WHAT GOD

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“One day at a time, dear Jesus…”

24 hour tokens

“Live for today”, “Carpe Diem”, “We have this moment”.

Ever thought about these little statements we hear or these little trinkets we embrace?

Ever try to “live that way?” I mean 24 hours at a time?

Matthew 6:34 (MSG)

34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

That is a tough order huh?

What if I get downsized?

What if I get sick?

What if I slip yet again?

What if, what if, what if…

My grandma Winnie had a wonderful saying and I quote it a lot these days, “Don’t BORROW trouble.” I think she was referring to this little passage in Matthew. In the NIV, Jesus even warns us about “borrowed trouble".

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

But I love the way that Petersen paraphrases 6:34. “Give your entire attention to GOD.”

In other words ditch the “what ifs” for “WHAT GOD”.

“What GOD do you have in mind for my employment?”

“What GOD is your vision for my family?”

“What GOD is your plan for my health, my happiness, and my future?”

When we make GOD the focus, we clear our minds and hearts for what HE wants to do. Our mental energy shifts from the "fears" of the "what ifs" to the FAITH of the "what GODS".

So today, rather than focusing on these “what if’s” or worse yet being so preoccupied with the

“what coulds",

“the what are theys”

or the “what about thems”…

…let’s focus on God and His sufficiency, His care, and His abundant love.

Let’s give our entire attention to WHAT GOD IS DOING NOW!

Have a blessed day.

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

SICKLY SECRETS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

One of the toughest parts to recovery is admitting when you "get it wrong".

Now before those of you who aren’t in “official”recovery decide to skip today's little thought and move on, hang with me for a second.

I believe we ALL are in recovery; sin recovery.

Romans 3:23 (NCV)

23 Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard,

But as I eluded above, one of the toughest things about recovery is admitting that we do fall short. Instead of owning up to our weaknesses we veil strength. Instead of accepting that we are broken we try to give the impression we have it all together.

We deflect. We defer. We blame. We duck and we weave.

And I will be the first one to admit, I am not a big fan of “airing” out my laundry. Lord knows I am “more than jacked up” in my own right, and sitting down and “talking about that” with someone else IS quite uncomfortable.

But I am learning and it is on my heart to share that GOD gave us confession not for embarrassment or ridicule but for HEALING.

I know that is crazy isn’t it?

But cultural pressures and our own fears lead us to“keeping our secrets…well, secret".

Yet GOD offers relief and freedom when we “open up”,when we get the “stuff” off our chest, when we air a little of that less than presentable laundry!

1 John 1:9 (NCV)

9 But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.

Confession allows us to be freed from guilt's emotional bondage and it relieves the pressure of our shame that invariably mounts when we suppress those “secrets”. There is a great saying from recovery that we are only as “sick as our secrets”. I believe that is why GOD stressed so clearly in James that confession was a “healing” influence, not a shameful one.

GOD wants to keep us healthy.

James 5:16 (NCV)

16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you.

I love this little song from Tenth Avenue North. It simply and profoundly synthesizes the power of a heart of confession and transparency and it drives my point home some much clearer than my prose ever could.

So you thought you had to keep this up

All the work that you do

So we think that you're good

And you can't believe it's not enough

All the walls you built up

Are just glass on the outside

So let 'em fall down

There's freedom waiting in the sound

When you let your walls fall to the ground

We're here now

This is where the healing begins, oh

This is where the healing starts

When you come to where you're broken within

The light meets the dark

The light meets the dark

Afraid to let your secrets out

Everything that you hide

Can come crashing through the door now

But too scared to face all your fear

So you hide but you find

That the shame won't disappear

So let it fall down

There's freedom waiting in the sound

When you let your walls fall to the ground

We're here now

We're here now, oh

This is where the healing begins, oh

This is where the healing starts

When you come to where you're broken within

The light meets the dark

The light meets the dark

Sparks will fly as grace collides

With the dark inside of us

So please don't fight

This coming light

Let this blood come cover us

His blood can cover us

This is where the healing begins, oh

This is where the healing starts

When you come to where you're broken within

The light meets the dark

The light meets the dark

Sick from the secrets?

Let your healing begin.

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

en-COURAGE-ment

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“It is just too scary.”

“I don’t have what it takes.”

“What if I mess this up, what will everyone think?”

“I don’t want to disappoint everyone again.”

“Where will I find friends, where will I go?”

Those are some fearful thoughts for sure; every one of them.

They are tinged in doubt, highlighted with apprehension, and loaded with fear.

Yet I am sure that we all have had them cross our mind before. We may have even gone as far to utter them audibly a time or two.

We all face times in our lives where "things" can cause us to be little fearful. No one is a fan of the unknown. At least I know I am not!

Maybe it is a new job, a new move or an unexpected change. Or it could be something as big as being released from incarceration or treatment and having no inkling as to “what is next”.

And while fearful moments and situations may be inevitable, GOD wants us to be courageous nonetheless!

1 Corinthians 16:13

…stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.

Part of the challenge with that is we often get a little confused about this whole “courage call”.

Courage isn't the absence of fear. Courage means to seize the strength you find within you, to encourage yourself, to be obstinate or steadfastly minded. It doesn't mean being free of fear. It means finding enough strength to take the next step.

And that is crucial, especially when we are facing the unknown or when we feel “over our head” in life.

GOD has promised to instill in us the “en-COURAGE-ment” when we are up against a tough trial or staring down a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Our job is to ignite that encouragement with our FAITH, for FAITH is the antithesis of FEAR.

So lean on your faith and trust that “whatever” you are about to face, GOD will deliver you.

Psalm 97:10

…the LORD…he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them…

And that GOD will give you the needed confidence to see you through!

Ephesians 3:12

…When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go.

Have a blessed and faithful day today!

Yes you can!

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

FALLOUT

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

First, a quick apology and explanation.

THE DISPATCH went dark a couple of days to a little technology error. The technology was my brain and the error was it forgetting to take a laptop to Atlanta and the Catalyst Conference this week.

So please forgive me. (Truth is some of you may not even have noticed…(hahaha)…

One thing is certain however, there was some wonderful knowledge and learning this week at Catalyst. It is a conference on leadership and some of the thought and Holy Spirit inspired insight was astounding. I hope to share some of that in the days to come.

But today I wanted to offer a little encouragement for those experience some “fallout”.

You know fallout. Mistakes have been made, poor judgment was exercised, or you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and made the wrong call and now there is fallout. "The stuff" has hit the fan, the "man" is coming down on you; you know fallout.

In other words, consequences.

And maybe you are feeling like GOD has abandoned ship because your friends did. Maybe you feel like GOD is ignoring your pain so you can suffer a little for what you “did or didn’t” do.

In the midst of this hardship and pain, however, there is a way out. There is relief from the fallout.

We don't have to surrender to our emotions. We can cry out to the Father and acknowledge that He is with us, loving us unconditionally. We can remember that God doesn’t abandon ship, cash out, tap out, throw in the towel, or leave us hanging.

Quite the contrary friends.

Romans 8:31-37

(NCV)

God's Love in Christ Jesus

31 So what should we say about this? If God is for us, no one can defeat us. 32 He did not spare his own Son but gave him for us all. So with Jesus, God will surely give us all things.33 Who can accuse the people God has chosen? No one, because God is the One who makes them right. 34 Who can say God's people are guilty? No one, because Christ Jesus died, but he was also raised from the dead, and now he is on God's right side, appealing to God for us. 35 Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death? 36 As it is written in the Scriptures:

"For you we are in danger of death all the time.

People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed." — Psalm 44:22

37 But in all these things we are completely victorious through God who showed his love for us. 38 Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers,39 nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So even while the fallout may seem overwhelming or the consequence oppressing, this passage is THE TRUTH and it will act as an umbrella and a shield as the fallout cascades or dumps down on to you.

Draw underneath its promise and embrace its sheltering effect.

Psalm 3:3

But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

You will soom emerge from under it and make it!

Have a blessed weekend.

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

JOY JOY JOY

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Do you ever find JOY to be elusive?

Here of late I have been sharing time with folks who are finding joy to be as elusive one of those squirrels or rabbits that get loose on the field at a baseball game. They are desperately trying to catch it, but it just seems to stay just out of their reach.

So I want to offer a little help to them and maybe you today by saying that joy is not elusive at all. Joy is right there for the claiming. Really! It is right there in front of you. Actually it is right there IN you.

YEPPER!

It is because joy is not something we have to catch or a circumstantial feeling, rather joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is produced by Him; a supernatural promise that is deposited into us by Him!

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…

You see, I think the trouble is folks get happiness and joy confused.

Happiness IS “circumstantial” it comes and goes as events change.

Team wins = happiness.

Recognition by others = happiness.

Complete a project = happiness.

Yet JOY, real JOY comes from within. Remember, JOY is SUPERNATURAL! It is a SPIRIT THING not a circumstantial thing.

Nehemiah 8:10

…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

And that makes all the difference.

So when you feel joy being elusive, remember it is there ALL THE TIME, welled up inside of you a part of your SPIRIT!

So let it out!

Remember what GOD has done and is doing in your life!

There’s joy!

Remember the great testimony of someone who is dear to you who have found Jesus and salvation!

There’s joy!

Remember the time that you helped or were helped by another.

There’s joy!

Remember that you are no longer dead in sin but alive in Christ!

There’s joy!

There is an old Sunday school song that I sang as a kid that says I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Where? Down in my heart to stay!

So, joy is not so elusive after all it is there in our hearts to stay!

Romans 15:13

…May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

Have a blessed day!

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

U-N-I

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Yesterday at AHOP in Xenia, Pastor shared a message about UNITY.

He made the correlation that UNITY begins with U-N-I; you and I for those who haven’t had their morning JOE just yet.

And while we all would fundamentally agree that we function better when we are unified, achieving unity is something altogether different. We all have different backgrounds, different cultural ties, different hot buttons and triggers. We all have different preferences and tastes, different goals and different aspirations.

Yet GOD calls us to function in unity. And while GOD crafted each of us differently, He gave us a unified and simple purpose.

Luke 10:27-28

“That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

Yet sometimes that whole “loving your neighbor” thing becomes awfully challenging when we don’t see eye to eye, when our agendas don’t mesh or we aren’t on the same page.

But GOD desires that we embrace and celebrate our uniqueness while functioning in unity. He draws the parallel to our bodies. You remember that analogy right?

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV)

Unity and Diversity in the Body

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are un-presentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

THAT is U-N-I!

So let’s listen to Pastor, Jesus and the WORD today and remember where UNITY begins...with YOU and I!

Romans 15:5

Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

Have a blessed day.

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney