Unshackled Moments ~ February 16

Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

Psalm 25: 4-5

As I worked a spiritual program of recovery from alcohol and drugs and began developing a deep and personal relationship with God I learned that when I faced difficulties and indecision and do not know what to do that I should pause and ask God for direction. While waiting on that thought or decision inspired by the Spirit I should relax, stop worrying and fretting. Don't struggle and stop trying to fight the battle myself, after all the battle belongs to the Lord. This process is waiting on God.

But there is no reason to wait on the Lord only during times of difficulty, confusion or indecision. When we wait "all the day" as the above scripture says we learn His ways and His paths and we live constantly in the safety and security of His direction.

As a boy my father would take my brothers and I hunting. I could shoot well. I used to competition shoot, but I was never the woodsman my father and brothers were. So I learned to let my father lead while I waited. I kept my eyes on him. If he started walking, I walked. If he stopped, I stopped. If he got quiet, I tried to get quiet. I crouched when he crouched, got my gun ready when he did, relaxed when he relaxed. His path got me through the woods with little tripping, kept me from stepping in holes or banging my head on branches. By going where he went I found the best way to get through thorn patches that would've made the Brer Rabbit hesitate.

Sometime Dad would stop for a minute and then look back at where I had stopped when he did. He'd call for me to come to him. I'd get close and he'd whisper what to do. Other times he'd start walking again, and I would follow, step for step, on his path. This is how we wait on God all through the day. We keep our eyes on Him. We go where He goes and stop when He stops. Do what He does. Don't do things He doesn't do. The more we're able to do that, the more we stay in a place of His protection, the more we learn His ways and the easier it becomes to follow Him. We have less scratches from the thorns of life, and the holes we can't seem to avoid on our own no longer cause us to stumble.

Waiting on God sets us free, renews our strength with His and gives us peace and security in the midst of the scariest, most treacherous woods of our lives.  So if we want to learn to walk free of the things that have kept us stumbling from hole to hole, tripping over one thing and the next, cut and scratched from the thorns that ensnare, we need to stop looking for a way through the woods and start looking at He who knows the way. Hurry up and wait on the Lord.

Father help us to wait on You in an active way.  Help us to walk where You walk, the way You walk. When we wait on You this way, let us not be afraid or grow weary, but let us walk in the peace and security of who You are and Your great love for us. Amen.

Unshackled Moments ~ February 15

When I let go of who I am I make it possible to become who I might be, who I want to be and who God created me to be.

 Father may we let go of who and what we are without You and pursue Your presence today and every day so that we can become like Jesus and the people of love and liberty that You have called us to be. Amen

Learning From Experience

I read a saying this morning as I went through the materials that I read daily, experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. I understand the message behind this statement. I even agree with it. I've learned a lot from not getting my own way, from learning to accept things as they are..

But I believe that the most important lessons I have learned in life, and therefore my best experience gained, have come from the many situations where I went right down the path of my own choosing, did exactly what I wanted to do, received exactly what I wanted, only to realize that the road led to misery, pain and heartache. When I want what my Heavenly Father wants for me, I can have joy and peace in any situation, after the Gethsemane moment it takes to line my will up with His. But if I don't line my will up with His, then even if I get what I want, I don't.

I want to be happy joyous and free, to have and be loved, to be content with life and have a life worth living. In all the times that I have refused to surrender my will and line it up with God's I have had some fun, I have had pleasures, I have had times where distraction made life not so bad, but I have not had a life worth living. Only in surrender of my will and life can I find life. It's a paradox, but it's not complicated.

Purpose

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Isaiah 61: 1-3

I woke up early this morning after approximately three hours of something somewhat resembling sleep. Within minutes I found myself forced to filter incoming messages that made my poor barely functioning brain cry out to God for help not to be distracted from what matters and not to be led astray by people who may mean well but have it all backwards. 

The first message I could have done without this morning came from some television ministry airing at 5 AM that I couldn't help but overhear some before I was able to get my headphones in and Pandora playing. Discussions of Biblical Prophecy and how the math of the Scriptures shows.....blah blah blah. The second hit me a few minutes later as I read my morning materials and heard once again the message of stick with the winners, avoid those struggling or reveling in the bondage from which we have been delivered, stay safe by staying separate from those not free.

Prophecy serves a purpose, but knowing the future is less important than doing what we have been told to do. Jesus said inn John 14 "he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do." That's what we're to be focused on. Also, I understand staying away from situations and people we can't handle less we be led back to the pit from which we've been delivered, but if you're alive you are facing things that you can't handle on your own. That's why we need God. The answer to staying safe and free is not hiding from the people, places and things that are still in enemy territory but rather it is to stay safe in the shadow of the One who set us free in the first place and to give away our freedom, our solution.

Jesus said what I've done you do and do it more. Jesus said He is the fulfillment of Isaiah 61. So if we want to be free, if we want to get through hard times in the future, we don't need to avoid anything or know exactly how, when etc. We need to preach good news to those who are in desperate need for it, to help heal the broken hearted, to tell those who are in bondage that they can be free and then show them the way to that freedom, we need to declare that today is the day of deliverance and God's love and grace are available and better than His judgement. We are to empathize with care for those who mourn, point the way to the one who can give them "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" that they can be righteous (clean before a Holy God) and God gets the glory. It's not about our safety or looking special or important because we're in on His play by play. It's about loving the hurting and freeing the captive and surrounding ourselves with those who need the solution we have.    

Christian Freedom

Dalyn Woodard shares on what it really means to be free in Christ and to be free of the law. The sermon, "Christian Freedom," is about 41 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, February 11, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

It’s not about what we want or feeling good ~ at least not for now.

“If you want to be a follower and disciple of Jesus, you must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to sacrifice the idea of immediate satisfaction, sacrifice our wants, desires and feelings on the cross and obey Jesus. By doing this we follow Jesus one step at a time.

~ Matthew 16:24 paraphrased

We want to feel good, and we want it now. We want to be happy, healthy and pleased with how our life and day is going each and every minute. If things aren’t good, or don’t feel good, we want the problem fixed immediately. That’s why feel good, no cost, positive spirituality is so popular, even to Bible believing Christians. We’d much rather eliminate any negative feelings than have a hard time, even if that means losing touch with reality and the truth that sets us free. 

But if we want long term, lasting and true liberty and joy, it isn’t instant, and isn’t free. Jesus paid a high price to provide it for us. His grace is sufficient to help us walk in it, but He won’t walk it for us. We must learn to deny ourselves and stop spiritually acting like a spoiled two-year old. We must learn that sometimes we have to say no to what we want, and sometimes we have to wait and even work for the relationship with God that we wanted when we chose to follow Jesus. We have to stop turning back every time we don’t get our way or get what we think God promised as fast as we’d like. 

The beauty of grace is that God does all the work. It’s only Him. That’s truth. But it’s also true that it takes every bit of us. We have to choose, this moment, I have decided to follow Christ and do what’s right, no matter what I want, no matter what I feel. 

Today I choose to follow Jesus, no matter the consequence, no matter the cost, no matter what I want in the moment and no matter how I feel. I thank God for His grace to walk in that, but I also realize I may have to make this same decision a hundred times today as my selfish old nature rises up and says, “But I want…..” and “But I need….” I will remember that all I really need and want is relationship with My Creator and to do what Christ has called me to do.

Faith During The Storm

Dalyn Woodard sharing on the purpose of faith and going through good times and bad with our eyes on Jesus. The song played at the start of the sermon was "Praise Him In This Storm" by Casting Crowns and has been cut out of the recording for copyright purposes. The song is included below the message, which is about 48 minutes long and is titled "Faith During The Storm." It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.