Unshackled Moments ~ September 19 ~ Where'd Daddy Go?

My wife and I were watching a television show we like, and there was an episode where a man had gone blind and become a famous photographer. Yes, in that order. He walked the city streets, guided by sound and scent, snapping images as he went. What he didn't realize was that his assistant followed him from a safe distance to make sure nothing happened to him, that he didn't get hurt or lost.

The idea made me think of parents I've seen who have known it was time to let their child do some activity on their own. It's one of the stages of preparation for leaving the nest. Can little Johnny ride his bicycle to school all by himself? The parent says yes, and gives a wave as the child pedals away. Then mom and or dad run to the car, or grab their own bike, or just walk the route on foot, making sure the child doesn't run into any trouble and arrives safely.  The child feels big and grown up, but the parents are still there, watching and protecting.

We are not to stay babies in Christ. We will never become "grown" to the point of independence from our Heavenly Daddy, but we are to grow and mature. What God calls us to always has periods where the road is rough and difficult to travel, where there is a lot of resistance that comes against us as we walk in what God has called us. So as preparation to help strengthen our commitment and bolster our faith, God sends us to the wilderness first, a dry place of lack where we can't feel the presence of God and the blessings in our life are hidden. The Father didn't even spare Jesus this. Before His ministry really went into full swing, Jesus was driven into the desert to be tempted.

He wasn't alone. We all have and will have times of dryness and feeling distant from God when it's not because of our walk. Not one of those times where we know, if we're honest with ourselves, that we've moved away and created distance between us and Daddy, but rather a time when we've spent hours, days, maybe even weeks seeking Him, crying out to Him, wondering where He's at. The giants in the land are threatening to make bread from our bones, the crops are failing from drought, and the wolves have scattered the flocks. We feel alone and threatened without help and without resources. "Where  are you God?" We ask. Instead of "I sought the Lord and He heard me," we feel like screaming that we sought the Lord and He was no where to be found.

Periods like that happen, and they're not always about us being in the wrong or out of position or not having faith. Jesus said that if we seek Him we will find Him, but He also said the Kingdom of Heaven (a place where the people of God are under the authority and protection of and aware of the presence of the King) is like a woman who loses a coin and lights a lamp, sweeps floors and moves furniture until she finds it. If we seek we find, but it's not a promise of instant gratification and seeking doesn't mean to glance. Sometimes God sends us through the wilderness to teach us to have faith in what and who we know and to prepare us for what is to come. But don't worry. Don't be afraid. It's just part of growing up, but the big secret the enemy doesn't want you to know is that Daddy is right there watching to make sure we're ok and that  we arrive safely to the oasis where He plans to refresh us in the living water of awareness of His presence.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 18 ~ Learning To Ride

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

-Matthew 26:41

When we who are drunks and addicts seek to find freedom from those chains of addictions, invariably at some point we will hear that we need to watch out for "trigger." We're told to not put ourselves in the situations and surroundings that led to drinking or using in the past. (Like breathing. Breathing while being awake was probably my biggest trigger.) To help fight the desire, the temptation, to go back to whatever addiction we have to change our people, places and things. But if we eliminate every old trigger to our addictions and behaviors, we will only make new ones if we don't find relationship with God that sets us free and fills us. If we do find said relationship we can go anywhere and be around anything or anyone without falling back into old behavior.

But if we want to be free, free from chemicals, free from selfish attitudes and emotions, free from the chains of any kind that have held us in bondage in the past, the first thing we need to do after coming to Christ to be set free is to learn to pray successfully. Prayer taps us into and allows us to access the power and grace of God to walk in His will, to deny our own and old way, and to resist the temptation to turn away or to turn back to where we once where slaves. Jesus didn't tell the disciples to prevent falling to temptation by avoiding anything or anyone. He told them to watch and pray.

But learning to pray may be the hardest thing for anyone to do. It's what, if one is like me, may be on our top 5 list of things we need to do every day and do more and yet it can also be the spiritual act that is easiest to cut short, leave out, put off till later, etc. That is because our flesh, our humanity if you will, doesn't want to pray. It has no desire to enter into the presence of the Most High God. Our mortality puts on immortality in the presence of God, and it does so by surrendering to the purpose and will of the One who created us, dying and being resurrected into new life. No matter how seriously the surrender at the cross of Jesus was meant, our old nature will fight it. And so first and foremost, the flesh must be fought and conquered, at least for the time, in order to pray well.

It's also frustrating that prayer isn't an intellectual pursuit. Books and books have been written on the subject. Some are good and some are bad, but none can teach a person to pray any more than a person can learn to ride a bike by reading a book. One learns to ride a bike by doing it. By getting on, struggling for balance and power to pedal before falling, then getting up and doing it again. Finally the falls become rare if ever. And prayer is the same. We can finds tips and suggestions that may act as training wheels, but the only thing that we can do to learn to pray is to pray and pray and pray some more, and to not give up when we fall flat on our face or skin our spiritual knees. Learning to pray well and establishing a prayer life is a process.

Every believer is unique, fearfully and wonderfully made. Every Christian has his or her own name that is special between them and God and that no one else knows. And everyone's conversation with their Creator is as unique as they are. Maybe not at first, when the training wheels are on, but by the time it becomes a part of life and the falls occur less, we all become original in our prayers. We have found relationship, and it is in spending time with Daddy in a way that is real and can't be imitated or learned from someone else that we find freedom and power to walk away from temptation.

Introducing The Holy Spirit

Dalyn Woodard gives a brief survey on the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit and what is it that He does and doesn't do. We need the Holy Spirit in our lives and must not go to either end of the extreme in our relationship with Him. Not going to extremes means not running from Him or refusing to allow Him to operate in or through us but also not placing more emphasis on the Spirit than on the Father and the Son. The message, "Introducing The Holy Spirit" is about 40 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, September 16, 2015. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 17 ~ Not Just A Job Interview

God wants you. He wants relationship with you. He wants to make you His and to have you receive and reciprocate His love. That's what He wants. You may have wondered "What's God want me for?" Well now you know. Jesus didn't call the disciples to Him to be apostles and fishers of men. He didn't call you for an aspect of ministry. When Jesus says come and the Spirit whispers the desire of God to our hearts giving us the gift of faith to respond it's not a job interview. Yes, Jesus knew the disciples would be apostles and told them from the start that He would use them. Yes, God has a special and unique calling for you that will enable His glory to be reflected in a way that no one else can quite reflect it, but that's not the why He wants you. That's secondary. When Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep, there was no indication that the sheep had anything that the other 99 didn't. It wasn't more valuable. It's wool wasn't gold. It didn't have a special job. It was just His, so He left the 99 to get it back. It isn't the will of the Father that any should perish. The Word took on flesh out of love for you, for me, and for everyone. It wasn't a way to get cheap workers or indentured servants. It wasn't to convince us to work for the kingdom. It was to bring us by grace into the family. Jesus wants you for you. He wants me for me. I don't know why Jesus loves me, but I'm glad that He does. Aren't you glad that Jesus loves you?

Unshackled Moments ~ September 16 ~ Sharing The Load

My back hurts this morning. I moved three steel tool boxes yesterday, and even though I did it the easy way, I still put some strain on my back. What's the easy way? Well, I lifted one end high enough to get a chain under the boxes, which were about six feet long, two feet wide and two and a half feet deep. Once I got the chain under it. I let it drop. I then wrapped the chain tightly so that it wouldn't slip, hooked the other end of the chain to the tractor bucket, and used the tractor to raise and move the bucket most of the way. Most of the way. That's where it got difficult and a little frustrating. I could only get the tractor just inside a 30 foot radius, which left me with a little distance, over terrain strewn with obstacles, in which I had to move my load to get it where it needed to be. So I unhooked the chain, and I stood the boxes on end and walked them corner to corner as the things in the way allowed, half-carried and drug them to where I could set them down. Only a few times, for a short moment, did I have all of the weight of any of the boxes on me. I used tricks of leverage and physics to lesson the strength that I needed to move my burden without doing harm to my already damaged back. There were a few times during the hour it took to move three boxes less than 50 feet that I felt that twinge and knew I would hurt later. But I kept going, because that's my job. I simply tried to be more careful not to take all the weight on. My boss came over after I had moved everything and was cleaning the rust off the boxes so that they could be painted. He said, "got 'em moved. Good job." He told me to paint the trailers that needed paint first and paint the boxes last, because they could weight if I ran out of time. Then he said, "Pretty heavy aren't they?" I nodded and said something about them being very heavy but I got it done. Then he said, "I figured you would carry the three as far as the tractor could go and then let me help you carry them to here," and then he walked away. Seriously? He told me to move the boxes. He showed me where they were and where he wanted them. He even told me to use the tractor to move them as far as possible that way. He hadn't said anything about helping me carry them from there. And he was on the phone. How long would I have had to sit around waiting on the clock for help with something I can do myself. I would feel like I wasn't working hard enough or doing my job. I wanted to impress him with what I could get done. I wanted him to remain happy he gave me the opportunity to work when no one else would. I wanted to feel his pleasure over my hard work ethic, maybe even get a little praise. Wait? Get help? Well, yes. If I had I wouldn't be hurting as much this morning. Eddie didn't say anything about helping me because he figured I would know better than to move everything myself. I've worked with him enough to know that he always calls me over to help him with something that could better be moved by two people rather than one. Better to move a little slower on one job than to get hurt and not be able to get anything done later. He's told me before not to hurt myself, and so has my family, and metaphorically so has my aching back. Foolish, stubborn self-reliance. Too smart for my own good. Too worried about not doing a good enough job. Too determined to please and impress with my own effort. We are told in Psalm 55 to cast our burdens onto the Lord and He will sustain (strengthen or support mentally or physically) us. Peter said we can confidently and comfortably cast our cares on the Lord, because He cares for us. Jesus said everyone who is worn out, weary, busted and burdened should come to Him and trade their load for His because His yoke is easy and the burden light. We've been given plenty of instruction not to carry our worries and weight ourselves. Then comes the calling, that task that God calls us to do. Whether it's a long term situation, like a ministry or career, or short term, like being there for someone who needs a hand or a listening ear. So eager to please our Daddy, to show He didn't mess up by giving us the task, wanted His approval and praise, we determine to do the job we have been told to do, to obey. And to do it well. But we forget the earlier instructions and examples that we've been given. God doesn't want to watch us struggle to get the job done ourselves, not even the smartest, easiest, least-damaging way. If we're not teamed up with Jesus to pull that yoke, then when people see the field that's been plowed they see us. God gets the glory when they see Jesus, and that can only happen when He's pulling the load instead of us. No matter how small or easy the task, God never wants us to do it alone. He hates self-sufficiency because it robs Him of closeness with us (working together is a way to forge a bond between two people that can't be broken), it keeps Him from being able to show His providence and grace to us (because we're so busy doing it ourselves we can't see the better thing He had planned to do) or show His power, providence and grace to the world that still needs a savior. Don't hurt your spiritual back. It's good to want to please the Father, to obey, to walk in what we've been called to. But remember that our way is not His way, and no matter how we manipulate and manage things to lessen the load we are still carrying burdens we're not supposed to carry when we do it alone.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 15 ~ Addition And Subtraction

Crowds flocked to Jesus. People tore the tops off houses to get to Him. They followed Him for days and miles. Yes, sometimes all they wanted was the miracle, and Jesus even said so. But there was more to it than that. They were after another miracle, the miracle of who He is. Jesus added value to the people He hung out with. He listened to them, really listened with His heart and with His eyes full of compassion and love. He spent His time with someone concerned with how He could be of service to them and not trying to figure out how to get something or boost Himself in any way. Jesus didn't drain folks. He didn't suck the energy from people. They didn't dread being around Him, because hanging out with Jesus wasn't exhausting. Jesus wasn't dry and needy. Jesus was full. Since He was full, His purpose in any encounter with a person never had anything to do with what He could get but was always about what He could give. He came to serve. He added to people's lives instead of taking. The only times He took were times that He took sadness, sorrow, sickness, loneliness, etc. When people encountered Jesus that left knowing at least one person in the world loved them, that they had value to at least one, and a little more about the nature of God than when the encounter began. That hasn't changed. People are sometimes afraid to give up their will to God, because they are afraid that somehow they'll come out on the short end of the stick. But Jesus wants to give to you, not take. If He does remove something, it will only be to make room for something better, something you'll want more, something more fulfilling and satisfying and lasting. We don't have to be afraid of surrender because no one wants more for us...more peace, more joy, more love, than Jesus. We will never come out with less when we give to Him than if we hoard what we have. Ever. So today, let us do two things. Let us be quick to surrender and spend time with our Savior, letting Him add to our lives. Then, powered by His love and grace, let us go through our day full enough to give and to add to the lives of those we encounter rather than pulling from them. But if we find ourselves unable to do that, if we are in a place of neediness, let us like the crowds of Galilee run to Jesus, climb trees and walls and tear up roofs to get to Him. Don't let anything stand between you and the only One who can meet your needs and fill you up.

Unshackled Moments ~ September 14 ~ The Crowd Went Wild

I love football. My poor wife, who is not a huge football fan, is very understanding of my passion, or as she puts it, my obsession, with all things gridiron. I do my best to enjoy the sport without imposing on her or making her a football widow, because as much as I love football, I love her much more. After all, she is my treasure and football is but a game. There are plenty of things more important. That said, to those who play and the fans, football is serious. Saturday night I stayed up to watch the end of the LSU Mississippi State game. I am a LSU fan, and the game was way too close to just turn off and wait till morning to find out what happened. It literally came down to the last 2 seconds. One young man bore the weight of the game on his shoulders. If he could kick a field goal from over 50 yards his team, Miss St., would win. If he missed LSU would win. Everything rode on that one kick. Thousands of people watched from the stands and more on television and online from all over. Some were praying that he made it. Others were hoping and praying he missed or that the kick was blocked. The kicker had nothing to do with the situation. It wasn't his fault in any way that his team found themselves down by two points with two seconds left in the game. A delay of game penalty pushed the kick even further back from the "he can probably make it" range to the "living on a prayer" distance he faced. Also not his fault. Yet although he had no responsibility in getting them in that spot, it was on him to get them out of it. He trained and practiced and joined the team for moments such as this. A whistle blew a fraction a second before the snap and a kick that went wide of the mark. LSU had called a time out, and although he missed, he would have a second chance. The failure became a practice kick. The snap came a second time. He stepped into position and kicked......wide the other way. He missed. LSU fans like me, rejoiced. Mississippi State fans grieved, groaned and griped. I can only imagine how the kicker's team mates felt to get so close to victory only to watch all hopes fade as the football drifted to the right of the goal posts. And the poor kicker himself? I have no idea if he felt more determined to practice more, or if he felt he failed everyone, or maybe he got angry, declared the situation wasn't his fault and blamed the quarterback and the delay of game penalty. I don't know. What I do know is that it made me think of the fact that there are times when we do what's right, when we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to do and thanks to others' choices and or mistakes we find ourselves under pressure to do the near impossible to make things right. More times than not, we fall short. There's a reason near impossible is near impossible and not normal. It's hard not to get angry or feel guilty, to feel like a failure and fear rejection. But Jesus is there when we succeed and when we fall short. His arms are open to us and His love and mercy are new every morning. He gives grace and new chances and forgiveness as often as needed. He is our biggest fan, and He doesn't give up on us when we let the crowd down.