Dalyn Woodard wraps up chapter 13 of Romans with a call to and an encouragement to put into practice the blueprint of the Christian life outlined in chapters 12 and 13. The call goes out to not wait but awake to walk in love. The message, "Make No Provision" is about 38 minutes long. 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.
When I first began to bring Bs and Cs home on my junior high report cards my mother interrogated me. The questions always started with some variation of if you needed help, why didn't you ask me or your Dad. And my honest answer was I didn't need help. Of course her next questions had to do with why I got low grades if I didn't need help. My response was that it didn't matter. I passed. It was good enough. I got low grades because I didn't do homework. I didn't want to do it, so I didn't. I calculated that I could make As on the tests, zeros on the homework and pass.
My mother was not thrilled. In fact, she got quite upset with me. I should be doing better, because I could do better. Just passing wasn't good enough, if I could do better. Mom was never the kind of person who looked at a 95 and said, "Why didn't you make a 100?," if I did my best. In fact, if I did my best and got a B or C, she would be fine with that. But my best included getting help. But she wouldn't accept a 99 if the one point I missed was because I just didn't want to answer a question. That was not acceptable. My mother was never satisfied with mediocrity.
Mediocrity: the quality or state of being mediocre.
Well, that's helpful. Not. Do you ever want to tell the people who write dictionaries that they shouldn't use the same word to define a word? If you knew the definition of mediocre you wouldn't have needed to look up mediocrity, right? Mom would say stop whining and just look up mediocre, so I did, but I'll spare you the trouble and demonstrate how dictionaries should define words like this.
Mediocrity: the quality or state of being mediocre (d: of only moderate quality; not very good).
Synonyms of mediocre include: ordinary, average, middling, middle-of-the-road, uninspired, undistinguished, indifferent, unexceptional, unexciting, unremarkable, run-of-the-mill, pedestrian, prosaic, lackluster, forgettable, amateur, amateurish. Ordinary. Average. Uninspired. Indifferent. My mom could be satisfied with ordinary or average results as long as the effort was never uninspired or indifferent, but those were not the words she would accept being descriptions of her son due to lack of effort. Mediocrity was never good enough. Never fail when you could pass. Never pass when you could excel Never excel when you can do it perfectly. Always do your best.
That wasn't me. It's still not. I don't see the point. The Cs got me into the same honors classes as the kids who got As. The 2 point something got me the same degree as the four point O students got, and I have never once been asked on a job interview what my GPA was. Do you have a degree? Yes. Good.
And for me that was always good enough. Good enough to get by. Close enough for government work. We all know the idiom and what it means. Do enough to fulfill the contract and get paid, but don't concern yourself with high quality, high standards or doing the job the best it can be done. The concept makes my mother cringe, But I never quite understood why. I've worked jobs where I busted my tail feathers working hard, striving to do my best and never got any more pay, praise or reward than the folks who just got by. If the bosses were satisfied with good enough, why shouldn't I be? If I knew the college I planned to go to would accept me with my high SAT and low GPA why bother with homework? It wasn't logical. It was wasted effort, energy and time.
But I realized recently that my mother was right. Something fell into place in my life, and changed my perspective on some things. One of the things that I woke up to differently was the idea that good enough was not good enough. I'm not talking about killing yourself with an impossible standard, of demanding perfection from imperfect ability. But my mother was right. Indifferent and uninspired effort is never enough, no matter what the task, or the reward.
My mother was right, because God is never satisfied with mediocrity. In everything we do, we are to do it as unto the Lord, as though we were doing it for Him, as an illustration of how we feel about Him. If I am to live my life as a living sacrifice for God, giving myself - all of me, the good and the bad - to Him as an offering for Him to do with as He will (which is what I declare with Step Three), that includes the labor I do, from chores to jobs. How can He have all of me in my work if I am not giving all of me there?
There are things that I am not good at. There are things where my best effort is passing at best. There are things where my best effort is failing. I don't need to beat myself up over these areas, and neither do you need to condemn yourself for your own areas of weakness. We all have them. And when our best isn't even close to good enough it gives God the chance to come in, make the difference and show His power for His glory. When we are weak, He is strong. But whether it's an area where we need a touch of grace or a ton, where we need one point to make the grade or where we can't get one point right, God deserves our best effort in all that we do. It's part of giving all of ourselves to Him.
In the parable of the talents the ruler didn't harass the middle earner for not making what the high earner did. He did his best, and that earned him praise from the ruler. It was the man paralyzed by fear, the one who put in no effort, who received rebuke. When we can't pass, God gladly takes our best and makes it amazing. He does for us and with us what we could never do ourselves. He takes Gideon and three hundred men and defeats armies. He takes junkies and drunks and makes productive members of society who can be counted on. He takes the rejected and makes corner stones. God can do amazing things in our lives, when we don't hold back, when we stop being satisfied with mediocrity, with middle-of-the-road. Jesus said I would rather you be hot or cold than lukewarm. Love me, or hate me, but whichever you do, do it. Don't be indifferent. Don't be mediocre.
One last note. I try to help out around the house. Right now, with my being unemployed, helping out means being househusband and maid for the most part. By that I mean with Leah working and me not working I do not feel or believe she should have to come home to any housework that needs to be done. I've always felt that way. I make the bed to make her smile, not because I believe it should be done. But she's had a mediocre househusband, I'm ashamed to say. I made the bed, but it would have never passed my mother's inspection. The house was kept enough to keep Leah from being driven to distraction from it. But it was never an A. She got C level quality with B level effort. For a while now she's been getting A level effort, because my effort level is nothing short of my best.
Now, I'm not saying everything appears great. The bed looks properly made, because I know how to do that, but there are still things where I am limited by ability, knowledge and or time. Some things are still not above barely passing. Some things are still Fs from the outside looking in, I'm sure. But the effort is there, and the grades will improve or I will ask for help and for instruction. The thing that surprised me though, when I began doing this, is that it didn't take much if any more time to do it right than to do it good enough. It's not much harder either. But the satisfaction level has risen exponentially. When I look at what is accomplished, it's a much better feeling to know I did my best here rather than I guess that's good enough. And the greatest blessing and surprise was Leah. At first I didn't think there was really that much difference in what I was doing. I didn't know if it would even be noticeable to anyone besides me and God. But she did notice.
She even told me that she felt cared for, like before I was doing just good enough but now she felt taken care of. I nearly cried. Because giving all my effort, doing housework as though as I was doing it for God, had given me a bonus of making my wife feel more loved and cared for. That was awesome, and now I have two reasons to give it my best effort. I love Leah with all I am, and I never saw or thought that my mediocre effort made her feel less than that. I thought if I pulled the blanket up to the top of the bed and it looked OK she knew I loved her. It made her smile. But when I make it right, that annoying way where you have to fight to pull the sheet down when you get in, she doesn't smile, she beams.
I didn't love Leah less when the cleaning was close enough. I didn't love God less. I simply never understood the depth of And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men - Colossians 3:23. I didn't get that doing as to the Lord doesn't mean do enough to pass. Close enough for government work is not good enough for an offering to God. And that whatever you do means everything you do. God doesn't get our best in ministry, or the job we do for a paycheck, and not in some things. He gets the best effort in everything from sweeping the floor to making the bed. The contentment of life is a much higher return than the amount of effort it takes to go from good enough to this is my best, and the bonuses, such as someone seeing more than hearing how much you care...well, that's a priceless treasure.
Today, as we give all of ourselves, the good and the bad, to God for Him to use as He wills, let that all of us include our best effort in whatever we do, in everything we do, from the trivial to the crucial. We just might be surprised by the returns and amazed by the grace that is poured out to turn our Cs and Fs into As.
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.
Dalyn Woodard continues the study of Romans with a look at verses 8-10 of chapter 13 and how we as Christians are to live, love and fulfill that law of Christ. The message, "Love Fulfills The Law" is about 54 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, June 26, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.
A quick note and prayer request regarding this and future messages. I believe this is one of the most important sections of Romans we will cover. I believe wholeheartedly that God desires to have this message proclaimed and that the enemy really wanted to block it. I preached a similar message as is found here on Wednesday, June 22, and the program used to record the sermons crashed. We lost the message. About 80% of the normal Unshackled Life audience is online, and it seemed that they would miss out. Sunday, Pastor David Woodard approached me during worship and asked me if I would like to preach over these three verses again. That is this message, and I felt grateful for the opportunity. But once again, there were issues with the recording. The computer recording is unusable, and the backup recording made on the phone is sub par at best. Much of it can be heard, but there are parts that are nearly impossible to hear, and there is far too much noise interference. For those who would like to try to listen, it is here. But with the conviction that this message needed to be delivered I spent hours transcribing it. I preach much differently than I write, but I left the poor sentence structure and grammar in the transcription. This is a word for word text version of the sermon, not a written message. The text can be found below the video.
The prayer request is simple. We are asking for prayer support of this ministry. Please pray for the equipment and recordings. We need God's grace to insure that those who listen online have access to the messages. I need grace to be able to preach without worry or thinking about whether or not the sermon is recording well. I also ask for prayer that God will continue to give me the messages that He wants me to deliver and that I will give them as He is giving them. Thank you for your faithful and continued prayers for Unshackled Life Ministries.
Oh hallelujah. Father, we thank You. Thank You for being with us today. I ask that You give every person here and others that hear an awareness of Your love and an awareness of Your presence, a heart that is receptive to Your word and truth. I thank You Father that You answer prayer. that when we ask Your anointing, You give it. So in addition to the prayer that has already been prayed over this, I ask that You block anything in me, nervousness, attempt at memory, anything that would get in the way of me delivering what You would have me deliver. That You would not allow one kernel of truth that was in the original message from going back forth, that those who listen later online will get what You intended for them to get on Wednesday night. The enemy can not steal that, in the name of Jesus. But at the same time, for those who have heard it, that there will also be something new and fresh that will help them grow closer to You, and enrich their lives and their spirit, pull them deeper and deeper into relationship with You so that it's not just an exercise in..."Oh, I've heard all of this before." Oh, Father, many a many a person has read Your entire scripture over and over and over again, and yet with each reading, we can get something new, something true, something fresh. I ask for something true and fresh today for those of us who have heard this and who have looked at this...Let Your word go forth and bear fruit, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Yes, I found out early this morning, "Hey, you wanna do this?" My initial reaction was, "No. I really don't." I didn't take any notes last week when I was preparing to give this original message on Wednesday, because while I can enlarge the font on the computer well enough to type up my notes when I study, I have discovered that when I get up here in this particular lighting that I can't read them. It doesn't do a lot of good to have notes if you can't read them. So, I have been just, rather than preparing sermons, absorbing the material and studying the material the best that I can and then just giving it, which, according to my wife, is usually better than when I have notes anyway. So I trust her.
But what that meant was that when the recording crashed, I knew that there was absolutely no way I could duplicate, come up here to an empty sanctuary, look at my notes and give the message again, and just put it online and say. "This is basically what I said." So, I was not prepared. This will be an example of stepping out in faith that the anointing is there to be instant in season and out of season. When you're not prepared and can still move in what God would have you move in. And I don't say that to try to get any glory for me. "Oh, look he wasn't ready, and look how good he did." I hope he does good. I hope I do good, because I want y'all to receive. But not for me. So that you can go, "Hey, if on a spur of a moment's notice, with week old preparation, he can step up and be used of God, what can God do in my life? The answer is anything He wants to do that you'll let Him do.
There will be some things that will be repeated, for those who have heard, because I can not do this without it. The first thing is, what the rest of you, those of you who don't listen online, you're getting one message in the middle of a series on Romans. I don't say that to make everybody rush out, go to the website and listen to the rest of the series, it would be a blessing if you did. But if you're not familiar with it, read this book. Study this book. Study them all. They're all good. But there is a lot in this. This is the second section on Romans chapter 13. That's where our text is going to come from when I finally get there.
For those who aren't unfamiliar and don't know, the first 11 chapters of Romans are all about God, His grace, His love for us, and how we find salvation. How to be saved. What it means to be saved. What it means to be a follower of Christ. How we become a follower of Christ. How we don't become a follower of Christ. It's all about what God did for us; what we can't do for ourselves. All that basic, I can't, He can, if you'll let Him you'll find it. We are justified by faith, not by works. You can't earn it. There is no aspect of God's love that we earn. We just can't. We fall short.
But all that basic building block and foundation kinda ends at the end of chapter 11. And a lot of people feel like that's basically where the significance of Romans ends. And it's not. That's what he was doing to build up to get ready to, "OK, now that we know that, let me tell you what this letter is really about. "
Romans 12 is really where it starts. He just wants to make sure that you have the information. Because Romans 12 is where we get to see the blueprint begin. This is the foundation we're building, a life of worship to God.
We had an awesome worship service today. But worship is a lot more than getting together on Sunday or Wednesday and singing some songs. It's more than flags. It's more than what we typically call worship. It's how we live our life. It is our response to God. If we understand God's great love for us, what He has done, what He has freely given us, how much He has accepted us just the way we are, called us to Him, our logical response - that's what the Greek says (Romans 12:1) - our natural response is to give ourselves back to Him. It's easy to love somebody who's loving you, right? If you feel loved and accepted by somebody, you usually like them, even if they're not the kind of person you normally hang out with. Because we have a natural, logical tendency to respond that way, out of selfishness. But not spiritually.
If you get a grasp of who God is and how much He loves you, the natural response, the logical response, the only possible response is to give yourself in return. We give ourselves as a living sacrifice. That means everything that we that have, everything that we are, everything, everything that we hope, everything that we did, everything that we regret, everything that we wish for, goes on the altar. The good. The bad. Everything. It's all His. We don't hold anything back. We don't say, "This isn't good enough, so God doesn't want this. Oh this is horrible, dirty, nasty. God doesn't want this." No, He doesn't. He wants to take it and get rid of it so you don't have it either. And we definitely don't want to come with, "Oh, this is pretty good. I'll give this to Him." Because compared to Him, your pretty good's pretty bad. It's very bad. We give ourselves totally anc completely. The good and the bad. Everything. The good and the bad. Yes, I said that over and over again because we can't seem to grasp it. All of us, a living sacrifice on the altar.
Lord,do with me what You will. Take the good and make it better. Take the bad and get rid of it. Change what You want to change. Add what You want to add. Take away anything You want to take away. Use me for Your plan and Your purpose and Your glory. When we do that He gives us the faith to exercise the gifts that He has given us. And each of us has been given a unique combination of spiritual gifts that give us an ability to uniquely reflect an aspect of the Father. All of this is a back up review of Romans 12 for those who have not heard it.
When we put ourselves into using those gifts for His glory, we begin to show graces and virtues of the kind of people we are. We love without hypocrisy. What's that mean? That means we love without ulterior motive. We don't love somebody to make ourselves look good. "See how loving that person is?" We don't love somebody to see what we can get back from them, to hope that they treat us right. We love somebody the way Jesus loved, whether they accept it or not. Whether they hate us for it or not. Whether they nail us to a tree. OK, we're not likely to get nailed to a tree, but we can get raked over the coals. No matter what their response is we love them. And if they respond horribly we continue to love them.
Then he shows us how we are to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. He goes on and finishes up Romans 12 with how we are to treat our very enemies, the people outside of The Body. Not just non-saved people, though he includes those, but even those who are actively pursuing us to do us harm. That's what persecution means, to pursue with the intent to harm. He goes straight from there into Romans 13. The first seven verses, after we find out how we are to respond individually to God, to ourself, to our family of believers, to God and unbelievers, we find out how we are to respond to God and civil authority to government. He wraps that up with a...by saying that we are indeed to pay our taxes as a sign of submission and obedience to God and to support the government. Even when the government is not Godly. He wrote that to the church in Rome at a time when there was one ruler, no vote, nobody got to say what happened with taxes. The tax collectors were putting the majority of the money in their pocket. It was corrupt. It was not going where it was supposed to be, and none of it was being used for Godly purposes. He said pay it.
Then, after starting with government, after finishing with government I should say, he goes on in verses 8-10 to talk about how all of this comes together to make us, as followers of Christ, those who fulfill the law.
"Oh, fulfill the law? Wait a minute. You always preach grace. I'm not under the law any more." I'll get to that.
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
We are called to fulfill the law. Jesus said, "If you love Me, you'll obey Me." I'm paraphrasing. We are no longer under the authority and the power of the law. We are no longer bound to the consequences of the law. Hallelujah. Because the consequences for failure, for anything short of 100% is death. And we have all failed. Only one ever didn't. Jesus is the only one who fulfilled the law.
He fulfilled it two ways. First, He came and fulfilled it in a way that none of us ever can. He did it. Perfectly. In spirit and in manifestation physically. He didn't just obey the rules. He obeyed the heart behind the rules. He did it perfect. So He fulfilled the law. We can never do it. He loved perfectly. And He fulfilled the law by giving Himself in our place to fulfill the consequence. The law demanded that a price be paid for the sin of the world, and He fulfilled that debt, that obligation, in our place. So, He fulfilled the law in two ways, and He did it out of love. He did it in the power of love. He did it for love. And that justification was poured out on us, but that love was also poured out on us, in us, through us.
I've heard many times that we are to be His hands and feet. There's some truth in that, but I don't like it, because it's not enough. I don't think we are to be His hands and feet. I think that we are to be the manifestations of His heart. To love like He loves. We are called to obey. We are called to be loving. And it's not possible. It's just not possible. We can't do it. Even when we don't mean to mess up, we do.
I do it. I do it all the time. I did it this morning. This morning. Here I am, up here preaching and on my way to church I thought it would be kinda funny to pull the end of my straw, give it a little pull to make sure it was loose, turned sideways a [pffft sound], shot it at my wife. I meant to pop her in the side of her hair, but I hit her in the side of her face from about two foot away. That's not nice. It's not loving. I didn't intend harm. I didn't mean anything disrespectful. I didn't mean to make her feel devalued or untreasured in any way. I definitely didn't mean to scare her or to hurt her or upset her. But I did. Because even at my best, even when I don't have any ill will, I fall short when I don't stop before I act and make sure this is the step that God wants me to take, where the Holy Spirit is leading me. Even in those little things. Now, she forgave me. She's wonderful like that. And God forgave me, because He might as well. He forgave the big ones. C'mon/ That doesn't even make the top 50 list of reasons why I'd be going to hell without Jesus.
We fall short. We can not do this. We can not love as Jesus loved any more than we can obey the old law without failing. You see, the new law is actually harder. We love to go around and say, "We're not under the law anymore." Well, you're not under the Old Testament law anymore. You're under a new law. "This is my commandment, that you love one another." This is the new law. It's not a new law. It's the old law. It's the same law. The heart of the Father has always been about love. Love has always fulfilled the law. It's just we can't do it. That's why we need grace.
Grace is not - I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and I'll say it again the next and the time after that, and every time I preach grace- grace is not the freedom to sin. Grace is not the freedom to do whatever we want. Grace does not give us the right, and the freedom, and the liberty and the ability to live any old way we want to. Grace doesn't mean, "Oh good. I can do this, and the slate will be clean tomorrow." Get the slate clean so we can dirty it again. That's not grace.
Grace gives us the power to walk with God. Grace is the ability not to sin. Grace is freedom from sin. Because we could never walk right without it. We could never do it right, on our own. But with grace we can. Grace gives us the ability to stop before we react. Grace gives us the ability to check with the Holy Spirit to see which direction to go. Grace gives us the ability to react as God would react, rather than react in our natural old way. To react differently. To act differently. To think differently. To love differently than our carnal cursed flesh demands. And it demands that we do it a certain way.
He sums up verse 8 with "Owe no man anything." This is not, as has been preached by some, a condemnation of credit cards. This does not mean you can not get a loan. This means if you have a debt, pay it. Don't give somebody your word that if you borrow from them you will pay them back and then laugh as you walk away with your money in your pocket because they will never see it again. This means if you know that you're not ever ever ever going to be able to pay it back, don't borrow it. If you have borrowed it, pay it as you can in your ability by the grace of God. Sometimes the grace of God covers us financially too. He does for us what we can not do for ourselves. That's what grace is, unearned, undeserved. Assistance. Power. Grace is power. We say it like it's a weak thing. "Ah, they're gracious." No. Grace is power.
There's another way not to owe anybody anything. I used this example Wednesday night. I'm going to use it again here, because it fits perfectly. Has anybody here ever said or heard or believed or felt, or can identify with the idea of "I don't get mad. I get even. I don't get mad. I get even." We love to twist things "Vengeance is MINE, says the Lord." As though God gave you permission to take revenge out on that person.
First off, you're lying. Because you're mad when you say it, you're mad when you're trying to get even, and you're mad afterwards, whether you got even or not. You're still mad. Second off, the reason why you say get even, that word even comes from balancing the scales. What you're really saying is, "They owe me. They owe me. They hurt me. They did me wrong. They disrespected me, whatever. They owe me compensation, pain for pain, hurt for hurt, respect for respect, money for money, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. They owe me!" Because when we hurt somebody, when we walk in an unloving way, we create a debt. We owe the people we hurt. We owe the people that we've done damage in their lives, intentional or not, accidental or not, maliciously or not. We owe. And those debts we could never pay either. By the way, those debts are also, on an eternal scale, covered by the blood of Jesus, paid for by the death of Jesus and put on that cross. If you are His, you are not going to be punished for the damage you did to anybody else any more than you will be for breaking any other law, but that doesn't take away the damage that you've done to somebody's life. That's why grace is not permission to live as you want to live and to be selfish. Because whenever you're selfish, you hurt somebody else.
You can't do it. You can't put yourself first and love somebody else at the same time. It's not possible. When you treat somebody like they have less value you do damage to them. And you owe them. And Paul says here, don't. He uses that as a transition from how we respond to the government, paying our debts, to the transition of what we are to be, look like, and how we are to live as followers of Jesus Christ. We are to be those who fulfill the law.
"A grace preacher talking about fulfilling the law." Absolutely. Every preacher who preaches about law is missing it if he does not say that you're only hope to even think about doing it is grace. And every preacher who preaches grace and doesn't say that you're still supposed to obey is missing it, because he's missing the point of grace. Don't owe somebody damages because of the way you treat them.
Owe nobody, except love. "Hey? Owe love?" Absolutely. That's the one debt that you are called to pay on every day and will never ever be able to pay back. As you have freely received, freely give. All, for one, He gave it to us. He poured out His love upon us. For the love that the Father had for me and for you, and for everybody's who's ever breathed, and everybody who is breathing and everybody who will ever breathe, He poured out His disgust, disappointment and anger on His perfect Son. So that the love that was due that perfect Son could be poured out on us. We caused the damage to Jesus. He never deserved it. We owe.
We don't have to pay it back before we get His love. he loved us when He went to the cross. We don't have to pay it back to get Christianity, salvation, religion, whatever. You can't. But if we're gonna pour out ourselves on the altar, the good and the bad, all of us, as living sacrifices, it can not be because we are trying to be good enough. And it can not be because we are trying to follow the rules. It has to be out of worship. It has to be out of love, or it's meaningless. Excessive love and extravagant affection. That's what worship means.
It's awesome. The heart of the Father was always that we love. Love Him. Love people. That's it. Couldn't do it.
"All right, short of that perfection, what would You have us do?"
"Oh goodness. Would you just love Me and love people?"
"Uhm, even him?"
"Yes, even him."
"What about her?"
"Yeah, her too."
"Can't do it."
"All right. Fine. Here's some rules, OK? Until Messiah comes, pours Himself out for you, returns so that the Holy Spirit can come, so that you can receive My grace to walk in this, here's some things that will make you come close to thinking about what you can't do."
Those are the Ten Commandments. Paul uses this set of verses and throws up four of them as examples. He's not excluding any. He's just using examples. He says if there's any other, the law is fulfilled by love. Because you can not love and break the law at the same time. It's not possible. Can you love God and be...I'm not saying that if you love somebody you can't step outside of that and act a fool sometimes. I'm not saying that if you're ever mean to that person or unloving to that person it means that you never loved them. What I'm saying is when you're disrespectful to your spouse at that moment you're not loving them. When you're cussing out the idiot at Walmart, you're not loving them. When you're throwing stones of judgement, you're not loving them.
"Well, God..." God said He was the judge. We're not called to judge. You can't love God and love something else at the same time, as in worship, as in be extravagantly enthused over another god, a false god. You can't love somebody and murder 'em. You see, if you really love, you don't need the rules. It answers all the questions. "Is this OK? Is this OK?" You don't bear false witness. You don't lie to get somebody in trouble if you love that person. You don't go after your buddy's wife if you love him. You don't commit adultery if you love your wife, if you love your husband, because that's not a loving thing to do. That's not love. It's selfish.
Love always fulfills the law. The Greek here in verse 10 that we fulfill the law, the different law. What does that mean, the different law? Jesus said there are two laws. Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, with all your might, with everything that you are, with everything you want to be, with everything you wish you were. Love Him with what you're not. Just everything. With every part of you, love God. Pretty easy, right? Grace.
And the other law, the different law, is to love your neighbor as yourself. "Well, I don't love myself." Yeah, you do. "No, I don't." Yeah, you do. "I'm OK. I love myself." No, you don't. No you're not. "Wait a minute you're confusing me." I'm not talking about self-esteem. I'm not talking about your image. I'm not talking about whether you think highly of yourself or lowly of yourself. I'm not even thinking about whether or not you're nice to yourself. Most of us aren't sometimes, and when we are, we're usually nice for the wrong reasons.
You take love out of the equation. You take God out of the equation. And I have been trying to think of this, in case I was slightly off Wednesday night, and I can't think of an example where a person's actions, whatever they may be, aren't somehow, whether they realize it or acknowledge it or not, in relation to their seeking of their own comfort, security or happiness. A parent will sometimes sacrifice one, or two, or three of those things for their child, but that's love. Putting your child before yourself is love. You might genuinely care about helping somebody else. I'm not saying you don't. I'm not saying that somebody who doesn't know God can't love on some level. Yes, we can. That's how we recognize love when we see it from Him, because we know what it is, because we feel it. But outside of God, outside of love, our motivations are seeking our joy, our comfort, our security, whether we hate ourselves or not.
That's what we're after. "I'm going to do this because it's gonna make me happy. I'm gonna hide up in this bed and pull my head up underneath the covers and lay here for three days because it'll make me feel better." Comfort. Joy. Security. Those are our motivations. When Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," He wasn't saying pump your self esteem up. What He was saying was, "Make sure their joy, their comfort, their security is as important to you as yours is to you."
There's another aspect to that. Stop tearing yourself apart. See, God says you have value. God says, "You're worth something." God says, "You are fearfully and wonderfully made." God said, "You are worth dying for. I love you." If you are loved so much how can you be worthless? You can not, as a believer, treat yourself as though you have no value. That's part of loving yourself. Not excusing your sin. Not saying, "I'm OK because of my sin." Saying, "I'm loved by God and that makes me valuable. That makes me worthy of not living this way, of tapping into that grace so that I can walk free." Oh, and by the way, if He loves me that much, He loves you that much, and when I encounter you, I'm going to treat you as though you have value, as though you have worth. I'm going to treat you as though you were worth dying for.
We like to run around sometimes and act like there are people God wants to kill. That's not scriptural. "Well, the Old Testament..." Shut up. It was never about that. Scripture says it is not His heart that any should perish but that all would come to everlasting life. For God so loved the entirety of people that He gave Jesus, that whosoever, every soever, all who would say yes to the invitation to come might be saved and have eternal life. Life. He's not trying to kill. He came to restore and to set the captive free. His heart breaks every time a single person dies without having said yes.
This morning, at this moment, there are Christians in other countries on their knees about to get a bullet in the head or lose their heads because of their faith. There are enemies of God about to kill a child of God, and I'm telling you right now that God will welcome that child home with a loving heart and the two of them together will love that person who did it and pray that he or she comes to God before it's too late.
He loves us. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? It's that, right there. Love fulfills the law. Love God. Love people. Do whatever else you want. Yep, anything you want to do is OK as long as it comes after love God, love people. Don't do anything that creates distance between you and the Father. Treat Him with adoration, great love. Do things that bring you closer. Spend time. Do things that make Him smile. Don't do the things that don't make Him smile. Spiritually make your bed.
You know, I make my bed for Leah, because it makes her smile. I think it's an exercise is futility because I'm going to mess it up and climb back in it. Nobody's gonna see it anyway. But it's not an exercise in futility because it makes her happy. I like that, because I love her. That's how we're supposed to treat God.
"I don't get this one God. This doesn't make sense. What, really what is the point of me doing this?"
"It makes Me happy."
"OK."
You don't have to understand everything. Just love God, and let Him love you. Well, God loves people. All of us. So love those people that God loves. That means everybody you run into, every idiot on your Facebook page, every person that has a bumper sticker of whatever political party that opposes the one you stand for. Love 'em. Love 'em. Put their comfort, joy and security equal to or ahead of your own. Don't do anything that's gonna make them run from God. Don't do anything that's going to push them away from God.
We are the ambassadors of Christ. That means that we speak with His authority, and then we wonder why people take it like God's treating them bad when some Christian treats them bad. Because innately they understand we're supposed to be speaking and loving and touching for God. That's what we're called to do. When we interact with somebody, they're supposed to be seeing what the Father feels about them. So when we don't love 'em, how do they respond?
"God doesn't love me. The church hates me. God must hate me too. Well, fine. I'll just go over here without it."
And the Father weeps, while we sit self righteous and smug that we ran off the trash. Heaven weeps. Scripture says the angels rejoice when one returns to the Father. Well, they weep every time one doesn't. And they wail when it's a child of God that throws them out the door. You are called to love each other, to treat others as though they are loved of God, because they are.
I'm not saying...I'm not preaching tolerance. OK? This is not a accept everybody, tolerate everybody. Jesus loves you just the way you are, not as you should be, but He loves you enough not to leave you that way. He said, "What I've done, you go and do likewise." We always take that to mean miracles. Well, I tell you it is about a miracle. It's about the greatest miracle of all. You love that person that you would normally spit on, that you would normally push away, that you would normally run away from, that would normally turn your stomach, and you love them just the way they are, not as they should be. And then love them enough to tell them they're playing in the road blindfolded. Love them enough to tell them the truth. Love them enough to care.
"Well, I can't do that." No you can't. Neither can I. That's why we need grace. And we need to wait for the Holy Spirit to guide us into our actions and reactions, because our reactions, our default, is wrong. We need His grace to be able to walk through life the way Jesus did. Because here is the miracle of Jesus' life. The miracle of Jesus' life is not that He didn't sin. I don't think that was a miracle. A miracle is something outside the ordinary. A miracle is something outside the natural. It is not outside the ordinary or outside of the natural for God not to sin. So that wasn't a miracle. That's just God being God. What was outside of the norm, the ordinary, was God taking on the flesh of man, humbling Himself as one of us, and then walking through the midst of us loving everybody He encountered, so that people who were literally lepers to society, physically, spiritually, ethically, morally, the traitors, the prostitutes, the drug addicts, the drunks, the reprobates, the thieves, the worst of the worst felt loved when He was in their presence, felt comfortable with Jesus, and not one of them came out of that thinking they were OK. That is a miracle, to make somebody feel loved and at the same time, let them know, "You're not OK." That's a miracle.
Ain't nobody ever been able to successfully do it in my life. You tell me I'm not OK, I don't feel loved. You tell me you love me, I must be OK. 'Cause I'm messed up. Well, so were all those people that Jesus was with. So are you, and so are all the people you're gonna encounter. When we tell them that they're not OK, they don't feel loved. When we tell them that they're loved, they start thinking they're OK. There's a book, I'm OK You're OK. No I'm not, and no you're not. We're not OK. We are broken, messed up people in need of a Savior.
But we're better than OK, because the Savior came, and He loves us. And that's all we have to do to follow Jesus is love like He did. It's the only rule we have to keep. Think about it. It's the only law we have to keep. Just one. He replaced over 600 with one. Just love. You can do whatever else you want, as long as love comes first. It doesn't leave much. If you love God you're going to want to do what He wants you to do. It's just as simple as that.
Love. That's harder that just not killing somebody. I can keep from killing the sucker. Love him? I don't know about that. That's why we need grace. That's what grace is for. If we have felt His love, if we can get just a little tiny glimpse of who He is and how much He loves us, the only logical response is our whole life.
I don't know how or why. I don't get it. How could You possibly love me this way? But thank You. Oh God, I love You too! Let me come to You. Let me give You everything that I have. Oh my goodness, I don't deserve this kind of love. God loves me, and the way He loves me - the addict, the alcoholic, the felon - well, that's the way He loves you. That's the way He loves that poor tore up kid sneaking a gun into school, shooting 20 people. That's the way He loves those ISIS folks. That's the way He loves Obama. That's the way He loves Mother Theresa. That's the way He loved Peter, Paul and James. That's the way He loves us all. If I love Him and truly believe that He can love me despite who I am, how can I not act like you're worthy of that same love?
And that's what it means. When people run into us and encounter us - "That person's different. That person's weird." Yes, be a little strange. Let your freak flag fly. Be a Jesus freak. Let them know something's different about you. What's the difference? "He don't talk like those other folks. He loves people. He don't react like other folks. He loves people. She's not judgmental, bitter and mean. She loves people."
Oh God, I want to be like that. That's how I want to live my life, to honor You, to worship You. Oh God, and I can't do that. I just can't. But the spirit within us He is able. "Walk in the power of the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." We think of that as this, you know, certain sins. Lus , it conjures up certain things in our minds. Well, that guy cuts you off in traffic, you want to chase him down to the red light, get out of you car and yell at him through the window and let him know how much you love him? That's the lust of the flesh. That's the desire of that carnal heart.
I'm pretty good about that in my car. But somebody tailgates me when I'm on my motorcycle and I want to yank them out of their car and let them know exactly what I think of that, especially if Leah's with me. Because then I get all protective. I go down, no big deal, but if I go down with her. You see, knowing my luck I'd live though it, and then I'd have to explain to her mother. Uh uh. Nu uh. I'll yank you up out of that car. Don't be tailgating me. That's me. The Spirit says, "Love 'em. Pray for 'em. Bless those who hate you." Bless means wish God's best for them. Want God to do the best He can for them. Bless 'em. That's love.
Father, I thank You that You love us that much, that You made it real simple, so simple a child can get it. Love. That's all it is. But like music is simple and has only seven notes - A, B, C, D, E, F, and G- a child can learn those seven notes in no time, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, nobody else could ever exhaust the endless combinations of beauty those seven notes can do. Same way, Your one law is simple. Love. We can all get it. When we get it right, in certain ways and certain combinations as You would do it, it makes a beautiful music of our lives. There's no way we could ever exhaust it. There's also no way that we can play that music on our own. We're just too selfish. We're too concerned with out own security, our own comfort, our own joy. So Father, replace our self, as we lay it on Your altar, with Your self that loves, so that we can love as You love, so that we can be the manifestations of Your heart, so that we can fulfill that other law of loving people the way You love people, willing to lay down our lives in hopes that they see and hear the truth and find reunited relationship with You. Not necessarily talking about martyrdom. I'm talking about day to day living for others. Help us to walk in that, because we need Your grace. We sure can't do it. Let others when they see us see the heart of Daddy longing for the prodigal will come home. Help us to remember that when we do things that are harmful to us, harmful to our relationship with You, we are failing to love ourselves as You have called us to love ourselves. That when we act selfishly in a way that would cause somebody else any harm we are not loving them. And when we put anything in priority above our relationship with You we are falling short of loving You the way we should. Help us to quickly turn to You for grace to correct our path and return to the love that called us and that we were called to when we said yes. In Jesus' name. 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.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.
– Abraham Lincoln
I love this quote. It's a great reminder of the need to go to God, as well as being an encouragement when I think of leaders crying out to God for help and guidance. I have no doubt that the best way to be an effective leader is to be an effective follower of God. But when I read or hear this quote, I am also reminded of all the times I kept going my own way and kept trying to do things on my own until victory became impossible. Then, seeing I had no other hope, I would turn to God for help.
Life is so much better, there is so much more victory and security and contentment, when we hit our knees before we are driven there. We can remember that His way is always the best way, the only way to true victory and success. We do not have to try any other way first. The experience and failure of the past can be enough for us to know that there is absolutely no other place to go, no other way that works. We don't have to end at that place of broken reliance on God. We can start there.
Today, let us look first to God for guidance and direction. Let us not wait for our life to move into critical condition before turning it and the situation over to Him and asking for His help. He is as much a present source of help as the problem approaches as He is when we are at the end of our ropes.
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.
My wife is an artist in the kitchen, and I'm not talking about how she took over half of the kitchen table to paint, although there is that too. She is an amazing cook with instincts that just amaze me. She sometimes seems not to understand why I get excited rather than nervous when she tells me that she is cooking something she's never tried before and that she got an idea for some new dish. I get excited because in the years we have been together I have gotten to taste many new things, personal creations from the mind of my wife, and they have all been good. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. She has only cooked one bad dish in all these years, and that was one of the few times I've ever known her to follow someone else's recipe. Just don't make blackberry cobbler with coconut flour, just don't.
But the normal is that her cooking is amazing and great. Even the leftovers are great. Sometimes they even taste better the next day. Some men may joke or complain about eating leftovers, but not me. I love them. Some women may live by the creed that happiness is enough leftovers in the refrigerator that you don't have to cook, but if I'm strange for liking leftovers, Leah is not the norm in the leftover department either. She prefers to have leftovers and not eat them. She prefers to repurpose them. She takes the idea of leftovers like they're a Quickfire challenge to the chefs on Top Chef, and in a half hour or so in front of the stove has created a totally new dish. Cooking Hacks by Leah, it should be a show.
There is one dish that she makes for me from time to time because it is one of my favorites. I love Leah's pot roast. She has never made it exactly the same way twice, so I have gotten to eat many different pot roasts over the years, and each has been better than anybody else's I've ever eaten. I won't eat pot roast from any other source any more, because I simply do not want t to be let down. Even though it's always a little different, Leah's is what pot roast should be and taste like. Every other roast just can't measure up.
She made one Sunday, and it was awesome, as usual. I spent most of Monday looking forward to leftovers for dinner. When Leah said she was getting dinner ready, I thought she was going to heat up the leftovers, and I got excited. A few minutes later I realized she was cooking. I almost got disappointed. I had been looking forward to the pot roast, but then I thought I can have them for lunch tomorrow. Still, I asked her what she was cooking. She answered that she had an idea to do something new with some of the pot roast leftovers. One of her experiments had begun. She told me, as she usually does, I'm not sure if it will be any good.
I was sure though. I never doubt her talent. Sometimes I wonder how she will make some combination of ingredients that I would never think to eat on my own good, but I never wonder if they will be good. And last night was no exception. The meal amazed me. She took one of my favorite meals and made it even better. Instead of my missing out on the leftovers I had been craving, I got a new dish, a new variation that has also been added to my list of favorites. Now I know that any time in the future that she makes a pot roast, there is a possibility that she will also make this later. That idea makes me doubly excited about the thought of pot roast.
Last night as I ate, the wonder of how she constantly amazes me in the kitchen is a gift, and a great example of an aspect of the talent and nature of God. God is so amazing that His leftovers are better than anything the world has to offer. And yet no two things He does are ever exactly the same. And He doesn't seem to care much for leftovers. Even though I would be perfectly happy with what He gave me yesterday, He always makes His mercy and blessings new. Even rereading His word can be a totally new and different experience, though the ingredients (words) never change, the revelation to the taste buds of my spirit is new and fresh. It amazes me. The more I eat from the Master's table the more I am ruined for what anyone or anything else prepares. The world simply will disappoint, because even when He does things that I would never expect and wonder how will this be good, when I receive it I realize yes, this is what life is supposed to be and taste like. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who puts his trust in Him - Psalm 34:8.
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 butto:n 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.
There is no one giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps.
– Peter A. Cohen
This is one of those great quotes that is easy to find throughout the internet. I do not know the original purpose or context of the quote, so I can not say if Mr. Cohen was right or wrong about what he was referring to, but as this one statement stands alone there is a lot of truth here. Of course there are exceptions and the metaphor doesn't always ring true, e.g. if I'm trying to cross a ditch full of water and keep my feet dry, a giant step across works a lot better than any number of little steps. But that is the kind of thing someone wanting to avoid the truth of what the statement is trying to convey would bring up to distract themselves. I know, because I just did it.
The thing is that all too often in life we want to take that giant step when it's not appropriate. I wanted the stability and the comfort and freedom of six years experience of sobriety at about 6 months clean, probably less. I want the steady assurance, peaceful harbor quality of faith my father has after four decades plus of walking with God and living in ministry and service now. I want the spiritual aroma of the person who spent a life time in fervent faithful prayer to be mine after five minutes in my prayer closet. I want the freedom from bad habits that I spent a lifetime to cultivate to be gone with one decision to mentally pull the weed from the garden of my heart.
It's not a bad thing to want those kind of things, to have goals and to desire to live better today than we did yesterday, and better tomorrow than we do today. But when we get so caught up in the finish line that we can't run the race, we have created a problem for ourselves. A marathon of 26 miles can not be run in a single step. It's just not possible. It doesn't matter if you're as slow a turtle or as fast as Quicksilver or Flash, the slow and the speedster still take step after step to cover the distance. But we all too often want what we want and want it now to the extent that if we can't do it immediately we won't bother to try at all. If I can't do it right, why do it? But sometimes being able to do it right or near perfect only comes after years of practice and many times of doing it not so right.
Sometimes if we keep our eye on the finish line it can inspire us and remind us of why we are running. But other times, the great distance between where we are and where we want to be can overwhelm and discourage. The mountain is too high, the job is too big. At those times, it is best to remember that it is the little things, the repeated continuous progress that completes the journey and not the instant fix. When I turn on the water full blast, the container is filled quickly, but unless I reduce the flow at some point it will never be full. The water pressure begins to push water back out faster than can be contained. When the flow is shut off, there is space left. But if the water is run slowly, I can fill the container to the rim.
I remember as a child helping my father haul hay. When it began to grow late and we, especially I, became weary and wanted to quit, Dad would never point out the hundreds of bales of hay remaining that had to be moved. He would tell me, one more load. We can do one more load. We would do the next load and only that load and then reevaluate. Then we could see that we had enough in us to do one more load, one more time. Repeated one load at a time, the point would come when one more load became the last load. Then exhausted but satisfied with a job well done, we'd head home to rest. We did it, not by trying to carry all of the hay at once, something we couldn't possibly do, but by loading one bale at a time and hauling one load after another.
Today when we become overwhelmed by the distance and what needs to be done, let us not look at our inability to take the giant step, but rather let us focus on the small step, the little piece we can do, the small progress that is the next step in a race well run and a job well done.
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.
The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.
–John Holt
When I was younger it seemed to me that there was nothing that my father didn't know how to do. No matter what situation came up he always knew just how to react or respond in the best possible way. I felt very impressed with my Dad. As I grew older I learned the truth, that there were many things and situations that put him in a bit of quandary. There were times he didn't know the perfect words to say. He didn't know the next move to make. He didn't know how to fix it.
You might think that this realization would bring with it disillusionment and disappointment. But it didn't. The truth is that I am even more impressed. You see, while my father may not always know what physical step to make, I have repeatedly witnessed him make the same, and always right, spiritual step when faced with uncertainty. When he doesn't know what to do, his immediate action is to always turn to his Heavenly Daddy for guidance and direction. His reaction is not to react until he hears what to do from the Holy Spirit.
I want to be more like that. If our behavior when we don't know how or what to do is to turn inward to guidance from the Spirit, we can rest assure that the next thing we do will be right, blessed and anointed to make something good come if every situation and circumstance. Today, let us be quick to turn to God for direction when we encounter uncertainty.
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.
Me and my OCD. That feels like it ought to be a Weird Al tune sung to Janice Joplin's Me And Bobby Mcgee. Maybe I should write it. I know at least half the song would be about how much I love Pandora Radio and the other half would be how much Pandora frustrates me and needs to stop being stupid. Actually I feel a little bad for the programmers at Pandora. The algorithm to help group music is genius and works well for the most part. But sometimes....
Why do I feel a little bad? Well, as my wife can testify, I totally obsess and get annoyingly compulsive about my music. My minor in college was in radio/tv, and my time working on radio stations back when the DJ actually picked and played the songs himself or herself meant that choosing music became an art form. Seriously, the flow of music matters. A good DJ could keep you going and a bad song choice could ruin the whole show. You had to figure out the best order to play the songs you chose, not just worry about what songs should or shouldn't be played. One station I worked at played three different genres of music. Morning and early afternoon meant jazz. Then came The Bridge. The Bridge was simply a four hour block of music designed to help take the listener from jazz to the hard alternative played in the evenings. The Bridge was a tightrope. No one could define it well. But if you played pop or rock that was too hard too early it didn't work. It stuck out and felt jarring. The same song might work great an hour later though when a more mellow song had already lost its relevance. But at the same time the music needed to gradually build from mellow to hard, and that meant mixing the two. What made for a great mix? I couldn't tell you then, and I can't tell you now, but I sure knew when I or another DJ missed it. Oh man they shouldn't have played that song there!
Pandora suffers with this problem on a massive and much larger scale than any local DJ ever had to worry about. The algorithm uses factors to help pull in music that works and cull music that doesn't. The problem is that the longer the show lasts (the longer a station exists) the harder it is to find new music to play without getting away from the core qualities of the music used to create the station in the first place. It gets harder and harder to stay on format without playing the same songs over and over and over and over, and let's face it, most people who don't mind repetition aren't obsessing with Pandora. They're listening to Top 20 and Top 40 stations where if they heard part of a song they can keep listening and know with glee that they'll hear that same song in it's entirety in an hour or less. Ugh.
Part of the problem begins with dealing with...well, us, the users. You know the old adage, you can't please all the people all of the time? Of course we all realize that they can't make everyone happy, but we also all, in our selfishness, want them to make us happy regardless of everyone else. The idea is close to well you can't please everyone so you might as well just do it the way I prefer and let the others adjust, if we would get honest.
Take the Thumbs down factor for example. What does it mean or what should it mean? One group of users, this is the group that my wife belongs to, only thumbs down a song if they hate it. I mean hate it. I don't ever want to hear this stupid song ever again. EVER. So they give it the old gladiator death sign and move on to more acceptable music. A week or so later, they're listening to a different station and here comes that same stupid song, back from the dead. WHAT! How dare Pandora play that again! Doesn't my thumbs down mean anything!?! Stupid app!
Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum are nuts like me who go look, I don't care if they all have long hair, but Kenny G and Stryper should never be on the same station. EVER. Period. Never. No, not even Honestly and Songbird together. No. Just don't Pandora. So when some mathematical formula from a computer program that can never understand the art of music makes a mistake like that, I use the thumbs down to fix it. No that doesn't go on this station. Wrong format. But that doesn't mean I never want to hear that song on the station it should be played on. So you have folks like me going, why did you quit playing Fade To Black on my guitar riff station just because I thumbs downed it when it came on my Punk Rock station?
So I feel bad for them. They're in a difficult spot. On the other hand sometimes I just want to scream at them for being inconsistent. Why is it, for example, that I can create a station of Christian country music, use five songs as seeds that are all gospel or similar themed like an old hymn or the secular but not song like The Bible And A Gun with all five artists being secular artists and get nothing on that station but Christian songs and music; no crying in your beer, no cheating, no lost my dog songs, just blessed assurance of the sweet by and by..and yet, at the same time, I can create a Christian Hair Band Station with Stryper, Guardian, White Cross, X-Sinner and other 80s and 90s Christian bands as seeds, and have to thumbs down multiple songs in a row as Pandora throws out some very unChristian music for me to listen to? I have secular stations. All my seeds on this station are Christians because this is NOT a secular station, thank you very much.
Or hey, not a single song seed on my classic station was released less than 30 years ago, so how about we don't start the session off with a song that came out last week? The point of all this rambling is that as good as it is, an algorithm can't always get it right. Not even with regular input to adjust by. And we can't please God or figure out the formula for righteousness either. We can't come up with a list of if a then b type inputs to always know what to do or what not to do to please God. We can not know what is always the next best thing because our understanding is flawed and limited. Yes, reading scripture increases understanding, but there are still times when for some reason it will make sense to us to do something that from God's perspective is as out of place as a Jeremy Camp song on a Country Station.
Yes, in a way there is a simple algorithm to walking with and pleasing God. Do things that bring you closer to Him and help others. Love God and love people. Don't do things that cause distance between us and Daddy, and don't do things that will cause distance between Him and others either. Other than that, play your song. But sometimes, on our own understanding and evaluation, we will still do things that only after they fail will we understand didn't work. And sadly, in spiritual matters, that often means there is damage done to ourselves or others. Thank God for forgiveness.
But imagine if you will that Pandora was able to tailor individual algorithms to each user. Imagine it included the ability to explain each choice you make so that sometimes you could thumbs up a song in certain situations without OKing all the time or say no to a song in such a way that they also know yes, this song might be good in another situation or station or no, never ever, this song sucks. They could do a much better job with making us happy right? If we could say, listen Pandora, I love Skillet and want to listen to them when I'm in a mood for alternative music but not when I want to listen to hair band stuff!
We have that option with Daddy because of the Holy Spirit. We can communicate with and hear from God on a moment by moment, situation by situation, song by song basis. Before we make a choice we can get input that says, no, not in this instance. I know you think this is a good idea, but it's really not. Or I know this doesn't make sense to you, but if you could see beyond the surface into that person's heart you would know that what I'm asking you to do will fit perfectly in the concert of their life and yours. If we just go through our days and lives with some religious formula of these things are good and these are bad and this is OK to do and this is not, we will get off format, sometimes badly. But it we stay in tune with the Spirit and let Him guide our choices and actions we will discover some beautiful and interesting music we would never had thought existed, while at the same time, never getting off track. Today, let us allow the Holy Spirit free reign over all the songs our life plays.
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.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- Philippians 4:13
This is another one of those verses that seems to be a favorite of many. It is seen on many T-shirts, bumper stickers and memes on social media. It's a great verse, and people like the inspirational aspect of it. But I can't help but wonder how often the depths of its true meaning go unplumbed and misunderstood.
There is a group of body building ministers called The Power Team that goes from venue to venue performing feats of strength and preaching the gospel. I've seen them, and they're pretty cool They use this verse a lot, or at least they did when I saw them, And the way they used it, before a man rips a thick telephone book in half or bends a bar of steel, is the way most seem to use it. I can overcome this obstacle. I can do this great thing above and beyond my own ability through the power of Christ.
While I have no problem with The Power Team or the inspirational use of this verse to challenge people to climb that mountain in their life, using this verse as an overcoming verse is too limiting. It is so much more than that, and when we understand it, Philippians 4:13 is a great source of hope and encouragement. The problem with seeing this as an inspirational overcoming verse is that when we look at it like that, and only like that, what happens when we don't overcome the obstacle, can't move the mountain, when that bar of steel doesn't bend and the door doesn't open. What happens when the healing doesn't come? When the circumstance isn't defeated?
Does it mean we don't have enough faith? Does it mean that the power of Christ is not working in us? Is it even worse, an indication that we're not really a child of God when we don't overcome the way that we wanted? No. It doesn't mean any of that, because this verse is not about overcoming circumstances and situations at all. Being full of faith and understanding this promise does not always mean one can get up out of wheel chair and walk, or fix this or that problem, or find the energy to run another mile.
A better translation than do all things is endure all things. The literal translation is that I am staying strong in all, abiding and invigorated by the anointing of Christ. It's not a promise that we can overcome but that we can stay strong and be invigorated. And in all things means all things, in the good but also in the bad. I can stay strong and endure when I don't overcome as well as when I do. When the drought lasts longer than is comfortable, the crops begin to fail and the door doesn't open. I can keep the faith when deliverance from the pit takes decades rather than days, as it did for Joseph. I can walk with God and trust Him when things are going good and when they are going bad, in sickness as well as in health, in abundance and in poverty,
This verse is not about overcoming or meeting our desires for comfort. It's not about earthly need. Sorry, but Paul flat out states that very truth. We can't just pull out verse 13 and act like it's a guarantee of worldly victory. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by the hand of a prisoner for goodness sake. Verse 13 should always be interpreted and utilized with verses 11 and 12, not separate from them. Even when they are not quoted, they need to be remembered. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Suffering need does not mean that faith is lacking or that we aren't cared for by God. We do not have to lose hope when the situation doesn't change and the problem doesn't go away. We can have hope, not despite Philippians 4:13 but rather because of what it promises. We can indeed be content and invigorated, even in the midst of struggle and lack because of the anointing of Christ who loves and cares for 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.
Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. what, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
- Romans 8:30–32
If that is true and says what it seems to say why is it that life can be so hard? Why does it sometimes feel that the track record and damage we did before finding the freedom that is ours in Christ continues to hinder and block our progress so often? What about those fruitless job searches, the healing that seems to be denied, the discouragement at almost every turn that feels like constant opposition to the blessing and will of God in our lives?
If God is on our side, if Daddy would hold back no good thing, not even His only Son, for us, why does it feel like so much good is withheld? Why aren't the needs for recovery, employment, healing, restoration from the past and other such difficulties that litter the path of many who have once lived in bondage to addictions not coming more easily?
I think that it can often be a matter of perspective. It may seem to us that our greatest and most immediate need is victory over the wreckage of the past, of restoration of body, or the need to be able to meet financial needs and feel like we have a purpose and are finally productive members of the society we brought chaos and destruction to when playing the prodigal. If I'm so important to God why is the drought lasting so long? Why is life still so hard an full of brick walls that I can't seem to break through? If God will give us all things, why does it feel like so many needs aren't being met?
Sometimes we can't fully rise above self to see what's going on spiritually. The healing or the job or the restoration of reputation or something else may seem like our most pressing need or needs, the Lord knows what we need even better than we know ourselves. He may be using a season of difficulty to carve away the self-reliance, pride and other emotional or spiritual areas of stone in our hearts that are marring and disfiguring the sculpture of our souls from the perfection that He is crafting.
He is restoring our lives. He is making something beautiful from the ashes of destruction and the stone of our hearts. That is our first and most important need, to be transformed, sculpted, into His image. He may allow difficulty and obstacles to wear away the self we find difficult to surrender so that we can become more like Jesus. And more of Jesus is really what we need. It will bring joy and peace and love and a life worth living, relationship or nor relationship, job or no job, health or sickness and disability. The pains and difficulties of this life are temporal and fleeting, while the work He is doing within is eternal.
Today, let us lay our discouragement and needs on the alter. Let us trust in Him. He spared not His only Son so that we could have life and life more abundantly. We can trust Him to care for us as a loving Daddy who cares enough to meet our needs.
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.
So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
- John 14:29-33
This familiar story of Peter walking on water is often used to either show and inspire great faith and courage, after all, Peter did step out on the water in the first place, or how quickly doubt can cause us to sink and ruin everything. But this morning as I thought about this passage I realized a couple of things that didn't happen. First, when Peter became afraid he didn't say anything even remotely like, "Hang on Lord, I'll muster my faith again," or, "I believe, I believe, I believe." In other words, Peter didn't contemplate his faith level. He didn't get down and say he was sinking because of lack of faith and needed to increase his faith. The passage says that Peter was beginning to sink when he cried out to Jesus. Did you catch that? I don't think I ever really thought about it before, but Peter was beginning to sink.
I always thought of it like Peter sank. I know I always said started to sink, but somehow I still always pictured him chin deep in the waves, trying to tread water, and crying for salvation. But this morning that word beginning struck me. This morning I imagine Peter crying out for help before his knees got wet. He didn't go down and cry out. He cried out as he began to sink, Too often we wait until we hit the ground when we fall to cry out to God instead of at the moment we begin to lose balance.
Another thing that didn't happen is that Jesus didn't condemn Peter or ask him what happened to his faith before He helped him. He didn't say, "C'mon Peter, if you'll just believe you can rise back up and walk on the waves!" Yes, He did ask Peter why he doubted, which was really only a reassurance that Peter knew that he could trust Jesus, but He only did so when Peter was safe and sound and knew Jesus had him. Immediately. The first reaction Jesus had was to reach out and grab Peter, to catch him up and keep him safe. Sometimes we hesitate to call out to God for help when we're sinking because we feel afraid that we've let Him down, that He's disappointed in us, maybe so much so that He won't help us if we don't have enough faith. But Jesus reacted immediately with deliverance. The instruction and reminder that He could be and should be trusted came only after the crisis was averted. Jesus and Daddy share the same heart and love for us. God is not going to sit back and watch us finish falling, say, "See what happens when you lose faith? Don't you feel ashamed you doubted?" No. God's immediate reaction will always be to help us, to prevent the fall before anything else. He loves when we call out for help, realizing our need for Him, before we go down, when we begin to fall.
We don't need to fear a disappointed look from our Father. We don't have to fear we've angered Him or let Him down. He knew we'd lose our balance long before we ever felt the first hint that anything was wrong. Yes, He wants us to walk boldly in faith and trust in Him. But there are going to be times fear comes in and shakes us. When that happens, He doesn't want us to fall so that He can point out our failure. He wants us to immediately cry out to Him for help. His response is always to save before and above all else.
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.
