What word do we think of when we remember the Lord? Wally Flynt shares on the perfectness of Christ and the legacy of love we are to follow. The message, "Faultless," is about 3 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 9, 2019. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.
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.
The old way of doing things wasn't all bad, but it could never do all that was needed. Dalyn Woodard continues the series, "Jesus Is Most Excellent: A Study Of Hebrews," with a look at the old covenant vs. the new and how we need to remember and walk in the new way/ The message, "A Better Way," is about 53 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 5, 2019. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. Video below.
You can hear the first message in the Jesus Is Most Excellent: A Study Of Hebrews series, "It's All About Jesus," here, the second message, "A Most Excellent Word," here. The third message, "Jesus Is Enough," here. The fourth message, "More Excellent Than Angels," here. The fifth message, "Defeating The Dangerous Drift," here. The sixth message, "The Most Excellent Man," here. The seventh message, "The Most Excellent Help," here. The eighth message, "Consider Jesus," here. The ninth message, "Don't Lose Your Rest," here. The tenth message, "There Remains A Rest," here. The eleventh message, "Living And Active," here. The twelfth message, "Hang On And Come Close," here. The thirteenth message, "We Need A Mediator," here. The fourteenth message, "Wax Build Up," here. The fifteenth message, "Growing Up Is Not Optional," here. The sixteenth message, "Don't Get Burned," here. The seventeenth message, "Blessed Assurance," here. The eighteenth message, "A Sure And Steadfast Anchor," here. The nineteenth message, "Pointing To Greater," here. The twentieth message, "Access To Draw Near," here, and the twenty-first message, "Saving To The Uttermost," 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.
Belief can be a bit tricky. We know that we need to believe in the truth of God's word, especially as it relates to what we are going through and the hope we have of things getting better, of our deliverance, healing and restoration. Then when we struggle with doubt and ability to trust we condemn ourselves for lack of belief. We then begin a battle of and for belief, attempting to bolster belief before we move on. We act as though we must fully feel confident in what we claim to believe before we can progress. But there are different types or levels of belief.
Yes, there is a level of belief that comes from experience that is indeed a full unquenchable assurance. I believe in gravity. I am firmly convinced that if I were to climb up on the roof and step off that I would immediately fall to the ground below. In fact, that law is so factual that it doesn't matter if I believe in gravity. No matter how convinced I may be that I have discovered the secret of flight I will fall.
Then there is the type of belief that comes into play with things such as swimming or riding a bike. There are physical laws as factual, real and true as gravity that enable people to swim and ride. The laws don't change regardless of our belief or disbelief, but our ability to utilize them does. It might be difficult to remember our thoughts and feelings before learning to swim or ride. But basically no one of us suddenly came to a full confidence that we could do such a thing and then did it. First someone told us that it was possible, and we saw others doing it. Understanding somehow that we are not terminally unique, something within us believed that if others could do these things we could as well.
But even that is not enough. After that came action. We acted on our belief that there was some truth, even if we didn't understand it, that made it possible to stay on the surface of water and keep upright and balanced on a bike. We probably had a mentor or teacher, someone we trusted who helped us and took us through the beginning learning stages. We may have had some help by way of flotation devices and training wheels. At some point though the helper, while perhaps still near, is hands off and the extra devices are taken off and removed. The time came, and we acted out on our belief that didn't have any confidence in experience or feeling. We hadn't felt the magic of balance or the surge of victory at swimming a few yards yet. In fact, we may have felt as though we would surely drown or fall. But we knew. We believed.
And chances are we struggled, went under some, fell from the bike, scraping skin and making bruises. It wasn't instant, but there was an almost got it feeling that made us keep going. We believed. One day though, we believed with the same assurance that we believe we can fall from a roof, because something finally clicked and success in that area was attained. We had learned to walk in the truth of those physics that we didn't understand. First we believed because something recognized truth, even though it had no basis in feeling or experience. Only after we went ahead and acted on that fragile belief did we learn how to do those things and gain that surety that couldn't be shaken by doubt.
The spiritual laws and truths of God are as real and dependable as gravity, but they are closer in property to the laws that govern being able to swim or ride a bike. There are trusted sources that declare these laws to be true and present in our lives. We can observe others walking in them and the effects of them on the lives of others. We can get help from others. But we'll never learn the same assurance that His hands will keep us from falling as gravity will make us fall until we take a deep breath and, full of uncertainty, fall into His hands.
We must grow and develop assurance that is based on belief. We do that by acting as though what the Word says and what we have seen is true about God. We move forward as though we can swim in the waters of His truth and ride without falling by grace, no matter what we have or have not experienced or what we feel. The assurance comes from experience. The experience comes from stepping out and walking in the truth we believe but may not feel. If we wait for the assurance to act on belief we will never gain that assurance or learn how to walk with God.
Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
June 5, 2016.
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.
Imagine if you will growing up in some strange land where there is no natural food source. There is no edible vegetation or animal life. Everyone would starve to death if it weren't for the fact that the leader of the land supplied everyone with MREs, and that's all anyone has ever known. Military Meals Ready To Eat are what people think of and imagine when they read or hear the word food. It's all they've ever known.
One day someone tells you that there is something better. You have been invited to a feast at the banquet hall of a king. There will be the most succulent and tasty meats, fresh vegetables prepared in a variety of ways, the most interesting and delicious side dishes and deserts that you would dream of forever if you had a good enough imagination to even fathom them. All of this amazing food, prepared by the best chefs that every existed, could be yours. All you can eat.
Hopefully for your taste bud's sake you wouldn't respond with a nah, I'm OK with the food I have. I don't know why your going on about all the food at the feast. I know food, and it's not bad, but it's not something to get really worked up over. But the sad thing is that there are people who would do just that. They can't imagine that there is something more and that much better than all that they have experienced. Food is food. It all tastes about the same. It really isn't ever that good. Or what are you talking about? The Sante Fe Rice And Beans MRE is amazing! There couldn't be anything better than this!
That may sound foolish, but it's what we do all the time. We were born in a cursed land where everyone comes into the world separated from their Creator by sin, despite being born for relationship with Him. Because of this we are born starving spiritually. The leader of this realm is more than happy to fill our bellies with counterfeit spiritual experiences. Tease and indulge the senses tricking them into thinking and feeling like our needs are being met while at the same time driving us desperately for more because what we have is never ever enough.
We are stuffing ourselves silly with substitute and substandard meals and starving as we gorge on what would dare not be called food had we ever tasted anything better. Then someone says stop eating that junk, it's worthless. No. We like it. We want it. But finally for whatever reason we listen, step out of line and over to the table where the Master has prepared the perfect meal to excite and satisfy each and every taste bud on our tongue. Suddenly we understand what food was supposed to taste like, and what we'd always craved before suddenly falls so short.
I don't care what your favorite MRE is, it does not compare to a five star gourmet rendition of whatever it is designed to imitate. I don't care what you've been tasting, feeling, experiencing, how amazing the sex may be, how great the high, how thrilling the rush, how happy the days have seemed....I could go on, but you get the drift, the truth is that it all falls short to what it is supposed to distract you away from realizing you need and want, the banquet God is offering you freely. There is nothing that compares in experience with experiencing the presence of God. No chemical can truly provide what the Spirit does. No happiness can compare with the strength that comes in the joy of the Lord. No tranquil times can measure up against the peace that passes understanding. Nothing tainted by death can give us a life worth living.
O taste and see that the Lord is good! In Him is life, life better and more than we could ever imagine. No matter what we fear we might have to give up if we come to Him, He also offers to keep us safe from those things that make us sick but that we can't seem to stop partaking of on our own. I assure you from personal experience that He will give us something infinitely better in return. There is something better, and it's free.
Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
June 4, 2016.
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.
I am aware that some of the Unshackled Moments are better than others, as are the sermons that I preach. Leah told me Wednesday evening that she is grading my preaching on a curve, for which I am quite grateful. I also believe that God can do more than grade on the curve. He can actually make the curve true. What I mean by that is I can stumble through a not particularly good delivering of a mediocre sermon, and He can cause a truth that is spoken in that mess to be life-changing, fresh and exactly what someone needs to hear. I'm also very grateful for that.
I know that truth having an effect is not a testament to the messenger but to the message. God spoke through an ass in the old testament, and from what I've seen and experienced, He still does it today. So while I love that I have been called and used of God, I also realize that it doesn't make me anything that I am not. I am still a man in need of a Savior, and, at times, I can still be little more than a talking or writing donkey. Still, whether it's a donkey or some great orator speaking, a million monkeys randomly hitting keys or the next great writer letting words flow, God protects His Word and makes sure that the seeds of truth are sown.
Jesus said that we will know the truth and the truth shall make us free. First, He didn't say set us free. It's not unlocking a cage and allowing us to walk out of a prison as much as it is transforming and changing us from slave to free, from something that is not and can not be free to something that can't be anything else. The literal Greek of John 8:32 reads... the truth shall be making free or shall be freeing. This is a process, not an instantaneous event. As the truth of God transforms us and renews our minds we are able to live and walk and be more and more like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit because of grace freely and generously given and available to us.
I do firmly believe that if the things I write and preach of were read and listened to regularly and the truths were faithfully applied that the hearer and reader would experience more and more freedom, joy, peace, victory and contentment in life. I believe that. But if you think that means that I am really good at hearing and applying those truths myself, or that I am always free, full of joy and peace and victorious, you are either sadly or hilariously mistaken. In fact, sometimes I fail in such an epic fashion it's embarrassing.
For example, Wednesday evening I preached a message, Family Ties, covering Romans 12:10-13. Included in covering those verses was truth regarding being patient in tribulation and enduring suffering and hardship with hope and not giving way to the enemy. I spoke of our ability to face discouragement in a Godly way and to get through those times. And then yesterday I found myself hurting so much that it literally felt like a weight and pain in my chest as I struggled to catch my breath and tears fell. I hurt and felt so discouraged. In fact, I felt like I was falling to pieces. I felt beaten and broken and discarded with little to no hope of anything being any better any time soon.
Wow. So does that mean that everything I was preaching Wednesday wasn't true or that it might be true if we can access it but only a special few really can? Does it mean I'm a hypocrite? Is it a case of won't you Dear Reader and Dear Listener take my advice, after all I'm not using it? Hey Doc, you're looking pretty sick. Why don't you heal yourself? No, it doesn't mean anything like that, although that thing that wants to destroy my ability to be of maximum service to God and others, that seeks to prevent me or delay my transformation from the slave in Egypt to the free man in the Promised Land would love for me to believe that mess.
After all, what right do I have to declare truth that makes people free and preach the awesome life-changing grace of God available to walk in it, as well as the restoring and healing love of Christ, if I myself fail to walk in it perfectly and have times where I'm a wounded mess? But I'm not going to fall for that discouragement, because it's not freedom making truth. It is designed to reshackle and steal hope. The truth is that I have the right because God says so, and because I have had healing and have experienced the freedom and victory I speak and write of. And if you have ever had freedom from God in an area you were never able to overcome on your own, you also have the right to tell others how you achieved that freedom.
Even when that freedom is not full, the ghost of the chains still lingers and the healing is not yet complete. If we wait until perfection is attained before we declare His power, His glory and His way of life, none of us would be able to say a word. And then as I sat last night, reviewing the day and crying out to God, I realized a couple of other aspects as well.
There's more to it than my not quite being faithful to tap into the available grace and suffering discouragement. We endure the discouragement and suffering, which is another way to say we are patient in tribulation. Logic dictates that if rejoicing in the assurance of what is to come and God's truth gives us the strength and power to endure that there will be times when we will have to endure. Duh. Seriously, there will be times when rejoicing in our hope doesn't make the pain go away, doesn't remove the discouragement. It doesn't say tribulation is gone in an instant. It says we can stand in the midst of it. We can endure it.
Then it hit me, I shouldn't be listening to that voice telling me that I am failing to walk in the truth that I've been given, because it isn't true. Yes, I hurt yesterday. To be honest, I am still hurting some this morning. But I'm sober, and I'm not hung over. I went through an agonizing time yesterday, and it wasn't pretty. I cried. I became despondent. But I didn't run from it. I didn't seek a quick, easy fix. I didn't insist on changing the way I felt with chemicals or any other escape. I endured and cried out to God. The Comforter did come, not to erase the pain like some sort of spiritual opiate, but to soften the ache with love and help me to accept the way I felt.
Sometimes we're going to be discouraged. We're going to hurt. We can indeed go through it. That doesn't mean it will be easy or quickly turned off. That means that we can continue to keep our eyes on God and not run. We can keep the faith instead of turning back to what we knew before. Physician heal thyself doesn't apply, because declaring the truth doesn't make us doctors. We can't heal ourselves, and we can't heal anyone else. Only God can do that. And sometimes that healing comes more slowly than other times. Sometimes that healing involves pain and grief. One day it will be complete and the struggle will indeed be over, but that doesn't mean that there won't be days full of tears and lamentation until then.
Today, join me in clinging to God through the heart ache, rather than demanding that all the pain is instantly removed. Let us remember that we are being restored and made new and made free. and that God's comfort and grace is available. He is crying with us. He gives beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for mourning, and peace for despair. But that doesn't mean that there won't be times of mourning and despair or times when we feel like we are being reduced to ash. Victory comes as we learn to lean on Him during the hard times, even when the times remain hard.
As I write this, my chest still hurts a little. I can feel a dull ache in the pit of my being. But I also realize that I am not alone. Not too long ago I would never have known the peace of His presence in such a moment because I would have already sought oblivion. Today I know that I can endure. That deliverance is coming on this side of eternity, despite my not knowing how or when. It's going to be OK, because God is with me. Acknowledging the truth of the pain and discouragement is not a failure to trust Him. And I look forward to the day when all the pain I have caused and all the pain I have endured will be forever healed and wiped away. It's coming for me. It's coming for you. Thank God.
Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
June 3, 2016.
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.
Dalyn Woodard shares how Jesus never quits calling for us to come, no matter what we've done or what's been done to us, we can come to Him as we are. We do not have to qualify or be worthy on our own. The message, "Disqualified," is about 14 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 2, 2019. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.
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.
But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 3:13-14
It can be difficult to impossible to become what God wants to make of us and to attain the Promised Land while holding on to the past. The past gets in the way of our moving forward, preventing freedom from hurts and resentments, from patterns of behavior and addictions, and from false sources of security. Much like the children of Israel who could not stop looking behind them and longing for Egypt, where they had lived as slaves, and so could not come to fully trust God and move forward to claim their Promised Land, we all too often wind up wondering deserts of our own as we fail to trust Him and look to the hell we know and have grown accustomed to instead of the promised, better. abundant life we have trouble believing exists.
The future is foggy at best. We just don't know what's out there. Sometimes we treat the past like an anchor that we tie ourselves to before making our way into the scary and great unknown. Feeling our way, ready to run back to the weight when things get rough, we ease forward slowly. But the truth is, the weight only slows our progress and doesn't keep us safe at all. God, who can see what's coming, can guide us and direct us through the foggy deserts and to the land of promise if we will listen and trust Him.
We have to let go of the past, that comfortable misery. We need to rid ourselves of its distraction. Jesus said, "Behold I make all things new." No matter how many times we have fallen short, given up and failed, we can let go of what happened yesterday and press on toward the prize. What is the prize? The prize is to be made completely new, freed from all areas of sin and bondage, and to have a perfect and special unhindered relationship with our Creator that will never end.
It is available to us all, by His grace and not by our efforts. Our past is forgiven if we ask, and His grace is there to help us finally stop repeating the cycle of destruction in our lives. We do not have to allow the past to continue to control our future. We can ask Jesus to cut the rope and set us free to walk with Him. We may need some help to let it go, we may need to talk it out or write it out, we may need some therapy or counseling, and we will definitely need His grace. But the good news is that nothing is stronger than God's love for us, not even the chains and anchor of our past.
Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
June 1, 2016.
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.
