"Stick with Me kid, I'll take you places"

I know it's labor day, I hope you are getting the rest you need.  I have been traveling down memory lane lately and found this.  This is my most embarrassing work.  Finding it has caused a great concern.

Why am I concerned about this video making the rounds again?  I reminds me that I have been a bit calloused toward my freedom, perhaps I haven't celebrated God's work enough.  Friends, a look back will always remind you of the journey in which you have just overcome.  Reminders are good in that it helps you stay where you need to stay, in a place of overcoming a huge battle to victorious living.

Today I once again, on this Labor day, celebrate my freedom from food in finding that freedom God's way.

Overcoming a life long battle of the bulge is dreamy and something I have been longing for...well, a life-time.  May I never go back to being a slave to food.  No longer will I hide behind my own imperfections.  I don't speak about it often but it's time to let this little secret out.

I don't have a big story to tell but I do have a big story of God's telling in my struggle of how I have overcome a HUGE battle, one that has plagued me since I was born, or at least since I can remember.  In the losing of 132 lbs. of excess weight, I have uncovered a new me.

Guess what friends, I am not chopped liver.  I am a lovely redeemed daughter of the King and am free to tell His glory story.  I am free.  No longer do I have to make food behave because I have learned to behave myself around food.  Addictions of any kind are just that, addictions, and we all have them.  Mine doesn't make me better than you nor more shameful.  I was just desperate enough to seek God's deliverance from it and in my searching, God revealed His loving character and truth.

I had been looking for love in all the wrong places.  There is hope for all of us, the least of us, the lost part of our dreams, and the last in line.  There is hope.  Jesus says to his friends, "You are truly my disciples if you live as I tell you to, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ~ John 8:31-32 (TLB)

The Janelle Keith paraphrased version is this:  "Stick with Me kid, I'll take you places"

I am free indeed, and I have hope.  It's come with a great price but every step has been worth it when you see from where you came from to your new place in this world.

Freedom changes everything, one decision changes everything, small changes add up to make a big difference.  The results are worth it, the courage and bravery I have found in me are refreshing and oh so lovely.

Freedom, truth and courage run hand in hand.  Run with me to the land of courage of being honest with yourself to take a look at where you have been, and to discover God's best life for you, and where He wants to take you to, the land of truth and freedom.

Here is where I once was, my most embarrassing moment.    Below see the me that has been set free.

What your freedom needs

No more shackles

My word for 2014 is freedom.

It's one thing to say it's a big undiscovered word for a whole year.

BUT....

It's completely another thing to live in your word.  So how does a follower of Christ live in freedom?

Here's what I found...you stop looking for it and you speak it to every part of your life, your being, your spirit, and believe that it IS yours.  

I'm not a freedom seeker any more but a freedom speaker.

Yes, my language has changed.  In my search for freedom in each and every part of my life, in my soul, in my heart, in my thinking I have found the opposite of freedom to be true.  

That's when it hit me there was an absence of freedom until I allowed God to invade my soul, my heart, my mind with His perfect freedom.

I had to do something, and in obedience I speak freedom to the things that have held me captive.

Do you realize how captivating God's words are when are a slave to the lies of the enemy?

The Bible is a like a liberating wholistic truth that will make you re-think the ways you have thought about your entire life.

2 Corinthians 5:10  "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

I wrestle with lies just like you.  I wrestle with freedom from sin just like you.  I wrestle with truth just like you.

But from my wrestling, God has shown me victory in so many areas of freedom that I am not a slave to wrestling with it anymore.  Why would we want to wrestle with freedom, when it's so free and available for all?  My mind is sore and raw from being chained from the lies of the enemy who wants me bound and powerless.

So how did I get free?  How do you get free?

I put my way of thinking before judge Jesus.  I marched my lies that I had been living in to the big wooden bench of God and asked in prayer...was this right?  was this true?  is this necessary?

Guess what the verdict was....

Slavery is a argument dressed in very attractive clothes that smothers and opposes right thinking.  It binds us from the truth that we need to live a life of freedom.  It oppresses our brains with half-truths that shut us down to remain overwhelmed and bound to fear.  We tend to succumb to the mental and emotional prison of a dark, damp cell with our thoughts going deeper and darker to depression.

Being bound by the lies of the enemy is a very dark and dangerous place.

That's why freedom is so great, God's truth frees us.  It's freeing me.  It can free you.

I challenge you to take the lie that Satan is whispering to your heart right now and march it up to God's word and ask the same wrestling question of "true-right-necessary".  Tell me in the comments on what God shows you as you lay that out before Him.

God's truths are the key to your chains, nothing compares to the freedom that He has for all of us.  You say you don't know where to start?  Read Ephesians.  All of it, the whole book, in different versions.  You will find a great start of freedom there to dispell the lies we have swallowed in regards to holy living.

(Let me know when you are done wrestling with Paul's version of freedom, then I'll direct you to more freedom.)

If you believe in God, then He is at the end of your struggles, issues, hiccups and hang-ups.  His truth will pave the way to your freedom, but you can't just pin it there and walk away.  You have to speak freedom God's way into your life.  

And you have to walk by faith and believe God for your freedom.

I know that God is my perfect freedom that gives life to my freedom.  My language changed from being bound and seeking freedom, to speaking freedom into my life and living in perfect freedom everyday.

That doesn't mean that I don't wrestle still, but I'm applying the truth that is victorious in my soul, my heart, and my mind.  My mind has been renewed and revived by wrestling and applying victorious freedom God's way.

The verdict of slavery all boils down to letting God into our issues and showing us our sin and then speaking life to it.

I am free.  That means I am believing by faith that freedom has been won on the cross.  My sin, my cross, my freedom was won in the sacrifice of Jesus.  The cross of Jesus is mine, and for my freedom, for my reconciliation.

My freedom is in Christ.  Christ is free, I am free because Christ dwells richly within me.

Speaking freedom to myself is life-giving and renews my slave thinking into God's freedom with His renewed thinking.  

Romans 12: 2 "Don't copy the the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (NLT)

Proverbs 18:21  "The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences."  (NLT)

Freedom is mine and it can be yours.  Speaking it to yourself will change your language too.

I am not a freedom seeker, but a freedom speaker.  This song speaks freedom to me.

Open for my Father's business

My friend wrote on Facebook about her sweet little daughter who started a business.  I wondered if that was a secret dream of hers.  We all have them you know and I am amazed when I consider that God holds our dreams too.  

Sometimes God uses our dreams to teach us.  And we get more than what we signed up for.

I didn't sign up for hard days of wrestling with my thoughts and those restless nights of wonder.  

I didn't sign up for true confessions and lonely days where I find myself laid bare.

What I wanted was the easy road where my best words flowed.

God understands that I want to do the work that matters.

I didn't sign up for God to shake my world in showing me how He is unshakable.

I didn't sign up for God to direct my dreams in showing me His determined steps.

I didn't sign up for His will to override mine but I've torn up my agenda to match His.  

I didn't know I was signing up for this full surrender.

I didn't sign up for the lonely walk with God as I submitted my dream to Him.

I didn't sign up for the raw moments of confession as He speaks truth in my healing.

I didn't sign up for the admission of the negatives which have brought so much positive.

I didn't sign up for this but I did.

I prayed to be God's voice.  I signed up for Him to change my language.

I trusted God with my dream and prayed a Spirit-filled prayer.

I signed up for walking with God in my dreams.  I prayed for God to show me what it means.

I signed up for submitting to my Author and Perfecter of my faith.  He has given me the permission to write with Authority and Honor.

I signed up for making a difference in the lives of others.  He's marked my life with truth and holy fear.  

I signed up to be used to build God's kingdom, God gave me a mission field at the end of my nose.

I signed up for what I thought was my dreamy dreams.  He gave me His greater plan.

I signed up to trust and obey, but I didn't sign up for the freedom those words would bring.

When you resign yourself to the will of God, then you signed up for full surrender to His greater plans for you.  You signed up for letting Him define what greater plans are ahead, not the finite plans that your heart wonders about.  

Isaiah 61:1  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon Me, for the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent Me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed."

What we don't know is how from our small seed of faith, we have signed up for resignation to His power, control, agenda and plans over your dreams.

My prayer:  Dear God, In the raw places of faith, bring your new beginnings, truth and honor.  Show me what it means to follow You.  Show me what your truth is in the tenderness of new beginnings.  Show your heart, and thank you for letting my heart collide with yours.  I will follow you, seek your Kingdom, your righteousness, and your freedom in learning truth.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Freedom comes...even in your dreams...

The Blame Game - How do you play?

I'm a star player in the biggest blame game known to man.  I seem to get into trouble a lot... or at least it feels like I do.  

Saying I am wrong is not hard for me, in fact I say it too much.  But can I just be honest with you?  Um....wait....I don't know if I can...you might think my heart is puffed up, and my head is even a bigger puffed up.  

Please know this, that I say and do plenty of wrongs, many, many times myself.  This is something that I pray through constantly.  When it comes to seeing my flaws, I see those oh so readily.  When it comes to playing the blame game I am the first one to pick myself and to volunteer for the blame game duty.  And I am insecure and fearful that I am blamed for a lot that I don't even know about.  I am not sure when I signed up for this blame-game-that-kicks-me-in-the-pants-every-day-gig, but I have been in this competition for a long time.  

Wouldn't it be more fun to talk about what I found on sale at the Dollar General store yesterday?  Um....for me it would.

Taking the dangerous path of the blame game can only lead to conflict.  With others and within yourself.  So I have two choices:  

I can take the path of prideful heart and focus plainly and specifically on the faults of others and refuse to have any responsibility in the conflict at all.

Or....

I can take the way of the humble heart and admit that I am wrong when I am wrong.  And not compound my issue of assuming the guilt of others. Believe me I have enough faults of my own, I don't need to carry yours as well.

Yesterday freedom came in this verse.  

Romans 8:1  "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  

If Jesus doesn't blame me for my faults, then why do I condemn me for my faults?  God knows I am a sinful person, that's why He sent Jesus.  So why do I blame myself, or blame others?  Because.... I say to myself..."someone has to take the hit."  God's response was...  "Someone has already taken the hit..."

What I learned in this verse was that I should not be a gamer in any blame.  I can't assign blame.  That's not my job, my job is to love God, act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8).  If I am loving God first and foremost, then I can bow out of the line of fire when fingers are pointed at myself nor point fingers at others....because God doesn't casts blame.  He doesn't see that in me, he sees me through the filter of blood with Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  Listen....He doesn't cast blame on you either.

Sure,  I can own up to my responsibility in causing a conflict or issue if my behavior has caused it.  Do you see the freedom in God's grace?  With the understanding of this verse and when I'm not a player the blame game, I am giving myself and others a gift.  I am releasing the burden of judgment of the situation/issue/problem to where it belongs...to God...who doesn't casts blame.

So how will I do this?  I will practice this prayer...

"God, your Word says that you do not find condemnation in my sin.  Your Love took that away on the cross.  The work of Jesus was good and final.  So there is no part in me blaming myself or me blaming others that has a part in honoring You.  Show me what to do, with the frustrations that I feel when  something goes wrong.  God please soften my heart so that I can feel your resolutions to anger, frustrations, insecurities and pride.  Help me to cut through the assumptions and wrong thinking that tend to shut me down and apologize excessively.  Help me to honor you in all my actions, words and deeds."

How do you handle blame?

There's No Way I Am Leaving

My child-like journey of knowing God 

It was in a regular Sunday message where God touched this deep hungry nerve in my heart to know Him more.  It was on that day I had to make a choice to be devoted in my efforts to do so.  If I really wanted it bad enough,  I had to make some changes to make it happen.   

To know more about God, I had to put God as my priority.  

I needed to absorb more truth but also I needed to be a doer of the what the Bible said.  I needed more God in my everyday life.  I needed to stop dancing around church and get into verses that would rejuvenate.   I needed God's power to transform.

He only asks one thing of me.  To make Him first.  To look upon His holy face in relation to the pages of my life.   So I chose God over sleep.  

It's my daily choice to pray, to read God's words back to me, it's my choice to make time for God in the early part of my day.

God's truth is found in His holy and inspired words.  My pastor spoke of what a difference this made in his life.  And that day...it was enough to make me want it too.  

I have found that the more I spend time with God, the more I need to hear from Him on everything.  It has made a profound difference in my understanding.  So here's the part where I tell you there have been a lot of lies that  have been uncovered from my past that God has revealed to my heart and I am now processing.  I am "burning plows" so to speak and getting rid of those lies, and letting God's healing grace take me to my new spiritual places of freedom.  

My embedded lies are met with this:  

"If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness; we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."  1 John 1: 5-6 

Away in His word places...I find light.  I find freedom.  I find escape from this world that weighs me down.  I find His grace that transforms.  The distance is bridged from my heart to His.  I find I can just be me.  I find His truth to be liberating.  I find promises for my future and for my today. I find God.  And as I find God, he takes me by the hand and shows me His way.  He is the Way, the Truth, my Life.

I find He is with me even when my heart is succumbed to lies of this world.  I find mercy to match every lie I have swallowed.  I find Him waiting with open arms to receive.  When I find His truth, I find a deep inner peace.  I find a Lifeline.  I cling to His love as He changes me.  I find His light that illuminates into those horrible lies and dispels them.  I find what my raw emotions are crying for.  I find calmness for my last nerve.  I find a bridge over these trouble filled waters of my soul.   

Your love is the reason I am free.

I am running to you.

You are all I need.

You are the only for me.

Your Love is Alive and living in me.

There has been a lot of changes that have come from this journey, worth the start, worth the effort, and I have found so much worth it makes my heart crumble.  
There is no way I am leaving now.

Music Monday [Letting Go]

Free falling

The other day I set a Favorite Song Alert to this song...Letting Go by Stephanie Smith.  I don't want to miss this song when it comes on the radio.  It's a reminder of what God is trying to teach me, to let go and trust Him.  So far...and I've read the Book, and in trusting God....He wins everytime.  Daily I get the opportunity to let God control something. I'm pretty sure that is His plan for my life.  The Heavens know that I am pretty good botching things...so I am rather thankful that I can't control my world.  Last time I looked God is doing good at that.  


There are times that I like to think I know what I am doing...and then it's in those times that God will ask me a simple question...Do you trust me?  When you are faced with a closed door, those are hard to handle.  When I can't see the key to unlock the mystery that is Christ, he gently reminds me that I don't have to hold the key just yet.  I just need to hold on for dear life.  


White knuckles are common in my faith rollercoaster ride.  Comfort comes when I know my Master is at the controls.  In letting go it really gives me freedom to enjoy the ride he has mapped out for me.  So yes... it is funny that it feels so good to let go of those petty details that don't matter.   

"A lock without a key

No one no way was ever gonna 

get the best of me

The lines were drawn

But now I'm ready to be free"

In my surrender, God brings freedom.
In my stupidity, God brings wisdom
In my fear, God brings peace
In my loneliness, God brings His presence
In my grip, God brings comfort
In my letting go, God brings control.


Letting go for God's wisdom is a daily priority.  I don't know what I am doing, but as He captivates, He holds my big picture in His heart.  If He has the controls, I don't have to worry.  I know that I couldn't do better than His best.  That's reason enough for me to let go.  He has every part of me in His hands.  He catches me every time, He's always there where I land, even anticipating the point of impact of this free fall from the edge.  


Look out below...


P.S. Here's a video to the song.