“Man, I can’t believe it. They’re all gone!” We went out to our backyard to inspect our peach and pear trees the day we got home from vacation. What we found, or didn’t find, ticked us off. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. All our fruit was gone! Every last peach and all but a few small pears had been stripped from our trees.
The only logical conclusion to our dilemma was that someone had come into our backyard while we were on vacation and stole our fruit. Who would do such a thing? We’d been violated. Our property had been trespassed. Beyond this was the fact that we’d given away a lot of our fruit knowing we still had more to harvest when we got home. Now we had none!
I was sharing this story with our new neighbor so we could watch out for each other. Once I got done telling him what happened, he told me what really happened. Squirrels. He and his wife watched the entire thievery from their balcony. Squirrels climbed into our trees and took our fruit. You should have seen the look on my face, squirrels? Yup, squirrels.
Our logical conclusion was not the only logical conclusion to what we were seeing. We can jump to easy conclusions that can be wrong. As believers, we must learn to reason through life using scriptural reason, as human reasoning can lead to inaccurate conclusions!
If you want to live near Jesus and experience all that He has for you, learn to lean on His understanding, not your own.
S“E”t Free Nowww

“Men are relatively easy to kill, way to easy if you ask me, but changing their hearts – that’s where the heavy lifting comes in.” This statement reflects the hardest reality I face as a pastor.
I encounter so much human carnage – lives, marriages, families, businesses – you name it, it’s all affected by the truth of this statement. God in His infinite wisdom chose to give humanity a choice called free will. I can’t make people want to change or choose to trust in Jesus; thus carnage ensues from their bad choices.
I’m in Exodus in my BIG reading where Pharaoh is basically telling God where to get off the train. He was personally experiencing the hand of God and still would not bend his knee. At times, I have to admit, I’m just like him – stubbornly clinging to my way of thinking and living. I know my way of living doesn’t satisfy and will put a strain on my relationship with Jesus causing me to feel even more dissatisfied with life.
Then I read in Matthew where a couple of blind men were given back their sight. They couldn’t see what God was doing like Pharaoh had. Yet, they surrendered their will and asked for help. The true miracle was not in the blind now seeing, it was in the blind abandoning their hope in themselves to trust in Jesus.
“Lord, increase my faith in You so that I will exercise the truth I already know to see You change my life where I will experience true satisfaction today and tomorrow.”
Set Fre“E” Nowww

I want to talk about another implication from yesterday’s study in Science magazine. Could it be that we crave constant electronic stimuli because we’re afraid of what goes on in our own head and heart? Do we continually strive to bombard our ear drums and retinas with streaming data because being still means we have to deal with the “traffic” that already exists in our head?
Ourselves and/or our pasts caused by ourselves and/or others can create such head noise that it’s simply easier to drown it out with our smart phones, which can stimulate both our eyes and ears at the same time. Hey, the more the merrier, right?
Wrong. Attempting to drown out that head noise doesn’t work. It’s already in your head and forms the basis of your decisions. Remember, what goes into or is already in our heads will come out in our behavior. It’s time to pick up our biblical tools of peace and quiet.
“Be still and know that Jesus is Lord.” Be still. Let Him bring up what head noise He chooses to deal with at the moment. Then choose to trust Him by using your biblical tools to let Him heal your past. Be still. Cease striving to change yourself by allowing the Spirit to transform your character into Christ-like character. Do this and you will know that faith in your God works in the real world in which you live.
The Scriptures teach that a mind stayed on the truths Jesus gives us from His word will be kept in perfect peace. Jesus is the truth that sets us free from all the head noise we’re trying to drown out. We don’t have to be afraid of the quiet, if we know who’s there with us. We don’t have to be afraid of ourselves, if we’re allowing the Spirit to make us more like Jesus.
This past vacation I unplugged from my electronic gear (email on iPhone, books on my iPad) for periods of time to simply sit on my porch watching streams of water run by my cabin (that’s my foot by the way!) and listening to the wind blowing through the tall aspen trees. Yeah, there was some head noise to be dealt with. Yeah, there was past stuff that had to get cleaned up. Yet when I used my secure child of God biblical tool – I’m loved, accepted and reconciled with my God – peace came over my mind. True peace and quiet does indeed do the mind and body good.
“S”et Free Nowww

A recent study done by Science magazine revealed some interesting facts about Americans (though, its implications are worldwide), one of which is that we crave stimulation. The subjects in this study were given two choices. One, they could sit quietly with their thoughts for six to 15 minutes; or two, if not, they could give themselves a small electrical shock. Guess what option the majority chose? Door number two.
In this day and age of computers, smart phones, multiple channeled TVs and notepads, people have become addicted to external stimulation. We stare at our smart phones looking for more buttons to push or apps to open even after we’ve accomplished what we pick it up for in the first place.
This fact has damaging results for believers. We crave more stimuli without giving ourselves the time to process that stimulus through our biblical filters. This can lead to bad decisions as we tend to react to rather than reason through life’s situations. We’re not taking the time to weigh the consequences, good or bad, of each choice.
Our brain stores all the data it receives. If not processed out that data leads to behavioral choices. What goes in does come out. Are you taking the time to filter out the bad data or simply taking in more and more? This takes slowing down the flow of electronic stimuli into your life: shutting the radio off for a few minutes while driving, turning off the phone for certain periods of the day when you’re at home, getting on Facebook once (okay twice) per day, leaving off your background TV noise, etc. Use this “extra time” to ponder what you’ve already received, to filter out and shut down all data and voices that are contrary to Scripture (read yesterday’s blog on the need for memorization and meditation), and then to choose to listen to and follow Jesus with the data He leaves in your head. This is how good choices are made. This is where the lasting feel good comes from.
Science has indeed caught up with Scripture again. Psalm 46:10 states, “Be still and know that I am God” Kind of gives new meaning to this verse, doesn’t it?
Se“T” Free Nowww

I once read, “We know more about the ways of the world than a man who dreams about the will of God. The call of the world is much easier to hear.” This had a huge ring of truth as I read it.
We daily receive information emanating from a system dictated and controlled by one person – our adversary. This only makes it harder to hear and follow the One voice we need to hear, Jesus’.
This fact necessitates that we pick up two very important biblical tools – the tools of memorization and meditation – to keep focused on the will of God. As we listen to Jesus in His Word, He’ll give us truth(s) to ponder throughout our day. James 1:23 reveals that we can quickly forget these truths the moment we close the book, if we don’t memorize and meditate on them.
Memorizing sticks that truth solidly into our brain. Meditation means to, forgive the analogy, to continually burp those truths to counteract the lies we’re hearing from the world and then to think about how to live them out during our day. This allows us to be near Jesus, the source of lasting living.
Yes, it is much easier to focus on what we see and hear rather than Jesus. An anti-God voice is shouting all day long at us. Filter out that screaming by putting the truths the Spirit gives you into your memory system. Then you’ll have the ability to have some healthy burps, which allow you to draw nearer to the only Voice that you really need to hear.
S“E”t Free Nowww