Unshackled Moments ~ July 16, 2018 ~ No Filter, No Problem

Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

- Proverbs 4:23

Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.

- Matthew 15:17-20

A conversation I had recently where someone told how a certain medication turned off their filter and they ended up saying things that they never would have normally got me thinking. We've all had those moments. Those of us who have over indulged in chemicals may have had more frequent and more embarrassing moments, but we've all had them. You know the moments I mean. That time when a rush of anger short-circuited the filter. Or maybe you were just way too stressed and tired. Maybe you only got carried away with a conversation and the next thing you knew that line had been crossed. Maybe it was something silly. Perhaps it was a little embarrassing. Maybe it was mean. I'm talking about that moment when you shocked yourself and had to ask did I really just say that? Maybe you didn't even say it. Maybe it was a thought that made you think, where did that come from? Oh those moments when we do something or say something that is totally out of character for us. Or are they?

Proverbs tells us that everything, thoughts, words and deeds, comes from the heart. We can't fall back on the old stand by of the devil made me do it. Some of us empathize all too well with the line from the Lit song "My Own Worst Enemy."

Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk? I didn't mean to call you that. I can't remember what was said or what you threw at me Please tell me...

But the devil pushed buttons that we have and the chemicals turned off the voice that says this isn't a good idea. Neither created the impulse. While I can say there are things I did high and drunk that I would never do sober, I can't say that they weren't in my heart. Stone cold sober I have said, done and thought things that made me cringe.

We must guard our hearts against those things that defile us. Not because of some legalistic religious rules, but because in order for the garbage to come out of our hearts it must be put in and left. Those things about our nature we don't like, those ugly aspects of our hearts will come out. Period. They have to. They make us sick, and our soul will spew them out like vomit from food poisoning. It's going to come out. The question is how? Will it be removed because we give it tot he One who can take it and cleanse us and replace those things with better life-giving heart stuff like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Or will it come out in a moment of anger, weakness, weariness, etc.?

We can't do anything about what's in our hearts already, but the Spirit can and will if we let Him. What we can do is choose to follow Daddy's advice that we should think on what is lovely and true and of a good report. We can guard our hearts and refuse to indulge in what we would be ashamed to have come spewing from our heart at some future inopportune time. When we let the Spirit cleanse us and control all our lives, even our thought life, we don't have to be afraid of the filter coming off.


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Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. 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 and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend 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.

Making Failures Disappear

There are two things that leave us feeling stained and unworthy. Dalyn Woodard shares on what makes us feel dirty and how to leave that behind. The message, "Making Failures Disappear," is about 5 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, July 15, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

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.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Echo ~ July 14, 2018 ~ You're God's Cherry Pie

Today's Unshackled Echo is a six-minute audio message originally delivered at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on March 15, 2015.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. 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 and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend 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.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 13, 2018 ~ The Great Escape

Wednesday afternoon my back got messed up again, and I am grateful.  Yesterday I could barely walk and hurt more than I have in a long time. I had to use my cane when I went out to feed the animals, and carrying that five-gallon bucket of water to the chickens just about did me in. For the first time in my life I probably came more close to resembling my grandfather Joe Woodard than my my mom's dad. The difference is when I watched him slowly walking to feed troughs with a cane in one hand and a bucket or a sack of feed in the other, he was in his sixties and seventies.

I felt like a slow, old man, and I hurt a lot. And, like I said I am grateful. No, it's not because I'm a masochist. I'm not. I hate pain. I spent the vast majority of my life trying to escape pain. in ways that usually ended up only causing more. And no, I am not grateful because I have attained some spiritual level that makes suffering a pleasure or any other such nonsense. Suffering sucks. I still hate it.

No one is going to put St. before my name after I'm gone, and if anyone says at my funeral, "He was a good man," someone please ask them to tell the truth or be quiet.  Hopefully as the years go by, more and more people will mistake me for a good man, but I assure you, I'm not one. It's just that I started spending more time with Jesus and let His Spirit have enough control to start making me more like Him and less like the natural me. Jesus and I love you. But the good you may see in me is all because of Him, I assure you. I'm like the writer who says the great things about what I write are because of help from an excellent editor, and any mistakes are my own. I have an editor who has done a great job at rewriting my character and making me likable and a decent human being.

So, it's not because I suffer well or am so spiritual that I am grateful that I hurt. In fact, I am not grateful I hurt. I wish it would stop. What I am grateful for is that although I haven't had a pain free day in several years now because of a back injury and my back being wrenched Wednesday just made things worse, I am not running for escape. I'm not  mad at God. I'm not giving the Lord of the universe ultimatums about how He better take my pain away now or I'll fix it myself, which is exactly what I did in my teens. I'm not seeking oblivion over suffering. I am enduring. I hurt. I've been hurting. I'm going to rest my back, but I suspect the pain levels will stay at a seven or higher for another day or two. There was a time when this would have been an excuse to escape. I am grateful that is not where I am anymore.

I'm still just a man who is a work in progress. Pain makes it hard for me to think. I don't do my best work when I'm hurting. I may get a little snappy. My tone of voice may not be the nicest. My life's reflection of Jesus may dim as I hurt more. I suspect that is true for many of us.  But I am starting to see how Eliza Edmunds Hewitt could lay in bed for 12 years after a spinal injury and, instead of spewing misery and bitterness, write several time honored hymns of praise. Pain can drive us to Daddy as easily as it can drive us from Him. We can find comfort in His presence, even if the pain remains. It's an awesome thing to learn and discover. I hope you, Dear Reader, are spared serious suffering, but if not, I hope you seek Him in the storm of pain.

You don't have to be a spiritual giant  to get to that place. I'm not one. You just have to reach out and let Daddy take your hand, and He will lead you there. And for those of us with chronic pain, we, like Hewitt, can know and sing the wondrous love of Jesus; sing His mercy and His grace. We can look forward with her to that day when we all get to heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory.



This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. 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 and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend 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.

You Are The Beloved

What does it mean to know the Lord, and how do we know we do? Dalyn Woodard shares on the blessing of belonging to God and how it changes us. The message, "You Are The Beloved," is about an hour, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on July 11, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

If you missed the first message in the series "The Daddy Heart Of God," entitled "Redirected By Love," it can be found here. The second message, "God Is Light," can be found here.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

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.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 11, 2018 ~ The Gratitude Challenge

When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

- G. K. Chesterton

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

G.K. Chesterton was right, but of course, the idea is not original. Gratitude makes a difference. It may not change our circumstances one little bit, but in changing the way we react to, see and understand our circumstances will change. Thessalonians tells us to be thankful or have gratitude in all things. It doesn't say for all things.We don't have to be grateful or thankful for evil and suffering, but we can be grateful that nothing that is going on or that we have done or have had done to us can separate us from the love of God. We can be grateful that He is able to use whatever circumstances, the good and the bad, to bring us into closer and deeper relationship with Him, to forge us into the best us we were always created to be and to make us more like Jesus. It's not the power of positive thinking, but not taking life for granted, not becoming bitter and resentful at the hardships, and instead seeking to draw near to Daddy and being grateful that we can and that He loves us means that we always have something we can be grateful for.

I have noticed over the years that challenging myself to come up with five things that I am grateful for every day has made a huge difference in my resentment levels, in my ability to trust God and in the way I view life. I  have had some rough days over the past eight years of recovery, but even on the worst of them, in the midst of deaths of loved ones, job losses and more, there has never been a day when there weren't at least five things I can be thankful for. I haven't been sharing that list publicly on social media like I used to lately, but I still make it. Sometimes it takes more effort than others, but the results have truly blessed me. I challenge you, Dear Reader, to take the gratitude challenge and find things to be grateful for in the midst of every day and every situation. Give it a month and see for yourself how it can change your perspective and your levels of peace and joy.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. 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 and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend 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.

Unshackled Moments ~ July 10, 2018 ~ Selfishness That Blesses Others

The image to the right was what was spotted a couple of days ago while feeding my father's chickens. It's not the best photo, but you can get the idea of what was going on. The branch of the tree is being held down by the big white goat on the left, which is making it possible for the rest of the goats to eat the leaves off the end.

A friend of mine insisted that the white goat was holding the limb down so the others could eat. But no. She's not that selfless. She managed to get her legs on the limb enough to pull it down so that she could eat the leaves herself. You can see the leaves she was working on just above her head. The action just happened to lower the end so that the rest of the goats benefited as well. This is not some altruistic moment. In fact, from feeding these goats for my father on multiple occasions I can testify that she is a selfish feed hog who will step all over smaller goats to get her head in a feed pan. She has stepped on me more than once in her rush to eat as much as she can before any of the others get a chance.

But this image does make me think. Most times when we are selfish about satisfying our desires and needs all we do is hurt ourselves and others sooner or later. But God created these goats to eat this way, and it worked out for all involved. When we reach up to feed on what Daddy is providing, to have relationship and fellowship with Him it's a selfish act. OK, so it's not totally selfish. It's obedient and doing what Daddy desires for us to do. But it is what is best for us. It gives us what we need and brings satisfaction, contentment, peace, joy, love, etc. We may deny self and die to self to follow Jesus, but let's get honest here. If all we got out of that was misery and death, we wouldn't do it. We give our life to Him, and He gives us a better life, a life worth living, in its place.

That said, when we take care of our own needs through relationship with Daddy something amazing happens. Behind us, our selfish act of feeding on relationship doesn't bring destruction to others or deprive anyone. It actually helps those around us find it easier to access what feeds and sustains them as well. Man does not live on bread alone but in contact and relationship with our Creator, and when He is our source, our reaching out for that spiritual food will always enable others to eat more freely as well.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. 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 and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend 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.