Unshackled Life Ministries: July 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Unshackled Moments July 31 ~ Waiting On God

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.

2 Corinthians 1: 8-10

Paul made it clear in these verses that he and those traveling with him to help him as he ministered went through a period of desolation and suffering. I'm not talking about a rough patch. They were overwhelmed, helpless and powerless to do anything to the point where they didn't care if they lived or not because they despaired of life. I sometimes think that it had to be even harder for those companions than for Paul. After all, he was called to be an Apostle and God was using him to help spread the good news of freedom in Christ. The companions with him may have felt like they understood why Paul kept going, refusing to let circumstances and the enemy stop the call and ministry of God through him made sense, but suffering just because you're in the boat with him when it seems like you don't do much must've sucked.

But I know that if they did feel that way they were wrong. I know how much Leah helps me in the ministry by being my companion, my helper, my wife. There's a reason I say we when I talk about the ministry. I need her, and I know that my mother is a huge part of my father's ministry, even though she may not feel it. It is not good for a person to be isolated in the ministry, and even if those companions were doing nothing more than prayer support and carrying luggage they were a huge part of what made it possible for Paul to do what he did in ministry. To stop them would be to hinder Paul's ministry as much as hindering Paul would have done. So, when Paul had to endure, they often did as well, and Paul said it got bad.

Yes, it got bad, but there was a purpose. Paul said the purpose was that they might learn to trust in God and not rely on themselves. While Mark talks about how as soon as things get hard some fall away, for those who will turn to God and look to Him for the answer, suffering, whether light or heavy, short-term or lifelong, can and will serve to strengthen our faith. It brings is closer to our Daddy.

I remember as a child and as a young teen before I got my license, I had to get rides from my parents, and more times than not, this meant my mother. There was a reason her key chain used to read Mom's Taxi. And not once did my mom forget to pick me up. But there were times that she was late.

Things happen. Things go wrong. Car trouble, unexpected phone calls that couldn't be ignored because of my father's ministry, any number of things could interfere and hinder her ability to reach me at the appointed time. There were no cell phones or way to instantly reach people regardless of where they were. So all I could do at those times was wait.

I knew two things, both from experience. One, she would be there, sooner or later. Two, I better be where she said she would pick me up when she did get there. Once after she was late a few minutes, I shrugged and began walking home. It wasn't far. I could walk it without too much problem. Except there was a problem. Mom showed up and I wasn't there. She had to find me, and I spent more time and energy walking in the sun than I had to.

There are reasons why God delays His hand of deliverance at times. All of which come back to increasing His glory and drawing us closer to Him. I know even now, that I can count on my mom to pick me up if I need her to. Things might happen to delay things, but not stop it. God's deliverance may be delayed to the point of desperation, so that we can see that there is no way out besides Him, but He will not fail to be there. He is faithful. No matter what comes,no matter what gets in the way, nothing will stop Him from being Daddy to us, and going through hard times and coming out the other side with Him helps us learn that lesson more and more.

And we need to make sure that we are where we need to be when He shows up. We don't want to give up and try to meet the needs we have on our own. Don't walk away from the meeting place. It only increases the suffering and makes it harder. Stand and wait and see the salvation of God in effect in our lives rather than walk away and make Him chase us. He will be there. He will not be delayed too long. Look to Him and don't give up. Every time He proves Himself, we learn a little more we can depend on Him to always be there before it's too late.

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.

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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 30 ~ The Time Is Now

Anxiety and worry are hard to beat in part because they are the logical, reasonable response to being stuck in future mode in our mental time machine. We can always see multiple possibilities, the vast majority of which are as unlikely to happen as winning the lottery, but hey, somebody's gonna win, right? Impulsively we begin to solve the problems, to come up with if a happens then b, but if ab happens then d, and if....But the longer we stay in the future, the more unlikely the possibilities become or the more we focus in on that one most likely possibility that hasn't been dismissed and moved on from because we don't have a plan. We have no way to make it work.

It is irresponsible to not look at tomorrow and prepare. The ant and the grasshopper and an instinctive admiration for the the Boy Scout motto to always be prepared have drilled it into us that we need to be ready for what may come. We need emergency supplies. We need a plan of action and fire drills. There is some truth in that. Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow. He didn't say not to prepare. We can't fret and get twisted off obsessing about the things we can't prepare for, the things we don't have a plan or answer to deal with, we can't let the fear of the future we're stuck in mentally to pull us away from the present.

We need to get ready to do what we are responsible for and able to do. But then we need to put it in God's hands and let Him handle it. We also need to be careful about the trip back from the future. It is far too easy to overshoot the landing mark by a second or a decade. When we are not wasting the time we can't get back imagining a future, or many futures, that may or may not ever exist, we often spend the majority of that unreplenishable commodity resenting, rewriting and remembering the past. But it occurs to me that as true as the statements like live in the now, the only time that is real is the present, if you have one foot in the past and one in the future.....well, as true as those sayings and more like them are, there is something even deeper and more important going on than to make sure not to waste what little precious time that we've been given.

The 11th Step makes it clear that we are to pursue God. We don't just schedule time with our Creator and then go about our business. We don't catch aware of His presence when we can. We pursue Him by seeking to improve our conscious contact with Him. That means that to cease pursuing Him, to intentionally live away from His presence is to distance ourselves, to actively do the opposite of what we need to do. So we need to try to stay as consciously aware of Him or at least of pursuit of Him at every moment, I believe that is part of what we are told to do in Scripture when we are told to pray without ceasing. And God is not in the past or the future.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that He isn't eternal. I am not saying that He doesn't concern Himself with the future or the past. Jesus paid for our past and prepared for our future. But when Moses asked who God was, the Lord responded, "I AM." I AM is present. Yes, He is the one who was and is and is to come, but not so much those words alone as He was AM (was present) and is AM (is present) and is to come AM (will be eternally present in the future). God is the God of now. He is the Lord of the present. He can forgive, heal and restore our past. He can make a way and guide our future. But He can only minister the comfort and peace and joy of His presence to us in the present. We have to be with Him to have conscious contact with Him and have awareness of His presence.

Today let us live in the now so that we can be where He is when He is there. Let us put the mental time machine in park and stop flipping between the past and the present and instead focus on the moment that God gave us. When we feel the awareness of His presence in the now that is, it becomes easier to release the fear of the future to His hands and let go of our worries.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 29 ~ Needs Not Met

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

- Matthew 6: 25-34

Being anxious and overwhelmed by worry sucks. Sometimes the bills stack up, the refrigerator gets more and more empty and we spend our entire commute praying the fumes in the tank last long enough to get us where we're going and not to be stranded on the road. And that is here in the United States where eating rice and beans instead of fast food and steaks or walking a mile in the sun after running out of gas or living in a homeless shelter with a roof and three meals a day is seen as suffering. Never mind that there are Christians, full of faith, who love Jesus and are loved by Jesus, in areas of the world that will die today at the hands of people who hate them because of their fate, who will die today because of exposure to the physical elements of the world, and yes, who will die today because they do not have enough water or food to survive.

Yes, there are Christians who have and who will die because their physical, earthly needs have not been met. Contrary to popular "christianity," there are no promises in the Bible that our physical needs will be always and every time provided for, and your faith doesn't change the equation there either. There is no promise that there will be jobs, shelter, food, water, that the bills will be paid or anything else that is this realm only. In fact, unless the Lord comes back first, every one of us will reach a point where the very basic need of another breath of air and a heartbeat will go unmet.

Well sheesh, aren't I just a ray of sunshine this morning? This doesn't fit in with the prosperity gospel well does it? Now, if what is written above is true, how is that supposed to make me not worry? I'm more anxious than I was before! I was fighting for the faith to trust God to bring me the job, to keep the lights on, to remove the threat, to....... I wasn't doing a very good job, but I was trying to hold on and trust that the miracle would come and everything would be OK, that everything is fine, even though it doesn't feel that way. Now how am I supposed to trust God?

Well, I get it. That feeling might be fear and doubt ruling us, but it could also be an innate understanding that when we are holding onto faith for earthly needs we are trusting for the wrong things. There are things that God didn't promise. We are to ask God for our daily bread, but there's no promise that we get it. And yet, if we take another look at the passage about worry from Matthew and see what Jesus is saying it just might help with the anxiety. I got asked yesterday how I can be so optimistic, and I replied that I am not.

I'm not at all. I do trust God, mostly, and I do believe that there will be food on the table, lights in the house, gas in the car, and yes, even a job I can't see yet. But it's not because I am believing for those things for the sake of those things. What is Jesus saying here?

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Our life is not based on this plane. It is not about this body or the physical things here. Our life is about eternity and our relationship with God here and in heaven from the point we answered the call to come to infinity and beyond. I promise there is not one Christian in heaven now who died horrible deaths due to lack, need or martyrdom sitting at the feet of Jesus wondering why their needs weren't met or if they can trust God.

For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

This is the main point here that I think Jesus was trying to get across to us and that helps me to trust God and not be anxious. I wish this had been stated a bit differently, because we have so messed this quote up. I guess we've taken it where our heart is far too many times. Jesus redirects our attention from the material, the here and now, to the spiritual, God's purpose (the kingdom) and our relationship with Him (righteousness). He says go after God, go after the purpose of God, go after relationship with Him above and before anything and everything else...seek those things first, and they'll be given to you.

That's the promise. When we seek Him we will find Him. When we go after the purpose and plan of God, it will be brought about. If I place relationship and the purpose of God as my first priority I can trust God to bring me to a place where I know Him more and more, where His purpose is more and more fulfilled in my life. I can also rest assured that every need, spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and other, that arises will be met for that purpose. If my being miraculously healed, or miraculously pardoned or miraculously provided a job, food, drink, clothes, etc. will bring Him more glory, help further His purpose in my life and the lives of others, bring me into deeper relationship with Him and help me to bring others into deeper relationship with Him, then those miracles will occur.

But if those deeper relationships and furthering purposes will be brought about through my starving to death and not getting a single one of those miracles then the need that will be met is the need for me to be able to see that He is with me, that He cares and loves me, even when the healing doesn't come. There are Christians in heaven today who were saved nearly 2000 years ago after witnessing the peace and joy with which some Christians stood and faced the lions that were about to rip them apart. We don't like to think about that. We like to think about the witness for God's glory we can be and have when everything goes our way and looks and feels wonderful. We like to think about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego dancing in the fire with Jesus without being burned more than God's greatest glory and triumph coming as Jesus hung between heaven and earth, feeling forsaken, suffering and not one of the needs outside of what was needed to help Him fulfill the Father's purpose of making a way for me and you to have relationship with Him being met. In fact, every need Jesus had outside of that purpose was emphatically and dramatically denied.

Here is what we are promised. We are promised a life worth living. We are promised a life so much worth living that it will cause others to want it, even if what they are seeing is us ripped apart by lions. We are promised that if God needs us here doing something for Him that not even death can get in the way. If He needs us fed, no famine can empty our bellies. No prison, no bondage can't be broken. Nothing can separate us from Daddy. And most of all we are promised that He will be there with us and for us in every situation and that to starve to death with Jesus is a better and more fulfilling and satisfying situation than to eat like a king in opulence and comfort and without a care in this world without Him. We can trust God to make that true for us and in our lives.

Whether or not the money shows up before the lights go off depends. Sometimes it happens. It does. I have seen the material needs on this earth met over and over again in miraculous ways. But it's not about that. It's about the eternal. We get mixed up and think if we seek God first, His purpose and kingdom, that these things of food, clothes and Cadillacs will be given to us. But that is not what it says and that just makes seeking the things of God first a round about way of seeking the material first. We can't trust God to honor chasing the material need, but we can trust Him with the eternal and spiritual needs. And yes, sometimes, more times than not actually, that includes keeping us alive and meeting our physical needs. But let us chase Him, His purpose and our closeness to Him no matter what may come rather than the things of this world. If He really becomes our first and greatest treasure to seek, then we can trust and rest assured that the need will always be met.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

The Call To Please Others

Dalyn Woodard continues the study of Romans with a look at chapter 15: 1-7 and the differences and diversity of believers and how we are to sometimes sacrifice our liberty for the sake of others. We are to please others as Christ pleased others. The message, "The Call To Please Others" is about 40 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 28 ~ I Can't Take It

I heard a song last night on a Christian station that sent me off on a little rant that I think my wife found amusing based on the "preach it baby!" comment she made. I told her that I would, if I remembered it. And this morning I do remember it. I don't remember the song, but I remember the lyric that bugged me. I find it dangerous when platitudes, slogans and half truths become the foundation of our life.

Wait right there. Surely no one is really building their lives on a foundation of platitudes, slogans and half truths? Yes, yes they are. If someone turns to and leans on sayings and quotes in times of difficulty, if they strengthen or fuel their relationship with God with them, and or if they maintain their recovery by using them, then that is exactly what is happening. We take the words of men, generalities that are only sometimes true, or aren't ever true, quote them and hang onto them like they are scripture truth and then fall to pieces believing we're failing spiritually, or that God is failing us, when things don't work that way.

I couldn't find the song that set me off, but in searching for it, I found another one that has the line But don't forget what He said, He said: "I won't give you more, more than you can take. And I might let you bend, but I won't let you break. And No-o-o-o-o, I'll never ever let you go-o-o-o-o." The song that started all this last night said that He'll never give us more than we can handle.

Well, James T. Kirk never, not in one series episode or feature film, said, "Beam me up, Scotty." Bogart's character in Casablanca never said "Play it again, Sam." The phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" is never spoken by Holmes in the sixty stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And in sixty-six books inspired by the Holy Spirit, God never, not once, said that He'll not give us more than we can bear, handle, or take.

Not only does He not say it, His actions with men and women throughout scripture show the exact opposite. God seems to love to do just that. His specialty is to give us more than we can bear, handle or take. That's kind of the basis for the whole relationship. Jesus didn't say "I (or for that matter the Father) won't ask more of you than you can handle." He said, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). I've never met anyone who really believed that they could handle what it would take to obey that.

In 2 Corinthians 1: 8-10 Paul writes For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.

And that's the issue and the point. Paul says I want you to know that we had trouble, more trouble than you could measure or that we could bear, handle or take. We didn't have the strength to deal with what was going on and we despaired to the point of thinking we'd be better off dead. We made ourselves ready to die, but we didn't die. We went through that so we would learn and so that we could tell and show you that it's not ourselves we rely on, but God. We couldn't handle it, but God can and did. He can and will save.

What's the big deal when self-help crap that sounds good and comforting but isn't true begins replacing truth in recovery and in Christianity? It's not that bad. So God didn't say it, but since we can do all things through Christ, it's kinda true, right? If we can endure all things that means that won't be more than we can handle. So relax.

Nope. Sorry. Can't do it. Won't relax about it, because it can get people killed. Someone trying to find freedom finds themselves facing more than they can imagine bearing, someone trying to walk with God finds themselves completely and totally overwhelmed, and then some well-meaning falsehood spreader says, "Hang in there. Don't give up. God won't give you more than you can bear/handle/take/carry/etc." And what happens then?

There are a few possibilities. One, the person becomes angry, because the situation is indeed more than they.....They become angry at God and angry at whoever said that crap who obviously doesn't understand what they are going through and feeling. "Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Yoda was right. Now they're suffering because they're overwhelmed and angry. It's actually worse.

Another possibility is that they begin to feel like a failure. If God won't give them more than they can handle, and it's obviously more than they can handle, then God must be expecting them to be able to handle it, and they aren't. Circular epic fail. Now they get to add the guilt and condemnation that comes from believing the lie that we let God down, disappointed Daddy, failed to be good enough, etc., to the overwhelming situation. Once again, things are worse.

Or perhaps they don't take it mean they are failing. No. Obviously they were never intended to be able to carry that load, so God is the one failing to keep His promise to protect them from too much. If God doesn't keep that promise, how many other promises will He break? God obviously can't truly be trusted, or He doesn't care about them enough to keep His word in their case. Regardless, there's no point in trusting God because they can't trust Him. That, like the other two is worse, because they lose faith in God based on His failing to keep a promise that He never made.

Maybe none of those negative things happen. Maybe they gut up, find the saying inspirational and motivational. They look deep within themselves, find a second wind and get through it, carry more than they thought they could, handle it, bear it, take the pain and endure the misery....that they were never meant to. They made it. They don't doubt God. They don't feel like a failure; in fact, just the opposite, they feel victorious. They're not angry or bitter. They feel like they learned a valuable lesson and have gotten stronger. They've learned a dangerous lesson, not a valuable one. They've learned to look within and to themselves. They've learned to gut up rather than to give it up to God. They've learned self-reliance, which is never ever part of what we are called to in Christianity. God doesn't ever want us independant and self-reliant. He wants us dependant and reliant upon Him for all we are and do.

But the one thing that isn't a possibility when someone listens to and believes that mess that God didn't promise, is that they don't go, Oh, I'm supposed to let Him carry it because I can't. I can rely on Him. He doesn't expect me to carry it. Like Paul, this shows me that I am not to look to myself to do it, but to trust God to carry, deliver and save.

Jesus said that those who are burdened and heavy laden can come to Him for help and relief from their load. That means that there will be times when we are burdened and overwhelmed and unable to carry the load ourselves. We're not supposed to figure out how to endure that load, how to keep going when it's too much, or anything like that. We are supposed to cry out to and come to Jesus. We are supposed to trade our burden for His calling. We are supposed to rely on grace and God to get through so that we can learn to trust Him and that when we are weak, He is strong. We are supposed to rely on Him and not ourselves, because He can handle what we are going through and we were never meant to.

God lets us encounter, and gives us, more than we can take, handle, bear so that we can see that we are not alone, not supposed to do it ourselves and that we can rely on Him. When it gets to be too much, we don't need to look within but to Him. We don't need to gut up. We need to give it up to God. And we were never ever meant to carry that weight.

The closest thing to that quote that God didn't say is that Paul did write that we would not be tempted beyond what we could bear. But there's a difference between temptation and struggle and facing situations that are too much for us. I can't; He can; I'll let Him eliminates the possibility of self help ever being the answer or the right response. God, contrary to popular belief, does not help those who help themselves. God helps those who rely on Him. When we can't take it anymore, we need to look to Jesus as our answer, our help and our refuge. For that matter, why wait till the breaking point with all the pain that goes with that? Let's give it to God from the start.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 27 ~ Don't Panic

Panic: a state or feeling of extreme fear that makes someone unable to act or think normally : a situation that causes many people to become afraid and to rush to do something.

According to a sci-fi classic series of books, the words Don't Panic, are boldly printed on the cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Don't panic is really great advice in pretty much every case. In case of a fire, don't panic. Locate the nearest emergency exit blah, blah, blah. In case of being bitten by a rattlesnake, do not panic. Call 911 if possible. Then, or if it's not possible to call for help blah, blah, bah. Pretty much every procedure guide, training manual, lesson on survival all say that in whatever circumstance the most important thing to do is not to panic. Some may try to trick you into thinking they're saying something different by waiting until after the other advice is given and then recommending that no matter what, it is important to keep calm. Yeah, that's the same thing. Keep calm and don't panic. Great advice. Impossible. At least it's impossible without training, practise, and confidence.

If you watch war movies or read books about soldiers, you will see portrayals of men, who as danger approaches get calmer. A deadly calm settles over them as they go to a place where they can function in the face of death without allowing fear to cause them to make poor choices and bad decisions. They face the possibility of death as though they are not afraid to die to increase their chances of not dying. To the outsider, it looks either foolish or brave. The normal person panics under that fire, makes a mistake and dies. The soldier has learned that fear comes, but it is not a wise master. You can not ever afford to let it rule.

But no soldier starts courageous, able to feel fear but stay calm enough to do the job anyway. It comes from training, from drills and exercises and facing less threatening situations of a similar nature, and of course, for those who have been in battle before, it comes from experience.

We all have times when fear hits us. It can be overwhelming. But if we allow it to control us, to make us act without reasoned thought, we can quickly find ourselves in an even worse situation than what caused the fear in the first place. In Africa, man-eating lions would lie in wait at night outside villages. They would begin to roar causing fear. Those who panicked and ran out of their hut into the night would become prey. Panic is the enemy.

But how do we keep calm and not panic when the world is crumbling around us? We train by practicing giving our cares and worries to God with the little things as well as the big things. We fill our mind with God's word and promises so that when a crisis hits it is His truth and word that comes to mind rather than our own understanding. We need to so fill ourselves with the truth and God's plans of action that this is the information we draw on to guide our reactions. We need to train ourselves to stop and look to the Spirit for guidance before we react in all things. If we do this in every situation it becomes just as instinctive and second nature to stop and wait for the Spirit in the big crisis as it does in the little things that don't seem to matter. Those things that don't seem to matter may matter most, because if we get in the habit of handling those things ourselves without being guided by the Spirit our first move when the big things come will also be to look for our own solution first. Such a delay in allowing the Spirit control can be critical and make the difference between coming through the fire without being burned. Finally we gain confidence by practicing, training and in the experience gained by trusting God.

Every time we trust God's care and guidance, even when, especially when, we are afraid, we learn more and deeply and fully that He is indeed faithful and can be trusted. If we wait to move until He says move, if we move where He says to move to, we will always take the best steps possible. If we panic and react to fear without leaning on and looking to Him we open the door to death and destruction. It sounds simple, but it takes more than a choice. It takes doing it over and over in everything so that no matter what comes, big or small, we look to Him as our answer to the problem we are facing. The only way to truly Don't Panic is to learn to trust God. We could put that helpful tip on the cover of our Bible and anywhere that we would see it often to remind us of the truth that no matter what happens, no matter what comes against us, we don't have to react in fear, we can stop and look for guidance from Him who is faithful and able to save us.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 26 ~ Missed Blessings

As those who read or listen to my messages frequently are aware, I'm a bit of a geek, nerd, fanboy, whatever. I say whatever, because I, like in so many other areas of my life, can't shove myself in the box of any of those labels and also can not escape any of them. There are aspects of the definitions of those terms, and ones like them, that do not apply to or fit me, and there are plenty that do. That's not the point though, so before I go too far down that rabbit hole that I may chase another day soon, let me get back to the trail I actually was on. I love sci-fi, fantasy and superhero shows, books, etc. I actually read Star Wars books, and yes, nearly 14 years later I still have an unresolved resentment against FOX regarding their handling of and the canceling of Firefly.

I love Star Trek. I have all of TOS (The Original Series) episodes, all 12 of the movies that have been released (and will buy the one that's in the theaters now when it is released on Blu-Ray) and, thanks to Netflix, have access to the rest of the series - Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. And yes, I have read many of the books based on these shows as well. And yet, somehow I missed a movie. I thought I had seen Star Trek Nemesis (the 10th motion picture film and the fourth and final one featuring the cast of TNG). But I hadn't.

This past Friday, Leah and I honored a date we set for ourselves the first time we saw a preview with the July 22 premiere date for Star Trek Beyond announced. We sat in the theater together and saw the results of JJ Abrams' magic continuing to work in the ST universe. Then, we began re-watching the other ST movies. This was of course my idea, and let me take a quick aside here to say that I am so grateful to have found such a beautiful and wonderful wife who actually likes Star Trek and such things and is humored much more than annoyed by my geekdom - she's even the one who suggested we watch the most recent two movies, the ST reboot by JJ Abrams, Thursday night before we went to see Beyond. I am so blessed! Anyway,.. From Friday evening through last night, we watched the other 10 films, in order starting with Star Trek The Motion Picture with the original cast and ending with Star Trek Nemesis last night.

Very quickly as Nemesis played I realized that I hadn't seen it. I couldn't believe it. I stopped the movie and checked the release date. I saw what happened, but I still found it hard to believe. Nemesis came out in 2002, about a year after I went to prison. It and a lot, seriously a lot, of movies came out during the years between May 2001 and October 2008 when I could not see them. They don't have furloughs for movie night. So I made a list of the movies I really wanted to see when I got out of prison. The Star Wars prequel trilogy. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The Christian Bale Batman movies. The Chronicles Of Narnia. I'll stop listing them because there were many, many more, over 100, including Star Trek Nemesis.

True to my plans I began watching movies I missed after my release. The Lord Of The Rings got the honor of the first of these series I binged on, watching all three back to back in one day. The rest though I watched as I could, as I came across them, and had the chance. And at some point in the first few months I lost my list. I tried to remember as best I could, but let's face it, even to a movie buff like me, it's just not really that important. The result is that I still occasionally come across a movie on Netflix that upon seeing the title or reading the description, realize that this is a movie I had on my list that I still haven't seen. That didn't happen with Nemesis. I actually own it. I got it to round out my collection so that I would have them all.

But for some reason I got it in my heard that I had seen it. So I hadn't "re"-watched it. I thought it must be the worst of the films since I couldn't remember it, and, rather than waste my time on it, I kept returning to the favorites of my repeat watching list. That's what is so mind boggling for me now. I remember looking at the title more than once, seeing collectibles based on the film, etc. and thinking I do not remember any of this, and yet I still remained convinced that I must have seen it and just not really cared for it. But last night I watched it with Leah, and received the blessing to get to see it with her for my first time. I actually think it's the second best of the films featuring TNG cast, even though the ending gut punched me.

So what's the point? Why I am rambling on and on about a movie I should have seen about 8 years ago, and really if I hadn't been living like....well a selfish, self centered, junkie, drunk and got myself sent to prison would have seen 14 years ago like the rest of the fans of the franchise? Thinking about this experience last night during my evening reflection gave me a glimpse of an aspect of being open minded that I had not considered before.

I am a fan. It doesn't seem possible that I wouldn't have checked this film off my list quite quickly after my release. Nemesis is the only one of the thirteen Star Trek movies I didn't see at least once in the theater. It simply never occurred to me that I could have missed it, that it could have slipped my mind. So unlike other movies that I couldn't remember watching and figured I hadn't seen yet from my list I just figured it was that it must have sucked or something. It was pride and a closed mind that delayed my enjoyment of Nemesis.

Pride factors in when I realize that no way I could have failed to remember there was a ST film I hadn't seen. So I must've seen it. Since I didn't remember it, it must not have been good. I judged it negatively, without cause, because my pride closed my mind to the other possibility, that I didn't actually see it. And then, because I thought I had the information, I was not open minded to any other possibility. I see now that closed mindedness and pride are a couple and go around hand in hand.

This type of close mindedness can mess us up and deprive us of blessings spiritually as well. That pride can make us think, oh I've been a Christian for [ ] and I understand this issue in and out. There's not anything new to see here. I've read Romans 100 times there's nothing new in it for me. I've been working the steps so long there are no nuances I've missed. That kind of pride can close us off from the Spirit to be able to bless us with new, richer, deeper experiences. There is always more to see, to hear, to understand. The Word is alive and can be as fresh as our spirit remembers that we don't have it all down pat, that there is more to see and learn.

Today, let us be open to see whatever God would have us see and not gloss over anything or any opportunity to observe a spiritual beauty or blessing because we are not paying attention due to a closed mind. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, let them see and hear. Let us not miss blessings because we fail to look because we are not open minded to what God wants to give and show us.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 25 ~ Gratitude For The Greatest Gift

Merry Christmas...in July. I am up way too early, so early in fact that the pot of coffee I brewed about midnight last night is still slightly warm. Oh well, it's almost cooled down to room temperature, and I have some beautiful Christmas music piping over the headphones. It's not the wonder of Christmas that got me up so early, rather my personal version of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it did make wonder. Why Christmas in July?

Why isn't it Christmas in June, since that's the halfway point? The obvious answer is marketing ploy, which of course is the obvious answer to the idea of Christmas more than once a year in the first place. But marketing ploy doesn't really answer the question of why it's not Christmas in June. I decided to do a little browsing research, which, although I found it interesting, I will spare you most of. I realize that many faithful fans of Christmas hate the idea of Christmas in July which, if acknowledged at all, seems to be entirely the sales and commercialism that detract from the real meaning of Christmas when we celebrate in December.

The basic gist of how all this got started is not marketing but rather as an excuse to have a party. The ad folks didn't get into it until about 50 years later. I guess they were a little slow on the ball in the days before radio, TV and internet. I did like learning that it didn't really become a well known thing until the idea of Christmas in July was used to encourage families to ship packages intended for Christmas presents to soldiers overseas during World War II. And before I go any further, why June and not July? Well, July is mid-summer as December is mid-winter.

This echo of holiday gaining acceptance and popularity due to World War II made me appreciate it even more, especially since it my personal introduction and the start of celebrating Christmas in July came from a time of trauma, separation from family and friends and violence, although not the heroic, honorable kind the men of valor from World War II faced. My introduction to the echo came in prison.

I say echo, because it just doesn't seem like a real holiday, but it definitely isn't a fake holiday for me. During Advent and the Christmas season we shout JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME!! A SAVIOR HAS BEEN BORN!! And for me, Christmas in July is like hearing an echo of that celebration, reminding me of the hope it brings. Most of the men I served time with avoided Christmas as much as possible. They hated the holiday. Their feelings about it were along the lines of how I feel around Father's Day. There's no point in subjecting yourself to songs, shows or anything else that will remind you so deeply of everything you are missing, can't have and how your life is so much less than idyllic in ways. I understood those feelings, and as my first Christmas locked up approached, I felt myself becoming more and more miserable and instinctively began to withdraw from anything that reminded me of it as well.

But something stopped me. My mother rocks Christmas. She instilled in me a true joy and love for the holiday that had little to do with gifts and toys and nothing to do with Santa. I had a weird idea that maybe I would feel closer to her and less lonely if I were to celebrate Christmas to the best of my ability, even in prison. So that's what I did. How I did that I will save for another time, but suffice it to say that it included the giving of gifts in the following years.

The problem with trying to give gifts from prison is that there is no money, and you can't exactly go shopping. So I drew gifts. But drawing is a slow process for me, and it took a long time for me to get everything done. So I started early. One year, a couple of weeks or so after I started working on the first drawing of the year for an upcoming Christmas present I was flipping through radio stations and felt surprised to hear a Christmas carol. It was awesome. How fitting! There I was working on a Christmas gift for some family member and the appropriate music accompaniment had been provided. The DJ informed me that it was Christmas in July and the station would be playing Christmas music until midnight. I didn't change the station until the next day.

A personal tradition began. The next year I waited until July 25 to kick off my gift making, starting early in the day to maximize the time I could listen to the carols. Today I don't have to worry about making gifts or starting 5 months early, but I still celebrate Christmas in July. I love it. I listen to Christmas music, watch a Christmas movie or two if time permits, and if the finances permit, get a little something for my wonderful wife.

OK, so I'm a Christmas nut. I love the sound of Christmas so much that I listen to the echos with a sense of awe and wonder. It stirs and soothes my soul. But what has any of this to do with recovery? Nothing. Everything.

In most programs of recovery those who have some time under their belts usually celebrate once a year, on the birthday or anniversary of their sobriety date. Although most groups don't celebrate as unit more often than that for those with a year or more, some of us have a personal acknowledgement and or celebration more frequently. Part of the reason for that may have something to do with during the early days of recovery, when it can be such a struggle and fight to keep going down that rough road, periods of sobriety are often celebrated and acknowledged by groups in monthly increments. The truth of the matter is that making it two months took a lot more effort and work than six years.

Control is an illusion, and our lives are unmanageable. That's everyone who tries to live without help. Some may hide it better or function through it a little better than others, but we are all a mess without a spiritual connection and relationship with our Creator. Learning to surrender to the solution takes work though, and it can be good to keep progress and the answer close through frequent celebrating. I remember when I realized that in two short months that felt like eternity I had suddenly achieved my longest stretch of sobriety since I was 13. I marked the occasion.

It's a little like sappy romantics celebrating a monthly anniversary with their love for the first year. But usually the monthly celebrations fall away as the time goes by. Leah and I celebrated the day of the month anniversary for a few years, not with anything big but simply by going out to a favorite spot of ours. One of my favorite pictures of us is a self-portrait I took of us cuddling on a pier at the lake during one of those monthly celebrations. Time, money and health, have eliminated those trips, but I still celebrate my love for her every day. For years I celebrated my sobriety with Leah as well. We would go out to eat on the 17th of each month to give thanks and acknowledge the gift of God's grace that gave me a life worth living and made me the kind of husband who can make her smile. We don't do that often anymore either, due to finances mostly, but even if nothing is said, I am still aware on the 17th that another month has gone by and that I am still clean. Praise God!

It's a miracle that I am sober right now. The easiest way to avoid a hangover is not to get drunk. Since I couldn't manage that part, the second easiest way was to drink enough to still be buzzing when you came to. Without a miracle I'm not sober at 7 AM. It's too easy to grow complacent and begin taking things for granted. We can begin to switch on auto pilot and skim over the things that make our flight safe and possible. Before we realize what's happening we can find ourselves in the midst of a storm because we weren't making course corrections that fit the situation we were in rather than what we expected. We can begin letting our relationship with God and the things we do to improve and maintain that relationship slide.

Gratitude and celebration can keep that from happening. I'm not saying that we need to celebrate Christmas in July. I'm saying that whether we have addictions or other areas of bondage, and we all have some area of bondage caused by self, the answer is Jesus. The solution is a relationship with our Creator. We were hopeless and our lives were out of control, then God. Nothing we tried worked well or for long to fill that hole in our lives until we filled it with Him. The relationship with our Heavenly Daddy is made possible by the gift of His Son.

Whatever we may do to keep the spirit of gratitude and awareness of what He's done for us alive and in the forefront is awesome. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises to His name. There is a solution to all that makes this life miserable and hopeless. Hope was born in Bethlehem and now we have been born anew into hope. Thank God for the miracle of His gift to us that came in a manger and led to a cross. So, Merry Christmas, our Savior is born! And while we're at it, Happy Easter, our Redeemer 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.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 24 ~ Dealing With Despondency Part 3

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

- Psalm 43

As the Part 3 in today's UM title indicates, for the two days previous we have been looking at Psalm 43 as an example of the process of dealing with despondency and depression in as spiritually successful and correct manner. In Part 1 we saw the Psalmist's honest expression of Self trying to deal with the unfairness of life. In Part 2, while still coming somewhat from a place of Self and listening to Self, the Psalmist turns to God for help. Today we wrap it up with Part 3 and a look at the last verse.

Verse 5 of this chapter is a key verse and the second most important aspect of dealing with the despondency that comes from being bombarded by that voice in our heads telling us that God doesn't care, that things aren't ever going to be good or right or whatever is lacking, or that if they are it won't last long and then something will make it even worse. That voice that says bad always follows good. That the need won't be met. Whatever that voice of Self, the old cursed flesh brain with its dysfunction and pity addiction, is saying that steals our hope, weakens our faith, robs us of joy and smashes peace to pieces. It's always been like this, or has been since that happened whatever that trauma was, and it will always be this way, Self says.

The problem is that we are listening to Self. We need to make Self listen to us, not the old us of course, that's just Self arguing with Self. That'll make us crazy and despondent. No, we are a new creation, the spirit that is within us is born of God and as heir to the Creator has access to His Spirit, power, and grace. The most important thing to do when losing hope and struggling with depression, fear, confusion, etc. is to ask for help from Daddy. We need His rescue, His power, His grace, His wisdom,....we need Him. But the next most important thing is to take control of the conversation.

Don't argue with Self, but put it in its place and refute its whining with truth. Make it clear that truth will be chosen over the exaggerations and generalizations of self pity.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Self, why are you so upset? Why are you so afraid? Hope in God, because your generalities and assumptions about the nature of God are wrong. He is faithful and good and loves me. He does have a plan and a purpose and will make something good come out of this. I'm going to praise Him. He makes me feel better, and He is my God.

I love that last part. It shows we have finally gotten to a place of looking to God as the answer and no longer coming from a place of Self. The big clue is the difference in praise. Before Self promises to praise if God helps. take away my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness, we pray in Step 3. But by Step 7 we're giving ourselves totally to God, without condition, and the request has gone from take away my difficulties to take away anything in me that gets in the way of You. What an awesome difference. A growth of living by the power of the Spirit in the newly created spirit that loves God and trusts Him from the desperation of self will run riot.

Self complains and fears and doubts and refuses to trust. But the spirit within has to chosen to believe the truth of God. Self says everything is going wrong, and it doesn't look like there's any possible way that it'll get better. Then our spirit says yet I will praise Him! And I give praise to Him who is able to do the impossible. And if He delivers me from the fire I will praise Him, but if He chooses not to deliver me from this I will praise Him and rely on Him to endure. The circumstances may or may not change, but we will be changed. Our reaction to the situation will change. We will find it possible to have peace and joy in the midst of storms rather than as a condition of the storms ceasing.

Self will never trust God. Self will never be able to completely relax and rely on God's protection, love and goodness. But the spirit within us says yes to Him. We can listen to the propaganda of a pity junkie or listen to the truth of Him who is able and faithful to do all that He said He will do. There is a verse that says that we are to choose this day whom we will serve. The man declaring this choice says that for him and his household, they would serve the Lord. I would like to amend that idea. Choose this day whom you will listen to, the voice of Self, who is powerless to do anything to help or comfort, or to the voice of truth that says God loves you and will care for you, restore you and be your refuge. As for me, I choose the voice of truth.

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.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 23 ~ Dealing With Despondency Part 2

- Psalm 43

So it's going to happen. We;d like to think that if we become spiritual enough or good enough Christians or have a deep enough relationship with Daddy that we'll never be sad, never be depressed and never have times of discouragement and depression. But it's not true. Even Jesus had His moments of depression and grief and fear.No one did it better or had a better realtionsjip with Daddy than the Son, so if He had to deal with this, we need to be ready to deal with it as well. And the Psalmist here goes through the process in a much exemplary way.

He gets to that place where he's slipped into self and self pity and that things just aren't going the way that they should be. One thing I didn't mention in Part 1 is that he voiced his feelings and where he was at. He didn't try to pretend it's all good. He didn't try to put on a mask to look more spiritual than he was at the moment. He didn't push down his emotions hide them under forced faith.

I especially wanted to mention that hiding behind forced faith because of where we are today in the process. Sometimes we hide how we are doing from others. When we are asked how we are doing or the situation comes up when it might be best for us to share where we're at, we hide it. We spout platitudes and one liners about faith and trusting God and pretend all is well. Sometimes it seems that if we can do this enough, we can trick ourselves into trust and hope, push away the despondency and manipulate God into doing what we want Him to do. After all, if we trust Him, He has to help us right? It's a promise. And by help, of course we mean fix it the way we want it fixed, when we want it fixed, and within the parameters of what we consider fixed. We don't want to hold His hand in the dark. He better create some light.

It may seem a little like this when the Psalmist turns his focus from himself and his situation to God. He goes from life isn't fair to God You are my strength! He knows it's true, or at least he knows that he's supposed to know it's true. But he's despondent, and his doubt and hopelessness are apparent as he continues right into the hey, why aren't You helping me God phase? Where are you? Why aren't you doing anything? You're supposed to be my help, my fortress and my strength, and if you're not going to be that how am I going to make it through this?

But this isn't that forced faith. This isn't hiding. And it's not pretending. And it's not even really faithlessness and failing to trust God, like we might accuse ourselves of when we feel this way. He's not pretending because His declaration of God is my strength came after expressing the truth of how he feels, not instead of it. And He didn't keep saying like a mantra and acting like that changed everything and that it's all he feels after turning his attention to where it should be, to the Lord. He's being very real. This sucks. It doesn't feel like it's going to get any better. I know that You are my help and the way for me to get through this God, but it feels like you're letting me twist in the wind here. Where are You? When are You going to show up? That nick of time trick sounds great in stories, but it really sucks when you're the one waiting on the rescue.

This isn't failing to trust God. It's trusting God more than the person who pretends their feelings away. It's trusting God enough to say I'm starting to feel You aren't helping me, or that You won't help me in time. I feel scared and frustrated and like all the things I'm trying to escape or prevent are going to do their worst in my life. It's also the time of transition. Self rose up with its whining, with its the whole world is against me, with its nothing is going to go right or will go right. Self sang its siren song of pity in his ear, but rather than continue to listen, he changes the direction of the conversation. He shuts up Self with truth. He turns his attention on God and remembers who his Lord is.

Self: This sucks. It isn't fair.

Spirit: God You are my strength.

But self only half listens, only partly gets distracted. Its very difficult to talk Self into leaving a pity party. So Self attempts to corner the conversation once again. Oh yeah. If God is my strength where is He? Where are You God? How long are You going to leave me like this? Do You even care? And here's a big clue that it's still Self over spirit led by God doing the talking. Clinging to the spirit's declaration of who God is, the Psalmist asks for help. Send Your light and truth. Take me where I need to go. Take me to You. Be my rescue and help me. If You do, I will praise Your name. If You'll just help me already, I'll make sure everyone knows it was You and what You did.

This sounds a little like the Third Step prayer doesn't it? Lord, take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness..... And that is a great place to really start. It's still a bit self focussed. It's still all about help me and if You do..... It's still about changing the situation. But it's honest. It's honest with the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. It's honest about wanting God to help and knowing He's the only One who can. And it's the start of looking to Him to do that. It's also remembering that whatever He does for us, in us and through us is for His glory. Self, is still talking, but at least it's asking for help and from the right source. The sharp edges of hopelessness slicing through the soul are dulling a tad.

Despondency and depression are simply forms of bondage. In some ways they are no different than an addiction to drugs or alcohol. They change the way we feel. We can get comfort from them at first. They become like old friends, and then they turn on us, leaving us miserable. They stop making us feel better and start making us feel worse. But by that point they've become a part of us, our go to, and they control us rather than the other way around. We know things won't get better if we stay wrapped up in the depression and despondency, but we can't let them go. We can't ignore Self's pity songs. But admitting the truth of where we are, that we are chained up with hopelessness and can't see a way out, is Step 1. Realizing that God is our strength, even if we're not to the place where we're positive His rescue will be in time, is Step 2. Asking for His help and surrendering to Him is where the change begins to happen in Step 3. God. don't vindicate me. Don't show me to be right. Show You to be right and merciful and powerful to help, and I will give You praise. It's all about 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.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 22 ~ Dealing With Despondency Part 1

- Psalm 43

This is an amazing chapter that gives us a great insight into fighting spiritual despondency and depression in five short verses. He feels unjustly accused, life isn't fair and it feels like everyone is against him. He hasn't done anything to deserve the treatment he's getting so he cries out to God for vindication. Vindication is more than being delivered or having people start treating you right. It means to be shown to have been right. Of course he responded like such and such, after all, this and that had happened. It's the kind of thing we're hoping for when we say things like most people would have become violent, they're lucky I only screamed at them. Or, if you had to deal with what I'm going through or went through you'd drink too.

We all love to be vindicated, even when we know we aren't in the right. We'll overlook our part in things. Or we may downplay our part while magnifying and emphasizing the other side's part. Even if we can't twist things to make us look good or right, and we can't really make everything seem like it's all the fault of the other person, we try to show that everyone would have done the same thing in our place. We forget while trying to do this that not everyone chases the guy who cut them off in traffic down and cusses them out. Not everyone is even tempted to do so. Not everyone is really rude in whatever situation brings out the rudeness, or the bitterness or the etc., etc., etc., in us.

What we are saying when we cry for vindication is either that we were right in our actions and reactions with the will of God for our life and following the example of Jesus by the power of the Spirit for the glory of Daddy or that we weren't doing anything out of line with human nature, with what is common for people to do in that circumstance. The problem with the first is that doing it perfectly in the will of God doesn't always mean that there won't be trouble or difficulty. Elijah may have been fed and provided water, but he wasn't feasting and in a state of plenty during the three years of drought. Peter still got beaten for refusing to cease preaching, even though he did it right and they release him after.

Sometimes we feel that if we are walking with God everything should be roses and rainbows and no problems, but we forget that roses have thorns and rainbows come during and after storms, not on clear sunny days. Expectations are precursors to resentments when our expectations are unrealistic or are not based on truth. Being in the right doesn't always make life easier. Sometimes it makes things more difficult, at least for a time.

The problem with the second reason we cry for vindication is that not being out of line with normal human behavior is no high praise. There is no glory in that, not for us and not for God. It's like when Jesus asked why do you stop at being good to those who are good to you? Even Godless people do that. No, be good to those who aren't good to you and you'll show a higher love. On our own, apart from God, our defaults, our normal actions and reactions are motivated by selfishness and fall short of the righteousness of God and His love.

Actually, the getting to the very place where it is so easy and natural to cry out to be shown to be in the right means we have turned our eyes on to self and taken them off God. I't not a condemnation. We're going to do that as long as we are on this side of eternity and as long as we are wrapped in this cursed flesh. God understands that. It's why He makes it clear that He wants us to take our needs to Him. You can't see your need without being aware of self, and yet when self comes to the front with its fears, pain and need, taking the situation to Daddy is the way to both correct our perspective and access the grace and power of God in our lives. He is our hope.

And that is what the Psalmist does here. He is focused on self. His pain. His misery. His depression. His this isn't fair, this isn't how my life should be, this isn't how I expected it to be or wanted it to be. It is his self that is speaking, that is crying out for vindication, just as it is our human nature, our old nature, our self, that looks at out life and cries that it isn't fair, it isn't supposed to be this way. We can't avoid it. We experience faith and fear, and everything in between through the filter of self.

It is our awareness of self and the situation our self is in that lets us see and feel the weight of what we are facing, the pressure of what needs to be done, and every other emotion that is tied in with being aware of our needs for provision, healing and restoration. It is our awareness of self that shows us that we need God, that we are still in need of a Savior.

But when our self starts talking to us, we need to remember the source. When I wake up in the morning and my mind starts whining and complaining and going to the sad, scary, dark places before I can even sit up, I need to remember that the voice in my brain is my self, my old self, and not my new self, the redeemed spirit born of God within me. We can't keep the old self from talking. We can't keep it from exaggerating and saying misery has always been our lot, rejection has been all we have known and everyone, even God, is either out to get us or going to let us down. We can't keep it from trying to justify it's whining and the reactions and demands for action self makes. We can't silence the screams of self that we don't deserve this or this much or that we were in the right, that we are only human after all. And we can't even keep it from saying see, I told you walking with God won't help. You did what you were supposed to and life not only still sucks, it's gotten worse. In fact, we can't even trust self's evaluation that life sucks.

Self, is not an objective news source. Self has an agenda behind every weather report, status update and system scan it does. We can't turn self and its voice completely off, but we can choose how we respond to the report. Our first and best reaction is always going to be to turn our eyes and attention to God. I'm feeling week and miserable and life isn't fair, the Psalmist cries. God help me. You are my strength! The first step in getting out of the funk and depression that listening to the propaganda of self has led us to is to turn to remember who our Daddy really is and turn to Him for help.

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

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 21 ~ Don't Argue Away The A

My wife thinks I'm an awesome husband, that I take great care of her and that I spoil her rotten. She expresses this often, and inwardly I often, maybe even usually, disagree. I think some of my short comings add to her stress and anxiety and make her life harder. I believe that she deserves more and better than me, but I am very grateful that she feels my great love for her and is happy with my performance and qualification as her husband. Still, one of my most common and regular prayers is that God will give me the grace to be as good of a husband as my wife believes me to be.

I mentioned that I inwardly disagree. I don't outwardly argue with her about my qualifications or performance. Why? Am I being dishonest or hiding my flaws and shortcomings? No, she sees me. She knows me well enough to know that I am far from perfect. She sees the same things that I see and her evaluation is an A where mine is a C+ at best. Perhaps her love for me causes her to grade on a very generous curve.

I don't know. What I do know is that I never went to a teacher and said excuse me, but I think you gave me much too high a grade on this paper. No, when I scored higher on a subjective test or assignment than I expected I went with it, happily. I do the same thing with Leah's view of me. That's one argument that I surely don't want to win. I may think she gave me too high a grade, but I'll take it thank you very much, and be grateful as I try to live up to it.

I'm not as good at that in other areas. Sometimes I receive praise for something I have done, good job with that whatever it was someone says, and I cant seem to keep from saying it wasn't such a great job because I fell short here and here and there as I point out where my performance was less than perfect. Why on earth do I express the self criticism that haunts me as a response to praise? That's not an argument I want to win.

I can see it now. Good job Dalyn!

Thanks, but I'm not sure why you feel that way. I didn't do this part well, and I totally forgot to do/include/whatever.

Oh. I didn't notice that before, but now I see that you're right. You sucked.

No sometimes we should just accept the compliment, the evaluation, the curved grade. Especially when it comes to God. We know we suck. So does God. He knows that our righteousness is as pure as filthy rags and that we have all fallen short and can't do any better than an F+ no matter how hard we try. So He grades on that grace curve. He gives us the grade Jesus made.

He says we are victorious overcomers. Do we really want to convince Him we're worthless failures instead of learning to walk in the grace that enables us to live up to that declaration? He says we have value, that we are special to His heart and worth dying for. Do we really want to change His mind about that?

No God, I'm worthless. You don't want to waste Your time with me.

Oh now I see. You're right.

What a frightening thought! No, if anyone's mind and attitude and response in that difference of opinions gets changed, I think it would be much preferable for it to be mine rather than His.

I'm ugly and worthless and can't do anything right. There's no hope for me.

No, you're beautiful and made to uniquely reflect a part of Me and My glory that no one else can. You were bought with a great price because you are worth everything to Me, and with My Spirit guiding and empowering you nothing can stop you from doing all that I have called you to do, which will bring Me even more glory.

Now there's a difference in opinion, in the evaluation of value, in the subjective grade that is significant. Wouldn't it be better for me to agree with God's view than to win that argument? Today, let us not argue with anyone, especially God, over subjective disagreements that we don't want to win anyway. Would we rather lower our esteem in their eyes or raise our evaluations to the A that they are trying to give 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.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 20 ~ Pass The Power Please

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out

- Step Eleven

This step, as presented in various programs of recovery, used to bother me some, but perhaps not for the reason that some might think. I don't have any problem with the phrase that was added to keep from scaring people off over the whole God issue, namely that whole as we understand Him wording. For one thing, every person who prays, regardless of religious beliefs or lack of them, prays to the God of their understanding, to what they perceive as God. As our understanding of God changes, our prayers can't help but change, because the Being we are approaching is different in our understanding than before. God may never change, but our understanding of Him better or we're not growing. As my understanding of a or the Higher Power goes from some vague, hopefully benevolent, spirit to a loving Heavenly Daddy, my comfort and willingness to approach my Creator changes. So I don't have a problem with that phrase or even with the rewriting of the step to read with God as we understood God, etc. to take out the Him. I don't care where you start with your perception of God, if you truly seek and continue to seek, you will find, and as you keep seeking you will find both that you have a better understanding and a deeper, more intimate, relationship with the One True God and also that the closer you get the more you understand that you don't understand, or know. The more we understand who He is, the more we understand that we can not understand the depth, power and glory of Him or His love for us.

No, the issue I had with this step was simply the word only. It bothered me that it seemed that this step restricted the prayer life of those in recovery who wanted to faithfully follow steps to never asking for anything from Daddy. But praying for the knowledge of His will, includes praying for the things we need, the things we hope for, and concerning the things we are facing, afraid of, worried about, etc. How do I know? Well, for one thing, Jesus prayed to escape the cross, expressing His dread of what He was facing. It's not that His will and desire wasn't expressed that made His prayer powerful or a great example for us. It's that after expressing His desire to find another way, He surrendered His will to the Father and rose up completely willing and seeking only to carry out His Father's will.

There's nothing wrong with praying for that job you want, that healing you desire, that whatever as long as behind the request is enough surrender and trust to the love and care of Daddy that if He says He has something different in mind we seek first His will over ours. We don't throw fits or get upset that God wants to do things a different way than we want or would do thins, because we have learned from experience that God's way is better, more satisfying and brings a greater meaning and purpose to life. Scripture makes it clear that it is God's desire to be our Daddy, to protect us, to care for us, to meet our needs and to show us His love. It's also His desire to give us the desires of our heart, when those desires don't take us to a place outside of Him or put us in danger, and for us to ask Him for what we need. As I remembered that, I no longer stressed about the wording of the step. I know it's God's will that I be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let [my] requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6). Therefore, taking my personal needs and requests to Daddy is part of fulfilling His will for my day and my life. I just have to remember that when Daddy says no ice cream until my work is done or until after dinner it's because He loves me, wants what's best for me and has a better way than my way. Pouting is not compatible with true surrender to the care of God.

Lately though, the problem I have with the step is not with the step but with me. There's no issue with taking my needs to Daddy, because I have come to understand God that way and to understand that Daddy's will includes me taking my needs to Him. But far too often I forget the rest of the step, the second part of the request...and the power to carry that out. It's like I ask God what He would have me do and He answers that He wants me to rise up and do the impossible, to live, love and react like Jesus, to set the captives free from unbreakable bondage and help bring healing to those with incurable illness for His glory and to demonstrate His power and love. Then, after hearing the call I get up and say, sure God, I'll get right on that.

No, perhaps the most important part of the step is the easiest part to gloss over. The power to carry that out includes that grace to surrender my will and desires and say nevertheless not my will but Yours be done. It includes the power and grace to say no to all my former masters and habits and old natures and sin. It includes that power to face whatever storm, whatever opposition whatever uncertainty. The power to carry that out is the grace by which we stand, the walking in the Spirit that keeps us from fulfilling the lusts and desires of the flesh and the power to unleash the life-giving, chain breaking, beauty-from-ashes making force of the Everlasting God into our life and the lives of those we are called to help. Without the power to carry that out, without grace, I can't stay sober, I can't be unselfish, I can't love as Jesus loves, I can't live right, do right or even desire right. But by His grace I can let Him have victory through my life.

Today let us not forget that when we take our lives, our day, our needs to Him to seek His will and direction we must not slip into the mindset that we are called to or even have any hope of fulfilling that will and obeying without Him providing the power, giving His grace. Let us ever rely on grace and never slip into self sufficiently. Let us remember that no matter how long we have been walking victoriously it's not because we can or did. We can't. He can. Let's let Him and rely on Him. Lord, give us the power to carry out Your will and calling for our day and life.

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

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Unshackled Moments ~ July 19 ~ Destroy It All

In I Samuel 15 there is a story that shows what happened to cost Saul his throne. Israel had an enemy that God told Saul to take his army and utterly destroy, to rid their world of it. Nothing was to be left of that nation, not even the animals. Is the God of love really commanding genocide? In a way, yes. Isn't that a conflict with His identity as a loving God who wishes no one to perish but all to be saved, who offers all a chance at repentance and salvation? Actually no, but that issue is not what I am writing about today and would take far too long to address as an aside. I do acknowledge that this issue has caused many problems for people, and while I don't think it's a complete answer because it leaves a couple of important things out, I will post a link at the end of today's UM that is one of the better briefs on the subject that I have read, for those who are disturbed or curious enough about the command to completely destroy the Amalekite nation to read further,

For our purposes today it is only necessary to know that God wanted Israel rid of that nation and gave Saul the command to see it happen. Saul however spared the king and the best of the flocks. He then had the gall to tell God's prophet Samuel that he had done what the Lord said to do. I love Samuel's response to that - What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Oh really Saul, you performed the Lord;s command for you. I guess I'm just hallucinating the sound of the flocks you spared and plundered. Saul tried to pass it off that these are animals he didn't destroy at the time of battle so that they could be sacrificed as an offering to God.

But an offering is not what God wanted from Saul. It is in this chapter that we see that with God, obedience is better than sacrifice. Saul gave up his calling with that act of disregard for God's will, and the next thing that we see is Samuel anointing David as the next king over Israel. But whatever, that's ancient history right? We're not fighting holy wars to protect a nation of God's chosen people anymore and offering sacrifices is no longer a part of our worship. That's all Old Testament stuff, right?

Well, not exactly. You are one of God's chosen adopted children, and we are still called to submit to His will for us, to accept His guidance, to obey and to sacrifice our will and lives on the altar as a living sacrifice. He wants to change us, to make us into His image and a reflection of His glory. There are things He needs removed from our life in order to protect the integrity of our relationship with Him, to keep them from becoming snares and obstacles that hinder our ability to do what He has called us to do, and to show our willingness to lay down our thoughts on what is best, on the way we want to do things and our will in favor of His wisdom, His way and His will.

And far too often, we play the role of Saul. The Spirit shows us some response, some character defect, some part of our personality He wants changed. Do away with this, let me have it, and so much so that you no longer have anything to do with the things that are even in the smallest way associated with it.Yes, Lord we say as part of our seventh step where we ask Him to remove the things He shows us in step 6. But then we hold back. We keep some of that character defect alive in our hearts and desires. We excuse it by saying that it helps us do what God has called us to do, it makes us a better servant, or that we have figured out a way to use that area of our life for God's glory. In other words, we claim it is part of our living sacrifice.

But it doesn't matter if it does or doesn't help us carry out what God has called us to do in our estimation because above and before every other calling to serve in every manner of service, we are first called to surrender our will and obey. It doesn't matter if we try to use that part of us for God's glory or not, if He wants it removed, it needs to get gone, totally and completely, no exceptions. If we want Him to continue to bless our lives and service, if we want to continue and increasingly to be used by Him to help others, we must first be willing to trust that His plan is the right plan and obey His instructions for our lives. Thank God for His grace which makes this level of obedience possible and for His forgiveness for our past, present and future failings.

The Amalekite Genocide

ULM

Sunday, July 31, 2016

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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

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Tuesday, July 19, 2016