ULM

ULM

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 30 ~ Automatic Updates

My laptop attempted to update this morning. I postponed it for four hours and then went on a settings search. I hate computer updates, especially automatic ones. For too long to remember, I had the computer set up where I had to go in manually, tell it to search for updates and install them, Something happened within the past couple of months that reset the settings somehow and suddenly the computer began updating automatically. I would get a 15 minute warning before shutdown. I caught the first one by the grace of God as I recorded my father preaching one Sunday morning. Had I not gotten up and checked the recording levels in that 30 second window the warning shows up, the programs I was using would have been force stopped and the computer would have restarted in the middle of the recording. I saw it, postponed the action and continued recording. This happened every week for a while, then the attempts became almost daily, even though I did allow it to update.

This morning, I went back in and changed the settings. Now once a month  or three I will have to go in, tell it to check for and download updates and install the ones that I decide I want, but I won't have to worry about interference and shut down in the middle of something I'm doing. I don't have to worry about Microsoft sticking something on the computer I don't want (and no, I do not want to update to Windows 10. I love Windows 7 as is, thank you very much). I don't want to give up that control. I don't entirely trust Microsoft not to mess up something I like. I know that when set to do things automatically it seems to always happen at the worst, most inconvenient time. I like to pick when I check for updates, when I defrag, etc. I like to choose if, when and which updates I install.

Sometimes we treat God like I treat Microsoft. The Spirit pops up in the middle of our routine, during some activity we don't wish to postpone or stop and says it's time to communicate, we need to replace some things, we need to update, we need to change some things in our operating system. We respond with delays, not a good time, reschedule, we want to control the times table. Wait, we think, I'm not too sure about this particular operating system update. I'm pretty comfortable with the current one. Let's just leave things as are for now. I don't mind that particular flaw, drawback or problem too much. If I change it, I won't be able to enjoy this self function I really like.

No, God is not Microsoft. He doesn't have to debug anything. His updates are always better, always an improvement, and the things He wants to remove and change, need to be removed and changed. His timing is always best, no matter how intrusive or inconvenient to our plans and wishes. To follow Jesus means to allow Him to control, manage and transform our operating system. That means we need to set everything to automatic. Automatically check for instructions, updates and recommended changes. Automatically make changes and updates the Spirit calls for, without picking and choosing or postponing. Force stop all activity and applications to concentrate on updates and restart whenever the Spirit says to do so, because there is nothing going on in our lives, ever, that is more crucial than a system update. Ever? No, because if it truly were the Holy Spirit wouldn't pick that time to do it. God's will is always the best option and timing for us.

No, we are not the system administrator of our lives any longer. Give up control, even the control of when to run system checks and updates and communication must be surrendered. At least spiritually, feel free to tell Microsoft to wait.



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

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

Friday, April 29, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 29 ~ I Suck, Nerdblock Rocks

I recently made a comment on social media and to multiple friends and family members that put Nerdblock in a bad light. What I said was true, in the strictest sense, but since I had not examined myself and my part of things first, was not rigorously honest. How so? All that I said was that I was not happy with Nerdblock, or with Nerdblock customer service, which was true at the time.  But had I paused before reacting to ensure that I had the whole picture, to check my side of the street and the true reasons for my anger and frustration I would have found much earlier than I did that, while at the time I truly was unhappy with, frustrated with, and angry at Nerdblock on the surface, my anger in reality had little to do with them.

I received an email from the aforementioned company asking for feedback on the scifiblock box I received from them. I haven't filled it out yet, but the email reminded me that after the communication with customer service they sent an email to evaluate that experience, and I gave a bad review. I didn't do so publicly, but in reality this could be more damaging than my public action, as this could affect the poor customer service person's employment. I will be writing to the company to try to undo any damage my review might have done, but since I expressed my dissatisfaction publicly, I want to set the record straight publicly as well.

My dissatisfaction and anger were not the fault of Nerdblock nor warranted. Alex, the unfortunate soul who drew the short straw and handled my customer service, did nothing out of line or wrong and didn't deserve my reaction or my poor review of his performance.  As I took personal inventory over the past few weeks in order to deal with some things spiritually that have been bothering me, I finally began to see that none of my temper tantrum had anything to do with Nerdblock or its policies or employees. It, like most things that make me angry, was all about me. This self examination led to yesterday's UM Anger Issues Tick Me Off and also caused me to see that just sitting back and going oops, I was wrong, when my words and actions might have adversely affected someone's standing in their job and the company's sales, when even if only one person failed to do business with them because of my actions it would be too many and wrong. Hence the public admission of my part.

This all started with the purchase of a scifiblock and a comicblock box subscription, one month each, for my birthday. And it started with fear, that corrosive thread. That should have been a bright neon warning sign, because I can't stay afraid long without getting angry. I used my entire chunk of cash that my mother and father gave me for my birthday to get the boxes. What if I didn't like them? What if it turned out to be a waste of money? What if I should have bought the new Star Wars movie on Blu-ray instead? What if? The magic magnifying problem projector in my mind was working all too well. And part of my fear had to do with the auto renew aspect of the subscription policy. I still don't care for that, hate it really. But that said, most companies do it that way, so it is not a policy out of step with the market place, and if I had the disposable income to get the boxes regularly, I would likely love that I didn't have to do anything to renew. I only hate auto renew when I know that I can not afford the product and the responsibility falls on me. If I fail it will cost me something, and I don't like that. And that, if it's not obvious, is my foolishness and in no way a fault of Nerdblock or any other subscription company.

The information that I received did not have some important things to know, such as when the subscription would  renew, and I became frustrated with that. The times I tried to use the email link to manage my subscription didn't work at first, and when it did, I was unable to log in to the account. I assumed I had some time since it had not been a month since the first subscription, so when Leah told me that we'd been charged for another month, I became angry.

But if I am honest with myself, this was a failure on my part, not theirs, and my anger was really because of and at me. Had I not just waited, and contacted customer service when I first couldn't get in, the problem could have been handled a couple of weeks before I was charged. I didn't pursue taking care of my responsibility and risked being charged. I'm sure had I contacted them earlier they could have helped me before there was a problem. Especially, since, as I learned later, they actually had given me the information.

Through nothing they could control, my email, for reasons that I still don't understand, put my receipt email through to my inbox, but sent everything else that they sent me to my spam folder. This included the instructions that I couldn't find, a list of dates in which subscriptions are renewed each month and the assigned password that would have enabled me to log into my account. I didn't find these until after I had dealt with customer service and gotten upset. I knew that it was past time, but I had received no notice of shipment as promised. This should have been a clue to check my spam folder, but I didn't because of receiving the first email. I assumed I would have gotten anything else that they sent.  Had I contacted them when I first had problems and doubts or even checked my spam folder everything would have been fine.

I got angry because I felt I had failed, because I felt stupid for not being able to figure out how to do what I needed to do (a difficult task indeed with the information I needed in the spam folder), and because I felt like I had cost us money we didn't really have to spend. I was angry at myself but directed my anger at them for making me feel helpless, foolish and a failure. None of which they were guilty of. I complained that they charged me before the first package was shipped, which it turns out they didn't. I just didn't know it had shipped. Stupid Spam filter. I need to turn it off, if that's even possible. I can throw away my own trash. I complained about being charged early, when I wasn't and would have known it wasn't had I seen the email they did send which had the dates for renewal.

The customer service rep had no way of knowing I hadn't seen any of the several emails they had sent, which if read would have taken me through the steps needed to avoid everything I was upset about. He responded with what I am sure is the scripted response that they can not refund or cancel a subscription after it has been charged, which is clearly and boldly stated in one of the "spam" emails. If I were him I would have been thinking, idiot, you knew there were no cancellations or refunds after the (insert date here), why didn't you address this before then and not two weeks late? I can't do anything now!  Whether he thought any such thing though I don't know because he answered everything courteously and promptly with what the policy called for. I had tone as I responded that I found it hard to believe that it was impossible to cancel a subscription before it had shipped, as though he lied or was trying to con me out of money. But they did state the policy clearly. Not their fault I didn't see it.

About the time all of this was happening, I got my scifiblock box, which I absolutely loved. There was only one thing in the box I didn't care much for, and I am sure that many would like it very much. It was more than worth the money it cost, and I am happy with what became my birthday present. I expressed my joy and posted a photo of my haul, though I had to throw in a barb about being dissatisfied with the customer service, that, as pointed out, they didn't really deserve. Along with all of my great stuff, the box included notification that the next box was a tribute to Leonard Nimoy. I became thrilled. I love Star Trek and was a fan of Mr. Nimoy. At least if I bought an extra box it would be something I would love to have.

I still had not found the spam filed emails and had not cancelled the comicblock renewal and was in a near panic that it would be charged to me before I could get it stopped. I sent yet another customer service email stating that they better explain to me how to cancel it or do so on their end or I would be even more upset and public about it. I also stated that I wasn't as upset about the other now that I saw it was a Nimoy Tribute but didn't want to miss the time to cancel the comicblock since I had made it clear that I didn't want to renew, even if not through the proper steps.

They sent me an email stating that they had canceled the subscription that I had been charged for after all, an attempt to bend over backwards and break their own policy to keep a customer happy. They never had a chance. I was so messed up in myself that I got angry at that! It's embarrassing to admit, but I did. Seriously? I just told you that I was no longer upset because I wanted the Nimoy box and now you refund me and cancel it? Well, I had also said I couldn't afford it. I had ranted about my frustration. I had insisted they were making it difficult to cancel in order to get more money out of people, none of which was accurate. So they responded to paragraphs of such stupidity and ignored the little, well I guess it's not too bad at least it'll be good to get it sentence? Of course they did. They were not trying to make anything difficult, they weren't trying to trick me or anyone into spending more than they wanted and they were trying satisfy a customer that would not be satisfied because of his own issues and mistakes and things beyond their control. Thankfully none of the customer service correspondence went to spam.

Alex did nothing to be dissatisfied about. He did his job, above and beyond from the looks of things. I do regret not getting the Nimoy box, but had I seen the email with the renewal dates and instructions, passwords, etc. to cancel the box, I would have unsubscribed before I knew about it anyway. I am grateful that they did so much to try to satisfy my complaints, when I was in the wrong about their intentions and policies. I have nothing against Nerdblock. I am dissatisfied with my failure to check my spam box, with my foolish reactions and procrastination. I am dissatisfied with how I tainted what could have been a wonderful gift and experience. But I am not dissatisfied with them in any way. Should I have the money in the future to get another subscription I will not hesitate to do so, and I pray that the thought of having  to have me as a customer again does not make them cringe.

This has become more than a moment and is not a lesson or thought or meditation on freedom that normally constitutes these writings, So is there a point that could be helpful to you, Dear Reader? I hope so. Step 10 states that when we are wrong we promptly admit it. I admit that I didn't do so as promptly as I perhaps should have. I was definitely in the wrong. Also on the subject of cleaning up our side of the street, when the wrong is committed for all the world to see, so should admitting the wrong be. If we want to be free, we can not correct in private the wrong done in public, unless to do so would be better for the injured party. Regardless of how long we have been walking the spiritual path of freedom and relationship with out Creator, we all still make mistakes. False pride that it might hinder our message of hope to people if they knew we failed to walk in the principles we preach, such as don't react, practice restraint of tongue and pen, don't be controlled by fear, don't react with anger, when angry look within to find out why we are really upset before expressing that anger and more. I failed to walk in these. No excuses. No one else's fault. Not even the spam filter's fault, because I could have checked it at any time. No matter how much time one has in recovery, no matter what status we might imagine having as being an example or teacher, no matter how long or "strong" a Christian, no matter what position one might hold as mentor or minister, we all make mistakes. Do not be ashamed to admit it. Don't let feeling foolish and shame and pride prevent us from getting back to the basics. Don't compound failing to practice the principles that brought us to life and gave us a life worth living by failing to quickly do what we should after falling down.




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

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

Thursday, April 28, 2016

All Of Me

Dalyn Woodard continues the study of Romans with a look at the first two verses of  chapter 12 and how they offer practical information on walking with God in victory. The key to freedom in Christ and closeness to God, as well as victory over our old nature is not found in what we get from God. The key is in what we are giving Him. The message, "All Of Me" is about 34 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, April 27, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.




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

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

Unshackled Moments ~ April 28 ~ Anger Issues Tick Me Off

I had a bit of an epic fail recently, and I had an anger relapse. That may sound weird, but it's true because I lived in, with and amidst anger for so long it became a reflex, my go to reaction. When things didn't go my way, I became afraid, or worse, my fears appeared to come to pass, I was as quick to take a hit off anger as I was to drink or drug. Actually quicker since I could do that instantly and without income, whereas I had to at least reach out and pick up the other. This matters for multiple reasons. The scripture says be angry but sin not. Since I have never been able to figure out how to do that, it is better for me not to indulge in anger. I simply can not rage within God's will. I always act as my own agent, and, like a lawyer representing himself, turn my will and life over to the care of a fool who obviously does not have my best interests correctly identified not the ability to provide them.

Nope, when I get mad I sin. It's as simple as 1+1=2. 2+2=4. It's that I fail miserably to serve and love others as I should, as I am called to, as I usually want to. My amazing wife has been overexposed to toxic rage, basically from birth. She has healed much, but like a person who has discovered a deadly allergy, she is extremely wary about getting administered even a small dose, and rightly so. This very understandable fact means when I go off, even though it's about something else, not the least bit directed at her, it frightens her and upsets her. I know this, but when I relapse and get high on anger it's hard to shut that off quickly. Actually, it's as impossible for me to do as it is to control nature's thunder storms, but for some reason the fact that I can't stop it throws me deeper into the rush of rage and places me more firmly in its clutches. Only Christ can speak peace into the storm and instantly have the waves go still. I know this, but what I have also learned from experience is the emotional state that most hinders the bending of the knee in surrender is anger.

Fear, sad, doubt, confusion, joy, gratitude, hopeful and hopeless, when I find myself in any one of these emotional states I can bend the knee, either quickly or at least after a moment of thought and understanding what is best and most desired. Not so with anger. It possesses me, rises up within me even as I try to shut it down and screams I will not bow! And this makes me more angry.

The truth is that I can control my drink much better than I can control my anger, and I can't control my drink much or for long. And here's what makes anger so frustrating. I remember getting clean from crystal meth, which has a trait that makes relapse hard to avoid and causes serious problems. Meth doesn't all get used up and expelled by the body. It hides out and waits.  Later, sometimes much later, exercise or fear or some casual thing will kick it from its hiding place and after fighting to get clean, one suddenly finds one's self high with that oh so familiar rush, without having picked it back up. And of course the beast of craving is reawakened.  Anger is like that, at least for me. There are hot coals and embers that hide somewhere within me. At times I get warnings, a little warmth. Usually my wife lets me know because she can sense the coming earthquake long before I have a clue and feel the tremors shake the world.

But something in the sermon I preached last night, All Of Me, got to me as I came to review and reflect and do my evening meditations. I do not have the ability to ferret out the root of the anger weeds within me, to extinguish every ember and remove the kindling and flash fuel from my heart any more than I do to stop feeling angry at my command once the fire is stoked to life. I need power from on high to stand in the rocking, about to sink, ship that is my life and say Peace be still to the storm. I can't do it. I have no power over the wind and the waves. And yes, I know I capitalized the P in peace, because it is a particular person of peace, type of peace and place of peace. It is a peace that comes through and by the Spirit of God that can quench storms and survive while covered and surrounded by fear and frustration and even doubt.

That special and priceless form of Peace is also a fruit of the Spirit. I can not get it without having the Spirit in control and bearing fruit in my life. I do not need God to give me understanding about the whys and the roots of the embers. I need to surrender those areas with the rest of me, to lay them on the altar of living sacrifice. In submission to the Spirit there is Peace and the ability to live free of anger as I live free of drink and drug. But powered by my own will and nature I can not control when I will be angry again or over what or how much of a raging maniac I'll act like. The time to surrender is not when the storm rages. At that moment I can't bow. In that moment the Spirit is not in control of my life, because I have taken my will and life back and am unable on my own to give it back before the fires burn out and die down. But by bending the knee now, remembering that today is the day of salvation in which I must surrender and die to self in order to follow Jesus, gives the Spirit control to speak peace into my life as the wounds from and causing anger continue to heal, regardless of how long that healing process takes.

My name is Dalyn, and I am addicted to anger that makes me fail to show love, fail to be a beacon of hope, to act a fool and frightens my wife. I can't say what my longest stretch of sobriety is, but I know I got high yesterday and most days here recently. I have a desire to refrain from indulging in the intoxication of anger for the next 24 hours, just one day, and I know that my only hope to make until I finish writing this, much less go to sleep tonight, is to surrender completely, all of me, everything good and bad to Him who is able and to whom be the power and the glory forever and ever amen.




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

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

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 27 ~ Beautiful Scars

On the girl's brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.
- Chris Cleave, Little Bee

I love this quote, and I do think that scars are beautiful. I also think that they represent so much more than mere survival. We, as humans, have a tendency to hide our scars, as though they are ugly or shameful. Scars mean something went wrong. My fault, somebody else's fault or nobody's fault, something has to go wrong for a scar to form. Something has to break, to cut, to wound, and the worse the wound the longer lasting and more visible the scar.

I have a scar on my face, a couple of them actually, barely visible at this point, but I know where they are and what they are and can point them out if need be. I have some 30+ year old scars on my wrists that aren't visible anymore because I didn't do a very good job making them. One of the few times it really was more about crying out for help than going home. But they were there for years. I have a scar on my chest that happens to be set in bold ink, yes, we call those scars tattoos. I actually have five of them, but one is a scar, the evidence of a wounding that occurred during my incarceration. I have little scars from childhood, some of them are tied to memories, some I can't remember how I got them for anything.

I remember trying to cut the head off a doll as a boy and the knife folding closed on my finger, nearly cutting it off. I remember the blood dripping all over the floor and in the sink and my mother's concern and near panic (within a few more years the result of raising three Woodard boys would kill that panic and make her an expert at quick triage. God bless my poor mother and every gray hair my brothers and I have given her.). That one is there. Some of these scars actually have fond memories associated with them, some have no memory associations, and some I would just as soon forget, or at least not have a constant reminder.
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But scars are as important as they are beautiful As Papa Roach says, the scars remind us that the past is real. We are far more than our skin, and we are more than the scars in our skin as well, but our scars identify us, they become a part of who we are. When Jesus appeared in the room with the disciples after His resurrection, His first words were to bring peace. His first action was to show them His scars to prove His identity and credentials and something else as well.

The scars Jesus showed proved who He was, proved that He had the right to tell them, "Peace be unto you," since He was the One who spoke peace to the stormy sea in their presence. Yes, identity and credentials were in that gesture of showing His scars, but so was proof of restoration, evidence of healing power. Scars are not wounds. We sometimes act like they are infected, oozing wounds, but they aren't. They are what is left when healing occurs. Sometimes there is some overlap. I have a friend who had a car wreck when younger and went through the windshield face first. The wounds seemed to heal and scars formed, but for several years afterward her body would slowly heal more and push pieces of broken glass to the surface from deep inside and out. But she wasn't a bleeding, infected mess waiting on the deep healing to finish, and the scars were evidence of that.

And, as I am sure you know, not all scars are in our skin. Mental and emotional scars are as real as physical ones, even if they are not always easy for others to see. And these scars can also be beautiful. That beauty is similar to the beauty of the feet of those who bring good news. You see my wrist, I know your pain. - Creed. When I try to help drug addicts and alcoholics there are things I can say, scars I can show, that let them know that I too have been there, I know that particular wound from experience. I can do the same with sexual scars, rejection, self-hatred, suicidal tendencies, mental health issues, and more. Burn scars are different than road rash, and both are different from a blade's remnant. We all have scars of different sizes and kinds. A road rash scar can still be a beautiful sign of hope to a burn victim, because similarities matter. Because no matter how it came, all scars are evidence of wounds.

We, like Jesus, can come to the frightened and broken and speak peace, but we have to show our scars. Our scars prove our identity as human and broken too. They prove our credentials when we say that there can be peace during and after wounding, when we have peace and proof we have been wounded. Most importantly we show our scars to show the power and glory of a God who doesn't leave us bleeding, infected and dying of gangrene. There is healing available. Restoration is part of it. The scar shows others that we've been bloodied too, that they can indeed survive it, and even better, that they can recover.

Take your wounds to the Great Physician. And don't hide your scars. They are not ugly. They are not shameful, like the scar makers want us to feel and believe (even when the scar maker is us). They are beautiful examples of God's design and power to bring us through the trauma. Scars are the marks of hope on the art of our lives. 



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

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

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 26 ~ Jesus Doesn't Play That Way

Leah introduced me to a new game. It's called Slither.io, and in my opinion it works best on tablets but can be played on a laptop or desktop. It's fun. It's frustrating. It's highly addictive. It's a little like a twisted version of Pac Man, but a  multiplayer game where there are no ghosts. It's every man for himself, eating as many dots of light as possible to make you grow without being killed by the other players. If you run into someone, you die and become balls of light, which make others bigger as they eat them. If you cause someone to run into you, or even if they run into you by accident, they die and you get to join the feeding frenzy.

As a free multiplayer game there are as many different approaches to the game as there are different kinds of people. There are the leave me alone to scavenge, I won't hurt you, don't hurt me types. The I won't go after you if you don't go after me, but if you try to kill me I will kill you types. There are the psychopaths out to kill everyone. There are bullies, always picking on those littler than themselves. And that's about it. I have seen my wonderful wife play protector. She  actively tried to protect some little guys from the bullies and went after those players that were playing mean, but I haven't witnessed much of that in the actions of others.

The thought occurred to me that Leah's Punisher vigilantism, you're a crazy mean killer so I'm going to kill you before you can kill that innocent guy who isn't so innocent, is as close to a Christian play style as I've seen. Not that being a vigilante is a good way to be a Christian or shows the light and love of Christ in any stretch of the imagination, but God is a protector of the weak. Contrary to popular opinion, God does not help those who help themselves. He helps those who realize that they can't help themselves. So this I will protect the weak from the bully is honorable, and I haven't seen much of it. I definitely don't play that way. After all, it's a game, right?

Yes, it's a game, and there's no reason to play this, or any game, not to win.. It doesn't mean you're not a good Christian if you are a psycho killer in Slither, or even a bully (but if you're a bully Leah may try to kill you).

But you know what I haven't seen? I haven't seen anyone stay small so that others can eat all the light. I haven't seen anyone sacrifice themselves for the benefit of everyone else. I haven't seen anyone play that game like Jesus did this thing called life. And that's because you can't win that way. It's not because it's just a game and nobody's really getting hurt and you don't have to feel bad for being a jerk and killing me. It's because it's just not in our nature, not in a game any more than in life. We simply can't live sacrificial lives, laying down our lives for our family and friends, much less our enemies. C'mon, even as a Christian, most of us balk at the idea, even at the idea, of wanting to.

Disagree? Ask yourself this. A man calls you up and informs you that he has a team, and this team has an extremist terrorist captured who is responsible for the deaths of innocent children and Christians and who, if freed, will most likely be responsible for more of the same. They have a politician diametrically opposed to everything that you believe in who may actually be able to pull off remaking the country you claim to love in their image. And there is a nice old lady, who as far as you know has never hurt anyone seriously and may never do so. He tells you he'll free one or more of these three if you tell him to. You have the power to save one, two or three lives right then, but if you save anyone, a sniper is going to shoot you in the head, and you'll die Who do you save? Yourself?

I would. Honestly it would take a miracle and some crystal clear communication from God for me to do any differently. Die for the terrorist or the sleezeball politician? No thank you. And the old lady may deserve it more in my opinion, but she's lived her life. Why sacrifice my growing old with my wife to give someone I don't know an extra year or three? No, I don't think that way when I'm playing games, and I surely don't when it comes to living life. None of us do. We may lay down our life for our brothers-in-arms or family or even a close friend or innocent child, but even then there is an implied Tom Hanks laying there bleeding out and gasping out, "Earn this."

I don't want to die for you any more than you desire to die for me. But Jesus did. He died for that terrorist, for the politician, for the young, the old, the good, the bad, the rich, the poor, the gay, straight and not a clue. He died for me. He died for you. When we were enemies, bullies and failures, when we had no hope, no chance and no ability to ever earn or deserve His sacrifice or His mercy, He died for us all. And without demanding that we pay it back, that it change us, that we stop one single thing. Bullies can keep being bullies. Terrorists can still terrorize. Thieves can keep stealing. No one is forced into compliance or conforming with God's will or ways. But for those who want to be free, for those who are sick of life the way it is when they try to manage it, for those who want a life worth living, then that sacrifice Christ freely made, before we even realized we needed it, is our ticket to something better.

He made the way for us to not be who and what we were before. He set the captives free. He cleaned up the junkie and the drunk, and made pure the prostitute, the killer and bully. There is nothing about your past that could possibly disqualify you or bring a higher cost than He paid. There is nothing in you, about you, or how you are that you are ashamed of that He doesn't know about even more than you. And He still loves you. He still loves me. Isn't that amazing?!

Understanding that you are loved by God, as you are, unearned, undeserved, with no chance of being good enough, that He loves you as you are and not as you should be, but that He also loves you enough not to leave you as you are, will change your life, make you new, make you clean...that my friend, will put a whole new outlook on life That will make a difference the world can see like a lighthouse shining in the night That's how Jesus did it when it mattered. That's what he did for you and for me. He died so we could live. And never does He ask us to earn it. And He never said, like I say to Slither.io players, even thought they can't hear me, before I turn on them, that if you didn't try to hurt me I wouldn't try to kill you.





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

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

Monday, April 25, 2016

Unsahckled Moments ~ April 25 ~ I'm Not OK

I'm not OK As my wonderful wife said not to long ago this morning, I haven't been OK in a while. There's something tumultuous going on within me, and I can not describe nor identify it. It still takes me too long during those times when I fall off a cliff emotionally to stop trying to control my fall and surrender completely to God. I wish that weren't so, but it is. The more I try to control my emotions and reactions, the more I lose control as I grow more and more frustrated and afraid that I can't.

I know that I am powerless over myself and to fix myself. Yet even after years of learning and walking in the truth that brings freedom and even years of ministry I still try.It;s embarrassing to admit, because I know better, and yet. I must be weary of the trip were I  begin to believe that after a certain amount of time and a certain amount of understanding I must hold myself responsible to walk in that truth. Knowledge is not enough. I am most certainly as in need of grace to walk in the truth now as I was when I had so much less understanding of truth. I am still powerless over my natural and old nature now as I was before. And I have to avoid that other trap as well, the one that makes me feel  like I can no longer struggle or be weak in areas of freedom and grace and still minister.

Walking in freedom for multiple years, having more wisdom than in the past, and yes, even being called to help others with what has been learned and minister does not suddenly make me or anyone qualified or able to do anything on our strength. It feels backwards when emotions are out of control, but we actually need to remember that we are no more able to do anything on our own after learning to rely on God's grace than we were before.

Sometimes it feels like it should be like learning to ride a bike. We can't do it. We can't maintain balance. So, we;re given training wheels for a time. After a while the training wheels come off and, though we may fall occasionally, we learn to ride on our own without them. But walking with God, overcoming fears and healing wounds is not like riding a bike at all. It's the opposite.

It's more like learning to walk with a prosthetic. Something was wrong. No matter how we tried we couldn't make our leg work right. We fell over and over. We were diseased, and upon turning to the Great Physician, He removed the diseased areas of weakness, our spiritual legs so to speak, and gave us new legs. Slowly we learned to use what He has done to walk without falling, even to run at times. But if we grow confident in the use of the prosthetic it doesn't mean that we can take them off and walk on our stumps as we could with the prosthetic of grace. The truth is we no longer possess even what we used to rely on within ourselves. It has been removed. We are less able, not more to walk on our own. The more of our spiritually diseased nature He replaces with His own, the less we can manage without Him. So it makes no sense to try.Yet sometimes we do try to mange our self, our feelings ourselves. I do anyway. And when this happens we find that we have not learned to ride or walk on our own, but rather are still crippled.

Being a Christian doesn't mean we have all the answers. It doesn't mean that we have total understanding of what and why we are feeling, going through or struggling with what we are. Being a minister doesn't even admit one to some special club with a magic decoder ring that reveals all. It;s not that we have special insight into ourselves or anyone or any situation. It just means that we have a relationship with the One who does know, understand and have the ability tand the power to walk through the valleys we find ourselves in. Let us be quick to lean on Him and rely on His grace, because no matter how strong we grow in Him, no matter how long or how faithfully we walk with Him, we will never grow more able, on our own, to manage our own lives. I am still not Ok without Him. And neither is anyone else. But we are more than OK, more than conquers through Him and with Him and by His grace.

An hour of trying to handle things, to control things, on my own strength and understanding, may not seem long, especially compared to years of doing so. But it hurts more now to fall than it used to as well. Let us grow more and more quick to stap on the grace that we ned and let us be less, not more, tempted to rely on ourselves and our abilities to walk with God, this day and every day.



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

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

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 24 ~ Let Us Listen

There are times when I am in a group setting discussing recovery and I try to contribute something solution based and truthful to the talk. From time to time however, the best thing I can do for myself and the group is not to speak unless addressed and then to thankfully decline the opportunity to speak and confess to be listening only on that particular day.

When I first started down my journey down recovery road I heard and saw others decline to share and proclaim to be listening instead, and somehow I formed the mistaken thought that this is something that people new to recovery or struggling for some reason need to do from time to time. That part may be true, but it is not the whole truth.

Every preacher, every prophet, every lay person in a relationship with their Creator has something they have been given in order to give it away. We are all called to be a light on this spiritual journey. We will all have something to share from time to time, even if only one on one. We are not all called to preach, but we are all called to carry the message to the captives and to those still suffering. We are called to share our experience, strength and hope to help others. But not always.

Even the preacher and the prophet has times when they are not told to preach but to listen. Do not fall into a trap of worrying about what other people think, what you feel you are supposed to be giving rather than receiving or that you are in any way obligated to give when God has not instructed or given something for you to give, when you are in need of help, service and conscious contact with God yourself.

Today let us shine for Him and be quick to speak when given something to speak, but let us also be just as quick to listen and let our needs be ministered to as well. Let us not pretend not to be needy when we are. Let us not push it away and use service to cover the fact that we need to hear from God. Let us listen.



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

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

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 23 ~ Comfort Zone

If Facebook had been around in Israel at the time of Christ can you imagine the kinds of memes that would have been posted about Matthew and his co-workers and friends? They would probably say things like if you're getting rich stealing from Jews while collecting taxes for the occupying Romans than you're a traitor and shouldn't be able to call yourself a Hebrew. Things like Tax collectors hate Abraham. Seriously, these guys were the lowest of the low in the eyes of the people. The only people worse were lepers, and they had a contagious disease. I guess a tax collector who developed leprosy would have just needed to totally give up. No one loved him.

Except Jesus did. This man Matthew, who was basically what we would have today if someone who sympathized with ISIS went to work for the IRS, overcharged everyone he could and funneled funds to those who wish to destroy us, was loved by the only man in the area who actually wasn't a sinner. Jesus hung out with him. Jesus not only ate with him, but He ate with all of Matthews friends too. They had to be as big of losers as Matthew was, or they themselves wouldn't have been friends with him. I can tell you from experience, we losers stick together. And Jesus was comfortable with them.

Yes, you read that right. Jesus was comfortable hanging out with sinners and traitors, the worst society had to offer, the ones all the religious people slammed in the social network, shunned and refused to touch....literally. How do we know Jesus was comfortable and not just spiritually creepy crawling His way through His duty to preach to the broken? Well, mainly because Matthew was comfortable with Him. If Jesus had gone in there with an attitude like He was holding His spiritual noise form the stench and these losers should repent and get right before they get left, Matthew wouldn't have become a disciple. If that were the case, the self righteous attitudes and condemnation of the Pharisees would have brought him to repentance long before Jesus showed up.

Jesus didn't participate in sin. Jesus never said sin was OK. But Jesus didn't try to shame the sinner into repentance either. Jesus never acted condescending toward anyone, even though He and He alone had actually lowered Himself from heavenly heights to walk around with lowly sinners. His love for them, for us, made Him feel perfectly relaxed and at home by our side, at our tables and on our Facebook pages with our offensive sin in plain sight. And being comfortable with sinners drew the sinners to Him.

And how many sinners, once drawn to Him, left their tables and followed Him? I did. Matthew did. Do you want to be like Jesus? It's not found in acting better than anyone else or rejecting those who are just too stupid to understand how their sin is ruining everything. It's found in being comfortable enough in who we are in Him to forgive the affront and love the loser, the traitor and the enemy. It doesn't mean being comfortable with the sin, but it does mean we don't act with condescension, like we're doing them a favor or being righteous for allowing ourselves to be seen with them, It does mean understanding that without the deodorant of grace that we would stink just as bad, even if it is a different stench. Remember that, unlike Jesus, we are not perfect and didn't come from heaven. The difference between the glass houses of the self righteous Pharisee and the lowly sinner wasn't much to be descended from in the eyes of God.

Oh and since I know many of us in the recovery world who have been in the gutter and been the lowest of the low have no problems climbing back in the sewer to reach out to others like we once were, remember that on the Sabbath Jesus went and taught in the temple. He was as comfortable there, surrounded by the self righteous religious hypocrites as He was in Matthew's house. There is a reverse snobbery among those of us who have always been labeled the freak and the loser. We must be as quick to love and be comfortable with the self righteous as we are the self condemned if we want to be like Jesus. Because they need grace and love and God as much as we did, and may even have a more difficult time seeing it.

Lord, let us learn to be comfortable with the sinners and the saints without losing sight of the grace that set us free and who we are in you. Let us be beacons of a better way, of love. Let us remember that you love us, all of us, as we are and not as we should be.  



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

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

Friday, April 22, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 22 ~ Are You Listening God?

This morning around 5 I woke from a nightmare to find myself sitting up in bed. I lay back down and tried for a short while to return to sleep, and in meantime I prayed. Once I realized that sleep wasn't happening, I went ahead and got up to start my morning with prayer, music, spiritual reading and of course the writing of an Unshackled Moment, as is my usual routine.

After my Bible reading, I continued my daily reading of writings from a minister I respect who has written some excellent books on faith and the art and importance walking with God. Most of his writing is so full of truth to chew on, but occasionally, in my opinion, he misses the mark. In what I read this morning on the subject of prayer came one such occasion.

This man of God, and I do believe him to be such and well worth paying attention to (this being one of the cases such as what I wrote of in yesterday's Unshackled Moment Principles Before Personalities, where I reminded myself and the reader that we mustn't always be quick to take in what even the respected person teaches but must test everything for truth. I pray that people always check my writing and messages to make sure that they line up with the truth of God. Anyway, let me close this aside and get back on track.), this man of God wrote two things on the subject of prayer that would have frightened me more than my earlier nightmare had they been true.

My spirit immediately cried out withing me, thank you God that this isn't right! And I knew I needed to write the truth of the matter this morning. What is it that stirred my spirit so? He wrote that God "hears and answers the prayers only of those who walk in His way..." and that "The truth is that God always answers the prayer that accords with His will as revealed in the Scriptures, provided the one who prays is obedient and trustful. Further than this we dare not go." Praise be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, for we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:15-16

The simple truth is that if the statements this minister wrote on the subject of prayer we accurate, there would be no point in praying at all...for anyone. In fact, there would be no point in being a Christian at all. I understand the reasoning and feeling between statements such as I am refuting. When we are willfully living in rebellion contrary to the will of God, we cut ourselves off from the Holy Spirit, and that does indeed hinder communication. The Prodigal couldn't very well speak with his father from the pig pen. And there is in us all the spirit of the older brother when we feel we are doing it right that it wouldn't be fair that the Father respond to the pig slop slimed son as quickly and as fully as He responds to us.

But two things must be remembered on that point. First, the second we look up from our sin to the work of the Savior calling out for God, no matter how filthy we are, we are spiritually there in His sight to find the Father running toward us to clean us and take us back into relationship with Him. Secondly the righteous brother wasn't righteous, and neither are we. There is none righteous, no, not one - Romans 3:10

There is no one trustworthy or obedient to God, at least not in themselves. You are not trustworthy or obedient as you should be, neither am I, and neither is the minister who wrote that we have to be in order to have the right to petition our Daddy. There is no one who  has ever walked in His way without His grace to do so, and even then, none of us do so perfectly or constantly. So where is the line? If you are 70% faithful and obedient you get to talk to God ad petition Him but 20% you are barred from bending His ear? In case it has been forgotten in my rambling, we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:15-16

Now do not be deceived, God is not going to let us come to Him covered in slop and leave us that way. Praise God for that! When we pray, He will correct and convict and draw us to repentance when we need it. But His grace is sufficient and His love covers a multitude of sins. It isn't the perfect person that God hears but the one who earnestly seeks Him.

I know this is growing long, but let me make one more point on the subject before I close. Jesus said that if we have seen Him that we have also seen the Father and that He didn't do anything other than what the Father would have Him do. The Father and the Son share the same heart. How did Jesus respond to sinners? Well, he walked with them and talked with them and had fellowship with them. That by the way is what prayer is, talking to, listening to and having fellowship with God. Oh, and He did indeed hear their petitions. He was quick to the cries of "Son of David, have mercy on me!" He touched their lives, answered their prayers, and then, and only then, did He ever address their sin. He never once said go walk faithfully for a while then come  see Me. No, it was only those who felt and believed they were righteous that He rebuked. Those that saw their sin found mercy and compassion in His  eyes.

The best of us fall far short of walking righteously with God and of being trustworthy and obedient. What walk we have, what obedience we display and what makes us trustworthy in any sense of the word is a gift of His grace, nothing more, nothing less. If we think we can go to God because we have it together, we are sorely mistaken, and if we dare not go to Daddy because we are not worthy we have missed the point of all scripture and all heaven weeps. Because of Christ, and only because of Christ, we can boldly approach our Creator, and He will hear our cry.



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

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

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Is God Faithful When We Are Not?

Dalyn Woodard returns to the study of Romans with a look at chapter 11 and how it can be applied to us today and not just applied to the nation of Israel. The message, "Is God Faithful When We Are Not?" is about 52 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, April 20, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.






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

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

Unshackled Moments ~ April 21 ~ Principles Before Personalities

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 
- James 2:1-4

Another way of saying this is principles before personalities, and it is vital. We all have friends and people that we like more than others for whatever reason, and that is OK. But we can not allow our preferences, our prejudices or our fears to effect how we treat others, how we listen or how we share what we've been given. Sometimes that person we look down on or ignore because of their status or our criticism of their spiritual level or progress may say something that is exactly what we need to hear. God can use whoever He wants to to say something we need to hear, even a donkey, so we have no business closing our ears because we don't respect a person. In the same vein, just because someone is respectable or admired in our eyes doesn't mean  that everything the say or do is right and correct. We need to test it before we take it in or follow the example. Sometimes we'd be quick to point out something  that might help or correct someone that we feel superior to, but are afraid to reach out to or confront the person we see as better than us or further along in their walk with God. But everyone has times when  they need encouragement, help or correction. Don't despise the newcomer or think they have nothing to offer, and don't revere the old timer to the extent that we leave them to their struggles alone. Don't let social status be confused with spiritual status, and never assume we know who God can or will use to bless and minister to us.




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

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

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 20 ~ Let Love Increase

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
- I Corinthians 13:1-3

Selfishness and self centeredness is at the heart of our problems and our inability to serve God and walk with God. Love is the antidote to the curse caused by self and serving self. It was love that caused the Father to make a way where there was no way and gave Him desire for relationship with us. I can't; He can; I'll let Him would mean nothing if He didn't want to or wouldn't. Love caused the Son to give His life in our place and to bridge the gap between us and God. Love caused the Spiritto  come indwell the filth of our lives and do the work to clean and renovate His new home. And part of the proof that we are in a constant battle, even as children of God, to overcome self and the curse of self is our lack of ability to love God just because He's God, purely and completely.

It has been said of all of us that we only love Him because He first loved us. We must be given a gift of faith and grace to even be able to return His love to Him. And at first our love, love for God and love for others, is still self focused and self centered. Hopefully after the infancy stage of our new spiritual life we begin to shed the selfishness and love more purely, for love's sake.

At the start, and still far too often, I submit my life to God and serve Him not because I love Him so much but because the alternative is misery, heartache, destruction, bondage and death. I learned that doing right actually feels better longer and more consistently than doing wrong, which makes it easier and more appealing for me to ask for God's grace to do right. When I am of service to someone else and help another, even when no one but me and God knows, it makes me feel good. So I seek to be of service. If it didn't make me feel good it would be much harder to do.

I could go on. For every loving thing that I do, there is a taint of selfish gain and motivation. And it is a loving God who designed it so that serving Him and loving would also bring joy. Still, the more deeper my relationship with my Creator grows, the more I love Him purely and without selfish motive. That said, the motivation for living love and loving God and others is still far more centered around the blessings I receive and the joy I feel from doing so than from pure submission and love for God. This is one reason even my goodness is not good, because it comes from a desire to protect and increase me, even when it also benefits another.

I pray that it becomes our desire, mine and yours, to love God and others more purely with less and less concern of if doing so makes things easier or better for us. May our service be more and more fueled by and filled with love than selfishness. Lord, help me to know you more, to love you more and give me the grace to purify my motives for serving you today, tomorrow and for the rest of my life. Amen.



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

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

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 19 ~ It' Not Fair

This morning as I did my daily reading, I found myself reading several chapters from Job. Now, I have to admit that I never cared for the book much. It raises difficult questions that are hard to answer. If you read that book through a filter of anger, especially anger towards God, He often comes off looking like a bully or in some petty competition with an adversary that shouldn't be important enough to cause such pain over.  I have never really cared for most of the milk toast responses to the theological questions Job raises. Finally, after a lot of thought and much study, I have a few theories of my own, but this is not the time or place for those. Suffice it to say God is not the Texas Rangers playing some High School team and worried enough about the game to sacrifice teammates to get the job done. This story has little to nothing to do with competition between the Lord and His adversary. Oh, an d God is not a bully.

The other reason I never cared much for this book is that once you got past chapter three I couldn't relate. Job was a righteous man. Yes, he had his flaws and sins, but he was a good man, who lived well, cared for others and did right enough that all the people considered him good, at least until everything started going wrong. Even God bragged on him. Look at Job! He loves me and serves me well! He lives righteously! Yeah, I never imagined that being said by God or anybody who knew me well. I was the hell raising preacher's son, not even in the neighborhood of righteous. So I didn't have Job's issue of why is this happening? I haven't been wicked! I've been good! 

But you see, Job had a major misunderstanding of God, and it's the same one that I had. In fact, I have encountered many with this same misconception. I think it's one of the greatest slanders about the Creator that Satan has ever sold humanity. In chapters 29-31 Job goes off on a rant. First he lists all kinds of good things he does. Then he lists all kinds of bad things that he doesn't do and says basically if he were the kind of man who did these things he would understand why all the horrible things that had happened and were happening did so.

It's like a 7-year-old little league baseball player pointing out how much better he is than the T-baller and thinking that makes him as good as a pro hall of famer. But like it or not, he's really a lot closer in skill level to the T-baller than a pro. Even Job's goodness doesn't compare to God's. In fact, as hard as it is for us little leaguers to grasp or believe sometimes, Job's great righteousness was closer to this preacher's son's hell raising than to God's holy righteousness. And let's face it, even those of us who know we aren't righteous often do what Job did when trouble comes.

Wait a minute! I know I'm not perfect, but I don't deserve THIS much evil in my life! Or we may sit down in the dirt, afraid to even ask for help because we feel we do deserve what's happening, maybe even worse.  These two attitudes are different sides of the same plug nickel. The truth is that wicked people often suffer, while other wicked people seem to get everything they want and not suffer any consequences to not living right. At the same time, good people, as we little leaguers define goodness, often don't get rewarded for their goodness, while others do indeed seem to be blessed. The curse effects us all good and bad, and darkness comes as the rain falls in every life.

Following rules and doing more good than bad, or avoiding the really bad bad doesn't earn us the right to demand that suffering doesn't enter our lives.  God is not obligated by our goodness, which really isn't all that good anyway, especially when the truth of motives is revealed, to act in any certain way toward us. Nor does our evil force God to immediately and without hesitation judge us and send the locusts and the lightning bolts. None of us are truly good. None of us are totally evil. Every saint is also a sinner, and every sinner can be a saint.

No little league player deserves to be admitted into the Pro Hall of Fame based on performance, and none of us deserve heaven or to be spared all suffering, not even those, like Job, that we recognize as closer to good than most of us. There is none good but God, and that is good news for all of us. Why? Because the God that has every right to leave us all to all just deserts, our misery and the hell we have all earned refused to do any of that. He made a way for us to become by His grace and power more than  we could ever be on our own. He gave us His righteousness! He gave us His power and ability to play the game with His skill.

No, God is not obligated to do anything based on our goodness. If life were fair we'd all be miserable. Praise God for His great mercy and grace! The great news is that no matter how much wickedness we've displayed, no matter how much hell we've raised, we don't have to sit in the dirt and accept what we deserve. God's great desire is to lift us up, to bring us into relationship with Him, to heal and restore us and give us the life that we don't deserve. All this and heaven too. The truth is that no matter how good we are, it's not good enough, but God doesn't say you're closer to the others. You don't need as much help. He's offered the same help to  the strong and the weak, to the good and the bad, because compared to Him we are all weak and wicked.

Today let us throw away the lists of good and bad that we measure ourselves and others by, regardless of where we fall on the scale. Let us throw ourselves on the mercy of His love and give thanks that He desires relationship with us, Let us release the desire to be good enough or strong enough to deserve fellowship with God and accept His grace for our lives.



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

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

Monday, April 18, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 17~Pineapple Up Down Cake Recipe

My wife is an artist in the kitchen. Leah is very creative period, and the things she has done with paint, a camera, a camera and Photoshop and other areas have inspired and amazed me. But since she cooked for me for the first time nearly six years ago, I have never failed to be amazed. She never uses recipes either. If she does read a recipe, she edits it as she reads, then never looks at it again, it is a starting reference point only She sees what the finished product should be like, how she would like it instead and then creates that.,,without instructions or precise measurements or any such limitations or restrictions.

I am nothing like that. I make a pretty good cake though, and part of the reason for my success is that I follow recipes. I know, I just praised Leah for not doing so. But if I could somehow find written instructions for what she did to make a dish, I could duplicate it. I simply couldn't create it. If I find a good recipe, I can make a good cake, because I can follow a recipe step by step, but it better be well written. Don't assume I know anything about cooking at all. I love baking because it is all about precision and following the directions.

This past weekend I told Leah I wanted to make her a cake for her birthday and asked her what kind she would like. She gave me six different cake ideas late Saturday night and told me to pick the one I wanted to make for her. I'll include the recipe with this writing, but the recipe I made is not what I chose. Sunday morning, she said she  wanted a Pineapple Upside Down  Cake but not the recipe she sent me the night before. "OK," I said. "I'll look for another recipe." That's when she told me not to worry about finding a recipe. She'd walk me through it, tell me how to make it. Okaaaaaay, try not to panic Dalyn.

Well, she took my base recipe and made it almost unrecognizable by the time we changed and tweaked this and that, but it came out good! Because she is amazing and I followed directions, even when they didn't sound right to me. A few times I took things to her and said, "Does this look right to you?"  Once she actually said, "no," and I nearly started to give up all hope that I would be able to make a good cake for her without starting over. But she quickly told me what to do to fix the issue. That change is reflected in the recipe I wrote down so that I can duplicate the cake again at a future date.

So many times I thought I'm not sure this will work, or I'm not sure I can do this, or I am not comfortable cooking like this at all and don't have the skill to cook like this, so in a way she is making her own cake by voice command. Then, I thought her ways are not my ways, and it hit me that this is a lot like God working through us to make something amazing. He doesn't do it like we would. We couldn't do it like Him if we tried, not on our own. His written instructions are just starting points that give us a base, but we won't be able to produce what we're trying  to without His personal input, His explanations and adjusting where and when we don't get it quite like He meant, and His filling in the gaps. If we simply follow the recipe on our strength and understanding, we will have a much different cake than the one we make by reading the recipe while listening to His voice.

Leah's cake is yummy, and the life God creates as we listen and follow His instructions is deliciously worth living. Today let us be quick to abandon our safety net, our recipes that tell us how we've always done things and are comfortable doing things, and let us listen to the instructions of the Master Artist and Creator telling us how to tweak and change and make something beautiful and amazing with our day and life.

Here is the link to the cake, for those who want it: 


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

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

Leah's Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Leah's Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter - 1 for the gooey bottom/topping and 1 for the cake. These should be taken out early so that they can soften and come at least close to room temperature. 

I cup dark brown sugar. 

1 can (20 oz) Pineapple slices in 100% Juice

Maraschino Cherries

1/2 tspn salt

1 1/2 c All Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tspn Ground Cinnamon

1 c Granulated Sugar

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

3 lrg Eggs

Preheat oven to 350. While the oven is warming up, take a medium to large sauce pan and begin melting first stick of butter. When butter is completely melted and starting to turn slightly borwn, add first half of the dark brown sugar and stir until blended. Add the rest of the dark brown sugar and stir until sugar and butter are well blended/ Remove from heat.

Spread the dark brown sugar/butter mixture evenly in an  ungreased 9-inch cake pan. Open can of pineapple slices and save the juice. Place one pineapple ring in the center of the pan atop the sugar mixture. Continuing placing more pineapple in rings around the center one, edge to edge. There will be once circle of pineapple around a center pineapple slice. Place one Marischino cherry in the hole of each pineapple slice and in the triangular gaps at the meeting of slices. Set pan aside.

In medium bowl whisk together the salt, cinnamon, flour and baking powder.

In a large mixing bowl beat together the sugar and remaining stick of butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in eggs one at a time. Reduce mixer speed and add half of the dry flour mixture and half the pineapple juice. Repeat with rest of flour mixture and juice.

Carefully pour batter into cake pan until pan is about 3/4 full, leaving room for expansion and not disturbing the pineapple and cherries. Smooth until evenly spread with a rubber spatula. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the cake and removed cleanly. Take out of oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Take a knife and run around the outside edge of the pan to insure cake is not stuck to edges and will come out of pan easily. Place a large plate upside down on top of cake pan. Holding plate and p-an together, flip upside down so that the pan is now upside down on the plate, which is now right side up. Let gooey mixture drip down over sides and the cake to cool. Cut, eat and enjoy..





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

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

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 17 ~ Recovered?

There are two camps in the recovery world. There are those who claim to be in recovery or recovering from whatever their addiction is, and then there are those that at some point being free of the obsession to engage in the area of bondage claim to be recovered. For a while now, I have leaned toward the recovered camp, after all, with 5 years eleven months without using or drinking I have most definitely recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body.The thought occurred to me more than once that if I was diagnosed with cancer,took treatments and my body was free of cancer for a year or two I would not declare that I have cancer but am in remission. I would say I am cancer free, even though I would be aware that it could return.

But this morning as I gave God thanks for my recovery, He reminded me that I am not done, not even close. I am not in remission. I am in treatment, and I don't need to stop or slow the treatments either. I need to work harder because what hasn't been eradicated at this point is not the large easy to see tumors but the tiny resistant dangerous easy to miss ones. I needed to remember that the drugs, alcohol and other areas of bondage in my life that God has freed me and is freeing me from are not the disease. They are all but symptoms of the spiritual sickness I am treating by surrendering to the work of the Great Physician. 

I have not yet reached a state of being 100% submitted to God 100% of the time. I still sometimes fall short, live like my old nature, act, think and feel selfishly. I still at times want to act like I am God and ruler of my life. I still sometimes fail to even want to love my fellow human beings, even more often I fail to love in action as I should. Until I reach the point of perfect, unselfish, pure in love in complete submission reflecting nothing but the glory of the Creator the cancer of the curse is still at work in my life, and I am not yet recovered, regardless of not drinking and drugging. There is more work yet to do. Let the treatments continue for I am still sick.
  


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



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

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ April 16 ~ Walk Between The Lines

When the night breaks in I won't spin
Far away from what I know is real
In this heart of mine
Light will shine
For I have found my chart to pilot me
Walk between the lines
- Russ Taff Walk Between The Lines

This song came across my Pandora this morning, and it took me back to 1987, when it came out. My life was in an erratic orbit, and I was a mess. I believed in God, just enough to really screw up my life. What do I mean be such a strange statement? Well, there's a saying in AA that they don't do anything else for you, they'll screw up your drinking forever. I know from experience that there's not much worse feeling that having a heart full of pain, a head full of truth and a life full of sin. 

When I relapsed back in 2010 after 15 months clean and sober, I had so much trouble finding oblivion. Instead what I found was the truth of God and the spiritual principles of recovery floating through the fog of my brain to convict me, to warn me of the death and destruction coming soon and the way of rescue and escape. It didn't take long for me to cry out to God for help, to take my drunk and high and 40 pounds lighter body back where I had walked away from and reach out for the help I'd found previously. I did the work over. I surrendered again, and now I am approaching 6 years since I have last had the need to fill my body or mind, change my situation or feelings or escape with drugs or alcohol. I know that I could never return to that place of bondage without the cries of freedom and the way of freedom echoing in my soul. 

This is part of what my life so miserable during my teen years and led to multiple attempts to escape by finding a grave. I thank God today that He repeatedly said no when I prayed to die and tried to make that happen. I grew up surrounded by and hearing the truth of God. I heard it in my home, from the pulpit where my father preached and in the life he lived. I heard it from my mother, and even today some of the scriptures that come most quickly to mind in certain situations are ones my mother taught me by repeating them to me every time I violated the principle they represented.  I would begin tearing someone apart with my words, cutting them with my tongue, and my mother would look at me and say, "4:29." That's it. Just "4:29," but I was quickly reminded that I had gotten out of line and I had better watch myself, at least while she was in earshot, because what became shortened to 4:29 once she knew that she knew that I knew was originally "Son, remember, Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."

It's frustrating and  misery to live a lie while knowing truth, but it's possible. If I had responded to the truth I head and saw in my home and in much of the music I listened to as a teen completely instead of only on the surface of my heart I'd have found freedom long, long ago. Instead, I knew about God, and I believed in God just enough to make a life without His presence miserable, even with the drugs and alcohol. I would feel that pull to relationship or I would feel guilty, and I would rededicate my life. I would come clean somewhat with my father. I remember standing at a barn with him admitting that I had become addicted to cocaine and that I was quitting. I had been healed of that addiction after a youth minister prayed for me. And it was true in a way. I'd been out of control with the coke. At a lock-in youth group meeting I had a moment of clarity that I needed help, and I got prayed for. I hadn't done any cocaine in the few months since that point when I talked to my dad. I was high when I talked to him though. It just wasn't coke.

I shifted from one lie to another, from one chain to another, and screamed at the still small voice in my mind and spirit until finally silence was the only sound in return. My screams echoed back, but I was no longer haunted by the truth. Then things really went to hell, and there was no hope at all. That year I lived totally free from that misery of knowing the truth of freedom while living as a slave, and in that year I lost everything but my life, and that was close several times, including a trip to ICU after an overdose. The year ended with me in cuffs, charged with a felony and the weight of nearly a decade in prison coming. Oh yeah, finally not thinking at all or being haunted by the truth I had heard worked out so much better. Please read the previous sentence with thick, dripping sarcasm.

But as I fell apart and my life went to hell, my mother and father, though obviously concerned and hurt by my life and actions, never spun off out of control in reaction. In fact, my father stayed so stable and faithful no matter what happened, whether it happened with or because of me or if I just witnessed things, that I thought for a while that nothing could phase him at all, that nothing ever made him worried or shook him up. And it was in those times that I would think how is he not freaking out? that he'd simply quote a truth he'd learned from scripture. Things were one way, but the truth  says.....

All scripture is truth, but scripture doesn't have the monopoly on truth. Another book that isn't 100% truth like scripture but is full of spiritual truths that lead to freedom says that I am not entirely and for always set free no matter what but rather that I have a 24 hour reprieve from bondage based upon the maintenance of my spiritual condition. I have found this to be very true, and bringing this simple truth to mind reminds me that if I want to walk free today I have to seek God first and foremost.

I have taken a long time to simply point out that the way to freedom starts with truth. Jesus said the truth will make you free, not set, but make. It will change you and drive you to freedom, and once of the reasons is that hearing it and not doing it is hell on earth. The only thing worse is to ignore it until you finally can't hear it anymore. Studying is great, and yes, it's impressive when people have things memorized and can quote large portions of books, but it's not necessary. It's certainly not where to start. Just read, every day, at least a little truth. Put it in, even if it doesn't seem like you're getting anything out of it. Read a chapter or a paragraph or a sentence and go on. It doesn't matter how little you try to remember something, once you've read a line of truth 30 or 40 times or more, when the crap hits the fan, the truth will pop into mind to remind us that in order to blow the crap back off we have to make sure the fan is plugged in. You may think you don't know it, but when you need it, the Holy Spirit will bring it to mind. Freedom, joy and peace is found in turning to that truth when it comes, misery in trying to continue contrary and hell is found in growing deaf to it.

Today let us  read a little truth. Let us keep doing it every day that when trouble comes, we can live in the safety found in the foundation of truth between the lines.








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

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