Seek the truth for real freedom

Greetings:
One of the most popular scriptures in the Bible comes the Gospel of John, the eighth chapter and 32nd verse. It reads:"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free,"
What does this really mean?
What is the truth and what is freedom?
Freedom is what Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are ultimately about -- God's freeing Israel from bondage in Egypt
Truth and freedom go hand and hand. This is why the Christian world is in the condition it is in. The vast majority of Christians do not really mark the death of Jesus Christ in the way that God commands us to observe it.
They understand that Christ died for our sins. But they miss its full importance — its full impact.
Truth will produce freedom only as it is used. That ought to be self-evident. We can know something is true, but if we fail to use it, what good is it? Its value is worthless unless it is used.
Freedom and truth come to those who press on and seek it. Freedom, the kind of freedom that God is involved in bringing us into, comes progressively, not all at once.
This is shown by the Days of Unleavened Bread. It took the Israelites seven days to get to and across the Red Sea. It took them another 40 years to get into their own land, into their inheritance, the Promised Land.
This is a difficult message to bring into words. But we must connect the Old Testament with the New Testament to understand it.
What kind of message does it send to God if His children, those called by His name, either do not seek truth or carelessly ignore what they have?
To ignore truth is to ignore God and, by extension, to ignore salvation.
Remember, salvation is the active, continuous process by which God delivers us from what causes disease in the mental and physical areas of life and eternal death in the spiritual realm.
David in Psalm 51:6 said, "Surely you desire truth."
John writes in 4:23, "Worship the Father in spirit and truth."
We seek both freedom and truth by learning God's Word and then applying it to our daily lives. There is no short-cut answer. It takes time, study and prayer.
Truth comes to those who ask, seek, and knock for it, then use it in our own lives to glorify God. We do not always easily find it. Truth emerges only after a long and sometimes confusing search of conflicting information.
Needless to say, we must find it and preserve it.
Be blessed.

Say please and many thank-yous

Greetings:
I come from an 'old-school' family in which I was taught to say 'please and thank you' at a very early age.
As Christians, we ought to say frequent and many 'thank yous' in our relationship with God and in our prayers.
Being thankful is key in our Christian walk.
Many wise and necessary things can be said about thanksgiving, but thanksgiving to God is a spiritual weapon God has given us to maintain our spiritual wholeness that enables us to maintain our joy and peace and confidence in Him.
Conversely, if you want to see joy and peace and faith (trust) in God diminish in your life, simply walk in thanklessness.
Demonstrating to God often that we are thankful for what we have … rather than what we don’t have, or maybe have lost, can be the difference between increase His blessings to us, or withholding them. 
The Bible tells us in Psalms 100:4 (NIV) to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Being thankful shows honor.
Every major painful situation we go through in life may well be a trial God has designed for us - usually to test us. 
A thankful person constantly stays in tune to God and inquires: "What am I to learn through this painful situation?"
A thankless person rarely asks God that question, but rather just grows angry and bitter inside for God allowing them the pain they are going through without learning a thing from it.
A thankless person tends to be a complainer or a whiner – always remaining bitter about the past over one thing or the other. 
A thankless person tends to be a "Why God?" person or a person who asks 'why me God'.
A thankful person stops trying to constantly stay focused in on the 'whys' God and asks God what can I do to make it right.
Many Christians grow frustrated in their prayer lives because they have not walked in being thankful.  Being thankless can greatly affect our prayers.
Though God’s mercy and grace and patience transcends limits we often have difficulty comprehending –– we can quench the Holy Spirit by failure to obey the following scripture:
Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 (NIV), it says, “Rejoice always,  pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.”
Being thankful may or may not change your circumstances. But it will change what your circumstances do to you.
Your circumstances will either destroy you or build you up depending on how you see them. But when you say "thank you", you recognize that beyond your circumstances and your control there is still  a sovereign God who loves you and assures us that he is working all things together for their ultimate good.
Psalm 111:1-5 in the Living Bible sums up being thankful this way, “Hallelujah! I want to express publicly before his people my heartfelt thanks to God for his mighty miracles. All who are thankful should ponder them with me. For his miracles demonstrate his honor, majesty, and eternal goodness. Who can forget the wonders he performs—deeds of mercy and of grace?  He gives food to those who trust him; he never forgets his promises.”
My Momma was right. It is the right thing to do to say, “Thank you”.
Be blessed.

Call on God for daily courage

Greetings:
Having Christian courage is key to our walk. God promises to help us, be with us, but still we fear and lack courage at times.
The pain we experience may be physical, as in war. Many Christians are dying daily at the hands of terrorist throughout the world for their steadfast commitment and love of Christ.
The pain may also be mental as in confrontation and controversy.
Courage is indispensable for both spreading and preserving the truth of Christ. It's been that way for decades.
In Matthew 24:9 (Amplified Bible), Jesus promised that spreading the gospel would meet with resistance: “Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”
Therefore, true evangelism and true teaching of The Word will take courage.
Do we tell only the truths that are safe to tell?
Nobody respects a coward. We admire people who are courageous. In nearly every movie that has a hero we admire. It is because of their courage. The bad guys nearly always turn out to be cowards.
Some of us can remember when we were still a kid in school and someone would dare us to do something dangerous. Some of us probably did some of the stupidest, most dangerous life threatening things we've ever done. Why? So that we wouldn’t be labeled with that dreaded word 'chicken'!
We wanted to come off in the eyes of our peers as courageous…not as a coward.
In our Christian walk, every one of us faces choices every day in which we come out either courageous or a coward. It takes a great deal of courage to face the daily challenges of life without becoming considered a wimp.
It takes enormous courage to be a Christian when most unbelieving people automatically despise you when you openly reveal that you are a person of faith in Jesus Christ.
The mainstream media in America hates Christians with a passion in terms that they are threatened by those who have an absolute moral standard and they punish them, belittle them, and try to discredit them at every opportunity.
But you know, it's doesn't matter what they say, or what they write about us as Christians. God knows our heart and he will get us through it all.
We must remain steadfast in our love for God and deserve to serve him by spreading the good news of God's salvation no matter what is said or written about us.
We must remain constant in our morals and stand up for what is right and confirmed in the Word of God.
God is with  us.
An amazing amount of courage comes from settling in your heart and mind that our beliefs and values are right and line up with the Word of God.
We must humbly ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding as we study and meditate on God's Word. We are strengthened when the rightness of our beliefs are reconfirmed in the experiences of everyday life.
We should increasingly feel and express our dependence on our Lord. Then we should ask Him to empower us and accomplish His purposes in us and through us in all we do and in all we face. We need to believe Him to do it. If we do those things, we will find ourselves living with the supernatural courage that only God can give 
May each of us learn to live with the courage God wants us to have.
Be blessed.

Try a little kindness

Greetings:
When you think of kindness, what does that mean to you?
Is kindness a bag full of fresh garden vegetables taken to a friend or even a complete stranger?
Is kindness an encouraging note sent by a friend?
Is kindness a caring shoulder to cry on?
Is kindness bowl full of chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven delivered from a friend?
Is kindness a telephone call just to say 'hello and how are you doing'?
Is kindness greeting someone on the street with a smile?
Kindness gives a person a warm good feeling, it just does.
No wonder it's one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Read Galatians 5:22-23 and see that kindness is there in the list of fruits that we should cultivate in our orchard of life.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
When we're kind, others get to experience that warmth, and whether they realize it or not they are also experiencing some of God's own character.
When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
Through the life of Jesus Christ we see the greatest, most complete example of kindness we'll ever know. God saw a whole lot of hurt, brokenness and despair.
He saw people with no hope of breaking free from pain and suffering. And so he sent his Son to our rescue.
There wasn't any kind of logical reason for him to do that. No one deserved this kind of special kindness.
Titus 3:3 reminds us of where we came from.
"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures … "
The key word is "enslaved."
Sin enslaves us like a prisoner shackled and chained in the deepest, darkest jailhouse.
We are deceived by the things the world says will make us happy—clothes, cars, a big bank account, popularity among our peers.
But when we accept salvation, the chains of enslavement are broken and we are set free.
God knew what we needed before we even asked for it. That's kindness—the ability to recognize the needs of others and take steps to meet those needs.
Kindness is understanding.
Kindness is compassion towards others when we have nothing to gain.
Be kind today in some way, reach out, see and act on the needs of others above our own wants.
Be blessed.

We are designed with purpose

Greetings:
I believe we all were created on purpose. Nothing was an accident when it comes to our lives. Long before we were ever born, God saw us, knew us, and choose us.
Though we may have some wonderful plans for our own life, it is of utmost importance that we find out The Lord’s purpose for our life.
Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) tells us,  “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.”
The word purpose is a noun and in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary it is defined as: “The reason why something is done or used; the aim or intention of something; the feeling of being determined to do or achieve something; the aim or goal of a person; what a person is trying to do, become.”
We all need to talk to The Lord about our individual purpose. God wants us to discover our purpose even more than we do. Our purpose isn’t just about us. It’s about what God wants to do through us. It’s about touching and blessing the lives of others. Our purpose matters.
It’s possible that we might know at least part of what we were created to do, but that we still may feel like a piece of the puzzle is missing.
Psalm 139:15-16 says, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”
God had all of our days written out before we were born. None of us were a mistake or an accident. We haven’t been placed on this earth by chance. Where and when we were born, the parents God gave us, our personality, and everything else about us was orchestrated by God for a specific purpose.
Some people would like advice us what this  purpose for our life is, but only the Lord can reveal our purpose to us. Seek God in the quiet time of prayer and study of God's Word to learn it.
We each have a role, a purpose in God's ministry. As Christians, none of us should be satisfied to simply be a spectator, content with coming to church on Sunday morning and just watching.
We are the feet and hands of God's work on earth. When we begin to walk in our God-given purpose, there will be a tangible grace or an anointing upon our life.
Our purpose is one of action. We can pray and pray for the needy in our community to be blessed, but unless we move and act to help them, feed them, comfort them and feed their spiritual hunger, little will change on its own.
Our purpose is woven into the very fabric of our existence. It is the theme of our life. It is expressed in our passions, our desires, our dreams, gifts, talents, and our vision for the future.
If we never fulfill our purpose, there will always be a deep sense of dissatisfaction in our heart. Pray that God reveals the purpose he has ordained for each of us. Know it, then run with it.
Be blessed.

A time to understand

Greetings:
We live in a time-controlled, time-shaped, time-driven world.
Some of us more than others.
Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.
There is a time to get up. There is a time to go to bed. There is a time to eat. There is a time to go to work and a time to leave work. There is a time to get this done or that done. There is a time for everything we do.
Reading through the Gospels, I am reminded that time in our future won't be so important anymore.
In the first verse of book of John in the Amplified Bible, it reads: “In the beginning (before all time) was the Word…”
That means before God created the world and you and I, there was no such thing as time.
That was Paradise for sure.
How many of you know from experience that our timing is very different from God’s timing?
Sometimes, we don’t like it. We are seldom aware of why God doesn’t work in our time frame.
Our vocabulary is full of time references. We can be early or late or right on time.
Will there be time in eternity?
How will we pass the time?
Since there will be no time there, I think we’ll just be happy to be there and consumed with the presence and majesty of our God. It will be a constant time of praise and worship – a never-ending tent revival of jubilation.
We would all be wise to throw away our watches and unplug our clocks occasionally to get back in touch with the real concept of time and prepare ourselves for our eternity trip.
That is not easy for me, even after retiring after living in a deadline world as a journalist for more than three decades. I still want to know what time it is.
Regardless of what time it is, Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:1-8 is still one of my favorite passages to read:
It says:
“For everything there is a season,
    A time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace”
The passages say so much about life, the world, the things all around us as well as the lessons we can learn from something as simple as time.
I am reminded that God's time is always the best time.
God's time is on time, every time no matter what time it is.
Be blessed.

Be wise and follow him

Greetings:
We must never forget to call upon the Lord for guidance and wisdom.
It's important to realize that no matter what we are facing on this day and other days, we need to understand that we are not alone and we are just walking through a particular situation.
God's not a crutch, but a source of power, strength and comfort.
I often have to remind myself that we don't have to stop and dwell on the tough times. We need to understand that this situatin is only temporary.
Importantly, we must not allow fear to paralyze us into immobility in the middle of walk through 'the valley of the shadow of death', the valley of despair, the valley of illness, the valley of disappointment, the valley of hurt, the valley of pain, the valley of no answers and waiting, the valley of whatever might be troubling us and keeping us from enjoying the wonderful promises of God.
We must keep walking and trusting God.
God is always there walking with us hand in hand. He is strengthening us. He is lifting us up. He is making a way for us where our eyes and minds say there is no way.
He is lining up people, opening doors and putting into motion situations to bring us out of that tough place into a place of overcoming victory.
Much of the time we cannot see or even feel his presence, but he is there with us, fighting with us, fighting for us.
We need to put 2:Timothy 1:17 (New Living Translation) deep in our heart and stand on it when the mountains seem too talk to climb, when there looks like there is no hope, no answer, no way out or up.
The passage reads: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
We must speak life and peace when we are going though a rough stretch in our walk, and all on your faith to be strong.
We must call on the virtue of hope in situations where it looks like there is no hope.
We must speak victory.
We must speak the Word.
We must speak the power that we have in the name of Jesus to the situation.
We must command it – don't ask it – command it to leave.
I'm also reminded that we can glean much good life advice and wisdom from a ship. A ship is designed to take us places. So, if our friendships, companionships, relationships, partnerships are not taking us anywhere that is pleasing to God, then we should abandon ship.
We must be like the disciples in Matthew 8:23, which reads, "When he got into the boat, His disciples followed him."
Only on God's ship will we sail to a place of victory and happiness.
Be blessed.