I was sitting with a friend having coffee when we both noticed cigarette butts all around our table. I have to admit. I get a little miffed about this. Why do smokers think the world is their ash tray?
Then my friend said, “Instead of getting upset about it, why don’t we pray for the person who threw that on the ground to come to Jesus?” I had to admit. I hung my head in shame. She was right. I was letting a one inch cloth filter filled with nicotine ruin my joy. Really, how crazy is that?
I could turn a negative joy drainer into a positive joy increaser by simply looking at the same situation in a different way. Choose to turn a your joy drainers around into joy increasers.
Se“T” Free Nowww

It’s been rightfully said, “Truth is eternal. Knowledge increases. It is disastrous to confuse them.” Jesus said He is the truth, and is the same today as He was yesterday as He will be tomorrow. He is and personifies truth that never changes. Therefore, we can know the truth, just like we can know our loved ones. What freedom that brings!
Our daily choices, then, have meaning, both for today and for tomorrow. We only know what we know when we know it and what we know leads to decisions that affect lives. Yet, what if what we know is wrong?
We need a constant intake of knowledge of the truth to make the kind of decisions that will bring us what we’re looking for life. This makes each choice we make quite meaningful as we come to know the truth, Jesus.
Use your Source of Truth, the Word of God, to gain the knowledge to put into your life’s filter and then use your biblical tools to actually filter what you know. It’s the only way to avoid the many disasters we must sift through each day. Your choices do matter!
S“E”t Free Nowww

I was standing in line to board a plane when I overheard a conversation between a mom and her daughter. They were going to visit family when the daughter said, “I’m going to gain 40 pounds on this trip.” Impossible. I thought. Then she said, “I’m not going to have a good time, either.” Most likely. I smirked.
I remember what a friend of mine who mountain bikes once told me, “Look where you want to go, not where you’re going, and the front tire will always follow.” I didn’t believe him. I crashed a lot. When I followed his advice, much to my surprise, my bike did go where I was looking.
We choose the road we’ll go down by what we’re thinking. Our actions do follow our thoughts. Here’s a quick one line truth to use throughout your day. “Don’t go there!” Satan wants to get you to think negatively about yourself. Don’t go there. Your past wants to drag you back. Don’t go there. Your frustrations want to get you to scream. Don’t go there.
Listen to your Jesus as you go about your day. And when your thoughts to head in the opposite direction, don’t go there!
Se“T” Free Nowww

We’re all recovering addicts. Before you tune me out, let me explain. Romans 12:2 states that we are “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” We don’t replace old behaviors with new ones. We must replace our old thinking with new thinking, which leads to new behaviors.
Where did this old thinking come from? Part of it came from our sin nature, which stained our brains in such a way that we can’t help but make sinful choices. Part of it came from living in a fallen world filled with lie-based messages while not having the biblical tools with which to filter them out.
All of it leads to taking our drugs of choice – where we go to meet our needs other than to Jesus. Thus, we’re all recovering addicts. We all have our drugs. They’re just different. This is one reason Jesus came to die and rise again – to set us free from our drugs, no matter what they are!
Freedom can happen according to Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” The verb “has set” is past tense, which means life-change will happen, if we want it. Freedom starts by realizing that we’re slaves to something, that it was our choices that enslaved us, and that we need to trust someone other than ourselves to become free.
Jesus is that someone. He gave us the ability to change at salvation, but the “want to” is up to us each day. The moment we want to start using our biblical tools (Set Free Nowww), the wow follows. Wow, my life is changed! Wow, I’m feeling better than I’ve ever before! The want to leads to the wow.
“SET FREE NOWWW”

A good friend of mine broke her upper arm, which required surgery to repair. The surgery was a cake walk compared to the physical therapy sessions! It almost seemed like her therapist was getting too much joy out of torturing her.
This wasn’t true of course, but it sure felt like it. The therapist knew the only way to get the arm back to normal was through the discomfort of the exercises. If not, the scar tissue from the surgery would severely limit her patient’s future mobility. My friend had to push through today’s pain to experience the pleasure of using her arm at full range of motion and strength tomorrow.
The Spirit of God can use today’s painful situations to make us stronger tomorrow. We have a choice. We can run from the pain by turning to our drugs of choice or work through it by picking up our biblical tools in the Spirit’s power. Pain is never pleasurable until it’s over, but pain is never gone until it’s worked through.
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11)
Set Free No“W”ww