Category Archives: Freedom

Freedom From

I have been involved in some conversations about the idea of Freedom From lately and in saying it that way its probably mostly a conversation in my own head.

Of course we all want to be Free, an obvious example of that is Richie Havens performing the song ‘Freedom’ at Woodstock.  I could disert… (Make a dissertation) on the topic of the built in desire for Freedom but that is another Blog but I bring Havens into this story just as a short pointer to this point that the search for Freedom is ubiquitous across humanity

This post is part of a longer internal discussion I have been having for 6 years on what is Freedom.  I have tried on for size sooo many definitions but I keep coming back to this one:

Freedom is you being who God called you to be in the midst of your circumstances.

So if that definition has any reality to it, and I believe it does, it seems to me you would have to conclude ok, then human Freedom has a component that “Freedom From” things is not the main goal.  There are countless discussions one could have that are interesting rabbit trails from that point but the real purpose of this post is to relay a story I heard this week.

John is a Pastor who is a great great friend of mine and has this very interesting back story of Heidi Baker type mission field experiences.  As we just chill together we always end up in long discussions about the things of God and he ends up telling me more and more of these stories.  They are way beyond anything I have seen in my 60 trips around the sun and I get to hear them from a man whom I have immense trust in his approach to this Jesus Seeking life.  did I mention he was also a friend ??  Maybe one of my best and that happened in a very short period of time, its mysterious and divine… mountains of trust.

So John ended up in Indonesia in one of the main communities that were destroyed by that large Tsunami and earthquake.  Remember that ???  The village had 70,000 souls in it… The wave hit, the earth quaked and 1400 people survived.  He was there right after that happened and the sites and scenes of how that looked post wave were just shocking to him.  There were a lot of obstacles in just being a caring Christian person in all of that devastation in the midst of a Muslim country that wants zero part of Christianity within its culture…

So he did what he could and moved on from that into other places God was leading him into.  Sometime later in life back in the states he was at a restaurant and the waiter had a name tag that said his name but also told him where he was from and it said Indonesia.  Of course being a normal human John reached out for a connection and told the waiter “I’ve been there !” John told a part of the tsunami story and mentioned the Village. The waiter then told John a story about that Village he was never told in the midst of the chaos.

You see there was a singular Christian Church in this village of 70 thousand people.  A day or two before the wave hit the Muslim leadership decided they had enough of this church and they needed to step up the pressure to force the church to something different, either convert or leave so they burned the Church down.  The muslim towns people were acting out on their own version of what Freedom and Freedom From meant to them, we all do that!!!

The church looked inside of themselves for a response to the same question and that ended up being to just pray, either the pastor of the Church or some member said lets go up on the hill to pray, they did and the wave hit.  They were part of the 1400 of 70, 000 who survived…

I am going to end the story there to let you cogitate and conclude for yourself what you feel is the various meanings behind this story in regards to ‘Freedom From’…  Obviously God Cares about his people, it does prove out or validate certain versus but what does this have to do with Freedom and Freedom From ????   I can’t shake what I think about it so I wrote this,  Peace !!!! 🙂

Old Ghost

Sometimes you sit in a sermon and it makes life appear so easy, just turn your face to Jesus. And it really is that easy almost.

This weekend marks 6 years of going to church and in those 6 years Leisha and I have pushed so hard for personal transformation as individuals, as a couple, as a family. We have experienced so much, I know a little bit about that life style now, metanoia. I just don’t think you get to where you need to be without facing your Old Ghost. In fact Leisha is in the throws of discovering and facing some Old Ghost who have hidden themselves so well she only has an inkling they are really there…  Sometimes it’s so painful for her and you have to know surely painful for me to watch from a near, from a far.  I am trying to be as good to her through this as she has been to me, its difficult, she set the bar high.

I am convinced it takes both facings, Jesus and Old Ghost, one lifts up, takes you to a place you should be, the other takes you down to a place you need to go.  If you don’t go there you probably won’t be able to hear or see where Jesus was and especially what he wants to talk about … about those Old Ghost.

Old Ghost
Haunt these halls and cross my lonely thoughts
Show up in the funny way I talk
Speak to me in records that I bought
Screamin at me for all the things I lost

Old Ghost
Lingerin by my old stompin grounds
They built them all and tore the old house down
I can’t go back and I can’t go around
The devils that live on that side of town

I believe in things that I can’t see
In my blood and in my bones
These old Ghost they all belong to me
They hurt me and they heal me
They hide and they reveal me
Remind me what I will be when I’m gone

Old Ghost
Sometimes in the Dark they hold me close
Whisper things I wish I didn’t know
About my self and every heart I’ve

I believe in things I can’t see
In my blood and in my bones
These old Ghost they all belong to me
They hurt me and they heal me
They hide and they reveal me
Remind me what I will be when I’m gone

Step one Towards Freedom

Freedom From Bad Definitions

Notes from Freedom Training 2017-04-07  – http://tdcounseling.com/

  1. This step has to come first because otherwise one might end up chasing decoys.  it is very important to get started right !!!!
  2. Research Prisoner Thinking vs Freedom Thinking.
  3. Note: We are so wired for Freedom that all the spiritual world has to do is give us a Bad Definition of Freedom, if even so small, it still sends us off track.  Even a little off is not the Freedom Christ came to our realm for.
  4. In Gen 3 the Devil Redefined the desire for appetite. (What is satisfaction).  There is gold in them thar hills too.

So what is Freedom ? Freedom is becoming the person you were created and designed to be. Freedom is the ability to act and react in life as the man or woman you were created to be.

Don’t pass this by too quickly. The sentence is short. The idea is even simple. It is the many counterfeits and decoys of freedom preoccupying us that cause us to bypass the true definition too quickly. So often, the things that prevent us from being ourselves go unrecognized. Freedom is never about our outward circumstances, it is always about becoming ourselves within our circumstances. The evidence of true freedom is when we can act and react without insecurity … without judgment … without fear … without rage … without selfishness … without codependency … the list goes on.
— Bob Hamp. (n.d.). Think Differently Live Differently.

There are two more steps but the end result looks like below. I will blog about these other two in other post.
– Freedom from Self.
– Freedom from Obstacles.

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A quick thought on freedom

Salvation, sozo to be made whole, and “programs” and churches that pursue that more whole is not only for the really broken people…

It is also for the human that got “saved” (conversion), decades ago and who spent all those decades in the church doing great things..

Everyone means exactly that, EVERYONE,  can use some more of this wholeness stuff. In fact “the churched” might be some of the most difficult “more wholeness” type of people one can deal with.  Its really easy to be full of anger and know there has to be another way.  A man rich in long time church might be very similar to the rich man trying to pass through the eye of the needle.

Having said that as soon as you begin to ask yourself about wholeness, you can quickly begin to say to yourself to be more whole I need to be free from __________

And….the kind of freedom that makes you more whole is not found in the “From”… for the really broken or the not so seemingly so.

Mountains of Theology

There is mountains of theology in the following.  Some of it someone else’s words some of it mine…
—
He has let some of you be abused, he didn’t stop them.
He has let some of you abuse, he didn’t stop you.

There must be something that it’s sooooo valuable, that is worth sooooo much that it’s worth the price for us to be free, Even though what we do sometimes is evil. And that thing is Love….  He wants your love and you to love others from a point of free will… self-responsibility, self control from within that free will.

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Gorging on the Tree of Life

Ok so I left the house on the way to hub camp randomly around 11:00 am on Saturday.  Was going to leave later but I felt like that would make for a leisherly drive.   I wanted to have 3 hours of driving just percolating on the things of God and see what came of that.  As I drove I remembered through Hub Camp 2013 and at one point it hit me….  Just fell into my head….   Hub Camp is several days of giving a bunch of kids an opportunity to continuously eat from the Tree of Life.   A feast if you will and yes some gorge on it.  Some barely taste of it but that is where the change comes from… Eating from the Tree of Life.  

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What does Good News Look Like

In order to have good news to tell, the good news of the Gospels has to be just that to you Good News.  If it’s not that then you are faking it until you make it.  Of course there are levels to this but when you have news you can’t help but tell then you have arrived at the point I am speaking too and experiencing.

I didn’t have that kind of Good News until my dad’s passing.  I had pieces of Good News,  but now I have something much different, I have a whole story.  I have arrived at a place of mostly constant very clear thinking, very easy emotions to live with.  That news is so good and telling how I got to that reality is why I want to practice leading other people through a similar freedom experience that I went through.

It could be looked at as trying to have one hammer for every nail, but then maybe not.  Everyone needs a much deeper dose of Identity and everyone needs to hear God’s voice more clearly.  I am finding many “Old Christians” need one or the other of those for the first time…..Obviously new ones too.