LOVE, Period.

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?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

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.

Why do we do it?

Obligation?

Fear of consequence? Habit?

We know it is the right “thing” to do?

Why be obedient to God? What is your driving force?

Parents did? Because that “pastor fella” told you it was the way to go?

Go ahead. Ask yourself.

Then I want you to look at what Jesus considers to be “proper motivation” for our dedication.

John: 14:15, 21, 23, 24; 15:10

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments…He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…He who does not love Me does not keep My words…If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.

By George there it is!

Commitment to God is the natural expression of our love for Him! Any other reason just won’t do.

As you read over that little combo passage above, you’d almost get the impression that Jesus thought we were a little daft. I mean take a look how many times he drives this “love me” point home. But He knows how easily we miss it! He knows how easily we will “warp our walk”with other motivators and "obligators"; stressing over rules and succumbing to fear.

He wants it simple. Love me. Just love me. The rest will fall into place when you do.

Mark 12:30

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart

You see I view this little excerpt from John as one of those great “reset” passages, a place to reboot the brain or refocus our walk. It is the passage to turn to when our “desire”to be obedient is waning or our walk with Him is floundering. It is the place to go when we are worn out from "doing Christian".

For when we are struggling with our obedience or losing our focus we should not look for the solution in our willpower but rather rediscover it in our love-relationship with Jesus. The whole point of our Christian life is walking close to Jesus, not straining to meet a standard, or following Christian rules, or abstaining from certain things. Those issues matter, but they are not the heart of the Christian life.

The core of Christianity is for us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength period.

Matthew 22:37 (AMP)

37 And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).

When that happens, obedience and commitment will not be something we have to force out; they will overflow as the natural result of our love.

So what do you say, let's love Him today.

Have a blessed day!

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

"GROWTH SPURT"

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?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

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.

Stopped to say goodbye to a “2^nd”timer last night on her way out of FREEDOM and after the pleasantries and as I encouraged her to come back she said something interesting to me. She said she had picked our little fellowship hoping for a “growth spurt”. She said she was feeling like her recovery was stagnating a little and it needed a kick.

We all need that from time to time don’t we?

A little jolt. Our “passion buckets” refilled. Our flame to be fanned.

Truth is we do have seasons and lulls in our recovery and in our walk with Christ and sometimes our fire and our passion needs a little new kindling, or we need to go looking for a little “growth spurt”. I mean we all experience times and seasons where our growth stalls or our spirit cools a bit. It can and does happen to everyone.

Maybe we are overly distracted with the “stuff” of life. Maybe we have suffered an unexpected disappointment or a missed expectation. Or maybe we have let our discipline slip a little: spend a little less time in Scripture or perhaps start missing fellowship more frequently. Maybe we decide to volunteer less. Or we allow our prayer time to go stale and is leveraged only for emergencies.

Whatever the “cause”, we must be on guard for those stunted season or those cooling off periods.

Paul saw the potential for “cooling off” in Timothy and offered this admonition.

1 Timothy 1:6-7

⁶ That is why I want you to remember the gift God gave you. God gave you that gift when I laid my hands on you. Now I want you to use that gift and let it grow more and more, like a small flame grows into a fire. ⁷ The Spirit God gave us does not make us afraid. His Spirit is a source of power and love and self-control.

Drifting, stagnation, cooling off; however you characterize it, while not uncommon can be dangerous for the recovering.

So I want to encourage you. If you feel you are “cooling off” or if you feel your growth has temporarily peaked, fan that Spiritual flame again. If your fire needs stoking, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how.

Don’t let life or circumstances impede your progress or douse your enthusiasm!

Romans 13:11-14
But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute...

Keep growing. Keep the fire burning!

Have a blessed day!

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

FROM LUSTFUL to LASTING

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?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

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.

1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

Man, that is a tough order isn’t it? I mean let’s be brutally honest for a second; we are naturally drawn to these “world things” aren’t we?

And what a powerful pull those “things”can have over us huh?

So much so that this verse tags them as “lusts”and those are defined as:

...a passionate or overmastering desire or craving…

Whew...

Yet given that definition, these “lusts” are nothing new to the recovering.

Trust me.

And also trust me when I say just because we have chosen a path of recovery do they decide to stop re-surfacing or distracting us.

Just look at that definition again. It sound like something we have “struggled with” before?

Craving?

Yep!

Overmastering desire (even when we know it is detrimental to our walk, our recovery, our relationships, our marriages, and our GODLY connection)?

Yep.

These lusts are damaging, relentless and at times overpowering.

The trouble is they seem to be “natural” at times don’t they?

"The lust of the flesh" (desire for physical pleasure), "the lust of the eyes" (desire for things we see) and "the boastful pride of life" (the desire to be right, to be popular, to be in control, to be important) — these things come very naturally to us.

I know these make up the top 3 for me, especially that “boastful pride” trap.

And even when we know better, take steps to guard against them, put barriers up, spend time in our Word, exercise our spirits, they still seem to trip us up from time to time.

But we are not alone. The Apostle Paul had his “moments” too.

Romans 7:18

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁸ And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t.

But we MUST take the steps necessary to beat back those little lusts, those cravings, those “mind-mastering” things and we do so by remembering WHAT is important in life.

Not the instantaneous gratifications and fulfilments these little lusts bring but rather those things that matter; GOD, our future in Him, our opportunities for abundant life, and His grace.

Our thoughts must move from the LUSTFUL to the LASTING if we are to truly be free.

Philippians 4:8(NIV)

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

We have to purposefully set our minds and hearts on "the love of the Father" and actively decide each moment to live for God.

It is the only way to lock down the “lusts”.

Have a blessed day!

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

HEAVENLY FATHER

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?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

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.

1 John 3:1 NLT

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

Who is your daddy?

Very often our picture of God, our heavenly Father, is shaped by the behavior of our earthly father. A godly father will influence his children to trust in a loving heavenly Father. But many children have grown into adulthood with a distorted view of God our Father because they could not trust their earthly father.

I know this to be very true to many of my folks seeking recovery. Mention the word “father” and immediately they are transported back to a place doused in negativity, pain and sadness. Sadly for some the word "father" brings to mind someone who was abusive, neglectful, or not there when they needed him and this has created a "father vacuum"; a wall between them and their earthly father and a distorted view of a heavenly Father they cannot accept.

It makes it tough when we are asking folks to “submit” to a higher power, a heavenly Father, to meet their needs and usher them into peace, comfort, joy, sobriety, and love when the only context of father for them is the POLAR OPPOSITE.

And while no father can or ever could compare with our heavenly Father because no earthly father is perfect, the heavenly Father is capable of filling that void, of handling our hurts, of bringing healing and peace to our chaotic and painful times.

The Word says so.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5
[ The Rescue ] All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

As Father’s Day approaches on Sunday, I want you to fix your thoughts on the character of our heavenly Father. Put down the biases and the bitterness that may be conjured up in your mind when you think of the word father and instead embrace the traits of our “ultimate” Father. Things like:

A Father who is there for us...

Ezekial 48:35

…The Lord is there.

A Father who is our refuge in time of trouble…

Psalm 46:1 (KJV)

46 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

A Father who will never abandon you…

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NLV)

…For the Lord your God is the One Who goes with you. He will be faithful to you. He will not leave you alone.”

A Father who loves you in ways you can’t even begin to fathom…

Ephesians 1:3-6
[ The God of Glory ] How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by hislove. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Now that is your Daddy…

Thought I would close the week with a little link for the dads.

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/18881/A-Very-Special-Daddy

Have a blessed weekend!

Happy Father’s Day.

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

WEED WORK

One of the most challenging things in recovery is dealing with the fallout from past choices. In 12 step vernacular it is this whole notion of “inventory”. The thought is that now that we have stepped away from our compulsion or more accurately put, our disobedience and sin, it is time to turn around and take a fearless look at the “damage”our past choices have made and learn from them.

Let me tell you it can be a scary and even overwhelming process.

To paint a picture, that process is like sifting through a garbage dump or being faced with acres of landscape that has grown over with weeds and needs clearing.

It is a “painful process” yet it is so important to moving forward.

In essence, we “NEED TO WEED”.

And no, I didn’t say we have the need FOR weed it is not 4:20 in the afternoon (recovery reference J) but we need TO weed.

We need to take a few moments each day to weed out all the greed, worry, fear, selfishness, cynicism, self-pity, and other negative tendencies that may have taken root in our hearts. We need to clear our minds and spirits of those sinful tendencies of the past. We need to purge those sneaky sins of selfishness. They all have to be weeded out in order for us to clear the deck for GOD to plant and cultivate new habits and new characteristics like joy, peace, and most importantly for us who have been “over-grown”with compulsion, self-control.

Ephesians 4:20-24
…everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

And GOD has equipped us with the ULTIMATE WEED WHACKER...confession.

For GOD promises restoration when we confess, in other words He promises to restore the landscape of our lives when we “weed”.

James 5:16 (AMP)

¹⁶ Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].

Now I will be the first to say, it is no fun to confess that I WAS wrong and that I will get things wrong again today. It is no fun to face that landscape of weeds each and every day. I know have a ton of them still strewn over my life and unfortunately have some pesky ones that even when I pull them up they continue to resurface and ugly up the place all over again.

But we have to keep weeding.

I am not going to sugar coat it, WEEDING is a strenuous and often painful process. Facing bad consequences, dealing with the fallout of poor decisions or to trying to reconcile broken or bent relationships is no picnic. But it is worth it! It does draw us closer to GOD.

1 Peter 4:2

…Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

So if you are like me and have some daily “WEED-WORK” to do, don’t be discouraged. It is the process to real FREEDOM, the Word says so. Fill your mind with the truth and remember you are forgiven and fearlessly face that landscape and get to WEEDING.

1 John 2:12
I remind you, my dear children: Your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name.

Have a blessed day!

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

A LITTLE KINDNESS PERHAPS?

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?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

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.

Come on my recovery friends...repeat after me, the words should slide off the tongue with little to no effort...

Galatians 5:13 (MSG)

^13-15It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.

What do you have planned today? Does it include “serving another in love”?

I know, I know you are extremely busy today; errands to run, practices to attend, lots and lots of STUFF.

But can I encourage you to grab your day planner and look for some white space or a gap in today’s proceedings and get creative.

Got time to pray for someone? Got time to make an encouraging phone call? Got time to drop your change in the Ronald McDonald house container at the drive thru? (I am sure Josh, Jill, London and little Judah would thank you for that.)

Come on, you have got a little random act of kindness just waiting to be exercised!

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ----Leo Buscaglia

Remember

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” ― Aesop

How about we try today; to find that spot for an act of kindness?

For when you do, you are taking on the very character of Christ.

Philippians 2:7-8(MSG)

^5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life…

Jesus served.

Period.

And so can we.

You don’t need a degree to serve or any special training or class-work. It just takes awareness. Look around you. The needs are there. Serve one.

I uncovered this little tidbit from Max Lucado this morning and I loved it…

He says:

Love the overlooked. Jesus sits in your classroom, wearing the thick glasses, outdated clothing, and a sad face. You’ve seen him. He’s Jesus.

Jesus works in your office. Pregnant again, she shows up to work late and tired. No one knows the father. According to water-cooler rumors, even she doesn’t know the father. You’ve seen her. She’s Jesus.

When you talk to the lonely student, befriend the weary mom, you love Jesus. He dresses in the garb of the overlooked and ignored. “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40 MSG).

You can do that. Even if your sweet spot has nothing to do with encouraging others, the cure for the common life involves loving the overlooked. “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort” (1 Cor. 15:58 MSG).

...A good action not only brings good fortune, it brings God’s attention. He notices the actions of servants. He sent his Son to be one.

So what do you say today?

Serve another in love? It will get GOD’s attention!

I love you all.

Have a blessed day!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

FIRED UP!

Pastor GDelaney

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?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

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.

Let’s get fired up! Fired up for victory!

I don’t know if many of you know it but my wife before she became this amazing clinician, professor, and palliative care superstar was a “cheerleader”. Yep, it is true; “herky” jumps and all, she was a “rah-rah girl”. I mean our romance was the ultimate cliché’. Soccer captain dates cute blonde cheerleader. It was right out of central casting.

I know what you are thinking, I am making this up. But she wasn’t always so cerebral and I not always so “roly and poly”.

But I wanted to channel a little of Beth’s old cheerleading energy this morning and encourage you to “get fired up”,fired up for what GOD is doing and what he is about to do today!

Psalm 105:1-6
Hallelujah! Thank God! Pray to him by name! Tell everyone you meet what he has done! Sing him songs, belt out hymns, translate his wonders into music! Honor his holy name with Hallelujahs, you who seek God. Live a happy life! Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works; be alert for signs of his presence. Remember the world of wonders he has made, his miracles,

Stir up some enthusiasm! Too often I think we get so bogged down with life that we need a little cheerleading to “fire us” back up!

So what do you say? Let’s get excited!

1 Peter 1:13-15 MSG

“...roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.

When we fan the flames of enthusiasm for Christ, our faith serves as a beacon to others. Our world and others on this recovery journey desperately need faithful believers who share the Good News of Jesus with joyful exuberance. Be such a believer. The world desperately needs your enthusiasm—now!

“Big Billy” said it this way...”One of the great needs in the church today is for every Christian to become enthusiastic about his faith in Jesus Christ.” –Billy Graham

Truth is the stronger and more energetic your faith, the better you can rise above the inevitable stresses of turbulent times, the better you can beat the “bogged down” days. And the more enthused you are about your faith, the better you can share it with others! And that is what we are to be doing right?

So ask yourself this morning, are you genuinely excited about your faith? And do you make your enthusiasm known to those around you?

If not…let’s get fired up for we have won the victory!

Psalm 96:2-3

Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea, Take the news of his glory to the lost, News of his wonders to one and all!

I love you all.

Have a blessed day!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney