. You can read the tale in the book of Esther in the Bible.

The point is that this was not a fairy tale story. This girl was not rejoicing at being chosen. She was just a girl, and she was chosen to be married to a man who already had many wives and had just banished his main wife for not coming when he summoned her. The king didn't chose her after a wonderful dance where they clicked and she lost a slipper. He looked at her and chose her for her beauty alone, like a man picking a prostitute. She would be married for life, but he may be bored with her and done with her quickly, which is both blessing and curse as she would no longer be forced to lay with him but would not be free to even talk to, much less love or be loved by, another as long as she lived. This is not a situation you would find yourself in and think your dreams were coming true, that life was going to be wonderful or that you were being blessed of God.

But this nightmare put her in a unique position to bless and help many. She helped save you, because she saved the line from which Messiah came. Without her stepping up, risking death, and asking the king to spare her and her people (coming out as Jew), Jesus could not have been born of Mary in Bethlehem, and you and I would not know the joy of restoration with our Creator. What if your hard time, your nightmare that seems so far from a blessing and the protection of God actually put you in a place to be the light, help and the one who saved someone by planting the seed of love and truth that sets us free in their life? What if your moment of hell and hopeless struggle set you up to be someone's hero?

Let us look for opportunities in the hard times and dark places to be the light that shows His love, power, glory and way of life. Rather than growing angry and bitter and being allowed to suffer by God, let us be quick to see how we can be of service and of use in the place of suffering. It could very well be that we may look back later and see that we were actually blessed to be a part of something great in someone's life. We might see so much good come out of our struggle that we would, had we all the information in advance, have actually chosen to go through it and volunteered for the nightmare in exchange for being a part of the plan to set the captives free and save the lost. Instead of looking for the light and cursing the dark, we can be the light in the dungeon of despair.

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.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Jesus Is Our Love

Dalyn Woodard shares on what it really means to say that Jesus didn't sin. Jesus not only created but obeyed the Royal Law, and He makes it possible for us to obey as well. The message, "Jesus Is Our Love" is about 26 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, December 28, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ December 29 ~ Not So Lost After All

Sometimes we are not as quick and faithful to keep an eye on our spiritual compass or check where we are as often as we should. That, I think, is part of why so many at the end of the year, as well as the time leading up to a birthday, look back on the year and see how close to on course they are and how true they stayed on course over that period. Some may know without much review that they got off course and became a little, or lot, confused about how to get back to where they need to be. Some my not even be able to see how or where they got off track. But the truth is that we all get a little turned around and lost from time to time.

So here is a little encouragement for those who may be feeling a little discouraged and road weary from trying to get back to where they need to be, or something to remember for the next time you feel lost if that's not how you feel now.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

- Luke 15:4-7

Chances are that if you haven't read those verses before, you have at least heard the story of the lost sheep or have seen the cheesy paintings with a very non-Jewish looking Jesus walking with a little lamb over His shoulders. Jesus as the Good Shepherd, not letting anyone wander away without pursuing them, looking for them, and finding them. But have we ever really thought about this parable and what it means?

First, let's keep in mind the these 100 sheep belong to the Shepherd. They are His. We may feel lost and alone in the wilderness that we have wandered into, but we are His, the Good Shepherd's. That means that there is no way we're wandering off into the wilds outside His shelter without His awareness. I think, since this is a parable not an exact this is how it is with God tale, it's probably more along the lines of the good parent following the runaway child down the road, staying out of sight but there to rescue them if needed. Why not grab the child and force their return home? Because it is better all around for them to realize on their own that home is better and that they don't want to run away, that they want to go back. That is essentially what it means to repent, and that is why I think that idea is in the parable as well, since Jesus speaks of the rejoicing over the repentance of the found one.

Another thing to keep in mind is that despite the paintings, Jesus doesn't say anything about lambs. These are not helpless little lambs gone astray. They are sheep, old enough and mature enough to know better, to know the shepherds voice and His care and that what He has for them in the sheltered area is much better than what's in the wilderness. Still they, or at least one of them, wander off. I fully believe it's much more than 1% of the flock in real life. The important thing is that the Shepherd doesn't stand there saying, stupid sheep knows better. I hope it suffers and gets really good and sorry it left. No. He goes after it. And when He finds it? He's not beating the sheep, He's not punishing it for being stupid. He's rejoicing and asking others to rejoice with Him.

And one last thing to keep in mind. If He cares enough to go find the lost sheep, then He cares about the 99 who stay. He's not leaving them unprotected. It's a simple parable, so Jesus isn't going into detail about how and why the others are safe, but we know they are. They are all fine when He returns with the found one. He cares for them just as much. It may not be clear in the parable how they are protected in His absence, but it is clear for us. It's simply that He is not absent. God does not have to leave one of us, or 99, to pursue the other. He is God. He is able.

So when we are feeling lost, we can know that He hasn't forsaken us. He's there making sure that the second we look back over our shoulder with the understanding that home is better, He is ready to scoop us up and rejoice. We should know better, but that's not the point. The point is the repentance. And no matter what it feels like, if we didn't wander off, He didn't forsake us to go do something more important. Just because we don't see Him or hear His voice doesn't mean that He's left us unprotected and alone. He is there. We are safe. The 99 were never in danger during the time He pursued the one. Neither are we.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 28 ~ Spiritual Upgrades

In yesterday's UM, To Resolve Or Not To Resolve, we took a brief look at some of the reasons we may make New Year's Resolutions, some reasons we may not make them, and some things that will help us be more successful in keeping them if we do make them. The most common kinds of resolutions were also mentioned, with the most common being resolving to lose weight. But when it comes to spiritual resolutions, there is a different list.

The most common resolutions for Christians are to read the Bible more, followed closely by praying more, going to church more frequently or participating in Bible studies more, and giving more of time and money to help others. In recovery circles resolutions are often similar, to make more meetings, help others more, read and study the literature more, and pray and meditate more. There is nothing wrong with doing any of the above, but if something along these lines is on your list of improvements for next year, there are some things to watch out for.

First, although it wasn't mentioned in yesterday's UM, motives matter. This is true when it's the motive behind wanting to lose weight, stop drinking or stop cussing, but it is especially true when it comes to motives behind wanting or feeling the need to pray more, read the Bible more, embracing the fellowship more, helping others, etc. Is our desire to pray more due to wanting a deeper relationship with the One we pray to, or is it because we feel we should be praying more, that we don't pray enough or as much as others or as much as our beliefs say is spiritual and saint like? Or do we feel the need to pray more in hopes that we'll be blessed and good enough to somehow deserve for God to make next year easier, better, more comfortable, etc. than this past year has been? Are our thoughts on things to improve something that is on our heart because we want to get closer to God, to be able to grow spiritually in order to better be able to practice the principles of love and truth in more of our affairs and with more consistency and to increase our ability to be of maximum service to God and others, or is under the idea for improvement the desire to earn approval from God and or people, to measure up to how we see others or to how we want them to see us, is it for His glory or our pride?

These motive checks can be applied to any and all resolutions, and probably should be, because, as I said, motives matter. We can not earn God's grace, help, approval or acceptance. These are all freely given to those who will receive and surrender to His will. His love is freely given to all, whether they ever accept it or not. We can not earn easy circumstances by being more holy or having more faith. And we can not ever measure up or make ourselves saints. We are saints because of the work of Christ, not because of anything we have done. We can not, on our own will, strength, determination or power, do anything real to change spiritually or make ourselves righteous. We can not make ourselves kinder, more loving or compassionate. We can study and learn, but we can not make ourselves wise. We can see the need to give but we can not make ourselves more joyfully and lovingly self sacrificing. Like everything that we are powerless to do, if it is to be done, we will need God's power, His grace to do it.

So if there are things on your heart and mind that you feel would be good to improve in the year to come, whether they are spiritual or not, first check motive. Are we trying to meet a need within us that only relationship with God can fill with how we look or how much security we have or how helpful we are to others, etc.? Or are we simply wanting to be the best we can be and more like and closer to Jesus? If the motive is right, pray and look into the best plan of action to bring about the goal. Resolutions are not wishes thrown at the future in hopes that they will magically happen. If they are fulfilled, it is because of God's grace and us putting action into it. Let God direct the choices, the plan and give the power to do it. Stay surrendered to His will and rely on His strength and power. But it is our resolution, our resolve not to take our will back, our resolve to follow through in grace even when it isn't fun, doesn't feel good or seem to be making the difference in our life we expected.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 27 ~ To Resolve Or Not To Resolve

To resolve or not to resolve, that is the question. Yep, it's that time of year again. Many are already thinking about what New Year's Resolutions to make. Some planned them days or even weeks back as they chose to continue to indulge or overindulge in things during the holiday season on the promise to self or others that they would fix, correct or stop in the new year. Some, like me, may have quit bothering to make resolutions years ago after seeing the ritual as pointless due to consistent failure.

I think that the reason failure is such a common part of resolutions, regardless of if they come at the beginning of a year, at a birthday, in times of fear or crises (God, if you get me out of this I will never do [blank] again!) or after seeing or hearing something inspirational, is twofold. The first is that resolutions are often wish lists more than realistic goals. Now when I say that resolutions are often unrealistic I am not saying don't shoot for the moon. If people hadn't stove to do the impossible we wouldn't ride in cars, fly planes or, well, have gone to the moon. We wouldn't have little touch screen computers in our pockets that we can use to research funny videos and call to order pizza and text I love you with that make the wild imaginings of Gene Roddenberry and the late sixties episodes of Star Trek look common place.

It's OK to dream big. For that matter, we strive for perfection, and that's one impossible mark to hit. But we try. It's good to aim high. Shoot for the 100 and maybe you get the A. Shoot for passing and the C becomes hit or miss. But realize the difference between making a wish and setting a goal. The number one new year's resolution is to lose weight. That is the most common for many reasons, not the least of which have to do with unrealistic and unhealthy body image issues and guilt over holiday weight gain. So this year, many will say, I am going to lose weight.

It won't work. I am going to diet and stick to it. Probably not. I am going to exercise regularly. No, no you won't. Not for long anyway. When we make our wishes as resolutions they are often so vague that they are useless. Or we make them without really considering what we need to do or what it will take to make them come to pass. Lose weight? How? Where to begin? If I am not exercising now, what makes me think I will do anything other than hit it hard, maybe too hard, start hurting and quit again? How much weight? Resolutions need to be more than wish lists if they are to have any chance of being useful.

The second reason that resolutions fail is that we try to take control over things we have no control over and exercise power and authority that we don't have. So, I am going to eat healthy and stop eating things that are bad for me? That's when I realize that like many I am addicted to refined sugars or set in my habitual bad eating habits or that I just really, really like food that tastes good. After the weight loss issue, the most common resolutions are the swearing off of addictions. I am going to quit smoking. Or. I am going to quit drinking. Or... When we determine to do something that we do not have the power to to do, set ourselves free from bondage, change the nature of who we are, instantly break a habit years in the making, etc. we set ourselves up for failure.

There's nothing wrong with making New Year's Resolutions, or not making them for that matter. I may actually make some myself next year, and if I do, it will be the first in decades that I have done so. It will also mark the failing of the only resolution I have ever been able to keep, because years ago I resolved not to make resolutions. But there is something to say for what may be behind it. We are to aim for perfection. We are to strive to better ourselves. We are to search our hearts and ask God to search our hearts and lead us deeper into truth and wisdom, to the way that is higher than us. We are to look at our lives and return to God instead of complaining about our situation and circumstances. We are to set asides the attitudes, habits, sins and addictions that get in the way of our relationship with God and our service to Him.

But, if we make resolutions, let us be wise about it. Let it not be I am going to do better financially this year, but rather something like I am going to limit myself to not purchasing more on credit than I can pay at the end of the month, or some similar and practical goal that has a clear plan of action. We can research the best ways to accomplish or attempt to accomplish things that we desire and make plans. I want to lose 30 pounds this year so I resolve to limit my soda intake to x amount in January and reduce it each month until I have eliminated soft drinks. I will also exercise by doing something low impact for a short time in January and increase the time and stain of the exercise as I grow accustomed to each new level of activity. And most of all, if we are going to have any hope, than we need to ask God to guide us in deciding what changes need to be made, and in honest submission we humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings. Lord, I am now willing that You should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to You and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding. Amen.

We need only make the changes that will bring us closer to Him and help us to be more of service and more like Jesus. But that doesn't mean that we can't make the changes that we want for ourselves, as long as they don't become more important than the will of God for our lives or go against that will, don't interfere with our service to Him and don't cause us to fall into the grip of self, pride or condemnation as we succeed or fail. So we ask Him to guide us in the examining of our lives so that we see from Him what should be changed and worked on and how. This should probably be done far more often than once a year. We continue to take inventory and examine our hearts, minds, patterns and life. And if God shows us something should be changed, we need to remember our surrendered position, stay out of the way and let Him dot he work. He is transforming us from glory to glory. We are not transforming, changing or making ourselves. We don't have the power. I can not, on my strength, stay clean and sober in 2017. But God can keep me clean, and He has the power to bring about any and all changes He wants in your life as well, if He is sought and if you will let Him.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 26 ~ Looking Back On 2016

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 3:13-14

It's hard to believe, but we're in the last week of 2016. This year has been a pretty wild ride. There have been some good and great blessings, and some so close it could be tasted but not quites. There have been some achievements won and ground gained. Some of that ground has been given back. Some may have been retaken again, and maybe even this cycle has been repeated multiple times. Some goals were not reached. There were mistakes and bad choices and epic, epic fails. Others were shown love and grace. Others saw the old humanity without it being altered by Christ. Some were drawn to the light. Some were pushed away. Relationships were mended and torn. Life was hard. Life was precious and worth living.

Is he writing about himself or me or someone else? Yes. Yes, all of the above, because all of the above is true. All that may, no is, there is no maybe about it...is not the same is the degree. Some people had more of the blessings and the good. Some had more or less of not quite getting the breaks and finding success, reaching the goal. Some may have achieved most of what they hoped, while others may have only succeeded in surviving. You get the idea. Some had a great year and did well. Some did not. But none of us did it right. Not one of us made a 100 this year. No one reached that perfection in performance, in motive or in spirituality. You weren't holy one whole week, much less the entire year. Neither was I. Or that other person.

Yet at the same time, none of us were total write-offs. None of us, whether we failed or rebelled or even if we volunteered to give up our freedom and become slaves again, have reached that point where it is too late to be redeemed. We fell short. We lost. There was pain and hurt and disappointment and doubt and bitterness. We failed to show the love of Christ because we failed to love like Christ. We chose wrong. We reacted wrong to the choices and mistakes of others. We set out with good intentions that were forgotten before our destination was reached. We started off with selfish motives and stepped on the toes and bruised the hearts of others. But His mercies are new every single morning. His forgiveness is quick and sure. He runs to the prodigal who repents and reaches out with compassion to help restore the broken and the fallen.

So no matter how you'd grade yourself this year, A+ or F-, and no matter how you'd grade life and the way things went for you over the year from great to worst year of your life, it's time to let go of yesterday. The week before that. And the year. And all the years that came before this one. Thank God for the blessings and His grace and forgiveness and mercy. Ask to remember the lessons learned and the wisdom gained. Have the past remain close by so that the word of our testimony can become an effective weapon against the enemy to help set other captives free and so that our experience can benefit others. Then let the rest go. Stop looking back for the glory days. The glory days are to come. Stop looking back in sadness and sorrow and regret. You have been forgiven, and as the rest of Philippians 3 let's us know, no matter what it is that we lost this year, no matter how wonderful and precious it was, it was naught compared to what we have and will have in Christ. Remember the good and what is helpful. Let go of the rest.

Press on toward the goal of being of maximum service to God and others, of loving like Jesus and of getting so close to God that nothing can interfere with our relationship with Him. Let the new day dawn today, and the rest of the week and next year and all that will follow that. We are not perfect, and we will not be on this side of eternity. We can not take pride in our spiritual successes, because they are only possible by the grace of His power, and we must not walk in condemnation over our failures, because we have been forgiven and can be restored yet again.

Today is the day of salvation, the day to walk closely with God or return to Him. Today is the day to repent of the shortcomings and the rebellion. Today is the day to rejoice in the success of His grace and the richness of His love. Today we can be free. Today we can love and be loved. Today we can be clean before our Lord. Today we can be a light of love that shows His glory, power and way of life instead of being a reason for captives not to trust the One who wants to set them free. Today can be whatever God needs it to be and needs us to be as long as we are willing to surrender our life and will this day, today, denying self and following Him. The successes and failures of yesterday and yesteryear matter only in what can be learned and grown and shown of who He is and His love.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Light In The Darkness - Fifth Week Of Advent

Dalyn Woodard shares on the joy of getting what we want for Christmas and the light that makes life worth living. The message, "Light In The Darkness - Fifth Week Of Advent," is about 13 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, December 25, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Unshackle Moments ~ December 20 ~ That's The Power Of Love

There is nothing more able to inspire and empower change as love. When we find freedom from our bondage through a relationship with God we discover something amazing. First, God is love. We've heard it so often it is cliche, but it is also true. Second, Love cares for us. Love loves us. Not only does God have the power to set us free from the things we can't free ourselves from and restore us to a right and sound mind, but He wants to, because He loves us.

No, it doesn't make sense, especially when we are dragging ourselves out of the gutter we chose to crawl into, half dead or more, unable to offer anything and begging for help. He looks at us not with contempt or disgust but with love, and He doesn't look away. So, Love loves us and fills us with love.

We are filled with love for ourselves, but not in a selfish, conceited, prideful way, rather in a I am loved and valued by God so I will love and value myself as He does and stop destroying myself kind of way. He fills us with love for others. We ask Him to when we ask to be prepared and changed and freed to be of maximum service. It takes love to truly serve and give of ourselves.

As we work the steps to freedom we learn to walk in the power of God rather than our own strength, to live by love rather than selfishness. We love God, so we stay surrendered to His will. We love ourselves, so we use God's power to stop our self destruction. We love others, so we serve and clean up our side of the street, because of love and by the power of love, in order to show the glory, power and way of life of Love. And somewhere in the midst of all of that, before we are halfway through, we find a life worth living, a life we can love. And then we can stay free and shine that rescuing love into the lives of others.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 19 ~ Never Having To Say Sorry

Love means never having to say you're sorry. It means wanting to. Yes, I am serious, but no, I am not talking about that kind of wanting to say we're sorry because we walked by a butterfly which then flapped it's wings and six weeks later a hurricane formed and we didn't mean to destroy peoples' lives like that. I am not talking about trying to accept responsibility and make apologies for things that caused no damage or wasn't damage done by us. And I am also not talking about treating someone so coldly or badly or keeping them at such a distance that they come to the point where they want to say their sorry.

I'm talking about love and how it changes us from selfish, self-centered people into caring children of God. When we love God we will want to please Him, and when we know that we have done wrong, we will want to acknowledge it, accept our forgiveness, make it right with anyone we hurt and move on. Loving God is going to make us want to be right with Him and clean before Him.

Loving God also means loving those God loves, and that means others. What others? Every other you come across. And saying you're sorry, making amends and making it right with those others is so important to God that He said He'd rather that we go make restoration in our relationships with people than that we come and worship and make sacrifices to Him. Before you serve me, repent to your brother. Make it right. Not because you have to, but out of love for Me, for him and for yourself. You can't serve Me right if you are pretending not to be wrong in relationships where you were wrong, if you are feuding and fighting with someone that I need you to love, and you can not be a light to Me if every time you try to shine the light of My love someone can point out how you wronged them and never even tried to make it right. Love will want those issues settled so that we can be of maximum service to God and others.

If we are walking in love, we will be quick to forgive. So, there won't be any of that manipulative, passive aggressive (or just plain aggressive) treatment of someone to make them clean their yard. Clean your own property and let their trash go. If you really want to love like Jesus did then you clean your trash (He didn't have any), any of their trash that blew or got thrown onto your property, and then you offer to clean their property for them for free. You forgive before they ever say sorry, whether out of wanting to or feeling that they should, and even if they never do.

Love is not about who says sorry and why. Love is all about wanting to do what will enable that love to shine into the darkness of others and not blocking the flame with unforgiveness, with refusing to make amends for our stuff until they acknowledge their part, and with trying to excuse, justify and shift blame. Love is able to take responsibility and admit wrong and try to restore what was damaged because love is not afraid of rejection or judgment. There is no need to fear either of those things when we know that LOVE came and made a way for us to be forever accepted by Daddy and clean before Him.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

All you Need Is Love - Fourth Week Of Advent

Dalyn Woodard shares on why love is so important and how feeling lack of love or fearing lack of love effects us all. The message, "All You Need Is Love - Fourth Week Of Advent," is about 12 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, December 18, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Unshackled Echo ~ December 17 ~ Preparing A Place For Joy

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published as

Unshackled Moments ~ December 14 ~ Constructing A Greenhouse For Joy.

In addition to what was in Tuesday's Moment, Bridges Of Joy, one difference between happiness and joy is that happiness can be be constructed. Joy can't. You can put on a song that always makes you happy, or get together with certain family and friends with whom a good time is almost always had, or watch a guilty pleasure movie or any number of other things where you can manipulate the situation, and, as long as the obstacles are not too much and things go as planned during the process, you can construct happiness.a

In fact, that can be one of the problems with pursuing happiness past its borders. When life falls apart, our hearts get broken or the situation grows darker than the glow of happiness can reach, if we do not have or know where to find true joy, we often still try to create happiness in an environment where it can not exist. Since ice cream makes me happy, I'll sit here and make myself feel better by eating the whole container. But I don't feel better. I feel worse. Or sometimes a drink or three makes me happy, so I'll drink my cares away. But it doesn't work. Now I'm drunk, going to be sick and I'm crying in what's left of my beer. Or insert the distraction and instinct gratification of your choice and still feel miserable. There are things that happiness can not and should not be able to overcome.

Joy sustains us in the hard times as well as the good. It can endure through mourning and transform mourning into gladness, not by pretending there is no reason to mourn or by delusional thinking that somehow makes catastrophe OK, but by healing the heart and reminding us that our strength and ability to endure comes through relationship with God. Joy can not be constructed like happiness, because joy is not an emotion like happiness. Joy is alive. It has to come to us and grow within us. It comes as a gift of God, who can not be manipulated, so we can not make it come. But while we can not build, force or manipulate joy into being, we can construct the structure, a spiritual greenhouse if you will, that optimizes the growth and continued life of the joy that we are given.

When looking to convert our heart from selfish happiness seeker into a spiritual greenhouse for joy, it is important to remember the differences between happiness and joy. There is nothing wrong with doing things that make us happy, in and of themselves. God gave us the ability to be happy for a reason. But when we chase happiness rather than dealing with reality or while neglecting our responsibilities, to escape the pain of necessary grief and mourning, or to meet the need in our soul that only the Joy of the Lord can meet, there will be misery, problems and failure eventually.

First and most critical is that we must seek relationship with God through surrender of our life to His love and care. Job or no job, home or no home, car or no car, house or no house, health or sickness, married or single, etc., joy is not found in our circumstances. It is important to clean up our side of the street, and as we recover, many will find health, finances, relationships and more improving and changing for the better. But those improvements are not why we strive to recover and find freedom. The true purpose of freedom, like our purpose on the planet, is to seek and come to know God. It is through improving our conscious contact with Him that our joy will thrive. If our relationship with Him deteriorates, joy will begin to wither, no matter which or how many or how well we do anything else that helps joy grow. Jesus is the living water, and without water there is no life or joy.

Many of us have horrible reflections in our mental mirror. Self hatred is a weed that is resilient and chokes joy. Those who have read or listened to me minister often know that I am not someone who endorses the power of positive thinking, nor will I ever say I am OK, you're OK. Positive thinking that is not based on the truth of God is hollow and empty denial, and we're not OK. Not even close. Without the grace of God, each and every one of us fails to measure up. Not good enough. Never going to be. Can't pay the debts we've already accrued, and can't keep from going further in debt. Compared to the righteous, holy beauty of our Creator we are flawed and hideous and deformed by the curse of sin with which we were born. So no, I'm not OK as I am on my own and neither are you. We are not inherently good people.There is none good but God. We are inherently flawed and selfish.

That said, we shouldn't be hating on ourselves and hurting ourselves with behavior and thinking that demonstrates that we do not value who we are. We need to learn to look for our worth and value in places other than our lives outside of relationship with God. Daddy says we have value, great value. So much did He esteem our worth that He sent Jesus to be wrapped in flesh and die in our place. The worthiness of a perfect Savior was poured out on us, even as the hatred our worthlessness should inspire was poured out on Jesus. Jesus agreed with Daddy's evaluation so much that He willingly gave Himself to the will and plan of the Father. And the Spirit also agreed, showing it by actually making His home within us who were once filthy but are now clean before God.

Speaking of clean, we are forgiven, so stop beating yourself up about a past that the judge has declared off the docket. Everything we lack that we need in order to do what God has called us to do is available to us by grace, and our weaknesses actually show the glory of God and give Him honor. So stop hating yourself for insufficiency. He says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, so stop killing yourself trying to be something you're not or to fit a mold created by selfish, self seeking people rather than the unique mold that a God who loves you thoroughly as you are made to fit you. When you start seeing yourself through the eyes of Daddy's love and treating yourself as you would treat you neighbor (with the love and acceptance of Jesus by grace), then you will cease to hate yourself and trying to be something or someone else. The masks can come off. And joy in who we are in Christ can bloom into beauty.

But remember that we are not the only flower in the garden. As we learn to love ourselves with the love of Christ, by the grace of Christ, we must also love others with that love. Become a part of community. What community? That's between you and God. A recovery group, a volunteer organization, a church, a..... there are many options. But we need to be a part of something that requires sacrifice of ourselves and our time for the betterment of the whole, of others, and, yes, even of ourselves. Selfishness says I don't feel like it, I want to do my own thing, etc. Joy says I thrive in the love of Jesus, and that is given to you in order to give it others. As you have received help, freedom, relationship with God, love, and, yes, joy, freely give. And we can't give while we isolate.

The mercies of God are new every morning, and His forgiveness is complete, sure and forever. We are all held to the standard of perfection, and none of us can attain it. That's why we all need a Savior, why we all need the power of a God who is greater than us. Strive for perfection, remembering always that any ability we may have to even come close is only by grace in His might, power and wisdom, and not ours. But remember that He loves us as we are, not as we should be. This might sound like the value part of the building, and it is assuredly tied into that same corner. But there are far too many people killing themselves trying to be perfect, to present the image of never falling or struggling, of trying to be good enough. You can't. So quit trying and walk in the power of the Spirit by grace, and be as tolerant and forgiving with yourself as Jesus would have you be with someone else. Of course, the rest of the folks have long ago come to understand that they can't be good enough or anything other than a messed up, screw up and have quit trying completely. If you can't be good, be good at being bad. If you're doomed to failure, don't try. But we can walk with God by grace, in our weakness, He is shown to be strong. So quit using being human as an excuse to give in to self and walk in the power that we have through Him. When we walk by grace, not expecting some standard to be reached by us but still seeking to please God, we find our lives in the perfect climate for joy to bloom big, grace.

These are the biggies that I have learned. There are a few others that are related to and connected to these, finishing touches on the greenhouse, if you will. Tomorrow's moment [December 15~ Growing Joy] will look at the rest of the plans to construct a home for joy to dwell, grow and flourish.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the Unshackled Moments, Unshackled Echoes 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.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 16 ~ Fraud

There is a television show about a brilliant young college drop out who becomes a lawyer at a huge and powerful Manhattan law firm. The catch is that he's not a lawyer. He knows the material, but he never went through the process. He never went to law school or passed the bar for himself. Much of his life is spent trying to hide the truth that he's a fraud, keeping from getting caught and dealing with crises that could expose him. Every time he goes to work he's anxious that the day has come when he will be caught or exposed and fired and or go to jail.

I think it's actually a common tale. Not being a genius or faking being an attorney, but the feeling anxious and fearing exposure part. The going through life wondering when people will figure out we're frauds. Sometimes I have to wonder if Jesus had been a writer and continued the story of the Prodigal Son if there would have been a part where we see him twisted up inside feeling like it's only a matter of time before everyone, besides his brother who already knows, of course, figure's out he shouldn't be in whatever position the father placed him in the company business. He's the same loser who ate slop with the pigs. He just smells better. When he plays the part of the good man, he's a fraud, an actor wearing a mask, and not doing a very good job of disguising the truth. But when he does wrong, that's when he's really being himself. It's so much easier.

If I were really a Christian, I wouldn't think thoughts like that. I'm not really a loving person. I'm a selfish person wearing a loving mask and pretending to care. I try so hard to do what's right but so often I don't really want to. If I were a real Christian wouldn't being good come natural and easy, like doing wrong used to? I feel like such a fraud. I'm not qualified to call myself a Christian because there's still so much wrong with me. If people knew the real me, they wouldn't see how to walk with God, they'd call me a hypocrite and kick me out of the church. I better try harder.

Maybe these thoughts, and ones like these, aren't common. Maybe it's just me that sometimes has this fight with the accuser that lives in my brain, the one that likes to tell me the convict is the real me and the preacher is a pretender. But here's the joyous good news, the argument is a bigger fraud than we feel we are.

As anyone who has ever been really good at being bad can tell you, with the exception of a few brain damaged sociopaths, it actually doesn't come natural and easy to be bad. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's in our nature to choose wrong over right. We all do it. It's in our nature and it's easy to want to do the selfish thing. But when we did wrong, at least at first, there was this ache, fear, this understanding that we had violated our conscience. There was guilt and shame. You actually have to fight the voice telling you that you're wrong, you have to live with guilt berating you for a while and repeat the act more than just a few times before you can finally shut that voice up and kill your conscience. Then, after all that effort and struggle and misery, guilt and shame, being bad seems to come natural and easy. But not really. We just moved the line. There are still things that if we were to contemplate doing we'd suddenly be confronted by that voice of conscience, back from the dead. If you do that, then you'd really be evil.

I'd steal from you, but I wouldn't beat you up without cause. Murder was out of the question. The truth is that we all had and or have sins that we justified, did enough to kill the voice and forget the guilt and shame and live as though they are OK and natural, while other sins remained forbidden, wrong, unnatural and evil in our minds. My point is that it actually takes effort and a lot of ignoring that voice inside saying we're wrong, bad, shameful etc. to live a life full of sin as though that is who we really are and how we are supposed to live, because it's not the truth. We were born to have relationship with God.

We forget that process, that constant cycle of sin, guilt, justification and excuse and lying to self about being comfortable with the sin and that it's just who we really are, feeling OK for five seconds and repeating it all over again. The good news, something to have joy about, is that if you have surrendered and bowed the knee to the King, you have become an adopted child of His. You are not a fraud.

There is nothing you have to do before you come to Christ that qualifies you to enter His gates, except sin. There's no test you have to take to be legitimate. You simply have to need Him (that one's the easiest because we are born needing a Savior), realize that you need Him and can't save yourself from your bondage, sin, addictions, bad habits, and self, believe that God made a way for you to be made clean through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and surrender your will and life to Him. That makes you legit. Not only does it give you entrance, but you are sealed as His child by the Holy Spirit. And that means that there need not be any anxiety about the other shoe dropping, exposing you.

No one can walk up and say you don't belong, just as no one can tell me that I am not David Woodard's son. Well, they can say it all they want, but it won't effect me because I know better. There's not some standard that has to be lived up to before you get disbarred, fired, kicked out and sent to hell. And if we even fought half as hard to ignore the voice that says we don't qualify, that we're not good enough, that who we were is the real us while the new us is the pretender, that we did fighting to ignore the voice that said we were doing wrong, that we should be ashamed. we'd be a lot more comfortable in who we are in Christ a lot quicker.

There is a God. You're not Him, and neither am I. He created everything that Has been created, has the power to save and restore and does not lie. He has declared us new in Him. He says that we're right in thinking we don't qualify nor deserve to be in the family. We never will. That's why the Son came, wrapped in flesh, to die in our place. Daddy doesn't look to see if we're qualified or deserving. He looks to see if we are covered under the qualifications of Christ. It's the rightness and sacrifice of Jesus that makes us clean and deserving.

So, yeah, that accuser is right. There's no point arguing about it or feeling bad. You're not qualified to truly call yourself a good person, or a loving person for that matter. Whenever a person is called such things it's always relatively speaking, as in they were good compared to other people, or good....for a human, loving more than not loving.... But when compared to the goodness and love of God we are all just pretenders and failures. So if you do start feeling good enough, loving enough, that's the voice to be afraid of. But the joy comes in the fact that we don't have to win the fight to change and be something that we are not.

It is Christ in us that makes us new. It is the love of Christ in us that loves others. It is the Christ in us that is good and gives us the power to ignore the voice of desire to do wrong and choose to do right. It is the perfectness of Christ in us that qualifies us and makes us deserve to call ourselves a child of God. It is Christ in us that transforms us from what we were to what we will be, and He, who doesn't lie, has promised to finish the work He began.

Oh joy to the world, the Lord has come!! We are not who were. We are not who will be. But we are His and clean before Him. We are learning to be like Jesus. It's not our nature to be Jesus. But it is the nature of Christ in us to be Jesus. The more we give Him control, the more natural it becomes to do good and choose right and love others. It's a process, a process that no one, not the devil, not you, not anyone else, no one, can say you don't deserve to be a part of, because the blood of Christ says you do.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 15 ~ Growing Joy

Yesterday's Moment, Constructing A Greenhouse For Joy, looked at some of the main things we can do to make our heart and life one in which joy will grow and flourish. We can not force or manipulate or construct joy itself into being; it is a gift from God and is because of Him. The joy that lasts and can not be destroyed by circumstance comes only through relationship with Him. Still though, there are things we can do to make our lives more suited to sustaining and being aware of both primary and secondary joy (for more on what those are, I talked about them in last night's message (Jesus Is Our Joy).

Today I want to add to the foundation built yesterday. Here are some ideas for finishing touches on the greenhouse, for strengthening and for making our lives even more able to grow and sustain the joy we are given.

Cultivate a grateful heart full of thanksgiving for what is good, right, pleasurable or at least better than it was. When feeling like there is nothing or almost nothing to be grateful for, actually writing a gratitude list can help and force us to change our focus and perspective. Have you ever stared at a light for a while and then, when you looked away, it was hard to see what was really in front of you because of the afterimage from the light floating in your field of vision? We can get like that with our mental and emotional vision as well. We've spent so long looking at the problems, the stresses, what's wrong with us, with the people around us, the problems and the things and situations that make us feel ungrateful that when we decide to look somewhere else and focus on solution and our relationship with God, we can't see or feel anything but the afterimage. We feel like there's nothing else to see, and we close our eyes in disappointment, regret and disbelief, and give up before we give our spirit time to adjust and clear the afterimage from our mind and emotions so that the solution can shine through.

Instant potatoes take a few minutes, as does instant rice. Even an instantaneous touch from God might take a minute, but in truth there are few instant fixes in our healing and restoration. Sometimes things progress in such a way that we can not even see that anything has moved or changed. Like a child who wishes he would hurry up and grow bigger, we stare in our mental mirror and wonder why nothing ever changes. But when the grandparents or friends who haven't seen us in a while are shocked at how much we've grown, how much we've changed, we begin to realize the extent of growth in our life. One thing that can help with the image we see when we wonder if our life is changing and if we are moving toward the Promised Land rather than just wandering around in the desert is to use a joy can.

Joy can? Yep. Take a container, such as an empty coffee can (you can be as simple or as fancy as you want, decorate it or not - it just needs to be a solid container that can be easily opened and closed and will keep what is inside relatively safe and dry). Each day take one thing that you are grateful for that day, write it on a piece of paper and put it in the can. Be as specific as possible, especially with things that we are grateful for often. I wouldn't write that I am grateful for Leah. I am. Every day. but writing something like this is better. I am grateful for the way that she loves and cares for my mom. Or, I am grateful that she never leaves for work without letting me kiss her. What an awesome way to begin my day.

In addition to the one item of daily gratitude, on separate pieces of paper, put anything that made you feel especially happy, safe or blessed that day, and any answers to prayer or what you notice of God working and moving in your life and on your behalf. If you don't like the can, this can be done with a notebook/journal, but there is something fun about taking the can during a tough time when everything seems horrible and like it's been that way forever and always will be, removing that lid and dumping all this paper out in front of us and reading scrap after scrap of the goodness of God in our life. Either way though, doing this or something like it will train our eyes to look for the things to be grateful for through the scenes and afterimages of despair and disappointment.

We are not spiritual beings on a physical journey, nor are we physical beings on a spiritual journey. We are also not only what we think or feel. We are thinking, feeling spiritual and physical beings. The spirit is eternal and the spiritual is what matters most, but we can't neglect any aspect of our being and expect not to feel the effects of doing so. Seek to feed and exercise the spirit, work those praise muscles and stretch the spiritual body to reach further and further into gratitude and truth and love. But there are also things we can do for the rest of who we are that can help increase our ability to feel and recognize joy in our life. Mentally do things that make us think rather than simply being fed the thoughts and ideas of others. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things (Philippians 4:8). Work to redirect your thinking to the things that draw you closer to God. Also do mental exercises to strengthen, quicken and improve mental acuity.

Emotionally strive to learn to deflect the triggers that send us spinning off, or avoid them completely. When we do hit a slippery patch and begin to spin, learn to relax and take your hands away from the controls. What we instinctively do during those times usually only makes things worse, but when we get out of the way and let God have His way and have control we come out of the skid much more quickly and in a safer way.

But we are also physical. Stay active. Move. Do something like yoga or exercise or something to work the body some. Healing and strengthening the body can boost our mood, but it can also slow and reverse the tendency toward depression. Some of us have greatly damaged our bodies over the years. Taking care of our bodies as well as possible, even if injury or illness makes what we are able to do limited, can go a long way to making us better able to feel joy and improve our overall well being.

Serve God and others. Get out of self. If you don't know your purpose at this time, you still know that loving and helping people is always good. Do the little things for others that will brighten their days and lives and please Daddy. It's amazing how much that will turn out to make our lives better as well. Then, as we honor God and obey Him in the things we know to do, we will discover down the road that He has led us into a life or purpose, and that, even if it is hard and unrewarding by financial or other worldly standards, will be a great source of joy.

Remember what misery and despair and bondage there was in life without God and remember what has changed in relationship with Him. I am accepted. I am forgiven and clean before Him. My past is no longer held against me by the One who is the ultimate judge. I no longer face judgment in the future. I do not have to hide from or enhance my life and reality today. I am not doomed to continue to fail at every turn. I have something to offer my wife, my family and my community rather than only sucking the life out of everything and every relationship I touch. I could go on, and your list my be different, but if you have found relationship with God, there are things that have changed that can cause you to take comfort and pleasure in and be grateful for that relationship, if you learn to look that direction.

The clouds come in life, and there is no point in trying to ignore them or pretend they are not blocking our view of the sun or effecting our mood. Lack of sunlight sucks joy away, as does lack of Sonlight. But no matter how cloudy and overcast, we can still see the effects of the sun and proof that it is still there if we look for it. The same is true with God. No matter how much our view of Him is hindered, there are still signs and effects of His presence. In His presence is not just joy but the best and most joy that is possible to be had.

You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for ever more.

Psalm 16:11

Jesus Is Our Joy

Dalyn Woodard shares on how living for pleasure is seen through the life of Christ. Does God want us to have and pursue pleasure? The message, "Jesus Is Our Joy" is about 58 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 14 ~ Constructing A Greenhouse For Joy

In addition to what was in yesterday's Moment, Bridges Of Joy, one difference between happiness and joy is that happiness can be be constructed. Joy can't. You can put on a song that always makes you happy, or get together with certain family and friends with whom a good time is almost always had, or watch a guilty pleasure movie or any number of other things where you can manipulate the situation, and, as long as the obstacles are not too much and things go as planned during the process, you can construct happiness.

In fact, that can be one of the problems with pursuing happiness past its borders. When life falls apart, our hearts get broken or the situation grows darker than the glow of happiness can reach, if we do not have or know where to find true joy, we often still try to create happiness in an environment where it can not exist. Since ice cream makes me happy, I'll sit here and make myself feel better by eating the whole container. But I don't feel better. I feel worse. Or sometimes a drink or three makes me happy, so I'll drink my cares away. But it doesn't work. Now I'm drunk, going to be sick and I'm crying in what's left of my beer. Or insert the distraction and instinct gratification of your choice and still feel miserable. There are things that happiness can not and should not be able to overcome.

Joy sustains us in the hard times as well as the good. It can endure through mourning and transform mourning into gladness, not by pretending there is no reason to mourn or by delusional thinking that somehow makes catastrophe OK, but by healing the heart and reminding us that our strength and ability to endure comes through relationship with God. Joy can not be constructed like happiness, because joy is not an emotion like happiness. Joy is alive. It has to come to us and grow within us. It comes as a gift of God, who can not be manipulated, so we can not make it come. But while we can not build, force or manipulate joy into being, we can construct the structure, a spiritual greenhouse if you will, that optimizes the growth and continued life of the joy that we are given.

When looking to convert our heart from selfish happiness seeker into a spiritual greenhouse for joy, it is important to remember the differences between happiness and joy. There is nothing wrong with doing things that make us happy, in and of themselves. God gave us the ability to be happy for a reason. But when we chase happiness rather than dealing with reality or while neglecting our responsibilities, to escape the pain of necessary grief and mourning, or to meet the need in our soul that only the Joy of the Lord can meet, there will be misery, problems and failure eventually.

First and most critical is that we must seek relationship with God through surrender of our life to His love and care. Job or no job, home or no home, car or no car, house or no house, health or sickness, married or single, etc., joy is not found in our circumstances. It is important to clean up our side of the street, and as we recover, many will find health, finances, relationships and more improving and changing for the better. But those improvements are not why we strive to recover and find freedom. The true purpose of freedom, like our purpose on the planet, is to seek and come to know God. It is through improving our conscious contact with Him that our joy will thrive. If our relationship with Him deteriorates, joy will begin to wither, no matter which or how many or how well we do anything else that helps joy grow. Jesus is the living water, and without water there is no life or joy.

Many of us have horrible reflections in our mental mirror. Self hatred is a weed that is resilient and chokes joy. Those who have read or listened to me minister often know that I am not someone who endorses the power of positive thinking, nor will I ever say I am OK, you're OK. Positive thinking that is not based on the truth of God is hollow and empty denial, and we're not OK. Not even close. Without the grace of God, each and every one of us fails to measure up. Not good enough. Never going to be. Can't pay the debts we've already accrued, and can't keep from going further in debt. Compared to the righteous, holy beauty of our Creator we are flawed and hideous and deformed by the curse of sin with which we were born. So no, I'm not OK as I am on my own and neither are you. We are not inherently good people.There is none good but God. We are inherently flawed and selfish.

That said, we shouldn't be hating on ourselves and hurting ourselves with behavior and thinking that demonstrates that we do not value who we are. We need to learn to look for our worth and value in places other than our lives outside of relationship with God. Daddy says we have value, great value. So much did He esteem our worth that He sent Jesus to be wrapped in flesh and die in our place. The worthiness of a perfect Savior was poured out on us, even as the hatred our worthlessness should inspire was poured out on Jesus. Jesus agreed with Daddy's evaluation so much that He willingly gave Himself to the will and plan of the Father. And the Spirit also agreed, showing it by actually making His home within us who were once filthy but are now clean before God.

Speaking of clean, we are forgiven, so stop beating yourself up about a past that the judge has declared off the docket. Everything we lack that we need in order to do what God has called us to do is available to us by grace, and our weaknesses actually show the glory of God and give Him honor. So stop hating yourself for insufficiency. He says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, so stop killing yourself trying to be something you're not or to fit a mold created by selfish, self seeking people rather than the unique mold that a God who loves you thoroughly as you are made to fit you. When you start seeing yourself through the eyes of Daddy's love and treating yourself as you would treat you neighbor (with the love and acceptance of Jesus by grace), then you will cease to hate yourself and trying to be something or someone else. The masks can come off. And joy in who we are in Christ can bloom into beauty.

But remember that we are not the only flower in the garden. As we learn to love ourselves with the love of Christ, by the grace of Christ, we must also love others with that love. Become a part of community. What community? That's between you and God. A recovery group, a volunteer organization, a church, a..... there are many options. But we need to be a part of something that requires sacrifice of ourselves and our time for the betterment of the whole, of others, and, yes, even of ourselves. Selfishness says I don't feel like it, I want to do my own thing, etc. Joy says I thrive in the love of Jesus, and that is given to you in order to give it others. As you have received help, freedom, relationship with God, love, and, yes, joy, freely give. And we can't give while we isolate.

The mercies of God are new every morning, and His forgiveness is complete, sure and forever. We are all held to the standard of perfection, and none of us can attain it. That's why we all need a Savior, why we all need the power of a God who is greater than us. Strive for perfection, remembering always that any ability we may have to even come close is only by grace in His might, power and wisdom, and not ours. But remember that He loves us as we are, not as we should be. This might sound like the value part of the building, and it is assuredly tied into that same corner. But there are far too many people killing themselves trying to be perfect, to present the image of never falling or struggling, of trying to be good enough. You can't. So quit trying and walk in the power of the Spirit by grace, and be as tolerant and forgiving with yourself as Jesus would have you be with someone else. Of course, the rest of the folks have long ago come to understand that they can't be good enough or anything other than a messed up, screw up and have quit trying completely. If you can't be good, be good at being bad. If you're doomed to failure, don't try. But we can walk with God by grace, in our weakness, He is shown to be strong. So quit using being human as an excuse to give in to self and walk in the power that we have through Him. When we walk by grace, not expecting some standard to be reached by us but still seeking to please God, we find our lives in the perfect climate for joy to bloom big, grace.

These are the biggies that I have learned. There are a few others that are related to and connected to these, finishing touches on the greenhouse, if you will. Tomorrow's moment will look at the rest of the plans to construct a home for joy to dwell, grow and flourish.

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.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ December 13 ~ Bridges Of Joy

When you look at the characteristics and traits of those in bondage, those who are slaves to self destruction in any form, the common denominator is not joy. Addicts and other slaves to self and sin are not known for being a joyous lot. There may be a joyous mask the shows a smile to the world and may even have some people fooled, but in the silence and the dark when the distractions are gone and the energy to keep pretending has been spent, in the moments of clarity and solitude, when the echoes of forced laughter have all fallen silent, there is no joy. What there is at all times is a life driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity (Alcoholics Anonymous, 62).

There is an inherent deficiency and a spiritual sickness that causes our lives to become full of those forms of misery that drive us. It's not that we don't want joy. Oh we do. It is the desire to escape or cure the misery, to fill the emptiness and to divert from sorrow to gladness that led to the bondage in the first place. Yes, we were born in bondage due to the curse, but we volunteered for heavier chains as we lived for self and looked in all the wrong places and ways to find happiness, peace and love.

There is nothing wrong with happiness. Our ability to experience and appreciate happiness is one of the gifts of the way were created. But happiness is temporary and depends on circumstances. It is an emotional booster. Joy is the fulfillment of the soul that gives delight in life whether we are also experiencing sickness or health, plenty or lack, pleasure or pain. Happiness is good until we expect and demand to stay emotionally high at all times and never feel less than idyllic happiness. Happiness will always fall short when we try to use it to fulfill the needs of the soul rather than simply temporarily lift us mentally and emotionally.

By trying to make the temporary and the emotional and mental lasting and spiritual we have doomed it to destruction. It's like finding a small path with a small bridge that is intended for a person to walk across. It is perfectly suited to help a person get along their journey, if they are on foot. But it was never suited for or capable of holding the weight of a vehicle. To drive across this bridge will lead to destruction. It will collapse and not only fail to further the vehicle on the journey but is also no longer able to serve its original purpose.

Happiness can not bear the weight of joy. It is a light capacity, short bridge. Joy carries us over deep canyons and from peak to peak without us having discard what we have been called to carry. It is a heavy duty bridge. When we try to treat happiness as such, it soon collapses. It can't do anything else. So we chase happiness, and it crumbles beneath the weight of life and we fall into the ditch. We come to believe that joy can not last and the bridges will always fail, but we've been driving on walking paths and failing to see the strong and secure bridges of joy that would hold us.

If we do not stop the insanity of repeating the same action expecting or hoping for a different result, we will break all the tiny happiness bridges and not only will happiness fail to carry the load joy is intended to carry, but we won't be able to walk into happiness either. Even the temporary boost will be gone. But when we surrender to the One who can and will restore us to sanity, free us from captivity and break our bonds, we will discover the ability once more to experience true happiness. It may happen often and easily. It may not. But either way, let us enjoy it when it comes but not pursue it. Let us pursue deeper relationship with God, and by doing that we will discover the bonus gift of a soul fulfilled. When our souls are fulfilled in Him we can see and travel the bridges of joy across wherever our journey takes us, regardless of the weather, terrain or any other circumstance or situation.

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.

ULM