Veterans Day: Two Freedoms

Sometimes it seems like an old, worn-out cliche', but it's so true: freedom isn't free. We live in a sinful, broken, and fallen world. Throughout history there have been many people who have sought to enslave others based on many factors such as race, religion, nationality, political views, or simply because they lusted for the power that came from oppressing people. Some have even twisted God's Word to try to justify their own hateful ways of suppressing the freedoms of others. The simple fact is that this is an outright rejection of how God says we should love each other. This is the kind of freedom that our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have valiantly fought to preserve for our nation.

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you,

whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 

And a slave does not abide in the house forever,

but a son abides forever. 

Therefore if the Son makes you free,

you shall be free indeed."

- John 8:34-36

Freedom is more than just the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote and such as guaranteed by the Constitution. Even our Declaration of Independence acknowledges that our rights and freedoms are bestowed on us by God, Himself. Often we, ourselves, forfeit our freedom and make ourselves slaves. When we stop putting God first, when we willfully live sinful lives, when we let the desires of our flesh run our lives, we have given up the freedom that can only be found in Christ. Along with freedom comes responsibilities, and all too often we take our freedom for granted. This Veterans Day, take the opportunity to reflect honestly on your life and your choices. Ask yourself the hard questions and see if you truly are free. Ouch! I'm stepping on my own toes already! To all of my fellow veterans (Navy 1986-1994), I thank you for your loyal service to keep us free in the natural world, and I pray that you have found the spiritual freedom that can only come from the Greatest Soldier, who conquered death, the greatest enemy.

Have You Had Your TAWG Today?

  

I have a 17 year old daughter who lives on the island of Guam in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She doesn’t know it yet, but she inspired this blog post when I was chatting with her the other day on Facebook. Guam is 14 hours ahead of the US East Coast, so it was Friday night here and Saturday morning there. She told me she needed to get off of the computer for a while because she had to do her TAWG. Having never seen that acronym before, I naturally asked what it meant, and she told me, “Time Alone With God.”

 


My daughter Shadanice

 

And when thou prayest,

thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:

for they love to pray standing in the synagogues

and in the corners of the streets,

that they may be seen of men.

Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest,

enter into thy closet,

and when thou hast shut thy door,

pray to thy Father which is in secret;

and thy Father which seeth in secret

shall reward thee openly.

- Matthew 6:5-6

My friends, have you had your TAWG today? The above Bible passage from Matthew 6 is in red letters in my bible. Jesus, Himself, told us to make time to be alone with God. Some people call it going into their prayer closet. It doesn’t have to be a literal closet, as some people do, which is perfectly fine, but a quiet time and place to be with God. Thank Him for His many blessings, pray for yourself and others, read the Bible, confess what you need to confess, but don’t do all the talking. Take time to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Seek His guidance, His will for you, how you can bless others, and how you can glorify Him.



A literal prayer closet



Immediately Jesus made His disciples

get into the boat and go before Him

to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.

And when He had sent the multitudes away,

He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.

Now when evening came, He was alone there.

- Matthew 14:22-23

Not only did Jesus tell us to spend time alone with God, He set the example for us, as seen in these Bible verses from Matthew 14. Notice how Jesus is proactive here. He didn’t just wait for things to quiet down, He made the time. He sent His disciples away, and then He sent the crowd away. I want to encourage you today, my brethren, to make time for your TAWG. All of us can come up with reasons not to and give a list of stuff that is keeping us "too busy," myself included, but aren’t they really all just excuses? Sometimes we even become so caught up in ministry work that it becomes an excuse for no time ALONE with God, just like Mikes Sumondong wrote about on his blog, Your Daily Word. Can’t we find at least 20 or 30 minutes a day to make time for God every day? Turn off the TV, get off of the computer, get up a little earlier in the morning, or maybe get ready for bed a little earlier and have your TAWG then. Satan doesn’t like it when we have some TAWG, and he’ll throw anything in our way he can, but stand firm my friends, because we are more than conquerors in Christ!

I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is Mine

So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together,

let not man separate.

- Matthew 19:6

It was two years ago today that my lovely wife decided she could put up with me and we tied the knot. We chartered a passenger ferry boat for a couple of hours and got married just off of Cumberland Island, GA near the south end of the Island where the Atlantic Ocean comes into Cumberland Sound at the FL/GA state line. The minister was a very dear friend of mine, Scotty Langford, who is like a brother to me, and has been my discipler for several years. Fort Clinch in Fernandina Beach, FL served as a backdrop behind us.

My wife loves to dress up our dogs, and sometimes we take them to the nursing home where she works and let them visit the residents. Our wedding day was no exception. She found a doggie tux for our male Chihuahua, Kasey, to be a groomsman. We made dresses for our female Miniature Dachshunds, in our wedding colors, of course. Prissy was a bridesmaid and Tilly was the ring bearer.



                                                            Of course I can't talk about our wedding day with mentioning me fishing at my own wedding! I had been teasing my wife that since we were going to be on a boat I had to bring my fishing pole, since the whole purpose of a boat was to get to more fish. I snuck a small collapsible pole onto the boat and started "fishing" on the way out. Don't worry, I didn't even have a hook on it, but just a small weight to cast it with a few times. Her jaw about hit the deck and my dad leaned over to her and said, "I brought him into this world, I can take him out for you."

One of the things Cumberland Island is known for is its herd of wild horses. I had been out in the Sound fishing in my own boat quite a few times and never saw a horse. My wife had it in her mind that the horses were going to come out that day. Sure enough, just as we said our “I do’s,” as if on cue, some horses came out to graze. They were not going to deny my bride her wish on our special day. Well, God didn’t deny it, at least.



Jesus said to him,

“You shall love the LORD your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your mind.”

- Matthew 22:37

To my beloved wife, I wish I could say I love you with all my heart, but that is how Jesus told us to love God. Sorry, honey, but you come second here. I do, however, love you as Christ loved the church. I give myself for you. I will nurture you in the Word, that you may be washed by the blood of Jesus, presented before God without blemish.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church

and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her

with the washing of water by the word,

that He might present her to Himself a glorious church,

not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,

but that she should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies;

he who loves his wife loves himself.

- Ephesians 5:25-28

We haven't always lived our lives for Christ as we do now. This isn't the first marriage for either of us, but it will be the last, and it is "till death do us part." I am yours, and you are mine. Happy Anniversary my love!

I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.

- Song of Solomon 6:3

What's Your Most Memorable Christmas Gift?

Nothing spiritual or theological in this post. God's gift of Jesus is the Greatest Gift of all eternity, but let's just have a discussion of our most memorable material Christmas gifts. I lived in Key West in the late 70s when my dad was stationed there in the navy. We lived in base housing and had a seperate storage unit in a building located elsewhere in the housing area. Christmas morning I emptied my stocking and found the key to the storage unit. I was totally bewildered as to why I had this key in my stocking. My dad drove me over there to have a look. I opened the door and there stood my first 10-speed bicycle. We didn't have all these mountain bikes and 15- and 18-speed bikes like we do now, so a 10-speed was pretty special for a kid back then. I was 10 years old and still remember it quite well all these (cough)%&(cough) some-odd years later. Post a reply and share your most memorable Christmas gift.

Time to be a Nike Christian and JUST DO IT!!!

I apologize to all those who follow my blog for my prolonged absence and lack of updates. This post will be a confession of sorts, I suppose; or a testimony, depending on how you look at it, but either way, this will be a long post, and I’m pretty much just pouring my heart out here and laying it all bare. The events of the last couple of months have been a real challenge and have drained me emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially. Actually, things really started heading south about a year and a half ago. That was when, after six years living with his mother, my son came back to live with me. That, in and of itself, wasn’t necessarily such a bad thing, but some of the baggage that came with that, and some of the events that followed as a result, in addition to a series of unrelated events, were far beyond my expectations, and certainly did not play into the scenario I had envisioned with his change of living situation. He had been on long-term medication for emotional and behavioral issues for many years. The small amount of child support I receive didn’t even cover the costs of his medication, let alone the added every-day expenses of simply having a growing teenager in my home. Suddenly having him back in my home was an expense I never expected to incur again. He has recently been taken off of his meds and is actually showing some improvement. That's one of the few good things I can point to as of late.

He came to live with us at the same time my wife and I were planning our wedding, placing deposits and paying for related expenses. One month before the wedding, my wife hydroplaned and wrecked my truck on her way to work, so we incurred the expense of the $1000 insurance deductible. Praise God she was not injured, but the timing of this unexpected expense couldn’t have been much worse. That started the day off bad enough, but it quickly got a lot worse, as later that very same day I was informed that I was being sued for child support for a 15 year-old child overseas in Guam that I never knew I had from my days in the navy. That caused me to have to come up with the money to retain an attorney at a time when I was already under significant financial pressure. However, it was not the mother suing me, but the welfare department of Guam since the mother is on public assistance. Otherwise I would still be clueless about having fathered this child. A DNA test has proven that it is, in fact, my child. Thankfully my wife has actually been taking this better than I have, but if it were a one or two year-old child, that would be a completely different story. During the time the lawsuit was still pending, I had a few other stressful situations occur. Last fall an uncle I was very close to was called home by the Lord, so I incurred the costs of travel and time off of work without pay to be a pall bearer at his funeral.

My uncle, by the way, was an American hero, being a highly decorated army combat veteran, and is buried in the West Tennessee Veteran’s Cemetery, but most importantly of all, I know he had a heart for Jesus. Another “taxing” situation (pun intended) was having to deal with the IRS. I ended up owing them quite a bit of money because of having too little taxes withheld after losing deductions I was previously able to claim. I had to make a payment arrangement with them, which will last for several years, to get them to clear a levy on my checking account. The IRS levy caused two payments for two bills to bounce, and I’m sure many of you know what a headache that can cause. Perhaps the most emotionally stressful event occurred the day before our wedding when my son did something very thoughtless and stupid, for which the police were called and he was charged. So, in addition to my own legal issues, I had to deal with the juvenile justice system with my son. He was given strict probation and ordered to undergo psychological therapy. The therapy has to go through my medical insurance, and of course, none of the therapists the court system works with are in my network, so I’ve been forced to pay the much higher out-of-network deductibles. Most youths the Juvenile Justice System deals with come from low income families or they have been removed from the home by the state, so they have all their care provided by the state. I, unfortunately, fall into the middle category where I make too much money to receive any kind of assistance, but not enough to where it is not a financial burden on me. Sometimes it feels as though you are penalized in this country for actually working and trying to make a living rather than living on the government dole and getting tax refunds of tax money you never paid to start with, but that can be a different subject altogether. Well, the child support case was finally concluded about two months ago. I have now been ordered to pay child support to the government of Guam, since the mother has signed away any right to receive child support, for a child that I still have not seen so much as a picture of to this day. It simply takes from my children here that I have been raising and gives to the government of Guam. It doesn’t even go to directly support the child! It makes no difference whatsoever in the child’s life, but has a huge negative impact on the lives of my children here. I was financially stressed enough as it was, but this has pushed me over the edge into bankruptcy. Some may say bankruptcy is no big deal, but it is when you hold a security clearance for your job. That means this threatens the very job I’m depending on in order to pay the child support and keep myself out of jail. As if I didn’t have enough to deal with lately, we have been going through some major upheaval and change at my workplace. I have been seeking part-time secondary employment, but with the economy as it is, the pizza joints aren’t even hiring drivers.

Four years ago I went through what is perhaps one of the most traumatic experiences a person can go through. At the age of 38 I became a widower when my wife died of a sudden massive cardiac arrest. This occurred at a time in my life when I was heavily involved in ministry. After many years of being a “nominal Christian” at Christmas and Easter, I finally “got it.” I had finally opened myself up to Jesus and was learning what it means to follow him and be Jesus to the world. I was at a point where I was learning to walk humbly in the Spirit, submit myself to Christ, and respond to the call to righteous and holy living IN HIM the best that I could, allowing Him to mold me a little more each day. For a while after my wife died I leaned on Jesus for my strength and held onto my faith the best I could. After a while I began to get angry with God and question why He would allow me to go through this. I began attending church less and less; using the excuse that it “just wasn’t the same without her.” Eventually I quit attending altogether. It didn’t take long for the “old man” to rise up within me again. I went for a season living for myself, conforming to the world, not being transformed by renewing my mind in Christ. It was a time of plenty. I came and went as I pleased with hardly a care in the world. Through it all, Jesus was in the back of my mind, but that’s where I kept Him. I was squandering my inheritance as a child of God by willfully and knowingly living a sinful lifestyle. I even bought a shiny new sports car to chase women. I’m one of those guys who name their cars, and this one I named Mindy. In my pursuit of women, it happened one day that I caught one! When my wife and I first started dating I even made sure she was Christian, lest I become “unequally yoked.” She now drives that sports car after giving it a sex-change and renaming it Mark. Despite all the worldly pleasures I was pursuing, I still had the Holy Spirit working on my desire to get back to a right relationship with Christ. It’s something that’s much easier said than done. We don’t have to try to live a sinful, worldly lifestyle; it comes naturally for us. Burying the “old man” and living for Christ as a “new man” is a real struggle because our spirit is completely at odds with our flesh. Our flesh is corrupt and can never be redeemed. It is indeed, as Joyce Meyer wrote, a battlefield of the mind. We must change our mind to be in agreement with God, which should then drive us to change our will into desiring to seek His will for us, which we must then turn into a change of action, evidenced by seeking to live according to His Word and not according to how the world says we should live. There is a reason we are told to take every thought captive, and to renew our mind, and put on the mind of Christ. When we receive the free gift He offered and call upon His name, He sends the Holy Spirit to live in us. That is why we are called the Temple of the Holy Spirit. God desires that we walk in that Spirit and utilize the power of the name of Jesus that we have been given, but He doesn’t force us. We tend to jump back and forth between the Spirit man and the flesh being. Satan, our adversary, probes for our weaknesses, and when he finds them, exploits them in an effort to keep us operating in the flesh and render us ineffective for the Kingdom. When we walk in the flesh he uses our weaknesses to distract us and draw the old man out more and more. When we allow that to happen we give him legal authority to oppress us. That’s oppress, NOT possess. If we belong to Christ, then Satan or his henchmen cannot possess us because that denotes ownership, but he can oppress, or harass us because we allow him to when we don’t walk in the Spirit and exercise the authority over him that we have been given as the Priesthood of Believers. It doesn’t seem to take long for us to find ourselves in a spiritual desert, feeling lost and disconnected from God, letting our circumstances dictate our attitudes and actions rather than the truth of God’s Word. That, however, is exactly what I have done. I stepped out of the Spirit man and into the flesh and let Satan draw me farther and farther down the wrong path. Nearly a year ago my spiritual mentor, or discipler, of several years called me to the church he is now pastoring to return to ministry and teaching. There were several factors that came together that told me it was absolutely a calling from God, so I decided it was time to answer that calling and return to that relationship I knew my spirit desired so deeply. Once I went about stepping out of the flesh and back into the Spirit to walk with Christ again, the spiritual attacks came on hot and heavy. Matthew 12 and Luke 11 speak of an evil spirit returning to a person who has been "swept clean and put in order" and bringing seven others with it. Well, that seems to be what I'm facing, and I opened the door and let them right on in by my own actions and inactions. The culmination of things over the last couple of months finally got me to the point I was ready to give up and started slacking off, stepping back into the flesh. I’m sure I could be clinically diagnosed as depressed, and probably have been for years, but my God is greater, and it is He that gives me strength to go on when I seek Him with all my heart. This Thanksgiving time has caused me to think on all the things I have to be thankful for. God is still providing my needs, just as He promised, but not necessarily all my wants. Sometimes it is very difficult for us to distinguish between the two, but I’ve done a lot of reflection lately to see what my true needs are and what my wants are that may not necessarily be in agreement with what God wants for me. I’ve come to a revelation that God is allowing me to be broken down so that He can build me back up. I have to turn everything over to Him and simply trust Him that He’s got me covered, which is what I should have continued to do in the first place instead of trying to do it all on my own. There’s a lot of truth to the words Casting Crowns sings, “I will praise Him in the storm.” When Peter took his eyes off Jesus and noticed the storm around him is when he started to sink. I took my eyes off Jesus and let the storms of life around me dictate my responses and attitudes, which were all in the flesh, and I started sinking. I’ve got to let go and let God, because He never lets go. I’m completely dependent on Him because I’ve made such a mess of things trying to do it on my own. It won’t be easy, but it’s time for me to quit hopping back and forth between the Spirit and the flesh. God has put a calling on my life and I’ve allowed the Evil One to win too many battles. I must step into that calling, trusting and walking with Jesus, and I declare this day to buck up, be like Nike, and just do it!

Sunday Fishing Lesson

Fishermen have always been known to spin a yarn or two about "the big one that got away." I've got a few of them myself. Jesus called four fishermen to follow him and be disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John. I'm sure they had their share of fish stories to tell, too. In this picture you see a couple of family heirlooms of mine that my grandfather had hanging on the wall in his house until he sold it to move out of the city to a small town near my dad. They now hang proudly on my wall, and I never pass up the chance to tell about them. The fish on the left is the first crappie (speckled perch) I caught when I was 6 or 7 years old. The fish on the right is a 6-3/4 pound largemouth bass that jumped in the boat with us. YES! Jumped in the boat and landed at my feet! And that, my friend, is no fish story! It's the absolute truth, just like the story I'm about to relate to you here. This true story is a humorous lesson in faith, integrity, and keeping one's word.

As a young child in the early 70's I lived with my grandparents in Tennessee. My dad was a single parent in the navy and had to deploy at sea a few times in a place called Vietnam. Every spring my grandparents would take a week's vacation and go fishing at Ross Barnett Reservoir in Mississippi with another couple with whom they were very dear friends. They would head home on Saturday so they could attend church on Sunday morning. I was with them this one particular time when they decided to stay and fish on Sunday. Now, my grandmother couldn't swim, but as long as she had a life jacket on, and the fish were biting, she'd head out in the boat. It was shortly after we'd eaten lunch, as I recall, when the sky started getting dark in a hurry. We'd been caught in rain showers before, but this day things would be a little different. The wind started picking up very quickly, and the water started getting pretty rough. We tried to head back in to the boat ramp but it was too far, and the weather was worsening too quickly. We saw a highway bridge over a side creek and headed toward it to try to get some shelter from the storm. The other couple was in a little bit smaller and lighter boat than we were, so my grandpa was leading the way, trying to smooth it out for them a little. The swells were so high we kept completely losing sight of them behind us. I remember seeing lightning hit the water maybe 150 to 200 yards from us. It was a very scary ride, for sure. We finally got up under the bridge and tied off to wait it out. My grandma was a very faithful, God-fearing, Christian woman. Her father and grandfather were both Southern Baptist preachers. I owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude for much of the foundation of my faith. In the midst of this storm she prayed to Jesus. She told Him that if He got her out of this alive then she would never go fishing on Sunday again! Well, I'm here telling the story, so we obviously got out of it ok. Now I know God's not in the exactly in the deal-making business, but He does make promises. God always keeps His promises, though we tend not to, no matter how well intentioned. God did make the ultimate deal (promise) though. He sacrificed His only Son on a cross 2000 years ago, that if we only trust Him that He conquered death for us, then we can have eternal life with Him. My grandma kept her focus on Jesus in the middle of the storm, just like Peter did when he walked on the water to Jesus. He didn't sink until he took his focus off of Jesus and let the storm around him overtake him. As for my grandmother, she kept her side of the "deal" she made with God that day, all the way till the day Jesus took her home some 20 years later. There was no way she was going to go fishing on Sunday again. The Bible says to let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no. My grandma was indeed a woman of integrity, and she kept her word to God to the very end.

My Great-Grandpuppies!

My daughter's dog had 8 puppies! So does that make me a "Great-Granddog?"