Curing The Guilty Conscience

We all experience guilt, and no matter what we do to try to clean the slate or distract ourselves from the mess, nothing we can do can purify our conscience. Dalyn Woodard continues the series, "Jesus Is Most Excellent: A Study Of Hebrews," with a look at the only way to clean our conscience. The message, "Curing The Guilty Conscience," is about an hour and 2 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 26, 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. The twenty-first message, "Saving To The Uttermost," here, and the twenty-second message, "A Better Way," 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 Echo ~ June 25, 2019 ~ Our Algorithms Fail

Me and my OCD. That feels like it ought to be a Weird Al tune sung to Janice Joplin's Me And Bobby Mcgee. Maybe I should write it. I know at least half the song would be about how much I love Pandora Radio and the other half would be how much Pandora frustrates me and needs to stop being stupid. Actually I feel a little bad for the programmers at Pandora. The algorithm to help group music is genius and works well for the most part. But sometimes....

Why do I feel a little bad? Well, as my wife can testify, I totally obsess and get annoyingly compulsive about my music. My minor in college was in radio/tv, and my time working on radio stations back when the DJ actually picked and played the songs himself or herself meant that choosing music became an art form. Seriously, the flow of music matters. A good DJ could keep you going and a bad song choice could ruin the whole show. You had to figure out the best order to play the songs you chose, not just worry about what songs should or shouldn't be played. One station I worked at played three different genres of music. Morning and early afternoon meant jazz. Then came The Bridge. The Bridge was simply a four hour block of music designed to help take the listener from jazz to the hard alternative played in the evenings.  The Bridge was a tightrope. No one could define it well. But if you played pop or rock that was too hard too early it didn't work. It stuck out and felt jarring. The same song might work great an hour later though when a more mellow song had already lost its relevance. But at the same time the music needed to gradually build from mellow to hard, and that meant mixing the two. What made for a great mix? I couldn't tell you then, and I can't tell you now, but I sure knew when I or another DJ missed it. Oh man they shouldn't have played that song there!

Pandora suffers with this problem on a massive and much larger scale than any local DJ ever had to worry about. The algorithm uses factors to help pull in music that works and cull music that doesn't. The problem is that the longer the show lasts (the longer a station exists) the harder it is to find new music to play without getting away from the core qualities of the music used to create the station in the first place. It gets harder and harder to stay on format without playing the same songs over and over and over and over, and let's face it, most people who don't mind repetition aren't obsessing with Pandora. They're listening to Top 20 and Top 40 stations where if they heard part of a song they can keep listening and know with glee that they'll hear that same song in it's entirety in an hour or less. Ugh.

Part of the problem begins with dealing with...well, us, the users. You know the old adage, you can't please all the people all of the time? Of course we all realize that they can't make everyone happy, but we also all, in our selfishness, want them to make us happy regardless of everyone else. The idea is close to well you can't please everyone so you might as well just do it the way I prefer and let the others adjust, if we would get honest.

Take the Thumbs down factor for example. What does it mean or what should it mean? One group of users, this is the group that my wife belongs to, only thumbs down a song if they hate it. I mean hate it. I don't ever want to hear this stupid song ever again. EVER. So they give it the old gladiator death sign and move on to more acceptable music. A week or so later, they're listening to a different station and here comes that same stupid song, back from the dead. WHAT! How dare Pandora play that again! Doesn't my thumbs down mean anything!?! Stupid app!

Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum are nuts like me who go look, I don't care if they all have long hair, but Kenny G and Stryper should never be on the same station. EVER. Period. Never. No, not even Honestly and Songbird together. No. Just don't Pandora. So when some mathematical formula from a computer program that can never understand the art of music makes a mistake like that, I use the thumbs down to fix it. No that doesn't go on this station. Wrong format. But that doesn't mean I never want to hear that song on the station it should be played on. So you have folks like me going, why did you quit playing Fade To Black on my guitar riff station just because I thumbs downed it when it came on my Punk Rock station?

So I feel bad for them. They're in a difficult spot. On the other hand sometimes I just want to scream at them for being inconsistent. Why is it, for example, that I can create a station of Christian country music, use five songs as seeds that are all gospel or similar themed like an old hymn or the secular but not song like The Bible And A Gun with all five artists being secular artists and get nothing on that station but Christian songs and music; no crying in your beer, no cheating, no lost my dog songs, just blessed assurance of the sweet by and by..and yet, at the same time, I can create a Christian Hair Band Station with Stryper, Guardian, White Cross, X-Sinner and other 80s and 90s Christian bands as seeds, and have to thumbs down multiple songs in a row as Pandora throws out some very unChristian music for me to listen to? I have secular stations. All my seeds on this station are Christians because this is NOT a secular station, thank you very much.

Or hey, not a single song seed on my classic station was released less than 30 years ago, so how about we don't start the session off with a song that came out last week? The point of all this rambling is that as good as it is, an algorithm can't always get it right. Not even with regular input to adjust by. And we can't please God or figure out the formula for righteousness either. We can't come up with a list of if a then b type inputs to always know what to do or what not to do to please God. We can not know what is always the next best thing because our understanding is flawed and limited. Yes, reading scripture increases understanding, but there are still times when for some reason it will make sense to us to do something that from God's perspective is as out of place as a Jeremy Camp song on a Country Station.

Yes, in a way there is a simple algorithm to walking with and pleasing God. Do things that bring you closer to Him and help others. Love God and love people. Don't do things that cause distance between us and Daddy, and don't do things that will cause distance between Him and others either. Other than that, play your song. But sometimes, on our own understanding and evaluation, we will still do things that only after they fail will  we understand didn't work. And sadly, in spiritual matters, that often means there is damage done to ourselves or others. Thank God for forgiveness.

But imagine if you will that Pandora was able to tailor individual algorithms to each user. Imagine it included the ability to explain each choice you make so that sometimes you could thumbs up a song in certain situations without O.K.ing all the time or say no to a song in such a way that they also know yes, this song might be good in another situation or station or no, never ever, this song sucks. They could do a much better job with making us happy right? If we could say, listen Pandora, I love Skillet and want to listen to them when I'm in a mood for alternative music but not when I want to listen to hair band stuff!

We have that option with Daddy because of the Holy Spirit. We can communicate with and hear from God on a moment by moment, situation by situation, song by song basis. Before we make a choice we can get input that says, no, not in this instance. I know you think this is a good idea, but it's really not. Or I know this doesn't make sense to you, but if you could see beyond the surface into that person's heart you would know that what I'm asking you to do will fit perfectly in the concert of their life and yours. If we just go through our days and lives with some religious formula of these things are good and these are bad and this is OK to do and this is not, we will get off format, sometimes badly. But it we stay in tune with the Spirit and let Him guide our choices and actions we will discover some beautiful and interesting music we would never had thought existed, while at the same time, never getting off track. Today, let us allow the Holy Spirit free reign over all the songs our life plays.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 25, 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.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 24, 2019 ~ I Can Do All Things

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

- Philippians 4:13

This is another one of those verses that seems to be a favorite of many. It is seen on many T-shirts, bumper stickers and memes on social media. It's a great verse, and people like the inspirational aspect of it. But I can't help but wonder how often the depths of its true meaning go unplumbed and misunderstood.

There is a group of body building ministers called The Power Team that goes from venue to venue performing feats of strength and preaching the gospel. I've seen them, and they're pretty cool They use this verse a lot, or at least they did when I saw them, And the way they used it, before a man rips a thick telephone book in half or bends a bar of steel, is the way most seem to use it. I can overcome this obstacle. I can do this great thing above and beyond my own ability through the power of Christ.

While I have no problem with The Power Team or the inspirational use of this verse to challenge people to climb that mountain in their life, using this verse as an overcoming verse is too limiting. It is so much more than that, and when we understand it, Philippians 4:13 is a great source of hope and encouragement. The problem with seeing this as an inspirational overcoming verse is that when we look at it like that, and only like that, what happens when we don't overcome the obstacle, can't move the mountain, when that bar of steel doesn't bend and the door doesn't open? What happens when the healing doesn't come? When the circumstance isn't defeated?

Does it mean we don't have enough faith? Does it mean that the power of Christ is not working in us? Is it, even worse, an indication that we're not really a child of God when we don't overcome the way that we wanted? No. It doesn't mean any of that, because this verse is not about overcoming circumstances and situations at all. Being full of faith and understanding this promise does not always mean one can get up out of wheel chair and walk, or fix this or that problem, or find the energy to run another mile.

A better translation than do all things is endure all things. The literal translation is that I am staying strong in all, abiding and invigorated by the anointing of Christ.  It's not a promise that we can overcome but that we can stay strong and be invigorated. And in all things means all things, in the good but also in the bad. I can stay strong and endure when I don't overcome as well as when I do. When the drought lasts longer than is comfortable, the crops begin to fail and the door doesn't open. I can keep the faith when deliverance from the pit takes decades rather than days, as it did for Joseph. I can walk with God and trust Him when things are going good and when they are going bad, in sickness as well as in health, in abundance and in poverty, 

This verse is not about overcoming or meeting our desires for comfort. It's not about earthly need. Sorry, but Paul flat out states that very truth. We can't just pull out verse 13 and act like it's a guarantee of worldly victory. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by the hand of a prisoner for goodness sake. Verse 13 should always be interpreted and utilized with verses 11 and 12, not separate from them. Even when they are not quoted, they need to be remembered. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

Suffering need does not mean that faith is lacking or that we aren't cared for by God.  We do not have to lose hope when the situation doesn't change and the problem doesn't go away. We can have hope, not despite Philippians 4:13 but rather because of what it promises. We can indeed be content and invigorated, even in the midst of struggle and lack because of the anointing of Christ who loves  and cares for us. 

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 24, 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.

Some Things Happen Outside Of God's Will

Dalyn Woodard shares not everything that happens in life is God's will or part of His plan. God is in control and He is sovereign, but that doesn't mean that everything that happens is His will. God doesn't do evil or cause sin. Ever. The message, "Some Things Happen Outside Of God's Will," is about 55 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 23, 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.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 21, 2019 ~ Those Pesky Little Weeds

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. 

- C.S. Lewis

I came across the above quote this morning, and it struck me as simple but profound. It's far too easy to believe that some things we allow aren't that bad or that we have them under control and thereby excuse ourselves from having to deal with something that we truly have little or no control over or ability to stop on our own. Those little weeds that we can pretend don't detract from the garden because it's just too much effort to get down to pulling them, or they do have little flowers on them, so they're not too bad and kind of enjoyable. But if we get down to saying truly that we want nothing in our garden outside of what God has planted and try to stop or limit even those not so bad sins we see how really difficult it is to resist those actions and reactions that we have been allowing. That's when we get a clear picture of how much we truly need grace to have any hope of being able to walk with God. It's not in letting the little things go that we find the power and meaning of grace, but in trying and failing to remove every tare from the field.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 21, 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.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 20, 2019 ~ Waiting Isn't A Game

But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

- Isaiah 40:31

Chances are this is a familiar scripture. This is one of those popular verses that gets plastered on billboards, turned into T-shirts, passed out on bookmarks and seen on bumper stickers and church signs. It's the kind of verse that is used to try to encourage someone who is weary and tired of the fight, and yet, when someone tries to use it on us we may feel like it's just an empty platitude without giving much, if any, real help. Why? Why do we sometimes feel like a scripture from the Word which is truth promising the ability to go through with endurance, not being overcome with weariness or fainting, feel like little to no help? It must be more than just because it's been overused.

I don't think that this verse has lost impact due to overuse as much as due to our misunderstanding of that first part....the waiting part. Let's be honest here, most of us aren't good at waiting, don't like to wait, and if we're really honest don't usually feel like we should have to. I want what I want, and I want it now. What's the use in even having a God if He won't help me when and how I want Him to?

Our attitude on waiting on the Lord shows both misunderstanding and our tendency towards self. We may picture something like someone lost in the wilderness or stuck on the side of a mountain or on a roof amidst rising floodwaters waiting on rescue, vaguely hoping someone shows up before they die. Or, if we can grasp the Daddy aspect of God a little better than some vague rescuer, we may imagine something more like an older child who has been left at school or who is at a mall waiting for a ride. They know Mom or Dad loves them and hasn't forgotten them, but sheesh, when are they going to get here? They've been waiting forever, and they have homework to do and XBox to play, and can't the parents understand that they are bored and uncomfortable and this sitting around waiting for a ride is interfering with their life? They dream of the day when they get their license and a car so that they are no longer dependent on Mom and or Dad.

And if any of that is anything like what we imagine when we hear or read wait on the Lord, we've missed it. So all that comes after doesn't help much, since the rest of the verse is a result of the first part. I don't really like the whole Christian soldier metaphor that gets used, but in this case it is more accurate than what is usually conjured up by the idea of waiting. There are a couple of different ways of imagining a soldier rather than a child or average person in need of rescue and they each accurately represent the concept of waiting on the Lord as is intended by the verse. Before I go on, let me say that wait may have been a great word choice at one time, but it's not really anymore, now that we have turned waiting into something negative and to be avoided. They that wait on the Lord is more accurately translated as Those who are expectant of the Lord.

Imagine the soldier stuck in the foxhole, trying to hold the line, outnumbered and low on resources. If something doesn't happen soon, all will be lost. One soldier turns to the rest and makes an impassioned speech, encouraging the rest not to give up. Reinforcements are coming. Our army is more powerful than theirs. When help arrives they will not only hold the line but advance it. The enemy will be defeated, but until help gets here, and it will, they need to hold that line no matter what. The men find strength they thought they didn't have. There is a second wind as they muster up determination to not fail before the help they know is coming gets there. They become heroes who last longer than anyone would imagine possible because they expect it to matter later what they do now in the battle.

Add to that scene one soldier being sent for help because the radios aren't working. He becomes a runner. He fully expects that if he can reach his goal in time all will be saved because forces will be mounted to get to the battle. His expectancy of finding help for himself and his brothers gives him strength to go on. He runs beyond his strength and his endurance. He doesn't faint. He continues because it's not hopeless as long as he doesn't give up, but  he knows defeat is waiting if he quits.

We aren't waiting like we're sitting around hoping God might possibly come through for us in time. We are expectant that God is going to be victorious, and while the battle is already won, there is somehow still a part for us to play. If we tap into that expectancy, it gives us strength to continue the fight, to keep going. We find we are able to endure when before that expectancy there was nothing but weariness. We can run with some mysterious resource powering us, even though we don't have the energy on our own. We can stay diligent rather than fainting. We can even soar above the circumstances and see the battle from the higher view of God and see that despite how it may look from the foxhole, all is not lost.

Waiting isn't negative. It's eager, energizing expectation for God to be faithful to His word. And  in that there is strength to continue. It's not doing nothing or hesitating. It's continuing to do what we have been called to do, no matter what, until the expected help from God appears. When we are faced with impossible odds, discouraged and weary, let us not hesitate. Let us hurry up and wait upon the Lord. Hold the line!

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 20, 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.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 19, 2019 ~ Self-Control Function Disabled

I had a rough night last night, in a different way than my usual rough nights of late. I got out of bed this morning asking for grace to help me bear the struggle within me with peace and joy and a Christ-like rejoicing for and with others. I felt like I was doing pretty good at first, and then I picked up my phone and saw something that reflexively I perceived as negative, and before I could even think pain and anger flooded over me. I fought to hold it together, to push the feelings away and not succumb to the emotional turmoil.

My wife could see that I was struggling, probably because I snapped at one of our puppies, really for no reason other than he was an easy and available target and got on my nerves. So ashamed that I hadn't been out of bed a half hour and already felt like an epic failure, I tried harder for self control. Then my loving wife, full of care and compassion and concern, asked what she could do to help me. I appreciate that, but in that instant I simply lashed out, yelling that she could basically do what I wished in my anger that I could do but knew that I couldn't and shouldn't. I wasn't yelling at her, and my anger was in no way directed towards her, but the hurt and anger flowed from me like venom. I felt so ashamed.

The truth is that I have no real desire for her to do what I suggested. Given time to stop and think I would rather sacrifice my feelings and comfort on the alter of loving another as God would. It's not worth the pain it would cause. I also realized where I made my mistake.

This morning I woke trying to breathe through the pain of an old and deep wound. In some ways much healing has been done, and I am healthier in this area than I have ever been. But in other ways, it gets harder and harder every year. I know that I can not exercise self control in the jaws of such an emotional trap. Like a wounded animal, the pain causes me to lash out, even at the very hands that are trying to comfort, help and free me. I should never have tried to control the swell of emotions within me, but at the very start taken my pain and fear to my Father who is able to provide the grace to do what I can not do, love in the face of pain. Only God can help me get my focus off myself and care for others when I am hurting.

I went to Him in prayer and found relief. My anger died. There is still a dull ache, and I feel I could burst into tears all too easily, but at the same time I can smile. There is a joy mixed in with the hurt and the loss that I mourn.   No matter how much we learn the truth of the necessity of walking by the power of grace to give control to the Spirit rather than our own old nature, there will be times when that reflex kicks in before we can check it.

It's OK. There is no condemnation. Ask forgiveness for falling into self and self pity. Make any amends your actions may call for quickly and without excuse. Pray for grace and go on in the power of God. His mercies are new every morning, and His grace is always sufficient if we seek it.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 19, 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.