I love to read espionage novels. I found the following line most insightful, “Dress him up in a suit and tie and put him up in $1,000 a night suite, but once a terrorist always a terrorist.” Dressing up the outside does nothing to change the person inside.
I just got back from my MiniChurch that reaches people who strongly dislike church and would never go back (though they didn’t realize they were in church) where I asked, “What comes to mind when you think of Christianity, religion or relationship?” The instant reaction, to a person, was religion. I asked, “What does religion look like?” They all said Christians focus too much on outward conformance and following certain man-made rules. It was this mentality that made church repulsive to them.
To them the above quote could be said of so-called Christians. Dress them up in a suit and tie and put them in a church building, but they’re still not worth being around. If believers in Jesus want to make a difference in this world, we must start being real with each other and with those around us.
We must stop focusing on looking good on the outside and conforming to Christian or Church traditions and start being real with our challenges, letting the Spirit change us from the inside out and continue learning how to listen to Jesus and do what He says in our daily lives (i.e. living with a biblical worldview).
As this happens, not only will we get back to the Christianity of relationship, but those around us will also crave the One we love. And the perfect place to start is to be in a Bible Impact Group (see Resources). Make the commitment to meet with at least one person to let the Word of God and the Spirit of God change your life from the inside out.
“Set Free Nowww”

We own an above ground salt water pool with metal top rails. Each year we have to take a wire brush to these top rails and paint them with white Rustoleum because the rust keeps eating through the metal. After picking up numerous pieces of metal on the bottom of the pool, we finally bit the bullet and replaced the metal rails with new composite salt water proof rails.
Biblical Christianity is about replacing the metal with the composite rails, not painting over the old ones. It’s about replacing me with Him, not adding Jesus to me. When Christians focus on their behavior, rather getting at the lie in their thinking, they will get stuck in the sin-confession-sin cycle. They’re painting a new behavior on top of the old behavior, which will eventually rust through.
If we want to replace us with Jesus, we must let the Spirit expose the lies in our thinking, replace them with Scriptural truth and then empower us to exercise those truths in our daily lives. If you want to keep working on the same rail year in and year out, focus on the metal rails – your behavior. If you want to be free from all that work, let the Spirit renew your mind (Rom. 12:2). True freedom from our drugs of choice comes when Jesus replaces our character with His.
Set “Free” Nowww

We have new home construction taking place in our area. It’s fun to watch these construction workers do their job, tool belts hanging at their side. Imagine with me, though, how effective they would be in they tried to build a house with their tool belt, full of the tools necessary to do the job, sitting in their car.
We’d think they were crazy and stare in horror at the site of the workers pounding nails with their bare hands. They not only couldn’t do their job, but imagine the pain and frustration they’d feel as well. Yet, this is what 9 out of 10 believers in Jesus do every day. They leave their tool belt full of tools at church when they leave on Sunday!
The Bible has given us tools (principles of a biblical worldview) the Spirit will use to build homes that will last forever (1 Cor. 3). The tools themselves don’t change your life. They’re simply used by the Master Carpenter to change your life. Make the decision today to retrain your brain by learning what those tools are (i.e. Set Free Nowww) and how to let Jesus use them to build His home in you, one that will stand the test of time and weather any storm.
Set Free Nowww

I once read that “there is something about the prospect of mortal combat that causes men who must lead other men into danger to be candid and truthful. Up the chain of command, politics might enter into the equation but not at the troop level. This is called “ground truth,” which is “US military slang that describes the reality of a tactical situation as opposed to what intelligence reports and mission plans assert the reality to be.” When it comes to life and death decisions, soldiers on the ground need ground truth, not theory.
As believers who live in enemy territory we need ground truth, not theory. If we want to experience victory over our drugs of choice and see the Spirit replace our ineffective character with Christ’s we need biblical truth, not useless Christian clichés.
I often hear well meaning Christians respond to someone who’s in the midst of a battle with comments like: “Let go and let God.” “Just surrender to Jesus.” And among others, “Lay it at the feet of Jesus.” My heart screams, “Are you kidding me? How do you let go and let God? Does “surrendering to Jesus” (whatever that means) all of a sudden cause the battle to cease? We all know it doesn’t.
So let’s make a commitment to use our biblical worldview with each other. Let’s encourage each other by listening to and watching each other to discover the lie(s) in our thinking. Once there, let’s be ready to offer truths at the point of the lie we’ll need to lay the lie at the feet of Jesus and then surrender to the truth Jesus has for us. Then and only then can we let go and let God change our lives.
Set “Free” Nowww

My country was deep in the midst of a deadly and devastating civil war, a war that would test the meddle of any leader. In 1861, our President, Abraham Lincoln, penned the following words, which ended with the beginning of a new American holiday, Thanksgiving.
“In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict. … No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”
Lincoln saw the good in the midst of and focused the nation on the One who would see them through the storm. The Word is asking His followers to do the same. When life gets tough, and it will, we must Exercise the truth to give thanks. If we don’t, we’ll follow our attitudes south toward our drugs of choice.
Thanking God for what He has already done in our lives, especially when it goes against what we feel like doing, gives us the confidence He can do it again in our current storm, despite its severity. As we give thanks, the sides of our lips will inch upward while our attitude begins to soar. So I encourage you to give thanks, not just on Thanksgiving, but every day, as it brings peace in the midst of any storm.
Set Fre“E” Nowww