“Man, I’m not going that way” is what I thought as I did an about face. It had rained rather heavily yesterday leaving all the dirt roads around my house full of mud and puddles of water. After seeing one particular puddle filled street, I decided to walk only on paved roads.
This strategy could only take me so far. There are only so many paved streets where I can walk to and from my house. So here I am having a good time with the Lord, when I see it. The last road home is 90% paved and wouldn’t you know it, the 10% was filled with good sized ankle deep puddles. This would be no problem if had the right tools with me, like a set of rubber boots, which I didn’t. I was wearing my cross training shoes as it was my intention to stay on the pavement. Fortunately for me I was able to navigate around them on “dry” ground.
Life is like this walk. I avoided taking the hill path because I knew there would be mud everywhere. Thus, I decided to stay on the pavement where I thought I would be on firm dry ground the entire way. My best intentions and planning were for not as sometimes life happens. This is why it is essential that we listen to and follow Jesus everyday everywhere. We must carry and be ready to use our biblical tools at all times. You never know what life or your enemy will put in your way.
If you want to walk around in soggy shoes or go backwards, leave your tools at home. If you want to keep going forward be ready to practice using them throughout your day.
“SET FREE NOWWW”

We will turn to Jesus to meet our needs when we realize we’re secure children of God. Yet, how often do we run to our drugs of choice because we can’t see how He is going to meet those needs?
You gotta love the realness of Scripture. The Israelites are hungry for more than the daily bread God’s been giving them. They want meat. Moses turns to the Lord for help as he should have, who tells Moses He’ll provide meat for the entire nation for month! At last count, there were a million plus Israelis in the camp.
Moses reaction? He turned to his drug of choice, complaining and doubting. He basically said, “You gotta be kidding, God! That just isn’t possible.” Wait a second Moses, didn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just defeat the world’s superpower? Didn’t your God just get you out of a tough jam in Egypt without any help from you or anyone else? Didn’t this same God provide thousands upon thousands of gallons of fresh pure drinking water from a rock? Come on Moses, you’re forgetting what your God did for you in the past. Isn’t He fully capable of doing it again and more?
I love God’s response. He is the ultimate outside the box thinker and provider. He feed the entire nation using birds blown in from the sea! In fact, there were enough birds to cover the ground 3 feet deep for miles in all directions from the camp.
Our God can and will provide for the needs of His children, including you. Our God will come through in ways we could never even think of dreaming as well. Stop putting Him in a box and start praising Him when you begin to doubt. Praise Him for what He has done in your life. Praise Him for how He’s going to do it again today, maybe even in a fresh new way. It’s very difficult to take your drug of choice when you’re praising!
“S”et Free Nowww

My car’s “Low Coolant” light came on today. I had two options when I saw it. I could choose to ignore it and keep driving. This option, if continually followed, would eventually lead to my engine over heating causing it to seize up and no longer run resulting in a few thousand dollar repair bill. Or, I could choose to head the warning and put a few cents worth of coolant into my radiator’s overflow container and keep enjoying driving safely for many more miles. A few cents now or a few thousand later, it’s kind of a no brainer when put that way.
Why, then, do we become brain dead when it comes to the Spirit’s warning signals, like our peace, joy, security, love or significance reservoirs either being low or empty? The Word of God tells us that Jesus is the source for all of these. It also tells us that He wants to keep our reservoirs full, each and every day. When they’re not or are running low, it’s like my low coolant light coming on. It’s time to check under the hood.
The fix could be as simple as the Spirit adding another truth to our filters or refocusing our eyes on the ones He’s already given us as we’re starting to stray from Jesus because of life’s distractions. It might even be picking up our forgiveness tool to deal with hurts caused by our own or others’ actions. Either way it’s like the old commercial, “Pay me now or pay me later.”
Choose to head the Spirit’s warnings to check under your hood. Taking care of business today is a whole lot easier than waiting for tomorrow’s huge repair bill.
Set Free Now“W”w

“When will you ever learn,” thought the farmer to himself. He’d seen people come and pump the handle on his well only to stop before water came out. Once again, he’d have to teach these people a lesson.
“This well is a deep one as the sweet water is a good ways down. You’re going to have to keep pumping until the water comes out. If you quit after only a few pumps, you’ll never get a drink as the water that was coming to the surface only goes back down when you stop pumping the handle. So, if you’re only going to pump for a little while, you might as well not pump at all. If you want a drink of that sweet water, however, you must trust there’s water in the well and that by continually pumping the handle it will come to the surface.”
We can learn from this farmer. We all want our lives changed yesterday. And, I’ll bet we want it with as little effort as possible as well. It doesn’t happen that way if God chooses to use His normal method of change rather than a miracle. This process will take faith on our part. Faith in God’s Word there’s sweet water, life-change, coming. Faith that pumping that handle, living His way, will bring the water up. And faith in the Spirit to strengthen us as we keep pumping that handle, exercising the truth.
If you need faith, ask for it…today. If you’ve got it, keep pumping by faith. Sweet water, life change, is coming!
Set Fre“E” Nowww

It’s all about telling a story through planned deception, which is another way of saying making a movie. Someone wants to tell a story; and to do so using the medium of film, they must purposefully use deception.
The movies about astronauts floating in space are not shot in space. It’s simply not possible nor feasible to shoot the movie in actual outer space, so they do it on a movie set using various movie making tricks.
Our enemy is a great film maker, who also tells a story through deception. He wants to make you think you’ll be happy by living your life using his worldview. And he’s using every means at his disposal to get you to believe his message is true when in reality it’s as far from the truth as the earth is from the sun.
We can make all the excuses we want for not reading the Word while listening to Jesus, but we do so at the peril of being deceived and defeated. Every day we choose not to be in and with the Word, we’ll have a harder time seeing through the deception of the avalanche of messages we hear throughout our day.
Commit today to listening to Jesus in His Word by downloading the Read the Bible in a year schedule and getting started. Jesus will give you specific truths to not only see through the deception, but to successfully live in the real world you face each day you’re on this planet.
S“E”t Free Nowww