I’m so glad I don’t believe the lyrics to this song: “I’ve built walls/That none may penetrate/I have no need of friendship/Friendship causes pain/If I never loved/I never would have cried/I have my books/And my poetry to protect me/I am shielded in my armor/I touch no one and no one touches me/I am a rock/I am an island/And a rock feels no pain/And an island never cries.”
I was having coffee with a couple of friends this morning when I was asked how I was doing. I could’ve blown off their question with, “I’m fine.” Or, I could fess up and share how I was really doing. I chose the later by exercising the truth. They acknowledged my transparency with an approving nod.
Later in the conversation, as they were talking, it hit me. The Spirit just spoke into my life through my friends and they didn’t even know it! The Spirit strung together my blog entry from yesterday and this conversation with what He was trying to teach me. Peace rushed over my mind and heart as the pieces fell into place.
I am not a rock. I feel pain whether people are in my life or not. I want love even if people are not around. I cry while I’m reading books or being touched by a movie. I am not an island either. I feel pain even wearing my armor. I feel alone and cry behind my walls. I’d feel lost and unfocused even if I was on an island.
I am a human being who is also a secure child of God. I can either face life with all its joys and sorrows alone or walk with other believers. It’s my choice. It’s yours as well.
I’m so glad the Spirit of God gave me the strength to exercise the truth to be vulnerable and transparent enough to apply the truth of James 5:16. Because I did, I walked away much lighter this morning, even after a few large cups of coffee. I am not a rock…Jesus is!
“S”et Fre“E” Noww“W”

Why do we strive for things, move towards a goal, and attempt to make or wish things will happen? Is it that we want something we’ve already been given by Jesus?
Significance? Given by Jesus. Security? It’s ours. Love? Got it already. Acceptance? Done deal. Our attempts to meet these needs, when they’re already met, can lead us down paths that not only will leave us with an empty feeling in the pit of our stomachs, but can be very destructive as well. These paths can take us further away from Jesus.
It’s time to exercise the truth of God’s word and end our search for what’s already ours. Follow God’s advise when He says to “cease from striving and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NASB)
A.W. Tozer once said, “We must do worldly jobs, but if we do them with sanctified minds, they become offerings to God.” We already have significance whether we’re washing dishes or repairing someone’s car. Doing our everyday activities with Jesus, makes what is done in Him for Him, which pays eternal dividends both now and forever.
Set Fre“E” Nowww

Here’s a statement I recently read on an e-book site. I changed the wording just enough to protect the author in case he meant something different. The subtitle of his book was, “How to get what you want from God.”
Yup, that’s exactly what was written. Now, if you take this information that your eyes fed your brain through Scripture, you’d quickly realize that this is info is wrong on so many levels. One, I can’t manipulate God. Two, as an excellent Father, He will not give me what I want if it’s not good for me. Three, do I actually know what I want or need in the first place?! Four, God is not the “Big Candy Man” in the Sky ready to supply my every whim.
This list could go on and on, but here is the bottom line. What if He doesn’t give you what you want? Will you throw an adult temper tantrum and choose to handle life using your drug of choice, which only destroys your peace and eventually your life? Will you lose or use your faith?
Yes, Psalm 37:4 states that God will give you the desires of your heart…only after you delight yourself in Him. After you trust in Him and align yourself with His way of living are you ready to receive the desires of your heart. Why? For the first time in your life you really will be able to know what is best for you, which is to be more like Jesus, and then ask for it.
You need to filter what you read and pray through the Word of God. Then and only then will you truly get what you want.
Set “FREE” Nowww

“Just as the Germans had left at the end of the Great War (WWI), so they would leave again,” wrote Leon Leyson, a Holocaust survivor, in The Boy on the Wooden Box. Based upon his father’s prior experience with Germans, he went on to write, “My Father was making the same mistake so many others were, believing that the Germans with whom he was now dealing were no different from the ones he had known before. He had no idea, nor could he have had, of the limitless inhumanity and evil of this new enemy.”
Based upon their experience with the Germans of WWI, the Polish Jews decided to stay in Poland rather than flee the oncoming German army. “After all, what can we trust if not our own experience?”
Experience is not always the best teacher. It assumes that our past experiences, either good or bad, can be trusted to make good decisions in the present. What worked last time, however, might not work this time. This is true because one assumes one has all the facts and can see the present situation for it is. Yet reality states that you’re only seeing the situation from your limited perspective made up of your experiences. Two people can see the same accident from opposite sides of the street and draw two very different conclusions as to how the accident happened.
Jesus is the best teacher. Only He can see the accident from every angle. We must choose to walk in the Spirit throughout our day so we can listen to Jesus, not our experiences, if we want to live in freedom today and tomorrow.
Set Free Now“W”w

There were lots of trees good for eating throughout the Garden to nourish both body and soul. Adam and Eve could grab tasty pieces of fruit off any one of them, even one called the Tree of Life, to feel okay with their world within and without.
They could feel fully alive no matter what time of day it was; wherever they walked. All they had to do was choose to eat from the Tree of Life.
We know what they did. They thought more choices would help them feel even better about themselves. They stopped trusting the facts they already had (God told them it was okay to eat from millions of trees, save one) to filter out that lone voice saying more knowledge would lead to a better life. In a sense, they chose knowledge over life, facts over relationship. I find it interesting that the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey Him. Relationship trusts and does what it already knows. Choose life over knowledge. Relationship trusts that Jesus will give what we need to know when we need to know it. Choose life over knowledge.
A fulfilling and lasting life is only found in relationship with Jesus. Who are you listening to – the voice that says you need more options or the One who’s already told you what to do to be at peace?
Secure children of God choose life over knowledge, which in the end brings both – knowledge of the One we love!
“S”et Free Nowww