Your Proper Alignment

Wow, what a powerful 3 minute video worth watching! I am not endorsing the product, but I certainly am the message.

It contains three priceless life lessons for those who wish to “stand firm” in the freedom Christ has given them (Gal. 5:1). One, we must align our thinking with God’s. If we don’t, those lie-based messages will affect our daily decisions. Two, we need a source of truth outside ourselves to help us know what the proper alignment should be. We only know what we know at the moment we know it. Thus, as the Light of the World Jesus can expose the lie-based messages we currently hold so we can exchange them with the truth. And three, who we listen to is crucial to our freedom. We need others to help reinforce how God sees and defines us.
How’s your alignment today?
“SE”t Free Noww“W”

Comfortable in Your Own Skin

Avocado wrapped in banana skinPaul said in Philippians 4:11-13, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.…I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,…I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”
Keep in mind Paul had encountered all kinds of tough situations (see 2 Cor. 11:23-33). Yet, he learned to be content no matter where he was or what he faced. How? He learned to be comfortable in the skin God gave him. He knew who he was and could rest in who his God is.
We bring tremendous pressure upon ourselves when we try to be what others want us to be or when we try to copy the lives of those around us. This pressure often finds it’s release in our drugs of choice, which only further takes away our contentment and robs us of our peace.
You are a wonderfully and awesomely made child of God with gifts and talents of your own. Stop looking at or worrying about how God created those around you. Use your biblical tools to listen to and do what Jesus tells you to do each day. As you do, you’ll be like Paul – comfortable in your own skin and content within the situations you encounter.
I once heard, “Why do we often say ‘truth hurts’, ‘the hard truth’, ‘you can’t handle the truth’, etc? Truth in and of itself need not be hard to bear or painful. It is only after becoming accustomed to living in lies that it becomes such. In my humble experience I’ve found the more one accepts the truth it generally becomes enjoyable, soothing, even blissful.”
“S”et Free Nowww

Rejoice in the Lord?

know JesusI was recently asked do give someone a verse on a certain struggle they were having. The Lord brought to mind Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!” I then asked this person what they knew about Jesus so they could rejoice in the fact in what He could do for them in their current struggle.
They sat for a moment, thought, and then responded, “I really don’t know. In fact, I’m not sure I know much about Him at all.” Bingo! How can we trust someone we don’t know, not just with our heads, but from our personal experience? I went on to say that it’s pretty tough to know who Jesus is without reading about Him, who He is and what He can do, in the Word of God. Their response to that spoke volumes, “I haven’t been reading the Bible at all.” See the problem here?
We are to rejoice when challenges come as Jesus is more than up for those challenges. We have a God who is trustworthy, but we’ve got to know Him before we can trust Him. This can only be done by being in the Book and then putting into practice what we read. Jesus said that if we did this (Jn. 8:31-32) our challenges would head to the background and our peace would surface.
What do you have to rejoice about today? If you draw blanks, it’s time to dive into the Bible…go ahead right now get it out…seriously, open your Bible…to know Jesus.
S“E”t Fre“E” Nowww

Avoiding Foot in Mouth Disease

foot in mouth diseaseOn Monday here in the US a series of bombs were detonated in Boston, Massachusetts where three people were killed and many were injured. Let’s keep the families who lost loved ones and those recovering from their injuries in our prayers for the Lord to bring them comfort and to draw them closer to Him.
I found it interesting what the “commentators” had to say just minutes after the bombs went off. Some were calling it an act perpetrated by right-wing extremists, meaning someone like those who hold pro-life (anti-abortionists was their phrase) views.
At the same time, others were calling it a jihadist attack as it was done on a day Bostonians observe as Patriots’ Day, which celebrates the first battles fought for America’s independence from Britain.
Same event, two different views based on no factual information at the time these commentators gave their views. How is that possible? It’s the worldviews they hold. It’s the lens that shapes how they view and interpret life’s situations, which then forms the basis of their decisions.
We all have a lens through which we view life. The question is, “What lens are we looking through?” If we want to experience the joy and peace that comes through victory over our drugs of choice, our lens must be Jesus and the Word of God. He said that He is the truth and that His words are true. His way of interpreting life and making decisions, if followed, will set us free from all the negative consequences that come from our bad decisions that lead to taking our drugs of choice, like putting our foot in our mouth.
Let’s wait for the facts before saying who did what in Boston. Let’s pray that the truth does see the light of day and that justice is done. Even more important, let’s all choose to filter each day’s circumstances through the lens of Jesus and His Word. This way we will avoid any diseases that will come from licking our shoes.
Set Free Nowww

Wells of Strength

wellThis is what a sports writer and admitted Tiger Woods groupie wrote about Woods the day after he lost at the 2013 Masters golf tournament. “Tiger’s weakness is adversity.” He goes onto to quote a noted sociologist, “There are three wells of strength people throughout history have drawn on in times of need. The first is family. The second well of strength has typically been religion. The third well of strength we as human beings tend to draw on is that long running, deeply rooted identification with a particular group beyond family and religious affiliation, and those tend to be ethnic or racial.”
The writer summarized this to identity. “An identity gives your personality an edge, an attitude.…When you don’t have an identity, you want to be loved by everyone, you’re afraid to have an edge and you don’t know what to do when you fall behind.”
I find it interesting that knowing who we are is a strong factor when it comes to experiencing victory over our challenges; the opportunities that make us want to choose our drugs of choice. It’s also no coincidence that the very first tool every believer needs to use each day is, “You’re secure because you’re God’s child.” We may not have the best family relationships; but the moment we put our faith in Jesus, He tells us who we are – a child of God, and puts us into another larger family– other believers here locally and around the world who can pray for us (Eph. 6:18).
If we want to stay in the freedom Jesus gave us, we must give others permission to speak into our lives (April 15 entry). Then we must be secure enough in the truth that we are God’s children in order to listen to and act on what they have to say. The Spirit has given us these wells from which to draw strength each day. Let’s pray for each other that we do.
“S”et Free Noww“W”