Breaking the bonds of our past

2 Kings 25: 27- 30
Jehoiachin king of Judah was held in Babylon for thirty-seven years. In the thirty-seventh year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, and he let Jehoiachin out of prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. Evil-Merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honour above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put away his prison clothes. For the rest of his life, he ate at the king’s table. Every day for as long as Jehoiachin lived, the king gave him allowance.

I had another blog completely done and ready to post. Then I read these verses and everything changed. We set aside this Saturday for a day of reflection. Since we have been in the contending posture there has been a lot going on. We’ve been learning about spiritual warfare and what it means to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves and what it means to fight for our own heart. One thing we do during this posture is a thing we call “breaking the bonds of our past,” or you could call it “freedom in Christ.” What we do during this time is work through a book that reveals many places in our life where Satan could have strongholds. There are ten different areas that we look at. It deals with everything from childhood abuse and rejection, to evil inheritance and persistent sins in our daily life. How this works is we have a topic like rejection. Then we say out loud every time we have felt rejected by a parent, loved one or friend. Then we pray a prayer of freedom from the strongholds Satan may have from that rejection.

On Thursday morning Daleen and I worked through the book, it was the most freeing time in my entire life, and I feel amazing. My whole life I have thought of myself as someone less then who I really was. I saw myself as the world saw me. I saw myself as useless, unlovable and worthless. And you know what, that is just how Satan wants me to view myself. He has fought for years to keep me in chains. He has fought for years to keep me from seeing the person that GOD made me to be. But there’s good news…this past Thursday he lost the battle. This Thursday Daleen and I gave everything, EVERYTHING to God. We renounced every lie I believe because of Satan, we broke the chains that have held me bound for years. And like the passage above says, I put away my prison clothes. And for the rest of my life I will eat at the king’s table. The strongholds have been broken and I have been set free. That’s not to say the battle is over. That’s not to say I will never struggle with self-hatred and the lack of self worth again. But now I know the truth. And the truth has set me free. I will no longer live in Satan’s lies. From now on I will live in the truth of my father. Freedom is good. As I was writing this a song by Third Day came on. I have written about this song before but it just seems so so appropriate now. When the song came on, I found myself celebrating with Jesus in my new-found freedom. The song is called “Innocent” and the words are:

It seemed like I had run out of second chances
And they sentenced me to die
And I was just like a dead man walking
I was running out of time
But you came to me and opened my eyes
You gave me a brand new life

I am innocent and I have been set free
I no longer have chains around my feet
And no matter where I go or what they say
I am innocent

Many years have passed since the day that I met you
But your words are still the same
And every time I find myself with joy or sadness
I am calling out your name

‘Cause you came to me and opened my eyes
You gave to me a brand new life

I am innocent and I have been set free
I no longer have chains around my feet
And no matter where I go or what they say
I am innocent

Where are you connected?

During the year, among our community, there has been a debate going on that we are all emotionally involved in. NieuCommunities South Africa is a social network of sorts. We are a centered community that is connected in various areas and sometimes people in those areas are connected through our community. Through gatherings, meetings, outings, or other things we connect with people and occasionally connect people. We are a social network.

We at NieuCommunities SA are also connected to social networks. For example, some of us are connected to the social network of our kids’ schools. Some of us are connected to social networks through organizations, churches, friends and some of us connect through other venues. Loosely or closely, casually or formally we are connected to social networks.

All of us, consciously or unconsciously, assign value to those networks or what connects us to those networks. Valid or invalid, this is where the debate comes in. We all value the social networks we are connected to, some more than others and some in different ways than others. We place value on some social networks because we know exactly who we are connected to and why, we can control that interaction. Others of us place value on other networks where we’re not always sure who we’re connected with or how we got connected, we like the unpredictability. We assign value arbitrarily sometimes, but mostly we follow our biases. Either way, we value our networks.

As a community we’re connected at schools, churches, businesses, governments, in our neighborhoods, through our families, and with our friends among other connections. And this is another one of our connections, the blog. If NCSA happened twenty years ago this social network wouldn’t have existed. Neither would MySpace, Facebook, or mass emails — other significant social networks we are currently connected to.

Some people aren’t so sure about the new value many people are placing on these new social networks. Its interesting to look at the numbers involved with these new social networks. Statistics are difficult to come by, because things change so quickly, but here are a few to think about. There are an estimated 70 million blogs out there, with 15.5 million of them updated consistently (including ours), including 1.5 million new posts every day. Facebook is approaching a projected 50 million users by the end of this year, adding 4 million users a month. MySpace is approaching 100 million accounts, and growing at over 270,000 a day. That’s a lot of connecting.

You can enter the debate if you like, but then again only those connected to this social network will be heard. Thanks for being connected with us.

Some People Struggle With. . .

Here is a poem inspired by what I’ve been struggling with lately as I’m approaching my twenty-eighth birthday and am wondering what in the world I’ll do after NCSA. Excitement and fear. Nervousness that God will fulfill my greatest dreams. . . or that I’ll miss the boat and settle for something lesser, something worse. Two very different channels of fear, but fear none-the-less. I encourage you to think of what God would want to fulfill in your life. . . if you would only let him. . . Begin to imagine. . . remember. . . dream. . . these things lead to greatness, to beauty, to reality. . . if you let them.

 

Some People Struggle With. . .

HOPE:
Hope is a thing with feathers. . .
That is related to dreams. . .
That are related to fear. . .
That you will never do the things you most want to do.

God has placed a calling on my heart. . .
To be who I always dreamt I'd be. . .
To do the things that make my heart sing.
And somehow, somewhere, it all fits into an alter reality we call the Kingdom.
Those greatest desires were put there by him.

Sometimes I feel lonely. . .
Like a little girl without a home.
Sometimes I'm afraid I'll reject these things he's put inside me. . .
Deny myself and thus the world of my gifts.
Perhaps it's also his plan not to let me do that.

winter in summer

yesterday it was 127 degrees in death valley… tonight it will get down below zero here in South Africa. yes, when it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere. weird to think how different our realities are, though taking place at the exact same time.

and it reminds me of the reality of God’s Kingdom taking place concurrently with our physical, visible, world. There’s all this activity going on in the spiritual realm, often unseen and unbeknownst to us. It’s no less real, yet we are generally unaware.

In the Bible, we read that this heavenly reality has impact on our world. In fact, our ultimate destiny is connected to that Kingdom. As such, our true battle is against the powers and forces of that realm that want to keep us from experiencing that truth.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” isn’t just a nice sounding request for things to get better someday. It’s boldly asking God to make things right, make things like they really are meant to be, today.  there’s a much stronger connection between the worlds than we think.

It’s 127 degrees today AND below zero today. Which reality is yours?