Unshackled Life Ministries

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Father's Day Doesn't Have To Suck

Dalyn Woodard shares on how we can all celebrate Father's Day with joy, regardless of age, gender or circumstance. We have an awesome Daddy, no matter how things are or were with our earthly father. So if it's a good day in our mind's, it can be better, and if it's normally a difficult day, it doesn't have to be. The message, "Father's Day Doesn't Have To Suck" is about 10 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, June 18, 2017. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

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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.

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Saturday, June 17, 2017

Unshackled Echo ~ June 17, 2017 ~ Self-Control Function Disabled

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

July 19, 2016 as 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.

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.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Unshackled Moments ~ June 16, 2017 ~ Butterfly Rising

The Lord is my shepherd;there is nothing I lack.

He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

He renews my soul; He leads me along the right paths for His name’s sake.

Even when I go through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff - they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Yes, goodness and kindness will pursue me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

- Psalm 23

Coming to the place where the new life we have in the spirit overcomes the old nature and who we once were through relationship with and awareness of the presence of the Lord, and the renewing and recreating of our soul is a wonderful journey, although it's not always easy, and it's not always fun. I say recreating rather than restoration, because what our spirit is restored and being transformed from what was to what was always meant to be, it's not being restored to anything we knew or experienced. From the moment we were old enough to understand conscious choice, our souls have been broken, missing the essential ingredient of life worth living, and quite frankly, I have no desire to go back or be restored to that. It's a process of change and transformation that is real and permanent, as drastic and dramatic as the caterpillar becoming the butterfly.

And the new life within us, this new identity, our butterfly spirit, takes the relationship with and the power provided by our inner roommate, the Holy Spirit, and the renewing of our mind that grows out of the new heart and the understanding of the love of Daddy who we are in Him, changes our thoughts, our actions, our reactions and therefore changes our very nature. We are no longer caterpillars. Ok, so the job may not be done on the outside. Spiritually we are butterflies rising our of the blood of Christ, beautiful, new, able to fly and reflecting the glory of God. We do not hide the process and transformation in a cocoon, but rather from the point we begin to follow Jesus until we close our eyes on earth for the last time, we walk, completely new and transformed the butterfly on the inside, in our heart and soul, and morphing through the change over the rest of our life in our minds and emotions. This process means we will need to realign and continue to purposefully renew our minds and hearts and emotions and will with our Creator, because it is His power and love that performs the metamorphosis. But we progress, and we grow in Him and learn to lean on His grace to do those things that we could never do for ourselves, like love God and love others like Jesus did, like laying our lives down joyfully in service and seeking first and foremost relationship with Daddy and His reign in our life, choosing, by the guidance of the Spirit, the right paths.

And in this new identity comes a new way of life that leads to a new happiness. We don't have to get angry and throw a fit when things don't go our way anymore, because we can trust that Daddy is going to work it so that however it goes it will bring us into deeper relationship with Him and bring about something good in our life. Instead of blowing up and bickering when we believe we're right and someone else is wrong, we can speak the truth in love or listen to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit which may tell us that they're not ready to hear, so don't preach and don't push but love, love, love until they want to know how you can love like that. Then show them Jesus. Remember that we are not called to argue or scare the hell out of anyone, but to love the hell out of them by demonstrating Jesus in our lives. Instead of spiraling into despair when we suffer loss, lose our dreams, make a mistake or get mistreated or rejected by others, we remember that we are loved by Daddy, forgiven, and like Jesus can forgive and show loving grace to others, even our enemies and those who deserve it least. When we feel the pressure of life, overwhelmed by need, confused and afraid, we don't have to turn to drink or drug or that bowl of Bluebell ice cream, or whatever it is you instinctively reach for in the darkest days in the Valley of the Shadow, but we reach out to Daddy for comfort, refuge and provision.

God's ways are not naturally our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. But as we progress in the morphing from caterpillar to the butterfly we learn to rely on Him, to listen to Him, to pause and wait on the wind of His Spirit to carry us where we need to go and when, and to love and serve and be like Jesus. And our thoughts change so that our actions and reactions become more and more like His, like a butterfly's rather than a caterpillar. There is no pain, not fear, no evil, no past, dream dying in agony, no situation we can't control, no circumstance coming against us, nothing....no how no way, that can separate us from Daddy's love for us, that can stop the process of the butterfly rising within, that we can't endure and find deeper relationship because of and give God glory in the midst of.

So today, and every day, let us exercise our new wings. Let us stretch out to feel the wind of the Spirit and soar where He wills. Let us love Him and love others and seek that relationship above all else, so that we are constantly being renewed and refreshed. It may not always be our first instinct or desire even to take the time to saturate our minds with the truth of God's word and meditation on His love for us. We may feel too busy, or too stressed, or it may seem like the situations we are currently facing are more pressing, but the joy and peace and strength that come from regularly renewing our minds and spirits in relationship with God is worth it as we are transformed from the creatures we once were, crawling through the dirt struggling to survive to the butterfly reflecting His awesome wonder and love.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Unshackled Moments ~ June 15, 2017 ~ You Don't Have To Drink Buttermilk

Little kids simply do not naturally hide their need and desire for approval. One of the amusing anecdotes from my childhood that my parents share from time to time is how, at about two or three years of age, I would toddle over to my father when he was drinking buttermilk and ask for a taste. I don't know if this only happened the one time or if it happened multiple times and Dad kept doing this to me because, while he loved me, he and mom evidently found this hilarious, but according to them, I would take a drink of Dad's disgusting buttermilk, and then make this amusing (from the way they still laugh as they tell the story) awful face in reaction before saying, Mmmmm, good!

I think that was the first time I lied to my parents, and they laughed! They didn't laugh later when I lied, but that's another topic. The point is that I wanted to be like my daddy, and I wanted him to accept me and approve of me and give me the feedback that told me that I had those things. And it wasn't that he didn't. My issues in those areas between my dad and me came later. It was that I needed a daily, most likely a multi-daily dose of it. Most kids do. It's why one of the most common cries during an excursion or play time is Daddy or Mommy, watch me! as the child performs some feat of daring or skill.

And that need for approval never goes away. We simply learn to hide it or make it slightly less obvious. We all seem to hold the opinion that unashamed desperate cries to be accepted, approved of and validated are cute in four-year-olds but not so much in those in their forties. If we are not finding that approval we need our attempts to attain it from others can become desperate and destructive, and it can put us in the position of driving people from us and leading to rejection that only fuels the drive to have someone, anyone, accept and approve of us. Or, it can make us vulnerable to being used and abused by others, while we continually come back for more.

And it's not always subtle either. In a situation where inhibitions get set aside or numbed, it's not uncommon for the joke to become reality as someone says, Hold my beer and watch this! to a friend. There are other things and ways and reasons we act contrary to common sense or our best interests because we are willing to risk almost anything to gain that approval. Even those who seem to not need it, do. I remember the first time I saw the mask slip and the micro reaction on the face of someone I admired and wanted to be like because they didn't need anyone's approval accidentally showed the opposite to be true. He got his ego boost from people's approval and praise of his not needing approval.

We seek acceptance and approval in so many places and things, in our relationships with family, friends, and even encounters with strangers, in what we do for work and play (I can't believe you watch the show! It's so stupid!....Well, I don't really like it. My (insert relationship or name of partner or family member her) like it, so I...), the clothes we wear, the music we listen to or don't, and so many other things. But they can all fail us. People fall short. Circumstances change. And what was popular yesterday is a joke today (Anyone want a mullet?). At it's core, this comes from being born separated from the Creator we were made to have relationship with.

It's the approval and acceptance of God that we need more than any other, even if we don't realize it. It is in His approval and acceptance that we really can be OK when we don't have it in other places and people. But we are so well practiced in the need to earn approval and chase it, that we treat our Heavenly Daddy like others, begging for, demanding, trying to earn and deserve and seeking approval that we already have. That's right we already have it. Daddy loves you, is delighted with you, and has a deeper desire for relationship and intimacy with you than you have for Him. He loves you and accepts you as you are, not as you should be. Dirty, nasty and covered in shame? He will run to greet you and wrap His arms of love around you when you say yes to the call to come. He has done and provided everything we need to be accepted by Him. We don't have to keep trying to find it, gain it, earn it. We already have it. He is longing to laugh as we, with an understanding that we are loved and wanted and accepted, say Daddy, watch this! I want to be like You! But being like Jesus is never about having to pretend to enjoy buttermilk. We can taste and see that the Lord is good and that He loves us.

Today let us pray to understand the deep acceptance we have in Jesus and the understanding of who we are because we are loved and treasured and accepted by Daddy. And with a reminder of how important it is to have affirmation in our life, let us make sure to be a blessing of love and affirmation in the lives of others today.

Who Are You?

Dalyn Woodard starts a new series, a study of the book of Ephesians. With a look at the first six verses, we see how important to know and understand what our identity is and how it effects us and provides us. The message, "Who Are You" is about 41 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Unshackled Moments ~ June 14, 2017 ~ How's That Working For You?

If you're not familiar with John 21, which is the passage I'll be drawing from for today's Unshackled Moment, you might wish to read the chapter, but I will endeavor to present this so that it can be understood without first reading the chapter. The gist of the story is this, Jesus has been crucified and is now raised from the dead. He's already appeared to the disciples twice, including Peter, the disciple who went from promising to follow Jesus to prison and even to death to cursing and denying that he even knew the Lord in a very short time.

Although well aware that Jesus was no longer dead and buried but alive, Peter tells his fellow disciples, I'm going fishing, and a couple of them go with him. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that this is not a Hey, it's a nice day to put a line in the water, chill and see what we catch kind of fishing. This was not relaxing after the stress of the past few days, having fun with his friends fishing. Peter was returning to what he knew, to what he was doing before Jesus came by and called him to follow and be a disciple. He returned to his old job, his previous vocation, to doing what he did before relationship with Jesus in order to provide for himself and his family. Peter had been a commercial fisherman, and it was to this that he looked for the answer to his needs when he felt the Jesus thing hadn't and wasn't going to work out.

I'm not sure why Peter felt this way and did this. Sure, if this return to the fishing boats had happened on the Saturday after the crucifixion, I could understand more easily. Jesus was in the ground. All hope seemed to be lost. They believed Jesus to be the Messiah, but He had been nailed to the cross and killed. Now what? But Jesus had resurrected Himself and overcome death. The Messiah had returned, and not only returned but proved His identity and power. Things should have better than they ever had been. Now the disciples could know for sure that the past three years had been well spent learning from the Anointed One, God With Us, who was about to change everything. It was at this point Peter bailed and returned to the path of the past.

Why? I can't say for sure. Only God knows for sure, but I have my suspicions. I suspect that even as he recognized the resurrected Jesus as Lord and God that Peter forgot who Jesus was and is. I think he felt afraid that Jesus would reject him. After all, Jesus had said if you deny Me in front of others I will deny you before My Father, and Peter had denied Jesus three times. I think Peter feared he'd blown it beyond the compassion and forgiveness of Christ. That he had disqualified himself from the discipleship program, flunked out of Christian college and was not longer fit for service or ministry in the name of Jesus. He believed he had burnt the bridge of relationship with Jesus and could no longer be a friend and follower of the Messiah. But he had forgotten that the bridge of relationship between us and the Lord had always been and will always be built from the bricks of God's love, mercy, and compassion for us and not from anything we bring or do. We are simply called to walk across the bridge He built.

Peter messed up, and rather than running to the Risen Lord to be restored, he went back to his old life. And we tend to do the same thing. Well, this God thing isn't working, I blew it and now I'm not worthy to be a follower and friend of Jesus. I can't turn to God, so I guess I might as well go back to....whatever. We all have our own fishing companies. I'll go back to the drugs and alcohol that I used to try to meet my needs with before Jesus called me to follow Him and freed me from that bondage. Or I'll turn to relationships, sex, porn, whatever to change the way I feel and satisfy my longing for connection with my Creator. Or I'll eat a gallon of ice cream to fill the longing in my soul. Or I'll buy....I'll do....I'll go back to whatever wasn't really enough before I found Jesus in the first place. Like, Peter we tend to go back to what we knew when we forget who Jesus is to us and how much He loves us and that He won't leave us, forsake, or reject us or condemn us, even when we screw up, even when we turn away, even when we deny Him and His love for us through our words and deeds.

So Peter and his buddies went fishing, and wasted the entire night. They didn't catch anything. Going back didn't work. It didn't meet the need. There was no success in trying to satisfy and find what they needed and were looking for in looking somewhere they'd already been, in somewhere other than the living Jesus. Speaking of Jesus, He shows up on the beach and calls out to them. How's the fishing boys? Catch anything? Now, Jesus knew that they hadn't caught anything. He knew their motives. He knew what they were trying to do, what they were looking for and what they needed. And no, He wasn't rubbing salt in the wound or trying to condemn them for trying the old way of life again after losing hope in the new way.

But I do think that He was saying, all right guys, you know I'm here, I'm alive, death couldn't end me and the grave couldn't hold me, I am your God and your friend and yet you're trying to find what you need in this again. How's that working for you? After my last relapse over seven years ago, when I'd gotten angry at God and gone back to drinking and drugging, there was a point as I raced toward the grave that the Spirit said that very clearly to me. How's that working for you?

Jesus told them to try the other side of the boat with their nets. Which, despite the ridiculousness of some guy on the beach knowing more about fishing than them and the width of a boat really making that much difference, they did. And they caught more than the nets would hold.

Sometimes what Jesus tells us to do may seem silly, or illogical, or my seem contrary to everything that we know about the situation. And we may mistakenly feel that we know more about our lives and situation than the Lord. But if we listen to Him anyway, He will make clear what He's really trying to say. And that is not that He knows more about where the fish are, or that He's better than us, or that we've been wasting our time and energy and should feel foolish. No, Jesus was saying to Peter and the other disciples, and to us today, I know what you're looking for, and I know what you need, but it's found only in Me. I can provide it.

Are you looking for acceptance? It's found in Jesus. Are you looking for transformation into something new and better than you have been? Jesus can do that. Are you looking for healing and freedom? Also found in Jesus. Relationship? Jesus. Someone who understands and a reason to live and be? Jesus. A purpose? Jesus. Whatever you need and are looking for, it can be found first and foremost in the Risen Lord, and only what we have in Him will truly satisfy and last and not fall short of our need.

The next thing Jesus did was to take the time to restore relationship with Peter. Hey, if you run or swim or however you need to come to me, if you will come, no matter how you've messed up, I still love you, I will restore us, and I can and will still use you. And then one last note, when Peter compared his calling and relationship to the disciple John's, don't worry about the relationship between me and any other disciple, what I do or don't do for or with them. You just love Me and follow Me.

Our relationship with Jesus is the only thing that can and will meet our needs and give us a life worth living, and no matter what we've done, Jesus is all about making our relationship with God possible, and His connection with each of us is unique and special, and we can and should just concentrate on our own relationship with Him. If we do that, we will be a part of Him healing and changing the world. Oh, and for the record, while before the cross Peter fled and denied, he did indeed follow Jesus to prison (more than once) and ultimately to his own cross and death. Those things we wish we were strong enough to do before Jesus die and rose in our lives but failed in, with Jesus, with the Spirit in us that raised Jesus from the dead, we can succeed. It's called grace, the power of God in us and for us to do what we could never before or after for ourselves or on our own.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Unshackled Moments ~ June 13, 2017 ~ Terrible Temptation

The weight of my chains made it hard to breathe, and the chains weren't even material. The vicious cycle of bondage began to beat me until I was as hopeless as I was powerless. I would feel the pressure begin to build, literally. I felt the desire at times, drive at other times and desperate need at others to give in to temptation growing within me as a physical symptom, a knot in the stomach and an increasing tightness in the chest. Most times I tried to do what was right, or at least tried to delay what was wrong, but sometimes I didn't bother. It felt easier to just give in quickly so I could ask forgiveness and move on rather than to fight for an hour, a day...perhaps two, thinking about the sin more than not, and failing anyway. Sooner or later, I was going to fail, going to fall into the trap, so why bother wasting all that time and energy fighting a battle I couldn't win? Why try to escape when my captor would only hurt me more?

That was the result of the lie taking over my life. No, I'm not talking about the lie I first believed that made this particular sin, or any of the others in my life, seem like a better idea than walking with Jesus and an answer to my needs. I'm talking about the the one that said I should fight the good fight and resist, no, overpower temptation to prove my love for God. Isn't that what Jesus meant when He said if you love Me, you'll keep my commandments? If I love God I should be able to just say no to sin, right?

So that's what I tried to do, and it left me empty, beaten, full of shame and sorrow and doubting my relationship with God. It stole my joy, distracted me from the presence and promises of God and consumed my thoughts. Victory became a fable and a fairy tale rather than something to believe could be actually possible.

We all have an area where we're not quite there. We all struggle with something, at least one something. We have not yet reached perfection, have not yet completely been delivered from the flesh and the consequences of the curse. The new spirit is still trapped in the old body, and no matter how mature we are, no matter how much we know, we will all face temptation, and we all, everyone, will fall short sometimes.

Indeed there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

- Ecclesiastes 7:2

I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

- Romans 7:19

But while that is true, it's not an excuse to simply give in to sin or to live for self. The truth is that as contrary to our natural instinct as it seems, living for self always falls short. No matter how much we do what we want or get what we want, it never fully satisfies.

The problem though is not in coming to believe that it's better to obey, that it's better to be in the care and will of God than to live for self, but rather how to obey. How do we say no to what is contrary to God's will for us and yes to what is right? The answer is found in Galatians 5: 16-17.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

The key is surrender. Like so many battles of the Old Testament, this is not a battle we can win on our own. If we go into it on our own power and in our own way and determination, the enemy of temptation will trounce us. But if we remember that the battle belongs to the Lord, we will have victory. Our job is not to win the war but to position ourselves in His will and praise the One who fights on our behalf. When the Spirit fights for us, we will not be overwhelmed and defeated by temptation. Remember that We are His children. Our Daddy is our loving protector, and through Him, and because of Him, and with His Spirit within us, we already have what we need to defeat the old nature and live according to the new nature in Christ Jesus. It is the Spirit of God within us that gives us the power to do what we can not do ourselves, even overcome and escape temptation.