Sweet Music

telephone lines“Wow, the wind sure is blowing today.” I was thinking this as I was on my prayer walk this morning. The wind was blowing strong enough for tumbleweeds and topsoil to zip past me at a pretty good clip.
Then I heard it. It sounded like a cellist lightly playing on their strings. I knew it couldn’t be. There simply was no way I could hear someone playing their cello from the nearby housing track through all the wind. That’s when I looked up. It was the heavy winds causing the overhead power lines to hum. The music it was making was quite pleasing.
Then I heard God say, “Without the wind, those power lines are nothing special to either look at or hear. Yet with wind they become something special. Without the Spirit empowering you, Chris, you’re nothing special. You need to continually stay surrendered to Me.”
So today, before I start any new task I’m going to say a little prayer, “Spirit, empower me to do this next activity for Jesus.” I’ll also be ready to repeat that prayer in the middle of that activity for without Him working through me, my life can’t be changed or make sweet music for those around me to hear. Hopefully, you’ll join me in that prayer.
Set Free Now“W”w

“Guilt be Gone” Spray

sprayGuilt can make us do strange things, including head to our drugs of choice. Yet, why do we let it when Scripture says things like this: “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:10-12)
Our sin is gone the moment we ask His forgiveness. He is not carrying it around. Why do we? When the guilt over something already forgiven comes back, we need to use our “Guilt be Gone” spray on it. It removes all spots of guilt.
Since God doesn’t bring our deadhead decisions up, why do we? Since God puts great distance between us and our sin, why do we bring them near?
Use your “Guilt be Gone” spray every time guilt feelings come back. Tell yourself you’ve already been forgiven for that miscue and get your focus back on Jesus and enjoy what you were doing with Him when that ugly thought came up.
Set “FREE” Nowww

It’s an Indoor and Outdoor Life

Indoors-outdoorsGod tells the Jewish nation to put a Mezuzah on the door frame of their houses. It contains two portions of Scripture, one about who their God is and another about loving their Lord through their obedience. He also tells them not to wear clothes with two different kinds of threads. It was one type of thread and one type only. In other another place, God tells them not to plant two kinds of seeds in one field. For example, they were not to grow wheat in the middle of their vineyards.
A picture that emerges is that they are to love their God everywhere they go in life – whether that’s at home or at work, inside the house our outside the house. And the clothes on their back are to be a constant reminder to worship one God through their single devotion to Him.
Today, the believer must fight the lie that they are to leave their faith at the door of their house or house of worship. This thought did not come from the first half of the Book, nor is it repeated in the second half. In fact, Colossians 3:17 states just the opposite, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Whether we’re indoors or outdoors, we are to love express our love for Jesus through listening to and following Jesus everyday everywhere. The only way to avoid the consequences of our bad choices and experience the good stuff of our obedience is to walk every where we go using our biblical tools.
“SET FREE NOWWW”

Steam Thinking

steam thinking“Oh, how that hurts so good!” is something my mom would say to us kids when we stubbed our toe, hit that funny bone or had a small “owee”. We’d usually shake it off and keep playing.
“You’re thinking so hard steam’s coming out your ears” is something we’d say when someone actually used their brain to think through an issue. As one friend says, “Are you reasoning through or responding to your situation?”
Healthy Jesus believers realize that both revelation and reason go hand in hand. We do not check our brains at the door when we leave our houses each morning. Instead, we use them to reason through life’s daily situations using the Scriptures we’ve put into our shield of faith, which is a real defensive weapon when we’ve put specific lie defeating truths into it.
Having to think through an issue using Scripture will cause steam thinking! Your brain will be strained as you critically think through a situation using specific truths the Spirit’s given you in your Bible reading to filter out the lies you hear to stay focused on the truths that bring you victory over your drugs of choice (aka our way of handling life).
Use each day to practice using your Set Free Nowww principles. It will cause some steam thinking that will hurt so good as you continue to enjoy your day with Jesus!
S“E”t Free Nowww

Not So Smart

not smart“Oh what a stupid head” is what we as kids would say to each other when we did something rather, well, stupid. It’s those moments we knew we engaged long before we ever had a clear thought of what we were doing.
I believe the angels more than likely said this to each other as they were heading towards earth in response to their attempt to dislodge God from His throne. Adam and Eve probably said it as they were getting the boot from the garden in their attempt to become like God.
The each thought they knew better or were stronger than God even though they saw Him! Pretty dumb thinking, right? We have that same power to be stupid because of our own free will. Whenever we don’t slow life down and ask, “Jesus what do You want done here?” Or whenever we go full bore into something without asking for the Spirit’s power, we are being rather, well, stupid.
This is part of the reason Jesus came to save us…from our own stupid decision making processes. Because of Jesus, we have the power to be pretty smart by slowing life down, listening to Him and then making the decision to follow Him. Because of Jesus, the Spirit lives inside us to give us the strength to follow through on that decision. This exercise of our freewill is quite a smart move. It’s time to choose to pick up and use your biblical tools everyday everywhere to make the smart choices.
Set “FREE” Nowww