Unshackled Moments ~ September 13 ~ Giving The Last

There is a story in the old testament about a widow who gives to Elijah and gets an awesome return blessing. It can be found in I Kings 17, but the gist of it is that there is a drought that puts everything in short supply. The widow is out gathering sticks, and Elijah asks her for water, which she immediately starts to get for him. Then he adds a request for bread. She tells him she has none, only enough oil and flour to make a small bite for her and her son to eat as a last meal. They are starving. He tells her don't worry about starving, just make me some bread and there will be enough to make you and your son bread until the drought is over. She complied and didn't run out of flour or oil for days until it finally rained. I have heard this story used as part of tithing sermons and illustrations of giving in faith means you get stuff back. Neither of those is what this is about. This woman's gift to Elijah was not a tithe. First thing he did, which is often not mentioned, is ask for water in the midst of a drought. She never hesitates but goes to get some. This is not about tithing. It's about service. She can; so she will. There is still enough water left for her to give. Then he asked for bread, and there is not enough oil and flour for him and the last meal she planned for her and her son. In response to him telling her to go ahead and make it, that she won't run out, she does it. But the scripture says nothing of her great faith here. She didn't declare deep faith in Elijah being a man of God and speaking truth until later. At most this is about obedience more than faith. She may have had faith she wouldn't run out. Or she may have figured it didn't matter in the long run if she and her son had that last bite or not. They were still about to die either way. So why not let the prophet have the last of the oil and flour? But this is about a simple truth that what we give to God in obedience and service we get back. I'm not talking about some formula that says if you give God X he has to give back whatever. If you give to God like it's an investment in the stock market, that's not giving to God. That's trying to make God give to you. But when you give to God, for the purpose of giving to be of service, to bless and out of obedience, not worrying about when and how or even if you get a return, God blesses that. When we give love because we're told to, and it's needed. When we sacrifice our time, something way more valuable than money and something that can't be regained, in order to help someone and do what God has called us to do, He blesses our lives. And yes, when we give our resources in service to the King, not as an investment but out of understanding that they and our lives are His to use as He pleases anyway, then He, who takes care of what is His, will provide what is needed. The truth about giving is not that when we give God has to give back. It's not if you want this, do that. It's about love. It's Mom giving Dad his favorite part of the chicken before anyone else getting to fix their plates. It's about there being one popsicle in the freezer and the big brother giving it to the little brother instead of keeping it for himself. Sometimes, you discover a whole other box in the back. Sometimes it's the last treat of the summer and months before you see another one. But giving out of love like that to God and for God brings satisfaction and blessing into our lives that is way more than just whether or not we get more treats back. It's about service, which makes us more like Jesus and gives us purpose. And it's about obedience, which makes us grow.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 12 ~ Leave The Gun On The Ground

I had another prison dream this morning. I have had a lot of them over the past few months. I'm not sure why, but they were becoming almost nightly and bad. I got prayer Sunday and hadn't had one since until this morning. For some that may not sound like a positive answer to prayer, but believe me when I say that over the last few months five nights without prison dreams is a blessing and a miracle. Still, as one might imagine, I felt discouraged as I lay awake trying to get my bearings and slow my heart rate. At least this one wasn't too bad. It was one of the fantastical ones, where prion plays a part but in a non-realistic way rather than one of the "Hey, remember this? Doesn't this feel real and sucky and real sucky?" ones. I'm not sure why I had another prison dream after almost a week free of them unless it was all the remembrance from yesterday. "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?" Well Alan, since you asked, I was in D dorm 32 bunk of a transfer prison facility still trying to adjust to prison life while everyone told me that this wasn't the real prison yet, because transfer facilities were almost as different as county jail, and waiting for my permanent housing in one of the many Texas prisons. So anyway, I pretty much hate that song, and maybe all the 9-11 talk brought the dreams back, or maybe this one served a purpose. Maybe they all did, and I just haven't snapped to it. We left the prison on a Blue Bird (transfer bus) and went to Wal-Mart, which in the dream was apparently commissary. I mentioned it was a fantastical and non-realistic dream right? Right. One of my fellow convicts and I were talking. I can't remember his name, but this is the one part of the dream that was "remember me" in nature, as I actually did time with this guy. We just called him "Throwed," as in thrown off and crazy, most of the time, and that's what I called him in the dream. He was actually a pretty nice guy most of the time in both life and in the dream. But as we walked though an almost empty of food Wal-Mart, I guess prison commissary is always bad no matter how you dress it up in a dream, Throwed came across a handgun on the floor. He picked it up, and here came the crazy. I sensed that he didn't mean any harm when he picked up the pistol but had simply hoped that the threat would help him get some of the dwindling supplies before they were all gone. But once he had it in his hand, the gangster came out and the nice guy was locked away somewhere. Throwed was pretty much a modern day ghetto demonstration of Jekyll and Hyde, and you never knew exactly what would set him off. In the dream it was having a gun in his hand. He was about to start killing folks. I grabbed him and pushed the gun skyward so that all six shots went off harmlessly into the air. As soon as the pistol was emptied, Throwed dropped to his knees crying and saying he didn't mean to, he just couldn't help himself. I held him and tried to comfort him and help him even as the guards arrived to cuff him and take him to seg. Then I woke up. So why did I ramble all over the place trying to tell this dream before the fog burns off and the dream with its associated emotions fade away? Because I saved people from getting shot? Hardly. I didn't feel like a hero. I felt like a failure for not helping Throwed. There is a truth here buried in the weirdness of the dream. Throwed didn't want to get in trouble, he didn't want to hurt anyone, but he picked up the gun. We often don't mean anything bad or want to hurt anyone, but we see a situation out of control and instinctively reach for something that we've used to help in the past. Anything we use as aid in our situation outside of the will of God is a mistake, no matter what it is. We think we can control it or use it in a less harmful way than the destruction it's caused in the past, but once we pick it up, whether it be a substance or an emotion like anger or whatever it is, we go to Hyde. We've lost control and the crazy is back. It's a scary place to be in, knowing the ride won't end until someone or something stops it and not knowing how much damage will be done before it's over. It's like being in the middle of an argument and thinking "This is stupid. It's not important or worth the price to the relationship" and still not being able to stop the next stupid thing about to be screamed from an angry and has to win state of mind. So the words get said and the face of the family member or friend crumbles and the truth is evident. Too far. I've gone way too far. I didn't have control. I didn't mean to do it. I couldn't help myself. We can't help ourselves in that heat of the moment. Only the grace of God can stop a roller coaster before it naturally comes to the end in any other than a serious wreck. But we don't have to get on the ride to begin with. We don't have to pick up the pistol. The old tools didn't work right. The tools God gives us don't bring destruction. Today, let us go to our Daddy to meet our needs and not try to fix things ourselves with some variation of our natural instinctive choices of the past. Leave the gun on the ground.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 11 ~ Lest We Forget

In less than an hour many people on Facebook will go silent for an hour and forty-two minutes in memory of The Towers going down and the innocent men and women who died that day 14 years ago. Let's also take a moment to say thank you to the innocent God in man flesh who died a horrible and public death so that we could live and have freedom. It's easy to remember tragedies like 9-11, June 6 and December 7 where so many died in the name of freedom and so many heroes sacrificed themselves so that others could live. We honor the memories of the fallen. But only God's sacrifice brings true freedom, only He can give eternal life. Even on a day when so many memories demand our attention let us not forget our time with Him and lift up a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 10 ~ Racing The Rain

There are thunderstorms cutting loose in my area at the moment. I just got in from work, and as I pulled out on my motorcycle to head home I got a good look at what the trees had been blocking from the work site. Nasty looking black and grey clouds in the direction that I had to go. I don't like to ride the motorcycle in the rain, especially in a thunderstorm. If I'm not prepared for it, i.e. packing rain gear, it's quite uncomfortable. The drops feel like needles at any decent speed, and it only takes a second to get completely soaked. I have a fairing (windshield) on my bike, and it's great for keeping rocks and bugs from hitting me in the face. It sucks for rain though. It does nothing to keep the rain from hitting you, but it does make it nearly impossible to see. Got through a thunderstorm with no windshield wipers, and you get the idea. So you have to stick your face around the edge to see where you're going, but even that doesn't help much, because I wear glasses now. Not to mention the windshield catches the strong storm winds and acts like a sail whipping me around and making me fight to stay in my lane, if I can see my lane. Basically, it sucks. It's miserably uncomfortable and dangerous. So I raced the rain. I prayed and gunned it, staying just ahead of the rain I could see falling in the not so far distance behind me. I made it today. It started raining on me as I pulled into the drive, and I said a prayer of gratitude and hurried to feed the dogs. It struck me though that all too often we respond to life the same way. We see the storm clouds on the horizon and feel the increasing force of the wind and run for cover, praying we make it to shelter before it hits. Sometimes those prayers are answered. Sometimes though we need to go through the storm to get to where we need to be.Regardless, if fear sets in and we feel the need to race the rain, to beat the oncoming storm or get out of it as quickly as possible, let's remember where we need to run to. God is our shelter and our refuge. We need to always race toward Him, and remember if He calls us to go through the storm, we can trust Him to keep us.

The Fight Goes On

Dalyn Woodard shares on why, since our former manner of life is dead and gone because of the grace of Christ's sacrifice, we still struggle with sin. If we could truly understand the power of grace that is available to us as children of God we could go through the rest of our life without sinning ever again, but it would never be us. We are not totally unrighteous because our spirit is righteous, but we are also not totally righteous yet because our mind and body are still clothed in humanness under the curse. There is a solution to the conflict of the righteous inner spirit and the carnal fleshly mind with its propensity to sin. The message, "The Fight Goes On" is about 37 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, September 9, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 9 ~ A Mile In Their Shoes

All too often it's easy to isolate ourselves form anyone that we don't feel comfortable around or understand. If we can't relate or they don't fit in to whatever category we feel we fit into, avoid at best or belittle, criticize and ostracize at work. But we are not called to belittle and make outcasts of those who don't fit in. I'm not talking about being popular. I was not a "popular" guy in school. I was one of the outcasts and freaks, and believe me, the freaks can be just as snobby and prejudiced against the popular "normal" kids as the other way around. Each of us has our comfort zone. If someone doesn't fit into that zone or doesn't comply with the standards of that group, they don't belong. But Jesus called us to be like Him and do as He did.

So what is it exactly that God did? Well, God has His comfort zone called righteousness and holiness. Nobody seemed to be able to qualify. No one fit the standard. So God literally came down and walked 33 years worth of miles in our shoes. He made Himself available to the outcasts. He touched lepers, ate with drunks and prostitutes, and for those of us with reverse prejudice issues He also hung out with tons of pharisees. He never once condoned anyone's behavior that didn't line up with what's right, and yet He managed to love all of them, all of us. He loves us as we are, not as we should be. So no matter why someone doesn't deserve to be able to hang out with you, Jesus would welcome that person. And no matter what reason you may feel you don't belong, Jesus welcomes you. He knows how you feel, because He purposefully empathized with you and with me as He faced every struggle and temptation that we face. He didn't say you're not worthy get away. He said let me make you worthy come to Me.

Let us make more of an effort to practice empathy and love. It's easy to walk around and say what would Jesus do, but's let's remember what He really did do. He loved the unacceptable. He welcomed the outcast. He put Himself in our shoes and died in our place. Not once is there an example of anyone coming to Him, not a pharisee or a "sinner" who Jesus refused to associate with. How can we say we follow Him and do any differently.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 8 ~ Not Indentured Service

With yesterday being Labor Day, I spent some time thinking about debt. They are related. After all in the world of misheard lyrics the song most commonly gotten wrong is not :Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix. It's the work song from Snow White which goes "I owe. I owe. It's off to work I go." Ok, that's a joke, but there's some truth in it. While there is a small percentage of  the work force that works for something to do and to keep busy but doesn't need the money, that is not the case for most of us. I for one would minister full-time, but the back breaking labor that I do now I would do no more if my financial responsibilities were taken care of.

We work to provide for ourselves and our family, to pay for the things we need in order to live, and of course to pay for the things we want. Sometimes the combination of the those things is more than we can do, or at least do at once. A mechanical problem with the car, a flat tire, an unexpected hospital visit, and any number of other things can cause the need for a larger sum of money than we can easily access. Some parents felt it recently having to purchase what their children needed in order to begin school. So, we whip out the credit cards, and we do so without hesitation. Most Americans live in a state of indebtedness.

Part of the reason we don't hesitate to go into debt is that there is no longer a debtor's prison. We can't go to jail for failing to pay back our student loans. But there are places and there were times when if you owed someone and couldn't pay, you went to prison until your family could raise the money to pay the debt or you made arrangements to sell yourself into indentured servitude. At one time indentured servitude was the common way out of debt for most people. I owe Impatient Man too much money to pay. I lease myself to Cheap Labor Man for an amount of time that depended on how much I owed and how much he was willing to pay for the service I had to offer. Cheap Labor Man paid off my debt, and I went to work for him for a period of time. That period of time often became life regardless of what was negotiated, because while I work as an indentured servant it's hard to make additional income. So I either continue  to go into debt or my master provides for my needs in exchange for longer service.

We sometime feel this is the deal we have with God. Some of Paul's writing's lead to that sort of feeling. He writes about us being slaves to righteousness now rather than slaves to sin. We are bought with a price and no longer our own. But he uses the common slavery and bondage terminology to explain that we are now free from the dominion of sin. We are no longer slaves to the things that we were once slaves of. Our debt has been paid. But since we look at it as indentured servitude to God at times, we also approach serving Him with the drudgery and poor attitude that we approach a job we don't like.

But this is not how we should look at it. If someone came up to me today and offered to take care of all my debts, provide for all my needs in exchange for my service, and then told me that my service would be tailored to my gifts and abilities, they would provide training, guidance and supply everything that I need in order to do it, and the work would be the most satisfying and fulfilling work that I had ever done. All I had to do was agree to a life long contract of being taken care of. I for one would sign up. It's not a bad deal.

But even that is not what we find in our relationship with God. It's more that we are orphans, living on our own the best we can, but our best isn't good enough. We end up in debt and facing legal ramifications that are horrible. Then in walks our benefactor. He takes away the legal penalties. Then He pays all our debts. We are so thankful that we offer our servitude, but that's not what He wants. He wants a child. He says yes, there are things you can do for the family business that no one else can do quite the same way, and I want and appreciate your service, but I'm adopting you. You will be my child with a full inheritance and a relationship with me that goes far beyond Master and servant. You will be loved. That's what we have in Jesus, not indentured service.