FREEDOM

As far as daily devotions go, I have found the best one for me so far. It is written by Walter A. Henrichsen. The title is "THOUGHTS FROM THE DIARY OF A DESPARATE MAN."It can be ordered by sending him an Email to walter@leadershipfoundation.org, or by faxing him at 619-588-5870.

The following is plagerized from Walter. The text centers around 1Corinthians 9:19, "For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people." NET Bible.

The Apostle Paul goes on to explain how he would do anything short of sin and violating his conscience to identify with the lost in order to win them to Christ. It's a valuable lesson for all of us, and particularly for men like me who are closet legalists. Avoiding temptation can restrict access to the lost. Don't throw caution to the wind as you venture out. Paul states a little later in the text that he subdues his own body, making it a slave so that after preaching to others he would not be disqualified.

After years of alcoholism, I was delivered from the addiction. Notice I didn't say disease. I have thought it best to not go into bars, primarily because of the alcohol available, but also because I didn't want to contribute to another man stumbling. Now however, I am able to go into a bar. This is an example of the freedom that Paul is referring to when he says he is "free from all." It is being allowed by God to proclaim Him in the places where many Christians simply don't go.

By making ourselves slaves to others our freedoms increase. Ya, I know, I had the freedom to go into any bar I wanted all those years that I wasn't saved. And I could stay all day if I wanted. But I wasn't free. I was a slave to my own appetites and desires. There is no freedom in being able to meet our own expectations, and fulfill our own hopes. This is actually slavery personified.

My encouragement today is to look for witnessing opportunities at times and in areas where your normal patterns of behavior would be interrupted. The hopeless and hurting are all around us. Maybe they are not aware of the hopelessness, but they are aware of the hurt.

Do something practical beyond common courtesy. Study the faces of those who are near you. Even if your are not interested, act like you are. Before long you will be.

God will honor your surrender. And He will also rearrange your time so that what may seem like time lost is actually time gained.

RESTING IN CHRIST

I took Systematic Theology a couple of years ago. Our professor gave us a simple illustration. Placing a chair in the front of the room and facing the class, he stood in front of the chair. With his elbows locked and his hands firmly on the armrests, he began to sink slowly into the chair. After being seated for a few seconds, he used his arms to elevate himself from the seat a little bit, then elevated even more. Then he let himself rest in the chair again.

He said this is the way a lot of us live out our trust in Christ. Perhaps the day we were saved, we rested fully in the seat of the chair. Maybe for several days after we were saved we were still resting in Christ. But then after some time we begin to try and rely on our own strength. We use our physical strength in the place of resting in Christ. Part of the demonstration included portraying individuals who never sat down. They came close to fully resting in Jesus, but as soon as the body was near the seated position, the arms would take over and lift the person out of the seat.

I'm using this illustration today to depict my walk with the Lord. The minute I stop looking up, the minute I stop paying attention to my life of promise, I start raising up on my arms and trying to trust in my own strength. I happens so easily. All I have to do is engage in any human activity. Once my mind is distracted, especially if I have a "to do list," I am off on my own. Now not really. The Holy Spirit hangs in there and doesn't let me get lost for long, but I am surprised sometimes at just how long I have forgotten my Savior and thought I was going it alone.

This is why obedience and surrender are the constant challenge in my life with Christ. How grateful I am that I have permission to fail. He renews me everyday. Hallelujah.

BORDERS

For the life of me I cannot figure out why we don't enforce our borders. Sure, we have long borders, both north and south. I am not concerned with our northern border. It's the southern border where we are being breached. We have got to secure our southern border. We have to build a barrier. I don't like saying that. It seems so regressive. But without some kind of effective electronic surveilence I think a physical barrier is what we have to build.

We can address all of the other fallout from our recent invasion after we secure the border. In the mean time we will have to live with being invaded. So the sooner we start the better.

Men and women are volunteering to help with border patrol. This is a first since I have been alive. Doesn't it say something about the mood in general of the American people? We can absorb a large group of immigrants every year. Our economy is that resilient. But we have to follow the time honored procedures of registration. And especially during this time of being at war, we must have tighter controls.

If you are an employeer, don't hire an illegal alien. Not even for day labor. And don't make excuses. It's against the law and you know it. At the same time, support your local food bank. Look for the needs of the underpriviledged right in your own neighborhood. Support the clothing drives put on by churches and have compassion for the families that are here.

Addendum

I can not go on posting until I add a few thoughts to yesterdays post. My point of reference concerning poverty was, Poverty in America. Late last night, suffering from insomnia after eating too much dinner, I surfed past the Bill Clinton interview on C Span. I listened for thirty seconds or so, and caught a reference to Ethopia's poverty. I want to acknowledge that there are many places on the planet where poverty is the norm, and the opportunity for something better is very limited. I also want to acknowledge that every nation has it's share of citizens who have met with disaster, are seriously physically impared, or are mentally ill.

Dead Broke

How many of you started out your adult life dead broke? I know I did. Entry level jobs were available. Thank God. They made the difference between having food and shelter and not. I was struck the other day by an advertisement showing President Clinton and the title "The Poverty Trap." I didn't follow up on this. I only thought about the title. The first thing that came to my mind is the suggestion that poverty is a trap. One never hears the statement, "The Middle Class Trap." Or even better, "The Wealth Trap." Somehow only poverty is a trap. This statement or some form of it has been floating around for as long as I have been alive. Statements like "breaking out of poverty," or,"caught in the endless cycle of poverty." To me, this perpetuates the idea that poverty, as opposed to any other style of living, has some kind of additional unseen force that holds people in it's clutches. And those forces are regularly defined as external. Lack of education, limited opportunities, substandard health care, discriminative hiring practices, and so on.

In actuality, there are challenges, disappointments, uncertainties and discrimination at every financial level. Most wage earners and entrepreneurs have faced these truths from the time they stepped into adulthood.

People are moral agents. They have the capacity for both good and evil. They have within them the free will to make choices everyday that directly effect their lives and the lives of their families. The central difference between individuals who stay in poverty and those who do not, lies in the willingness of the individual to make choices that will change their lives. Programs are not the answer. Public housing, food stamps, welfare, child care, and educational opportunities cannot in and of themselves end poverty. Actually these things are destructive in many ways because they are dehumanizing. Social engineering by its very nature suggests that there is a technical solution to poverty, denying individuals their human dignity.

It comes back to being a moral agent. If we want to strip people of their dignity all we have to do is deny the Christian world view, and it's teachings on sin and moral responsibility. In its place we embrace the more enlightened or scientific view that fosters social engineering, eventually treating people as less than human. Once that is accomplished, poverty flourishes, particularly poverty of the human soul.

I am basically lazy. I have been ever since I can remember. I did very poorly in school, failing to graduate. I didn't like advice and I didn't want other peoples opinions and I didn't want anyone to train me to do anything. All I ever wanted was an easy life. Just make it easy for me, so I don't really have to put out too much. I think the only reason that I forced myself to participate was the unacceptable results that laziness yielded. Were it not for that I would no doubt still be dead broke.

Do you see what I mean. Poverty, particularly as it pertains to living conditions, is directly linked to our free will. And poverty of the soul has been with us since the fall of mankind.