Freedom Seekers

Freedom in ChristOut at sea were sailors doing their job on the American carrier Midway. One day, the crew spotted on the horizon a leaky little boat. Crammed inside were refugees hoping to get to America. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one of them spied a sailor on deck, stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, “Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.”
You and I are that sailor. We are citizens of heaven on the carrier Freedom, bringing freedom to a world so desperately in need of it. It’s a freedom not about where we live on this planet, but about Who lives in us – Jesus. As sailors going about our daily lives we are dispensers of that freedom as we listen to and follow Jesus everyday everywhere.
If you have a Sunday only faith, you’ll have very little to share about freedom. If you use your biblical tools each day, however, you’ll have much to say about your personal experiences with freedom. Why? The Spirit will have freed you from one after another of your freedom robbing drugs of choice.
Be open today to be used by the Spirit of God to be part of the rescue team that gives freedom to those floating through life on leaky, ready to sink boats. Choose to let the Spirit change your life through processing each moment through scriptural point-of-the-lie truths. You will then have an awesome Jesus story to tell!
“Set Free Nowww”

Keep in Step

keep in stepWe are told to “keep in step with the Spirit” as we listen to and follow Jesus everyday, everywhere (Gal. 5:25; Jn. 10:27). The Spirit of God sets the pace of this journey. To be honest, I’m not sure how that works. And believe me, simply giving you a Christian cliché will only frustrate the both of us.
You can’t put “keep in step with the Spirit” into a formula; because once you do, you’re back in control of your life, which only takes you back to your drug of choice and its negative consequences.
You’re going to have to develop what I call a “spiritual sensitivity.” I can only relate this to when I’m on a walk with another person. It usually takes a few hundred feet to sync our rhythms. It feels odd until we do. It’s hard to enjoy the walk when we’re pushing each other. It’s almost like we’re fighting each other. It’s the same with our walk with Jesus. We are to get in rhythm with Him.
This is where the truths to “pray continually” and “praying in the Spirit on all occasions” come into play (1 Thess. 5:17, Eph. 6:18). We are to adjust our thoughts, our conversations, and our actions to Him, not the other way around. This takes spiritual sensitivity. You will “sense” the more you know your Jesus when you’re off or out of sync. Don’t ignore this sense! It’s the Spirit helping you get in rhythm with Jesus. You’ll enjoy your walk more and experience more of the good stuff as you get in sync with Jesus.
Set Free Now“W”w

What Do You Really Believe?

what believeBefore the wall fell that divided the city of east and west Berlin as well East and West Germany, someone had spray painted on it the following. “This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.” A US President wrote in response to those words, “Yes, the wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.” The wall did eventually come down.
Notice what came before the wall was torn down … belief. We all have “stuff” in our lives that needs to be erased and exchanged with Jesus. But do we want our lives to be better? The answer to this question might sound obvious. It’s not though. Some like living behind those walls. They don’t really believe their lives can be better, even though they profess Jesus as God and Savior.
For those who you do want those walls down, those repeated sinful behaviors removed, do you believe Jesus can do it? He says in John 10:10 that He came to not only bring eternal life, but an abundant life now. Belief takes action, the daily usage of your biblical tools. You can say you believe all you want. You actually believe when you put those beliefs into action.
So, what do you really believe?
S“E”t Free Nowww

Silence is Good

silent and listenI don’t know about you, but walking up on a slow moving creek makes me want to stop and observe, which only relaxes me in the process. It’s healthy to slow down. It can be even more beneficial to be silent and listen. The writer of Ecclesiastes 3:7 says, “There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
Do you have a hard time being silent before your God? Or is it that you simply don’t have time, so you throw up some quick prayers while you keep going? If we’re honest with ourselves, it’s that fear we what He might say if we do slow down that keeps us from listening to Him. This begs the question, do you truly believe your Jesus loves you and has your best interests in mind? Remember Jesus didn’t come to add Himself or new behaviors to us, but to replace our life with His, which only makes our life better, not bitter or harder.
Healthy sheep listen first and then follow their Shepherd (John 10:27). Silence can indeed be golden as it can enrich our lives. Silence is also good as it can relieve us tremendous loads that we were never meant to bear. Your Shepherd has a lot to say to you. Shhh … He’s talking.
“S”et Free Nowww

Deal with it Today or Experience Death Tomorrow

today tomorrowHere is a truth we all must get through our thick skulls: we don’t just sin or take our drug of choice. We’ve been thinking about it long before we ever sinned. James 1:14-15, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
James illustrates our drugs of choice with pregnancy. We all know that a baby comes nine months after conception. Conception…birth. It’s the same with sin. Temptation, which isn’t sin, if allowed to linger in our minds will lead to conception (the formation of an idea/thought), which if not processed out using the truths of God’s word will eventually come out in our actions.
We must stop telling ourselves, “I don’t know how I got here. I’m not sure why I repeated that sin again, fell to my drug of choice.” The truth is, if we are honest with ourselves, we’ve been thinking about it for some time. We’ve been allowing the thought to roll around in our heads unchecked and unfiltered. If we let that thought hang around long enough, it will come out in our behavior, which brings death or separation from the very source of everything we need – Jesus.
You can’t stop being tempted. You can, however, shut it down by using the Freedom process. Process out the temptations/lies the moment you realize your thinking about them so you can enjoy peace today and life tomorrow!
Set “Free” Nowww