When we place our faith in what Jesus did for us – lived, died, buried, rose from grave – we become God’s children. Being God’s child was totally dependent upon what He did for us, not what we did, are doing, or will do for Him. He loved us when we were unlovable (Rom. 5:8), when we were complete and utter failures (Rom. 5:6), and when we didn’t love Him (1 Jn. 4:10). Will this all being true, is there anything we can do to make God stop loving us? Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
“In all these things we are more than conquerors (victory is given to us) through Him (not us!) who loved us (and when did this happen? Before we did anything right or loved Him at all!) For I am convinced that neither death (doesn’t say how it happens) nor life, neither angels or demons (those bad boys want us to think some crazy stuff) neither the present nor the future (about sums up all the time we have), nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (what’s not included in the all, you? Not a chance!), will be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:37-39)
As God’s children through what Jesus did, not us, we can never be separated from His love. Wow, we are that secure in Christ! My friend (see entire week’s thoughts), I know I’ll see you again. You are my brother. Because Jesus is alive, I know you are too. Yeah, I’m upset at what you did, but love never fails – Jesus’ for us, and mine for you.
“S”et Free Nowww

I love sitting on my patio looking out over my backyard. I keep thinking, “God, I’m so grateful You gave us this place.” It’s such a relaxing view. Until I see the weeds. Gotta love ‘em, don’t ya? No! I’ve got a few mushrooms by my apple tree and weeds in my crushed DG walkway. All this adds up to work for me. I have to get the little things done in order to keep on enjoying this wonderful view.
It’s the same with our thinking. If we want to enjoy a peace that can’t be described (Phil. 4:6-7), we must discipline ourselves to use our biblically-based truth filter to weed out the little thoughts so they don’t grow into major disappointments in our actions. King Solomon observed that a man who lacks self-control is like a city whose walls are broken down (Prov. 26:28). You’re defenseless, which leads to defeat and disappointment.
I’ve discovered that if I let my guard down in one area of my thinking, it opens up to defeat and disappointment in other areas of my life as well. If we want to keep on enjoying the view of a beautiful yard, we must pull the weeds out before they grow too tall and block our view. If you desire to have victory over your drugs of choice, you must discipline yourself to keep your filter on and through the Spirit’s power don’t let lie-based thoughts roll around in your head. Be self-controlled through the Spirit’s power to focus on the truth-based messages, and you’ll never experience disappointment because of your actions. I only wish my friend would have kept their filter on. They would be alive to enjoy the view with today.
Set “FREE” Nowww

I read many Christian formulas in my search to defeat my anger problem. I read about the following one in a Christian magazine. First, you need to change your environment by changing who you hang out with. You should hang around those who exhibit the behavior you want in your life. Second, you should check your behavior and then put a mark on your calendar each day you accomplished the “right” things, (i.e. focus on the behavior itself). Third, you should have a group of friends who will hold you accountable to doing the “right” things. In Christian circles both step two and step three can be handled in a small accountability group. Then as if he missed something, the writer threw in God’s grace and mercy in case you made mistakes along the way.
This is a recipe for defeat and disaster as it keeps you focused on the wrong person – you and your behavior. Folks, you’re the one who got you into the problem in the first place! How can you be the solution? The biblical process of change is found in the biblical principles Set Free Nowww, which include the previously mentioned tools. Without getting rid of the lies in our head, our enemy’s weapons (John 8:43-44; 2 Cor. 10: 3-6), that lead and keep us in bondage (if practicing the truth sets us free, then practicing lies enslave), however, we will never experience lasting victory and stay free. Romans 12:2 is very clear on this point. We must stop focusing on our behavior and start filtering out the lies in our heads, which is a crucial element for victory.
I only wish my friend would have practiced what we’d been talking about. In this person’s own words, they just couldn’t get the “stuff” out of their head. This “stuff”, the lies, mistakes and disappointments, led to their defeat. Keeping this struggle to themselves, also a lie, led to a disastrous choice. They were not alone!
In making you God’s child, the Father placed tremendous value upon you! Don’t cheapen what Jesus did! Live a Set Free life with Jesus Nowww!

“Set Free Nowww”

A very dear friend of mine went home to be with the Lord today in less than, dare I say, stellar fashion. This person’s actions have caused a lot of pain to those in their family, friends and church body. I’ve shed many tears over the last 12 hours. I’ve also had reason to question myself.
One advantage of being a small church is that you can tell who is there and who is not. As this person’s shepherd, I noticed they hadn’t been at the services for a few weeks so I checked up on them last week. As usual, the summer gets to most people – weddings, family outings, etc. It was the same for this person…or so I thought or was led to believe.
Over the past couple of years, this person had been going through an especially rough stretch of road on their journey to be like Jesus. I asked them how they were doing and received a little more than the typical, “Fine.” This person said, “Life’s tough;” but said nothing else or offered anything more. I was, excuse me, am their friend. Why didn’t I press them a little harder knowing the tough times they were having? Could I have done more to prevent their death?
Can’t get more real life than this can I? This is the time that proves the Word of God works in the real world or it doesn’t…and the world is watching. I’ve been processing this situation through my biblical filter to weed out the lies so I can hear Jesus in the midst of this painful time. The Word of God does indeed work. My mind focused on Jesus and the truths of His Word have given me a peace beyond this world, in the midst of my pain.
You can’t ignore or get out of life’s teaching opportunities. You can have victory, though, in the midst of them no matter how you are feeling. Life, dare I say, sucks at times. Yet as we process those painful times using our Biblical worldview we can experience peace in the midst of the storms. People are watching. What or who are they seeing in you?

Set “FREE” Nowww

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
Our God is holy. What this means on a practical level is that He has never made a mistake, is not making mistakes, and will never make mistakes; therefore, He can keep us from making mistakes – taking our drugs of choice. Who else can make that claim? Furthermore, our God loves us so much that He’s reaching out to not only show us how to overcome our mistakes, but to also give us the strength to be victorious over them.
Hopefully, you will turn to Jesus today in all your decisions. Jesus is reaching out to you. Grab His hand and “exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain for the LORD Our God is holy.”

Se“T” Free Nowww