“But Pastor, life happens too fast! I don’t have time to slow down and process life through the FREEdom process.” Seriously, you don’t have time not to process your daily decisions through your biblically-based truth filter. In reality, some situations don’t take long at all.
For example, I was teaching a class when someone brought a container full of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Guess where the container went? Right in front of me! As the class continued, all my mind could think about was grabbing another warm cookie.
Could I have one? Yes. Could have I have another one? Yes. It is not sinful to eat cookies. But as the class went on, I started processing the situation through the FREEdom principles.
I stopped my hand from grabbing cookie #4 (Freeze frame it). I asked the Spirit to help me process the situation (Run it by the Spirit). “Do I want another one? Yes. Do I need another one? No. If I eat #4 will I want another one? Yes. Thus, the cookies will not satisfy me. Who is the only one who can satisfy me? Jesus, the Bread of Life (aren’t cookies made with flour?), is the only one who can satisfy me (Secure because I’m God’s child). He Exposed the lie – cookies will satisfy – and Exchanged it with the truth – only Jesus can satisfy. If I eat cookie #4, the “beat-me-up” session will begin and if I continue to eat the cookies until the container is empty I’ll feel even worse.
So I cried out, “Lord help me push that container to the other end of the table.” I Exercised the truth through the Spirit’s power by picking up the container and placing it at the other end of the table. After the cookies were moved, I got back into the discussion, which meant my mind was no longer on the cookies. I didn’t push down the urge to have cookie #4 by saying, “No, I can’t have one.” I didn’t manage the situation by moving the cookies away from me. No, I dealt with my drug of choice by replacing the lie with the truth and then acting upon it. You should have seen the smile on my face. “Yes, victory!” And guess what? This took all of 30 seconds to process!

Set “FREE” Nowww

This morning the Weather Channel put out an “Excessive Heat Warning” where I live. It was only 104 degrees and climbing at 11am in the morning. That didn’t matter. I had to go on a prayer walk. I had to process some heavy discouragement and prayer walking helps me do this.
I’d just spent some quality time with the Lord in the Word. I’m in 2 Kings and Proverbs for my morning BIG reading. I sure needed the truth the Spirit gave me in Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” I circled it in my Bible and committed it to memory. Oh, I’m glad I did.
A wave of discouragement came over me that I couldn’t shake. I knew I had to literally walk with the Lord at that moment. All I could “think” about was the mistakes I’d made on a previous project the Lord asked me to do. I saw them all. I don’t need to go into all I said to myself, but I had to stop the “beat-me-up” session that was going on in my head. This is where the truth the Spirit gave me came into play. As I began to process my mistakes through this truth (His purposes will always prevail) at the point of the lie (I make mistakes that can keep His purposes from being accomplished) a smile returned to my face and my heart was greatly encouraged.
I read the Word. Proverbs 19:21 was lifted of the page off Scripture and put into my head. The Lord asked me to do the project (I purposely didn’t mention it so you can insert anything from your daily to-do list) and I did what He said to do, mistakes and all. Satan began to have a field day, but this truth struck him down. The Lord will accomplish His will despite my mistakes. Does that mean I intentionally mess up? No way! The Bible says to do whatever I do for His glory. He can still, however, use the work of my imperfect hands to turn out a masterpiece. Once again, a Biblical worldview works in real life.
Set “FREE” Nowww

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
This is a very important passage of Scripture when it comes to living with a Biblical worldview. We live in enemy territory where our enemy wants to do bad things to us (Job 1-2). Our God, however, is bigger than our enemy. He can take what our enemy means for bad and turn it around to be used for His glory.
We buried my friend yesterday. It was not easy. Yesterday would have been even harder without the hope the Scriptures give. I have great confidence where my friend is and that I will see them again.
This certainty (Hebrews 11:1) is what gives us the ability to filter whatever comes our way – even the tragic death of a loved one – through the Word of God and know that our God can make something good out of something so terribly wrong. I know from personally filtering this very painful situation through the Word of God that God’s promise of peace is not just a hope, but a reality. I hurt, but I’m at peace. This is what living with a Biblical worldview promises – living each day God’s way has a joyful, though not always easy, ending.
It has been said, “There are times in everyone’s life when something constructive is born out of adversity . . . when things seem so bad that you’ve got to grab the truth and let it run it’s course.” Something good will come out of this very bad situation. This is not fantasy. It is fact – God can indeed turn lemons into lemonade.

S“E”t Free Nowww

I planted a nectarine tree in my backyard, which finally produced this year. My expectations ran high until the blossoms started turning into fruit that had sap coming out of them. You heard right. It wasn’t sap coming from the tree, but from the fruit itself.
My wife learned that a bug scars the fruit when it first blossoms. Then when the fruit starts to ripen it becomes deeply scared and deformed. We were about to throw the fruit away until she read an article on how tasty the unscarred portions of the fruit are. And it was true! Yummmm.
We are all scared individuals – some simply stained by the old sin nature and for others life has piled it on. Yet in Christ, we are all seen by God as perfect while we’re in process of being made perfect (Hebrews 10:14). No, this is not a contradiction. While we are in the process of becoming like Jesus God already sees us as perfect, like Jesus. Why? We’re in Jesus’ hands (Col. 3:3). Like a nectarine with my fingers wrapped around it, the Father sees Jesus when He sees us, not the nectarine. Isn’t that cool?
Like that nectarine we are both scarred and sweet at the same time. We are both perfect and flawed. This is true of every believer no matter who you are or what you or others have done to you. We are perfectly flawed people with a choice. We can choose to be real and open with each other so we can get the strength we need to face life’s daily challenges and the junk thoughts that are in our head. Maybe those around my friend, including me, had appearances of being all sweet that kept them from showing their scars and reaching out to us. As a perfectly flawed believer in Christ I’m choosing to stay on the journey to continually learn how to be real with those around me.

Set Free Noww“W”