Category: Freedom

His Priceless Gift

Margaret2 Comments

Don’t believe your thoughts when they tell you that you have no choice but to live in bondage. Jesus paid for our freedom the same time he paid for our salvation, and if you are not at a place to believe that you are indeed free, let me share some words from a book I am writing.

Before we can fully understand the freedom given to us by Christ Jesus, the truth of His crucifixion must become so alive in our hearts that we hunger and thirst for the righteousness that is Him, and we develop a longing to abide in His word so strong that we daily crave His presence.  When you deeply fall in love with the Savior who already jealously yet tenderly loves you, then you begin to know the Truth, and it is at this place that you realize the freedom that is Jesus Christ.

Jesus was deeply distressed in the Garden of Gethsemane.  His anguish was so great, Luke tells us, that His sweat was like falling drops of blood.  Three times He asked God to release Him from this mission…but when Jesus prayed “If possible, let this cup pass from Me…” it wasn’t as much about the brutal physicality of the cross as it was the heaviness of the sin that He alone would bear, that only He could bear.  The bodily torture He would face was an unthinkable burden to bear, but his grief was about something far deeper than physical pain, more than the knowledge that He would face the cross alone, that Judas would betray Him, His disciples would forsake Him, that Peter would deny Him. 

There would be the moment while He hung in agony, beaten (Isaiah 52 tells us that His body was marred more than any man), crowned with thorns, and nailed to an unforgiving slab of wood, that He would become a curse for us.  The depths of Hell would reach up and place on Him the unimaginable weight of all sin, past, present, and future, and He would become all of the vile ugliness of the choices mankind had made and would make, even yours and mine, as he hung gasping for breath on the cross. 

With the words, “It is finished,” not one more thing had to be done for our freedom, nothing more from Jesus, and certainly not from us.  The full price had been paid, bought with His blood.  Jesus had humbly and obediently completed everything necessary to buy our salvation and clear the way for our adoption into the family of God as a child of God with all the rights of a child, and a royal child, at that!  The blood shed at Calvary is of much more value than anything we can name or desire, and all that it gives us cannot be fully realized with our human minds.  When we accepted Jesus as our personal savior, His blood justified us (made us righteous in the eyes of God). 

As if salvation wasn’t enough, His blood accomplishes even more:  It sets us free:
►John 8:36 AMP – So if the Son makes you free, then you are unquestionably free.
►Galatians 5:1 NKJV – Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 
►The NLT says it this way: “So Christ has truly set us free, now make sure you stay free…”
How do we stay free?  By fully trusting in the cleansing, liberating power of the blood.

Trust Him.  Believe Him.   Accept His Gift.

University of North Alabama Pink Dogwood Blooms

Well, I don’t know why, Lord.

Margaret2 Comments

Maybe you are not like me and you normally make good decisions, or at least don’t make the same bad ones twice.  Too many times I give in to temptation knowing I’m going to be guilt ridden later, but I do it anyway.  

Later, I exhaust myself thinking about what a stupid that decision was, how it accomplished nothing good, it wasn’t worth it (like any sinful or bad choice is ever “worth it”). No matter how much I dwell on it, I have no explanation for why my brain and body were in the gear of “Go” instead of “No!” Finally, I stop my obsessing about why and say, “I don’t know why, Lord!” But those five little words are packed with guilt and the shame of failure.   If we have repented, holding on to guilt or not forgiving ourselves weighs us down until we stay where we are and grow stagnant, even though God has forgiven us. Accept His forgiveness and move on.

Sometimes I amaze myself…actually, I dismay myself…with how little effort I put into not following through with a sinful idea before it becomes an action…and I’m not just talking about gluttony. It hit me one day: I have to guard what I am thinking about at all times so that when I am at the crossroad of Good and Bad Decisions, I have integrity before the Lord with the choices I make.

Instead of: “I know I shouldn’t, but I’m going to do it this one (more) time.” I will say:  “I know I shouldn’t, so I am not going to.”

By the way, the stinking thinking that put us at the crossroad where we make those wrong decisions didn’t just suddenly crop up out of nowhere.  We were entertaining things we should have taken authority over long before we got to that point.  

I’m not sure if thistle is a week for a wildflower. I know some really pretty finches will come visit your bird feeder when it is full of thistle seed.
If it is a week, it’s a rather pretty weed. These photos were taken in Tennessee.

Monday Musings: The Great Habit Exchange

Margaret2 Comments
Sunset on Fort Walton Beach

I spent a few days in Fort Walton Beach, Florida last week. I’m not usually a beach lover, I tend to be a mountain girl, but who doesn’t like the roar of the ocean, the birds, and the beautiful sunsets and sun rises every now and then?
As I was editing the photos for this blog, what I remembered most about the sunset was all the time I spent snapping pictures, instead of sitting back to enjoy the disappearing sun and the sound of the waves. Like the time I spent trying to get the perfect image, I realized that I’d spent a lot of my life trying to accomplish something for the future, but not enjoying life right now. It’s a little phenomenon I call living in the future.
For me, it is all the time I wasted trying lose weight believing that next year, when I’ve reached my weight loss goal, I’ll do this, or go there, or go see my old friend who I’ve avoided because I didn’t like my weight. True friends wouldn’t care about my size!

Gulls in the sand

Around a year ago, I had a profound experience where God began to answer my years of prayers for freedom. I have learned so much since then. Some of it has been some hard lessons about choices, habits, personal responsibility, and change. Change often involves a bit of crucifying of self, and that, my friends, is difficult and painful.

Sand weeds (I have no idea what they might be called.)

Something I was reminded of in Florida is just how easy it is to slip back into old habits. They are so welcoming and comfortable! The more I learn about freedom, the more aware I become of my personal responsibility and my choices. I went to the beach without a plan in place, and I acted just like a girl without a plan. I didn’t weigh this morning…my scales are broken. Thankfully! If I can’t prove I’ve gained any weight, it must not be true, right? No? :::Oh:::
Once while discussing weight loss with a friend, I argued freedom didn’t include a diet plan. She quoted the scripture, “Without a vision (plan), the people perish.” I countered that our hope wasn’t in a diet, but in Him. We may have both been right.
We do need a plan. The plan needs to include a complete power exchange. Instead of letting bad habits have the control, we take control of our habits. Bad habits don’t change themselves, and they don’t let go of us easily. That’s where God’s beautiful grace comes in.

This view is five floors up, and it is my favorite memory of the trip. I spent some quality time with God here, looking out over the ocean.

I’m not saying you should ditch your diet plan. But if you have repeatedly lost weight and regained it using the same plan, it’s not working for you. If it was, you (and I) would be thin by now. Getting to know your appetite, pinpointing your bad habits, and figuring out which good habits to replace them with takes patience and perseverance. It is a process, but once the power exchange has taken place, it is no longer a struggle. You really are in control, not your appetite, no matter what your appetite is yelling at you. Over the next few months, I’m going to be working on Habit Builders like the ones below. I sure hope you join me. Five for Five. Five good habit for five days….the first one should always include God.

The Emerald Coast water tower in the distance

Five for Five Suggestions:

  • Give a sincere, head bowed, eyes closed blessing over your food, not just a quick “Thank you, Lord,” as you pop the first bite in your mouth. Take a moment of true gratitude. Not everyone has something to eat today.
  • Start off with smaller portions.
  • Slow down!   Chew more.   Put that fork down between bites.
  • Remind yourself often, “I am not a glutton. I am free from the chains of sin because of the cross of Jesus Christ.”
  • No sugar (cookies, cakes, candy)
  • No junk food (chips, colas, snack crackers, etc.)
  • Choose to not be a glutton…which is a LOT easier with no sugar and no junk food.
  • Read scripture every day, even if it is just one Psalm or one chapter in Proverbs. (This should be a life-long commitment, even if you are extremely busy, or on vacation, or whatever.) If you are going to skip something, skip a meal, not Scripture.

If you are interested in reading more about Five for Five, I wrote about it HERE.

Weight Loss for Christians…because it’s Monday.

Margaret8 Comments

Do you really want to know how to lose weight?
Just do it.

I can’t think of a sin other than gluttony that I have ever condoned continuing until Monday. If I say a not-nice word when I stub my toe, I don’t walk around the rest of the day dropping F bombs because I said “gosh darn it” (or worse) before breakfast. I don’t spend the weekend cussing everyone out, even if they make me mad. If I realize there was a tube of lipstick under my purse in my shopping cart that I didn’t pay for, I take it back inside immediately. I don’t go on a shop-lifting spree.

But somehow it’s permissible to be a glutton, at least until Monday. Maybe I stopped for a high calorie, high fat fast food combo breakfast, and after berating myself, I would think, “I might as well pig out for the rest of the day and start again tomorrow.” However, “the rest of the day” normally lasted until…Monday. And on Monday, I would try one of the various diets, or if I was feeling a little more industrious, one of the “lifestyle changes” I’d tried and failed at many times before. Diets are bad for your mental health. All of them.

I say this all the time because it’s true: If you want to lose weight, find the way that works for you, and do that. Other than the first week or two, it is going to be a slow process. Accept that truth and move toward a healthier you. When you are healthier, you feel better. When you feel better you have more confidence. With more confidence, you find yourself stepping out and doing God’s will for your life in an open and public way, living your life so that others desire the Christ in you.

Today is Monday..but it wouldn’t matter if it was Saturday. Somebody said it well years ago:

Today is the first day
of the rest of your life.

  • If your first thought is “I can’t do this.” You are wrong, Jesus says you can. You are free because Christ paid the highest price for your freedom. You may not feel free right now, but as a believer, your first job is to believe what God’s word says about you: If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36) Also: The Messiah has set us free so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. So keep on standing firm in it, and stop putting yourselves under the yoke of slavery again. (Galatians 5:1 ISV) Stop being a slave to your appetite!
  • Step Two is to stop making it about the weight. Yes, you need to be the healthiest version of you, but stop making the number on the scale or the view in the mirror your main focus. Make Relationship with your creator your number one priority.
  • If your Monday finds you automatically planning to go on the same diet you’ve tried 130 times before “because it is the only thing that works for you,” but you are still overweight and obsessing about the number on the scale, time 131 won’t work, either. The truth is that diets don’t work. A successful, happy life comes from one better choice after another. Stop thinking you can’t and KNOW that you really are in control of your flesh! Your flesh only calls the shots when you let it. God didn’t give us a free will to have us hand it over to the greed of our appetites! Get pumped knowing you get to call all the shots when it comes to what goes into your mouth. Instead of giving in with “I know I shouldn’t” and popping it in your mouth, end that thought with, “so I am not going to today.” Get used to being the boss! You can do it!
  • Spend some time getting to know yourself, specifically foods you like and foods you don’t. When did eating a grapefruit you don’t like for breakfast ever lead to health or weight loss? When you are free to eat  normal servings of foods you like, you won’t spend most of your day obsessing over every morsel that goes into your mouth.
  • Get off the junk food. If you are eating sweets, chips, and fast food all the time, you will not want healthy food. You will want more sugar and high fatty food. That’s a fact. It’s like your spiritual food…if you fill up on junk TV and cheating songs, you aren’t going to want to sit down and study God’s word. Reading the Bible is imperative for a healthy relationship with the One who can make you all He planned for you to be.

It’s Monday. Take the next five days and commit to some better choices. Choose four or five of the following (or make up your own) and COMMIT to those choices. You can do anything for five days! And maybe you’ll find yourself on the way to some better habits….and weight loss. The goal here is to get accustomed to a healthier lifestyle and begin to do it automatically. We aren’t trading one obsession (all can I eat in a day) for the obsession of monitoring every bite you take. Next week, spend less time thinking about your next meal, it and more living your good life.  Good decision examples:

  • Give a sincere, head bowed, eyes closed blessing over your food, not just a quick “Thank you, Lord,” as you pop the first bite in your mouth. Take a moment of true gratitude. Not everyone has something to eat today.
  • Start off with smaller portions.
  • Don’t eat from the package.
  • Slow down!   Chew more.   Put that fork down between bites.
  • Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full. You can more easily ascertain when you are getting if you are eating slowly. (However, if you plan to eat at noon, and you experience a hunger pang at 11 a.m., make your flesh wait until noon. You are in control!)
  • Remind yourself often, “I am not a glutton. I am free from the chains of sin because of the cross of Jesus Christ.”
  • No sugar (cookies, cakes, candy)
  • No junk food (chips, colas, snack crackers, etc.)
  • Choose to not be a glutton…which is a LOT easier with no sugar and no junk food.
  • Read scripture every day, even if it is just one Psalm or one chapter in Proverbs. (This should be a life-long commitment, even if you are extremely busy, or on vacation, or whatever.) If you are going to skip something, skip a meal, not Scripture.
  • Enjoy your food…again, easy to do when you slow down.
  • Don’t eat a meal in your car.
  • Pack your lunch instead of eating it in a restaurant.
  • Skip the fast food, even the “healthy” options.
  • Eat at least two healthy choices per day, such as a fruit and a vegetable.
  • Fast lunch every day Monday – Friday. Use that time in Bible study and prayer.
  • Fast for 24 hours:  An easy first-time way to do that is sundown to sundown.
  • Get educated on nutrition, not diets, so that you can make informed decisions about what you are eating, and let good choices become a habit.
  • Move. Walk more. Make a real effort to just move more. Use your fitbit or Garmin, or buy a good pedometer and walk at least 5000 steps, which is much easier than you think.

Which four or five do you choose? Remember, the goal is change, not losing weight. Losing weight is a side effect of the ever-elusive change we crave. This is one of the few times a side effect is desirable! You are in control! You can make some good choices and start a new life today so that “healthier” becomes second nature. Your first nature should be the nature of Jesus Christ.

Stop trying to lose weight. Start working on changing your focus. Your best you is the you God wrote about in His book. (Psalm 139:16)

My photos are from Rock Springs Nature Trail, Natchez Trace Parkway.