Tag: freedom

In All Fairness

On By hawkinsm6In UncategorizedLeave a comment

I fear for America.

I have a sense that we have not had a real election in a long time.  One side just gets better at cheating than the other one.W

We have proposals and constitutional amendments that are sold by false advertising and blinding rhetoric so that very few people seem to know what or who they’re voting for.

And with every vote cast, every election that goes by our freedoms slip further and further away.

The January 6 hearings were a witch hunt and a travesty of justice. The depiction of riots and protests across our nation have been skewed and manipulated to push a social agenda. People actually have died because of how the media portrays certain events.

Try being a doctor that scientifically questions the covid vaccines. Try being a pastor that speaks against abortion. Try being a person who questions the direction of our economy.

What are we doing?

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Unstoppable Love

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Christianity, Spiritual, UncategorizedLeave a comment

There are some amazing people in the world. Some that I am blessed to call my friends. Their passion for Jesus and love for people is inspiring. But more than that, they never give up.

I need to stop here. We hear those phrases, the meaningless cliches and we relegate people to category of weird religious zealots, pollyanna, saccharine sweet, smile all the time, unreachable.

People like that don’t inspire me.

My heroes of the faith are normal people who stepped out of normal living. They face down criminals, reach into horrible places with love, touch people that we would rather not even acknowledge the existence of.

I see them as people who, if God told them to, would step in front of a train, and stop it. They would take a bullet for you. They face things courageously that would make this soldier hide in a corner.

One such couple is Reuben and Michelle Zook working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Indonesia as the organization Unstoppable Love International.

The more I’ve come to know them and hear their stories, the more I want to be like them. The more I want to help them. They are allowing the love of Jesus to flow through them and people are being set free. Slaves, REAL people who are being bought and sold, find freedom. They are given safety, a chance for classes and vocational training to support their children so that the cycle of slavery is forever broken. They lovingly but without compromise stand against pimps, corrupt officials and spiritual forces, very real demonic attacks.

They sacrifice their health and talents all because of love.

And they need help.

Check out Unstoppable Love Int. And please consider supporting them.

https://www.facebook.com/UnstoppableLoveInternational/

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Victory

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Christianity, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual1 Comment

I heard God speak to me this morning.  Well, I didn’t hear an audible voice, though I’m not opposed to the idea.  I just heard Him speak to my heart.

Galatians 3:20 says, “Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or even imagine…”

I have often prayed for victory, victory over addiction, victory over depression, victory over anger.

Today, God spoke to me about how low my sites have been set.

See, He said He could do better than I can even imagine.  And not a little better!  He said He could do A LOT better than I can ever ask for.

I think He would like to have me ask big, dream big, live big in victory.  Then He could do more than I ask, more than I dream.  He could make my life more than what I’ve ever hoped for.

For me I think that looks like not praying to lose weight but praying that God uses me to breathe life into those who are insecure, who see themselves as something less than how God sees them.  It looks like not praying for victory over lust but praying for the freedom of all those in bondage, praying that my life and witness would be used to break the chains of any addiction.  It looks like not praying that my family would be safe and loving but that my family would burn with such a passion for Jesus that the gates of Hell would tremble when we walk into the darkness.

I can say that I’m afraid of what prayers like that would bring.

I’m going to pray anyway.

Demons

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Christianity, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, UncategorizedLeave a comment

According  to Josephus (Jewish historian), Jews were able to cast out demons in the name of Solomon.  I didn’t know that.

So when Jesus asked, “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” ‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭12:27‬ ‭ESV‬‬), they could have said by Solomon.

OK, before I lose all of you, let me explain.

Today, I was reading Matthew 12 and became intrigued by two questions.  Could, and can people cast out demons without Jesus?  And, is Jesus referring to demons cast out by other means or demons cast out by any means when he talks about them returning to the person and making him worse?

Yeah, that’s how I spend my free time…

Sounds intellectual (or just weird) but there is a burning question that is at the bottom of it all.

Can I be free?

Demons can refer to literal spiritual entities or addictions, habits or mental predispositions that govern our behavior.  And I want to know if we can ever be really free.

If there is another way to freedom than the name of Jesus and, by association, His cross, then it might be good to pursue it.  Jesus wants all of me and the cross is just painful.  And if, even through Jesus, those demons might return to us, what is our hope?

I have only read bits of Josephus.  I am no intellectual giant or prophet or philosopher.  But I hear Peter when he faced the Jews.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” ‭‭Acts‬ ‭4:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Nothing else can save us. What are we being saved from?  Saved from death.  Saved from fear.  Saved from slavery.

Saved sounds like free to me.  The only freedom I’ve ever known is through Him.

The same answer applies to all these questions.

Only through Jesus can anyone be set free and only by remaining in Him, and being filled up by Him, can we remain free.  Psychology, religion, drugs, meditation, positive self talk can all be useful tools, but the demons will return.

But not to a life surrendered to Him.

Not to a heart and mind and soul that is surrendered to Him!

All Righteousness 

On By hawkinsm6In Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Righteousness is a word that gives me a curiously unpleasant feeling inside.  My mind immediately goes to self-righteous people and to my own lack of righteousness.

I have never done many things “right.”

I was reading today in Matthew 3:13-17 and there’s something I don’t understand.  Jesus said he wanted to be baptized to, “fulfill all righteousness.”  But he never sinned, from the moment he was born till the day he died he never ever sinned.  Seems like that would “fulfill all righteousness” better than getting dunked in the water.  And John’s baptism was for repentance, he was calling people to turn away from the things they were doing wrong.  He even challenges Jesus on this, basically saying, “what do you have to be sorry for?”

I know I’ve done wrong, a lot.  Why is this story there?

Maybe, just maybe, I need to see how Jesus laid down his life before he ever did anything.  Sure, he gave up his life to complete his work on the earth.  He was a miracle worker and teacher by then, a certified leader, a rabbi.  But God didn’t even call his son to ministry until after Jesus laid down his will, his life through the act of baptism.

Many of us want to be used to do something great for God.  I certainly do.  What am I holding onto? What am I unwilling to submit to?  What can I just not lay down?  It is likely the same thing that is keeping me from freedom, binding me to depression, holding victory and peace just beyond my reach.

And I’m sick of it.  I’m tired of holding on to what is actually killing me.

I’ll never be righteous but I’ll step closer as I open my hands.

Land of the Free

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Christianity, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Worship2 Comments

Shameless Plug:  Don’t miss the video at the end

I love my country.

There are a few things that can bring me to tears every time.

The sight of a baby being born.

The thought of my Savior dying on the cross to save me.

The words and melody of the Star Spangled Banner.

“Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

It sends chills up my spine.

Freedom is something that we talk about so much in this country.  Freedom of religion, freedom from religion.  Freedom of speech.  Sexual freedom.  Freedom to choose your own identity.

Lately, we are debating the freedom to go to the bathroom in whatever location we choose.  Seems to have fallen from the lofty ideas that it originated from, but, that’s where we are.

Side note:  Any man who chooses to exercise their right to go to the bathroom in the ladies room while my daughter or wife is in there, better be ready to go through me.

Anyway…

As I have watched these debates, and various other debates throughout the years, it would appear that we are running from freedom, not to it.  Sexual orientation, pornography, drugs (marijuana, opiates, whatever), hate crimes and hateful song lyrics do not release us.  They and the other ideas that surround these arguments do not bring freedom.

I have many friends that are mired in these things that speak, sometimes so eloquently, about the freedom they are experiencing.  But, it’s all eyewash.  It’s all smoke and mirrors.

Satan has been doing this since he first made contact with humanity.  “You can throw off God, be God yourself.  You’ll be free if you disobey His commands, run from His love, despise His perfect design.”

And for all these years, we’ve believed satan’s lies, and the lies we now tell ourselves.

I know slavery.  I now know freedom.  Real, healing, blessed, calming freedom!  God never wanted slaves.  God never designed us to yield to anything or anyone but Him.

We can still be the “Land of the Free”, and it doesn’t even matter where we call home.

I’ve Got Nothing 

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Uncategorized, Worship1 Comment

I can be angry, kind, lustful, peaceful, joyous, morose, and a whole gamut of things that don’t make any sense or seemingly even fit together.  

So can you.

I bring skills and experience, life and wisdom.  There are actually some things that I am pretty good at (I know!  Shocker!)

So do you.  So are you.

But really, compared to God’s strength, wisdom, greatness, purity, holiness, love, I have nothing.  I am nothing.

Today, we hear so much about a child’s potential.  That if they put their mind to it, they can do anything.  That if we come together in world peace and tolerance, we can fix this world.  If we read this book, attend this conference, change our perspective, we too can be happy and fulfilled.

In medical terms we refer to this as Taurus faecus.

I bring nothing.  I am nothing.  I have nothing.

And then our world changes.

We come to the cross of Jesus, our Savior.  We lay our nothing down.  We submit our hearts to Him.  We ask Him to live through us.  And then, we experience real freedom, real power, real love.

REAL FREEDOM!

Not the horror of addiction, the stringing together of feel good moments that leave us empty.  Not the shaky, broken foundation of my strength, my control of my world and its circumstances.  Not the selfish, me-centered, fearful heart of my passions.

REAL FREEDOM!  REAL POWER!  REAL LOVE!  And with them, REAL PEACE!

I’ve got nothing.  Praise God, my life doesn’t end with me!

The Open Wound

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, UncategorizedLeave a comment

She was my favorite mare. A tall, beautiful, good-natured bay that did nothing but throw beautiful foals. And there she stood, trembling in agony, staring, blindly at the wall in front of her. Everyone could see the problem but no one knew the cause. Her left shoulder had a grapefruit sized swelling but there was no visible wound.

At last, we decided to lance the wound. We weren’t sure how she would respond since this would only increase her pain, but we had to try. Carefully, we cleansed the area, her head sinking lower despite our gentle efforts. The scalpel was poised and the drawn over the center of the swelling. Her head came up sharply and then relief spread over her whole body as a fountain of foul smelling infection poured from the wound.

From what we could determine, she had received a small puncture wound that remained undetected. The bacteria had invaded and a little wound turned into a life-threatening problem.

We deal with this so much in the westernized church. Sin, addiction, a spiritual wound remain hidden. Good Christians don’t act that way or have problems like that. Don’t talk about it. Don’t ask for help.

Do you want healing? Do you want freedom? Do you want peace? Find someone you trust. Find some group or a friend who will stand by you and bring your problems out where they can be seen.

As my good friend says, Satan works in the dark, not Jesus. Let his light shine on you, in you. As the infection leaves, there will be pain. But, the relief, the peace, the joy that replaces it is beyond imagining.

A little bit of chicken-fried

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Uncategorized, Worship1 Comment

I really don’t mean any disrespect to the Zac Brown Band, but I take issue with this song.

For those of you who are not familiar:

A little bit of chicken fried
Cold beer on a Friday night
Pair of jeans that fit just right
And the radio on
I love to see the sun rise
See the love in my woman’s eyes
Feel the touch of a precious child
And know a mother’s love

I’m not into country. I like some of the songs and really don’t like some of them. I heard this one lately and got kind of angry.

I thank god for my life
For the Stars and Stripes
May freedom forever fly, let it ring
Salute the ones who died
The ones who give their lives
So we don’t have to sacrifice
All the things we love

Like our chicken fried…..

That’s where I get mad.

As a veteran, I want to think that the sacrifices of our soldiers, the greater sacrifices that have been laid down over the years, mean more than a chance to have chicken and beer. I would want the lives that were paid to purchase more than an opportunity to listen to the radio and watch sunrises.

Then I think of Jesus sacrifice. Did He die so that I could be happy, be good, be content, be safe? I think it was more than that. I think He wanted an army of saints, a bride for Him to love, a way to touch the world He created.

Am I living that?

Or do I just want some fried chicken?

The Empty House

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Uncategorized, WorshipLeave a comment

I’ve read “The Hunger Games” series multiple times and am reading them again now. It is interesting to me that, even though I know what’s coming, I still react so strongly to so many of the scenes.

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭43-45‬ ESV)

My reaction to these words is just as strong. One particular phrase stands out from the rest. “It finds the house empty…” In my opinion, this is one of the saddest commentaries on the human condition. If we remove all vice, take away all spiritual influences, in and of ourselves, we have an empty house.

For those of you, like me, who have known so much emptiness, I submit that there is a better choice than order, than rules, than religion. What Jesus offers is so much more, more filled, more true, more life.

We can try to fix ourselves. We can try to be good people, kind and loving. And some people are really nice people. But, it’s empty. And satan will fill that void. We can try to be religious, even Christian religious, but, it is empty. IT IS EMPTY!

Jesus said he came to give us life. He called it an abundant life. He is the only way to get it.

The only way.