Go and Discover

Ask First

Have you sacrificed greatly to achieve something? Has someone told you once that everything good requires sacrifice? They lied (or were just mistaken).

Often our checklist to achieve something includes a sacrifice. The biggest sacrifices we tend to make are involve time and money - we never have enough we think. We may cut back to save our money and free up our time. Sometimes we give up things we know we'll regret later and lie to ourselves we will recover the time later.

In my 26 years of military service I witnessed and expressed many forms of sacrifice. The most terrible sacrifice I think service members make (besides death) is missing time with loved ones. The time to prepare for a deployment combined with the deployments themselves can rob years from time spent with family. It stinks. And I wish there were a better way.

A friend of mine lost several years' time with his family after several years of this type of sacrifice. Ultimately, his family was destroyed. He did not want or intend to see his family fall to pieces, but as he left the team all he could do was cry and express regret. This image is burned in my memory and I vowed to never put my family in a similar position.

I rested on a single verse to help guide me through many deployments and decisions about where to spend my time on active-duty. 3 John 2 is a prayer John makes for his friend Gaius' health, prosperity and soul. I 'operationalized' this verse in my life and prayed all would go well in my life even if I did not put in extra hours before a deployment. Or, if I missed time with my family. I had to trust God for all to go well in my life even though I did not have all the time I wanted to prepare for deployments and spend time with family.

This prayer worked. All my deployments were successful and my family is stronger than ever.

Before you decide you need to give up something, ask God to help you first. You will get what you need to do exactly what He designed you to do and you can trust Him to provide. You will not regret the decision to ask God for help!

Free People

We talk about Freedom very often in the United States.  Americans know the cost of freedom is high and requires people willing to pay the price to defend it.  Freedom is so valuable that America is under constant attack on every side for our freedom.  So what are we defending? 

Is the purpose of freedom to live under the constant stress of dissension?  Freedom must hold more value than our opinions!

What if we stopped using our freedom to express our own opinions and ambitions, and instead used our freedom to help each other?

 

The Purpose of Freedom

Freedom isn't free.  We hear that a lot.  I served many years in the military and can witness - freedom is costly and it has a purpose.  It's not a trivial matter but one we should consider closely.

The purpose of freedom is to serve others with humility.  But that's not usually how we see freedom in action.  Here are some creative ways people use their freedom today:

• Sexual Immorality (#metoo)
• Idolatry and witchcraft.  This is literally worshipping dead things and the devil.
• Hatred.  Some folks love to use their freedom to hate.  It's plain u-g-l-y.
• Discord. Sowing discord is the worst abuse of freedom.
• Jealousy.  This life is hard work.  Jealousy is a tremendous waste of time, and a lie.  Just get to doing what you love.
• Fits of Rage.  These folks love their freedom and they expect everyone else to bow at their feet like slaves.     
• Selfish Ambition.  Truly the opposite expression of real freedom is serving oneself only.
• Dissensions.  This happens when personal opinions take precedent over serving others.  (#governmentshutdown)
• Factions and envy.  When dissension grows up and hits adolescence we have a Faction.  People in factions place the earth and all its inhabitants, past, present and future, on axis around their statement of opinion.
• Drunkenness.  Drinking starts off altering your reality and progressively destroys it.
• Orgies.  Freedom isn't a release from inhibition but the higher conduct of free people.

This list above was actually written around 1,960 years ago to Galatia in Modern Day Turkey by the Apostle Paul.  -Galatians 5:19

When free people use freedom for its purpose to serve others we will see an incredible avalanche of peace across our nation.  Here is what happens when freedom is used to humbly serve others: 

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Forbearance
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness and Self-Control

When we are slaves to our nature we aren't capable of true freedom.  True freedom comes through Jesus and the Holy Spirit literally living in you.  

If you want to walk in freedoms' purpose today, humbly ask God for forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.  Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and teach you true freedom.  If you're already a Christian and want this freedom, today ask God to teach you authentic freedom.