I realize this opening statement sounds odd, but I bet Jesus’ question to the lame man sounded just as odd. In John 5 Jesus arrives at the pool at Bethesda. He asks one of the disabled people lying there, “Do you want to get well?” I wonder if those who heard this laughed at Him or at least chuckled under their breath about what a lame statement that was.
If, however, you look at Jesus’ comment to this man after Jesus healed him, you get some insight into Jesus’ first comment. Jesus told the healed man, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen.” It was this guy’s own bad decisions – the taking of his drugs of choice – that caused his disability. When Jesus asked him whether he wanted to get well, the man had to think about it for a minute. Do I want to give up my drugs of choice?
There’s a Jewish saying that reads, “If you lie on the ground, you cannot fall.” But you also can’t see down the road at all the great things ahead either! Did this guy want to see better days? He did and Jesus healed him.
Jesus is asking us the same question. Do you want to experience victory? If so, you must be willing to give up the thinking that landed you in defeat. Are you ready to give up what has become a “normal” life for something better? If so, it’s time get up off the ground and exercise the truths in your everyday small decisions so you can experience the big victory when your drug of choice presents itself.

Set Fre“E” Nowww

A Harvard researcher recently studied the effects of iPads and iPhones on sleep. His discovery has spiritual implications for healthy believers. His research showed that when a person uses those devices at night, the blue light emitted by them hindered the person’s ability to sleep. The blue light tricked their brain into thinking it was daytime, which heightened their alertness; thus, disturbing their sleep. Furthermore, the closer the device was to their face, the greater their sleep disturbance became. This is why a TV’s blue light doesn’t affect a person as much as the handheld devices because the TV is generally further away from their eyes.
The blue or unnatural light, which copies the sun or natural light, has harmful side effects. Sound familiar? Our enemy is called an “angel of light”, who tries to duplicate Jesus, but brings only harmful results with him – you become restless rather than rested.
Our Father is asking us to trust Him to focus on Jesus, the true sun light. Sometimes what He’s telling us, though, doesn’t make sense as it’s much easier to focus on the enemy’s unhealthy light (i.e. our drugs of choice). It’s been said, “Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.” Our brains have been stained by a sinful nature and our sinful choices. Therefore, truth will sound unbelievable or unnatural at times; and yet, our Father is asking us to trust Him anyway.
If we, as children of God, want to experience victory over the harmful side effects of our drugs of choice, we must choose to focus on and get closer to Jesus, the natural light. Yes, we must turn out the light – the liar and his lies. And we must turn on Jesus, the Light of the World.

“S”et Free Nowww

I recently read an article about a teenage girl who ran away from home screaming at her father as she ran out of the house, “I can’t stand you! I hate you! I don’t even want to be around you!” After hearing this tirade her father, who was in great emotional pain, remained calm and said, “But I love you more. And the door will always be open to you.”
He realized his daughter was making a huge mistake he couldn’t stop. He also realized that when his daughter’s way of doing things started to fail, which he eventually knew it would, she would need a home and a set of loving arms to return to – his. His love allowed Him to remain calm and wait out his daughter. Oh by the way, his daughter did return home.
This is a perfect view of the kind of Heavenly Father we have as children of God. He knows when we will leave His presence and when we will return. He knows when we’ll take our drug of choice and the exact moment we’ll turn to Him as our fortress instead.
There is a saying, “The older your kids get, the smarter you become.” Our Father uses this same thought with His children. He knows we’ll think our way of living is better than His. He also knows that our way will not work and eventually we’ll see His way is much better. In the process of our figuring this out, out of His great love for us, our Father leaves the door wide open and return path uncluttered. He is willing to let us walk (dare say run at times?) away, though it causes Him great pain, so we’ll realize what He’s been telling us is best.
If you don’t understand how much your God loves you, you’ll find it very difficult to trust Him, let alone get up and walk with Him again when you fall. There is no greater love than God sending His only child to die so you could become His child. There is no greater love than a man laying down his life for a friend, which Jesus did and is what He calls us. God loves you that much. As His child He only asks that you trust Him. When you do, victory comes.

“S”et Free Nowww

We’ve just finished a week long discussion about how viewing challenges (i.e. Perspective is Crucial) is crucial to victorious living. I want to end our discussion with an illustration from the college graduating class of 2010.
“About half of the class of 2010 still hadn’t found a job almost a year after graduating. (By contrast, 90 percent of the classes of 2006 and 2007 already had jobs a year later). The first thing they’re getting is an attitude adjustment. The bad economy is doing them a favor by teaching them the value of a job.”
To many, having a job is seen as a right rather than a privilege. Yet no one, let alone the business world, owes us anything. As one writer put it, “Not every one wins, there is only one rung on the latter at the top; therefore only one person gets to stand there at a time.”
This reality smacks up against the coddling “everyone is a winner” attitude that’s been preached on American campuses. This lie-based message has also worked its way into the Evangelical Church. As one Israeli congregational leader said, “I am fearful that the steady diet of cotton candy and sweet nothings that Christians are being fed in the majority of the Evangelical churches is desensitizing the conscience of the Christians and putting their minds to sleep.”
Life on this planet is hard, especially for believers who live in enemy territory. When those challenges come, and they will, we must realize that Jesus owes us absolutely nothing. It is only by God’s grace (i.e. getting what we don’t deserve) and mercy (i.e. holding back what we do deserve) through Jesus that we can enter into the presence of a holy and loving God during those hard times. Jesus earned and is standing at the top of the ladder, and out of His great love for us, He is giving us a hand up.
We can either whine about our challenges or we can take His hand and win in the midst of them. We can look down at the challenge or look up at Jesus. The perspective by which we view challenges is crucial to the outcome we’ll experience. I don’t know about you, but I’ll gratefully take the hand I don’t deserve – His.

Set Free No“W”ww

There’s one more Biblical worldview application to the original Perspective is Crucial story – you are Jesus to those around you.
On the first day I went to pick up my materials, only to discover that they were not in, I told the person at the order desk, “I guess the Lord doesn’t me to work today. He wants me to take the day off to relax.”
He said, “When the Lord talks, you better listen.” I agreed wholeheartedly. I went on to make other comments about Jesus in hopes that I could share the Lord with him. No further comments were made, so I left it there.
I called this same guy before I went to the material yard two days later when the materials were supposed to be ready. I called and they weren’t. He said they would now be in by late morning. I called a few hours later only to find out that they would not be in until early afternoon.
A person with a Sunday-morning-only faith would have had every “right” to blow up at this point. The original deadline was Monday and now it was pushed back until early Friday afternoon. I had lost my original help and now my new help might be in jeopardy. I had every right to cancel the special order and let the store eat the costs of the material. They had not kept their promises to me.
I had, though, let this person know I believed in Jesus. I have the responsibility to let Jesus shine through me every where I go, not just at church on Sunday. I was hoping to get another shot at sharing about Jesus, who is a lot more important than my material order or my project. Would this person see Jesus or me?
Honestly I did say, “You’re killing me here.” I then put this situation through the FREEdom process, which calmed me down, and said, “Please call me when they are in,” which he did when they finally arrived.
No demands, no threats, hopefully they saw Jesus shine through me. I don’t know. I do know, however, they would not have gotten a glimpse of Him if I acted the way “I” wanted to act. We are Jesus to those around us. Hopefully they will see Jesus wherever we go.

Set “FREE” Nowww