Unshackled Moments ~ March 9 ~ Watching Peter Walk On Water

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Matthew 14:28-31

Yesterday I watched Peter walk on water. I'm being serious. His name wasn't Peter, and the physical surface may not have been actual H2O, but a man trusted God, took a deep breath, stepped out of the boat of his comfort zone and went walking to where Jesus called him. It was awesome. It was beautiful. It was filled with stumble starts, breaks in gait and a couple of near misses on the fall or sink front. But He did it. And I hope that today he's rejoicing in the faith he showed in the walk and the faithfulness of the Savior who called him and brought him safely through the stroll rather than doubting or beating himself up for any perceived imperfections or failures in how the walk was made.

It makes me wonder how Peter handled his stroll on the waves in the hours, days, weeks and years to come. If you're like me, you tend to focus on the fact that he got out of the boat and walked on water! How amazing! Sure, he got out there and got scared, but it's so awesome that Jesus was right there. The second he cried out for help Jesus reached out and saved him. When I look at Peter's story, I see faith and grace and deliverance and the miracle power of God working in someone's life. That is what I saw yesterday as well, which is why I started this by saying that I saw Peter walk on water.

But what if I had been Peter? Well, first there's a good chance that part of Matthew 14 wouldn't have been written because I like the security of the boat. I'm not sure that I would have asked Jesus if I could come to Him. If Jesus called me, I'd like to think I would've stepped out in faith and obedience and taken a timid step onto the water, but to ask? Then, if I had done it exactly like Peter and my nature didn't come into play until after we got back into the boat and the wind stopped (v. 32), how would I have looked at what happened?

I would love to say that I'd go leaping and dancing and praising God at getting to walk on water and shouting of His saving grace. But I know me. That little part at the end of v 31 where Jesus says, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" would've killed me. Little faith? If I need more faith than it takes to step out of the boat in a storm and walk on water, I'm screwed. Lord, you might as well pull the plug now, because I'll never have enough faith to please You.

Or why did I get so caught up in the situation that I took my eyes off Jesus, got scared and started to sink? Seriously, I knew it was impossible when I started out, so like Jesus asked, why did I doubt? After the first couple of steps shouldn't I have been running on the waves in complete trust like a child who truly believes the pond is frozen enough to support his weight? Yeah, I could beat myself up for that doubt and stumble for years, so much so that I never got out of the boat of my comfort zone again, at least not on my idea. Jesus calls, two or three times so I know that I know He wants me on the water? OK. I'll try to squash my fear and respond to His call. But that wondrous cry of "Lord, if it's really You out there in the storm of the unknown, in the impossible and far beyond the safety of the good ship Comfort Zone, if it's You, tell me to come, and I'll come!," that volunteering, it's probably not happening.

Peter continued to step out into the realm of the impossible. I don't know how often he answered the call and how often he asked to be called, but he walked on water more than once. I believe my friend from yesterday will step out of the boat again, and I suspect that it'll be easier and the walk a little more steady and confident next time. But they've inspired me. I want to get out of the boat. Even as I write the words of the last sentence my stomach tightened. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it, right?

I want to do more than obey and get out of the boat. I want to volunteer. I want to keep my eyes on Jesus and my stride steady, but if my eyes get on me and how impossible it is for me to walk on water and I start to sink, I want to be as quick as Peter to cry out to my Savior for help and deliverance. Then, when He saves me from my self and my fear, I want to walk with Him back to safety or on through to the other side of the sea, if that's what He chooses and watch the wind stop blowing. I want to take the words of Jesus as a compassionate reminder that He's got this, He's got me. I don't have to ever doubt that. I want to see in His eyes the joy that He got from me wanting to come to Him and for getting out of the boat rather than beat myself up for slipping back into self. I want to dry off, hug Jesus, thank Him for saving me, and get back on the waves. Because it's on the waves that the miracles happen. It's walking on the water that shows others the power of God and the way to Jesus.

Lord, if it's You out there beyond my comfort, call me, and I will come. Help me, and I will walk, even through and on the impossible. Help me to keep my eyes on You and off me so that I will not fail, but if and when I do sink, be quick to save me and let me see the joy in Your eyes and not disappointment. Let my walk with You be so filled with the impossible that can only happen because of You that others call to You and get out of their boat. Thank You for calming the winds in my mind and life, for quieting the storms when I lean on You. Amen.

Unshackled Moments ~ March 7 ~ The Land Of Promise

“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

Ezekiel 36:24-28 NKJV

This is a message specifically for Israel from God through Ezekiel, and I would be extremely hesitant to take it out of that context and claim these verses as a promise to His New Testament church. That said, this message to the nation He chose to bring the Messiah through was a nation that belonged to God, was called by God and loved by God. The truths about God's love, desire for, and the treatment of those who belong to Him found in this prophecy transcend one prophecy and show God's methods and motives in relationship with His people.

So, in this passage to an ancient people we find principles that hold true and apply to our lives today. If we will turn to God and surrender to His love, if we will simply accept that we are accepted and become His, He will draw us to Him out of the places of pain, strange and misery. The land of brokenness will no longer have to be our home. He will bring us back to the place we were always meant to be, where we can live a life worth living and be the best us that we could ever be. We will come home as one released from prison.

We have come to the place where we know we can never be clean again. Those like me who spent any length of time in addiction to alcohol and drugs have more than likely been places, done things and seen more that we can't take enough showers to wash away. Even those whose areas of bondage never took them to the gutters and dungeons where some of us dwelled but struggle with truly liking, much less loving, you. then there is an innate understanding of not being clean, of not being right, of not measuring up, of not being enough. God not only can make us clean, He desires to, more than we desire to be and feel clean and well. He wants to wash away the stink of where we go without Him, remove the grime that we've been covered in for so long we thought our spirit was naturally dark, when in truth we were created pure as fresh snow. God wants to restore us to that state we were created to be.

Once we surrender to Him, He will set us free. It's ironic but true that the only way to find life is to die and the only way to be free is to give up our will. But God's love makes our surrender the start of a relationship, not forced slavery, and He will set us free from the bondage in our lives, our addictions and habits and selfishness and from the idols, those people, places, things and feelings that we chased because the attracted us at first, but that once we gave them the keys to our heart they moved in, took over and beat us to bits day by day.

Living locked up will make one hard. When we've spent time in bondage, we become callused, bitter, untrusting.... Our hearts become stone. We can't seem to make the transformation go the other direction. But God wants to heal and restore us because He loves us, and we are His. He is the first heart transplant surgeon, and for thousands of years been taking out hearts of stone and replacing them with human hearts capable of love, care and compassion. We simply have to place our stony hearts in His care. He does all the rest.

And then the best part, the relationship begins. God moves in with us. He sends His Spirit to live in the depths of who we are, where we begin and end. His Spirit is the influx of power within that makes it possible to live clean and well, to have a life that produces love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, a life worth living rather than the chaotic, out of control, impulse driven and selfish life of bondage, brokenness, lonely, painful and miserable existence that resulted from the reactions of our self will run riot.

We become His. We know love. We are moved to and live in the Promised Land. No, it's not in the Middle East. It's in relationship with our Creator and Daddy. We get to live in, and by the power of, and with the joy and peace of love. We can hold on to the misery that comes with running our own life or we can have the restoration and freedom that comes from fully surrendering to love.

Daddy, help me to be quick to return to You when I wander off and quick to remember that I am Yours and You are mine and that in Your love is the better place and way to live, in You is freedom and restoration. Thank You for cleansing me, for healing me, for bringing me home. Your love is the very definition of awesome. I love you. Thank You for Your love for me. Amen

Unshackled Moments ~ March 6 ~ Motivation Makes All The Difference

"The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self- denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire."

~from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

Motives matter. My motives matter to me and effect me. There are some things that I do that no one but God could ever guess my true motivation, and I may not even know it unless I am willing to look honestly at the depths of my heart and ask myself that all important question of why? Motives matter because walking with God is a condition of the heart, and He desires relationship and response to Him and His call out of love rather than grudging obedience out of fear.But motives also matter because the right motive makes service easier. 

I am a somewhat lazy man. I don't like increasingly my work load for no reason; I am a firm believer in the adage work smarter not harder. When I helped my father haul hay for a living I learned things about lifting in such a way as to make the shape and weight of the hay help rather than hinder moving it (understanding physics is not a total waste after all) and learned from my father to think first and move second so you don't have to pick that bale of hay up one more time than is absolutely necessary.  There is some virtue to this type of thinking, but it can also lead to non-virtuous behavior. In my case, I never understood the point of making my bed. What a waste of time.  No one was going to see it anyway. If someone knew me well enough to get to see my bedroom then should whether or not I make up my bed really matter? After all, I'm just going to mess it up when I lay back down, right? 

So I never made up my bed of my own volition. This caused me problems for a while in prison. I remember a period of nearly week where morning after morning I went toe to toe with an officer who came by and tried to make me make up my bed while I refused. The rules and not getting in trouble just weren't motivation enough to make me do it, and the more pressure came to bear the more a part of me wanted to get stiff necked and say "you can't make me." Let's face it, without some rebellion I never would've lived  a life that led to prison in the first place, right? After a while I made up the bed because it was easier than the fight, but I resented it. I hated doing it. I did it to escape consequences, and therefore whenever the opportunity came to blow it off that's exactly what I did. I never made my bed unless I had to.

Fast forward to a couple of years after my release. I married Leah and learned something about her. I don't know why (I don't need to understand why), but it makes her happy for the bed to be made. I learned that little fact and began making the bed. Not because she nagged me to or asked me to or because anyone made me. It doesn't upset me or make me angry. I don't feel imposed upon. You see, I love her so much, and I love to see her smile. And I don't know why, but I do know that it makes her smile when I make the bed.

It's selfishness that makes me hate to make the bed. It's selfishness that makes me make the bed. Really, it is selfishness either way. I love that smile, and making the bed is such a little thing to exchange for such a great reward. Love makes it easy. Love makes it enjoyable to do something I once fought to the point of being sent to seg to avoid doing. The cure for selfishness is not unselfishness. C.S. Lewis is right. It's love.  Love is still selfish, but the fruit is wonderful rather than miserable. If walking with God didn't give me freedom and a life worth living, if relationship with God didn't have more and greater reward of joy and peace and more than anything else I had tried I would keep looking for something  else. But relationship with Him is worth living for. It is worth dying for. It is worth choosing what makes Him smile over what I prefer the easier more pleasurable choice. When the motive is love for God and love for others, we can sacrifice our own needs and desires easily, for something we need and desire even more. But when we're motivated by "have to" and doing without instead of doing for someone else, then the same act of self-denial becomes a painful chore that brings only bitterness and resentment.

Unshackled Moments ~ March 4 ~ Personal Injustice

My wife and I recently watched the movie The Giver based on the book by the same name. For those who haven't seen it or read the book, I don't want to spoil the story, but one aspect that is a major element is that this society is built on sameness and total compliance. Anyone who doesn't fit in the neat little box of the society or steps outside of the norm is "released" from life. It seems horrible to our sensibilities that failure to fit the mold should be a death sentence.

That's why we sometimes have such a problem with the idea of God's society built on Holiness and Perfect Righteousness. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't seem fair. Why? Because none of us can fit the mold. None of us can live up to the standard. Under the strict and narrow restrictions of righteousness we all are in line to be "released" from life and relationship with our Creator. The difference between this truth and the fiction I started with is that God loves us. He desires relationship with us more than we have ever desired it with Him. He altered creation, moved heaven and earth and sacrificed His Son to make sure we don't have to be "released" from His presence. His love, grace and mercy cover very aspect and area where we fall short.

I bring this up to remind us that if we look at all the places and ways we have fallen short of perfection there is no way that we can stand before Perfection Himself and declare that we deserve any place with Him. If we ever get a glimpse of how much He really loves us, we fall before Him with hearts broken from gratitude at the injustice of our forgiveness. We know what we deserve in a perfect society, we know  we don't come close (not even the best of us), and we know that He accepts and welcomes us anyway. How amazing that glorious grace! How excellent His mercy!

Now we belong to Him. We can never be expelled or released from Him, not even the worst of us like me. Understanding this truth and the forgiveness and mercy that granted us this gift we must endeavor to remember our own pardon when faced with being wronged by others, when what is going on in our lives feels unfair and unjust. Even the best of us has been forgiven much and received pardon. Let us not be like one sentenced to death who minutes  after receiving that saving call from the governor and being removed from the gallows turns to the judge and demands our right to see the one who committed an infraction against us be hanged.

We need to turn the debts against us over to God to either forgive or act justly on our behalf as He wills and the heart of those who wrong us dictates. God refused to hold His rightly felt grudge against us and demand that we be punished for the times that we've rebelled and broken His heart. We must not hold on to our "righteous" anger either.

Father, only You are perfect and have the right to demand perfection in relationship, and yet You give grace rather than cling to Your rights against me. Help me to be quick to forgive and to be even quicker to let go of the anger that comes from being unfairly treated. I know that You will be generous and forgive those who hurt me if they seek You, and I pray that they make that turn to You. Bless those who are unjust toward me today, and help me to stay focused on Your grace and all You've done for me, so that no matter what the situation I can walk in the peace that passes all understanding and comes only from being close to You, which is only possible because I have been forgiven so very much. Thank You for Your love and forgiveness for me. Amen.

Unshackled Moments ~ March 3 ~ Bending God To Our Will

When we come to Christ, we surrender our will and lives to His care, direction and will. We surrender our will, considered crucified with Christ and become ruled by Him and His will, guided by the Holy Spirit. We must take care not to flip the coin.

All too often, we let the old nature of self rise up and try to control God. We pray and say that we're asking for God to help, or heal or direct or whatever. But in truth there is no request. We demand that God act. And not only must He act, but He is to do what we want Him to, in the timely manner we feel fits the situation and in the way we want. We want what we want and we want it now, exactly how we ordered it. We look at verses that say things like if you really believe you can ask anything of your Father and it will be given to you out of context and in a material, earthly manner rather than a spiritual one. We act as though faith or our good deeds mean God is obligated in some way to follow our lead and direction and do what we want.

But we've got it backwards. We were bought at a great price, the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross. We didn't purchase God. He purchased us. He gets to do with us as He wills, not the other way around. That's how surrender works. We surrender unconditionally to Him, and in return He gives us forgiveness, a clean slate, power to walk rightly, freedom from the bondage to self and sin and anything and everything else that we want and or need freedom from. The best part of the deal is that He adopts us as His children and brings us into relationship with Him.

We hear people say, "I've accepted Jesus." It would be far more accurate and life changing to realize that at the worst of our worst, at the point of our deepest secret shame, Jesus accepted us. We deny our self, bend our will to His and follow Him. We do not demand our desires and rights, bend His will to ours and take Him down our path. He is God. He is Master. He is Daddy. We are created by Him and for Him, and without Him we have no life, whether we acknowledge that truth or not. We are servant, and we will never know true joy and purpose until we step into the role. We are His children.

When we remember that, we begin to live according to His purpose and plan rather than get frustrated and disappointed that He doesn't seem all that interested in our plan. We find a life worth living rather than one soaked in fear and lit aflame with anger and bitterness. And when we need to do something in service to Him and to get to know Him better, we can trust that if we ask Daddy for that thing to be done, He will do it.

Abba, draw me closer to You today. Help me to live Your will and not mine be done, to really live it from the heart and not just say it. Help me to remember the truth in the paradox that if I will lay down my will and life for You, then I will have a life better than the best of my wildest dreams. Thank You for being Lord. Help me to stay right sized today and not try to bend Your will to mine. In Jesus' name, amen.

Unshackled Moments ~ March 2 ~ The Gate In Our Fence

"God has put a gate in the fence. His name is Jesus.

If you follow Jesus long enough and far enough, you'll eventually trespass into the impossible."

~ Mark Batterson

I opened my computer, still a bit groggy from dragging myself from the depths of my dreaming and out of bed, and got ready for my morning reading. The Facebook tab came up before the email tab where I have my links to my readings, and I glanced at the page while waiting for the others to load. A barrel racer posted a photo of a book page and mentioned that it talks about Jesus and some things she'd been teaching. I looked at the photo. Someone had underlined the above quote, and I can see why.

I didn't take the time to read the rest of the page after the quote jumped out at me, but I did look up the book and added it to my "to read" list. I'm surely taking it out of context, as I have no clue about the context, but this is where the quote led my thoughts.

The statement is so very true. We all have walls and fences in our lives, fences between people and relationships, fences built in the past that block where we can and cannot go today and in the future, fences that keep us in bondage to substances and or activities rather than roaming free on the thousand pastures our Daddy owns, and fences between where we are and where God wants us to go. If we try to tear down the fence, we may get some temporary freedom and movement, but the fence is usually rebuilt quickly and stronger. After the one who wants us fenced in sees we have an area of escape in our strength and will, he adjusts his fence building to remove it.

Now we are even more fenced in. So, we can attempt to climb over the fence, but the fence gets built higher and higher, and each time the fall of failure to make it to freedom hurts more and more until we give up on going over to freedom and settle into captivity. Or we try to crawl under or through the fence and somehow just end up scratched and cut up from the barbs and covered in the dirt and muck and stuck.

The simple fact is that the fence builder is more cunning than we are, and he just won't quit trying to fence us in. Freedom is fleeting, and failed escape attempts discourage continuing to try. But God made a gate in our fences that the fence builder can't touch. Not only did He make a gate, but He made it where even a child can open it. Jesus is indeed that gate, the Way, the Truth and the Life that leads to relationship with the Father and freedom. We can leave the pen of pain and bondage into the freedom of the Father's green pastures.

The gate of Jesus leads to the impossible. That ruined relationship can be restored through Jesus. Barriers caused by who we've been and what we've done in the past no longer set the limits on us and how God can use us as the old is transformed into something new, a feat truly impossible for anyone other than He who created all in the first place. Bonds of addictions of all kinds that keep us miserable and trapped in selfishness slip away as we walk through the gate God made.

And we who have been locked away behind the fence until we're skinny from starvation and disease, worthless on the world's market, can feed on the living richness of relationship with God, which is greener and more plentiful on His side of the fence after all. Suddenly, in Jesus, the impossible is accomplished. But the trail through the gate starts the impossible journey of freedom and restoration, it doesn't end there. It gets bigger, more fantastic, more impossible. As we are restored, grow healthier and realize our freedom through Christ, we become someone God can use to help others learn about The Gate, and we can help God build The Gate in the fences around the hearts, souls and lives of others.

Whatever mountains stand in the way of God setting the captives free and healing the wounded can be leveled, razed and thrown into the sea by a word of faith. Nothing remains impossible. Our oceans between where we are and what God wants to accomplish split and move out of the way leaving a path of dry land through the barrier. Even death loses its sting as we find resurrection and life in The Gate. When we accept that God the Father provided The Gate for us, as we are, trapped, starving and sick, it opens for us. We can freely walk from held back and fenced in to freedom and power that makes the impossible possible.

Daddy, thank You for The Gate of Jesus, made from love covered in precious blood. Help me to never take it for granted or be apathetic about the miracle of freedom and possibilities that has and continues to be provided in my life. Thank You for the restoration and freedom and ability to serve I've already experienced, and thank You for that which is yet to come, which seems even more impossible than the miracles of yesterday. When the impossible of my life is overcome in the sight of others, may it bring You all glory and praise. In Jesus' name, amen.

Unshackled Moments ~ March 1

A couple of days ago, I finished the book Before Amen by Max Lucado, and when I added it to my Goodreads read shelf, I decided to glance at a few of the reviews. The first review I read rated the book three stars, and the preacher's wife who wrote it explained that her main issue with the book came from the admonition to go to Our Heavenly Father and refer to Our Mighty God as Daddy. She and all the folks who replied to her review agreed that it felt wrong to do that, and that it didn't show God nearly enough reverence. I saw that word "reverence" repeatedly. So I thought about it for most of the rest of the day, and I came to the sad conclusion that these folks have missed it.

The idea seems to be that one can’t use the word Daddy for a father with reverence. Is it disrespectful to address a father as anything but father? Obviously, that depends on the family and the father. In some formal households that would be the case, but I don’t think any of my friends have respectfully addressed their make parent as father that I have heard. Respect isn’t always about the word. Father is formal. Dad is informal. Daddy is informal and juvenile or even childish. But they can all be respectful or disrespectful depending on tone and usage. When a friend upset with being told he had to do something and his father threatened punishment if it wasn’t done then and right and he answered, “Yes Father,” with sarcasm and disdain in his voice and an eye roll for me to see, that was disrespect. If he’d said, “Sure Dad,” with the right attitude it would have been respectful.

It’s our attitude that determines our respect more than the words we choose. There is nothing disrespectful about being close and familiar with a father. The Bible clearly shows an intimate relationship between Jesus and the Father, despite the fact that contrary to popular opinion, Abba did not mean Papa or Daddy. Abba was the only word available for Father in the Aramaic of the time and region, so it probably ran the range from sounding formal and distant to informal and childish and respectful to disrespectful all depending on usage and tone. We are God’s children, told to come as little children. In today’s language and common understanding, a father is the one who sired but is distant, while a dad is someone that is there for his children. A dad watches and actively participates in their lives. A dad helps them grow up, raises them, and nurtures them. That may not be your understanding, but that is how most Americans see it today. In that situation it is hard to show closeness while using the address of Father, and Daddy is simply the more child-like expression of Dad.

What about reverence? There are many examples of reverence, but the one we seem stuck on is that due a mighty king. So, imagine with me a mighty but loving king on a glorious throne. His subjects enter His court, along with some visitors from foreign lands. They stop talking. No one speaks without being spoken to. They all bow the knee to this man and revere Him. They are there to seek help, because the enemies of the kingdom have gathered at the gates and threaten to destroy the kingdom and its inhabitants.

The queen, the king's bride, enters with a four-year old little boy in her arms. He squirms out of her arms and begins running across the court yelling, "Daddy! There's horses and men out the gates! They look mean!" The king scoops the young prince into his arms and whispers, "Shh. It's OK. Now be quiet. Daddy's busy."

The boy sits in his father's lap and listens as dignitaries and ambassadors come before the throne, bow and in eloquent and carefully chosen words both request the aid of the king and express their doubt that even all mighty king's men and horses will be able to handle this foe. The prince is obedient in his silence as long as he can be, but finally he's had enough. After one more person says, "Oh mighty King, defender of the helpless, ruler over us all, you surely must realize that the opposing ruler is as dangerous as he is vicious and evil, and we are in dire trouble!" the boy can stand it no longer.

"No, we're not in trouble! My Daddy can do anything! He can win this battle without even getting tired!" The king smiles and chuckles at the boy's confident faith. The onlookers gasp. As do we as we think of the scenario.

But that's what we're supposed to do. Remember that we are the little princes and princesses, not barely tolerated subjects of visitors. Run to Him. Throw ourselves into His arms. Yes, He is mighty. Yes, He is King. But He's also our Daddy. My Daddy can fix anything! My Daddy can do anything! My Daddy's got this. Who in the above scene truly showed reverence, complete awe, worship and respect for the king? The boy. I'm not scared, my Daddy can beat this enemy, quiet this storm, supply.......