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Grasping The Freedom

"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."  --John 8:36

July 9 2010                                                                                      Contributed by: Brenda Lancaster
Friday

 

 

                                            NOTE TO: Brenda                  FROM: God

 

"Oh ye of little faith. How long will I have to put up with you?

  

 

Stinking thinking. It had gotten me into trouble again. Caught in a pit of fear over the circumstances that had brought the threat of a volcanic eruption, murder, earthquakes, flooding and snakes, - just the threat - mind you!  I had not understood the Freedom I had been given to not have to fall - yet again - into that pit of fear and self-centeredness.

 

Thank you Lord for your mercy and loving kindness. Your forgiveness. You came to set all the captives free, all of us, who from time to time, get caught in the pits the enemy throws in our paths. 

 

As I prayed that night, I asked Him to let me share the loving kindness He had sent me to share, to offer His hope to the hopeless, and His help to the helpless - to offer His Freedom to the captives. I fell asleep still praying - woke several times in the night - and prayed some more.

 

 

"Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning." --Psalm 30:5b

 

 

We awoke at the crack of dawn - the rain still coming down. Dressed for church, we wondered if we'd even be able to get there. We couldn't help but think the safest place to be would be in God's house - with His people.  We wondered if the cars coming for us would even be able to get through the flooded streets of the city. They did.

 

On the way to church that morning, the rain stopped - the streets we traveled on were clear. We saw patches of ruined houses and lives all along the way. The weather forecasters still called for an additional 15 inches of rain. 

 

That 15 inches of rain never came, even though they kept calling for it right on up until midnight. God stopped the rain and I know it was not for this scared woman on mission but for those to whom He had called us to go to. To show them His mercy and grace.

 

 

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. -Ephesians 3:20

 

 

When we grasp what true Freedom really is, we will realize we don't have to fear, but we do have to trust. We need to remember that the challenges we face today are not taking Him by surprise.  The challenges of our forefathers did not take Him by surprise either. He already knew the cost of Freedom - He too had paid the price.

 

 

"Let us not become weary in well doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." ---Galatians 6:9

 

 

God in His mercy was gracious that week.

-       All told, over 400 souls were led to Christ by the whole RHEMA mission team.

-       We personally saw 15 young people make very public decisions for Christ in the school where the murder had taken place the previous week.

-       A Bible study is starting in that school. Even the gang members are respecting the students who made those decisions.

-        The Monday following the storm, the Lord led us to establish a permanent Zoo Ministry in one of the Favela's. It will continue to minister to the women there each week.

-       The Lord opened an ongoing opportunity to help support the women in that Favela by purchasing canvas bags they are personally making in the school/church. We hope to begin offering them for sale to people in the US by the fall. All profits will go to those precious women who have so little - but are loved with our Saviors everlasting love.

-       Even in the midst of the storm He allowed 32 churches to be introduced to the Zoo Ministry who registered intentions to start groups.

 

Our forefathers also realized the above verse is true - that is why they fought, even when they too were filled with fear. They fought to offer Freedom to us. We fight to offer Christ's Freedom to those captives held in hopelessness.

 

As a matter of fact, when we look at the last verse of My Country Tis of Thee, written by Samuel Francis Smith, we can clearly see his reference to the fact that God is the true author of Freedom and liberty and our country is founded on that principal.

 

 

Our fathers' God, to thee,

Author of liberty, to thee we sing;

Long may our land be bright

With freedom's holy light;

Protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

 

 

Thank you for being a part of this ministry. I pray that you too, will fight when the struggles seem insurmountable - and live out the Freedom for which our Lord fought so hard to give us.

 

Together, let's keep on keeping on.

 

Until next time.......
 
Your Traveling Partner,Brenda
Thursday

The saga continues...........

 

Often our lives are not what they seem.........we are living a real drama written by our God.

 

Sometimes I get so sick of "the sin that so easily besets us." I get so sick of the weaknesses of our human-ness. I get so sick of the enemy that roars about seeking whom he may devour. I get so sick of falling prey to his tricks.

 

 

"The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace."  --Psalm 29:11

 

 

We cannot give in to the enemy. We cannot give in to fear. The Freedom we lose is too precious.

 

As time wore on that fateful night, threats of the previous 48 hours - volcano eruption, murder, earthquakes, flooding and snakes were growing ever wilder in my mind - not in reality, mind you - but in my mind. Ironically, I hadn't felt the fear when we'd driven up to the school gates the day before. Not even after I found out about the last speaker who was murdered. Not even after I found out that the audience I was speaking to was filled with gang members. I didn't feel that fear until the threat of flooding and snakes loomed - then every little thing that had gone wrong over the last 48 hours grew to monstrous proportions in my mind.

 

No phone calls were going out that night and no one was "getting the heck out of Dodge."

I had to face the fact that I had to face the threat. I couldn't run, I couldn't hide. I couldn't wish it away. I had to try at least, to put on my big girl panties and practice the faith I knew was right even when my "feelings" didn't know it. Hummm........that sounded too close to the very thing I teach in chapter 3 of Part 2 of Living in a Zoo? entitled, "I'dLaughifIWeren'tCryingSoHard".

 

 

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." --Psalm 119:105 NIV

 

 

I showered again; it was hot as blazes and humid amid the torrents of rain. I dried my hair, put on face crème, and brushed my teeth just like every other "normal" night. The palm trees (in the Bible, palm trees is a symbol for God's blessing) outside our window were bent over double with wind and rain. My heart was thumping so hard I figured Maria was keeping beat in her sleep - all the way on the other side of the room. 

 

Have you noticed by now all the "I's" and "our" in this story? Yeah, me too.

 

As I turned off the light and laid my clean, dry head down on the pillow I was suddenly struck with a massive dose of loving conviction from my Abba - my heavenly Daddy;

 

"At least you are dry, inside - out of the rain - under nicer shelter than most of the people here have ever slept in.  Fed.  Safe for now. Why don't you think about the ones with whom you came here to share my "hope?"

 

"I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust."   --Psalm 91:2 KJV

 

 

Stinking Fear. The enemy was about to use it to render His sacrifice for Freedom useless in this mission. Oh with Christ, the freedom would always be there - no one can take it away - but if we don't exercise it we might as well not have it at all.   Void - that's what the Freedom I was to bring to His precious ones in El Salvador was about to come to. He had sent me to share that Freedom with them. I was about to lose the war without ever fighting the battle. I was about to rob the hope of Freedom from the very people God wanted me to deliver it to.

 

As Jack Bailey taught us in Sunday school just last week;

 

Thinking leads to Emotions.

Emotions lead to Actions.

 

When we have stinking thinking out emotions grow out of control and our actions take the form of someone who has no hope.

 

 

"You know the Lord is full of mercy and is kind." --James 5:11

 

 

As I laid on that once dry pillow, now wet with tears, I asked my Lord to forgive my self-centeredness, and cried out for the precious ones who had no dry place, who were at that very moment being swept away in the rains, whose tin and cardboard houses were demolished in the mud slides and who had nothing left of the little bit they had before the rain started.

 

I hope you are encouraged today. God is good, and His mercy lasts forever. Even when we engage in stinking thinking. I am thankful He loves us and the ones to whom we are to offer Hope - He loves us all too much to let us stay in that mind-set for long......

 

Until tomorrow........

 

Your Traveling Partner,

Brenda
Wednesday

It was already dark on Saturday night. In the previous 48 hours we had been exposed to challenges from a volcano eruption, monsoon rains, an earthquake, a school where the last speaker there was murdered by the ruling gang, and were now in the threat of massive flooding and mudslides. 

 

 

"For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: He also is to be feared above all gods."

--I Chronicles 16:25

 

I was scared. No, beyond mere scared, I felt pure unadulterated terror. Not of God but of circumstances. This was not the respect the word "feared" meant in our passage. I felt panic. I wanted to get the heck out of Dodge. The phones weren't working and we couldn't get through to the airport to even find out if a flight out was even possible. I know, because we tried - or I should say I tried. Many of the roads were flooded already. The power kept flickering at the hotel. Massive flooding was expected. 30 inches of rain was coming.

 

 

"Enjoy serving the Lord, and He will give you what you want." --Psalm 37:4

 

 

Enjoy? You've got to be kidding. This whole thing is a joke Lord, right?

 

My Mom and Dad had been wiped out by flooding in 1996 by Hurricane Floyd. I had been in Biloxi, Mississippi after hurricane Katrina. We had just witnessed the flooding in Nashville, Tennessee.  I knew God's people are not always spared. They get caught in floods, too. I knew what flooding meant and what the by-products of flooding would be. Houses and people would wash away.  We were in El Salvador - the jungle is in El Salvador. The waters would wash through the jungle nearby. In the jungle there are snakes big enough to eat you - they would be washed out of the jungle in the flood. I have always been terrified by snakes - even little ones. I have been terrified by water - flooding. They were the two worst fears of my life. Are you getting the picture? Fear.

 

Flooding.

 

Snakes.

 

Coming together in one terrifying episode. And I couldn't get away.

 

What was that verse I left you with yesterday?

 

 

"For I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord.

"They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" NLT

 

 

I read that verse that night and all the others I am quoting this week. The Lord Himself had given them all to me on the plane in route to El Salvador. The Word wasn't getting through to my brain or to my emotions. That is unusual for me - I usually devour the Word.

 

"May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and of the patience that comes from Christ."  --2 Thessalonians 3:5

 

Maria was very patient with me. She had experienced an irrational episode of fear right before we left to go to El Salvador. She had gone anyway. She had felt guilty and kept it to herself, but she had experienced it none-the-less. She understood. She walked the walk of fear with me, and prayed with me, and watched me as I struggled with terror so strong that it bound my spirit - and kept me from exercising the Freedom in Christ I should have been able to act upon.  Freedom from terror - to Trust Him. Freedom to think rationally. Freedom to weather the storm with the Grace I had so freely been given. Freedom for which Christ had paid the price.  I was losing it to fear. Stinking fear.

 

We talked yesterday about how many of our forefathers gave up their entire fortune, many their very lives, so that we could be free. I know they experienced fear in the heat of the battle, but Freedom was too precious to lose to fear. They fought on because they were fighting for the right to choose to worship our Lord in whatever way their consciences dictate. Our forefathers did not fight to keep God out of society, but to keep society out of our worship of God.

 

"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy."  --Job 8:21

 

We cannot give in to fear. The Freedom we lose is too precious.

 
Until tomorrow........

 

Your Traveling Partner,

Brenda
Tuesday

So, dear one - were you able to take your mind and eyes off the TV yesterday and focus on God and His promises - on the Freedom He alone gives? I understand how hard this can be sometimes. With so much going on around us I understand how hard it can be to conquer fear that rises up as we contemplate the future. 

 

I have never used the words fear and freedom in the same sentence until recently. Now I understand that where there is debilitating fear, Freedom is not being exercised.

 

As a matter of fact, I recently experienced something that brought me to this conclusion. Many of you know Maria Gonzales and I have been on mission in El Salvador.  While in El Salvador - which ironically means "The Savior" - we experienced one danger after another, more than I have ever experienced at any time in my life.  The Lord had been warning me for two months.

 

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps" --Proverbs 16:9

 

On the day we left, a volcano erupted in Guatemala, which affected our flight to El Salvador. We were rerouted through Honduras on the way. That should have been our first clue that this trip was going to be "a trip." On the plane the Lord had shown me;

 

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers"   --Philippians 4:6 TLB

 

We arrived in El Salvador almost four hours late...in the driving rain - without dinner.....but the "fun" was just beginning.  That day He had whispered in my ear;

 

"The Lord will guard you as you come and go, both now and forever" --Psalm 121:8

 

The next morning we started bright and early - again in the driving rain. As the rain stopped briefly, two blocks away from our second speaking event of the day - which was to be outdoors, we were told that the speaker that tried to go into that school the week before - a woman - was murdered by a gang as she entered the school gates.  The rain continued......

 

"I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths." --Proverbs 4:11

 

On Saturday we awoke to monsoon rains - floods were already blocking many roads and had shut down some of the public transportation systems of the city, so attendance at the  Women's Conference was about half what had been expected.  During that conference, an earthquake hit about 100 miles from our location.  Still, the rain continued.

 

Our host took us back to our hotel late that afternoon. As we entered we saw the rest of the RHEMA mission team had arrived and joined them for the opening meeting. We had arrived two days ahead of the rest of the team because I had to leave early to head to Brazil for the continued mission there. It was then we learned all the rain was from a tropical storm and thirty inches of rain was expected by the next day. Yes, you read right - 30 inches was expected. Massive flooding was expected. Mud slides had already started. The whole country was on "Red Alert".  Schools for Monday were already officially cancelled........    

 

"He whom the Son sets free, is free indeed." --John 8:36

 

 I did not feel Free at all. It was then I began to realize that fear - smothers - Freedom...

 

"For I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord.

"They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" NLT

 

Until tomorrow........

 

Your Traveling Partner,

Brenda
Monday

"My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride,

From every mountain side,

Let freedom ring."

 

The true meaning of July 4th seems to have been revived these days. For years it seemed that many Americans thought of the holiday as just another opportunity to grill hamburgers, hot dogs, drink beer and party hardy. But this holiday came with a great price. It was earned by men and women who gave up everything they owned - many times including their very lives -  in exchange for the prize; Freedom.  It wasn't invented as just another national holiday to be off work and seek our pleasure - but to offer celebration, thanks and praise to the ones who fought for us to have it - and the many others who give their lives for us to keep it.

 

As America celebrates the day our freedom as a nation was declared - July 4, 1776, I can't help but look back at all our forefathers sacrificed so we could have freedom. Their determination - their purpose - their mission - was to give their "children's children" a free country where they would have the right to choose to worship God as their own personal conscience would dictate - or the right to choose not to worship Him at all. 

 

Jesus Himself agrees with the original mission of our forefathers. As a matter of fact, He gives us the same freedom; to choose to worship Him, experience Him for ourselves, or to choose not to worship Him at all.  He gives us that choice. He is a gentleman; He will not come into our lives without our invitation. He believes in freedom. He fought for our spiritual freedom just as our forefathers fought for our physical freedom in this country.

 

Today, some say we are losing the freedoms our forefathers fought so hard to give us.  People everywhere are full of anxiety, stress and pure dread of what might be coming in our changing world. What are Christians to make of this? How are we to live in a day with the fear that surrounds us - without getting caught up in it ourselves and losing heart? 

 

There is only one way dear one - let us look to the One who gave us a Freedom that no man can ever take away.  Let us take our mind and eyes off the TV coverage that regurgitates fear 24/7 .........and focus on God and His promises and the FREEDOM He gives.

 

These times are not taking Him by surprise. Jesus said they would come to pass.........so how will we get through them?

 

Trust, dear one. Trust in the One and Only bearer of true and lasting freedom. I know what I'm talking about...and it's not easy. Read on tomorrow - the sometimes dangerous incredible story from El Salvador begins...........

 

Until tomorrow........

 

Your Traveling Partner,

Brenda
Greetings!

There is a lot of talk about freedom these days - and the fear of losing it.  People everywhere are full of anxiety, and dread, of what might be coming in the days ahead. What do we make of this as Christians? How do we live with the prospect of losing our freedom and deal with the fear that surrounds us, without getting caught up in it ourselves?

 

Each day this week we will learn how to grasp the freedom we have been given - and how we can live in it - even in the midst of the turmoil that surrounds us.  

Don't forget to check out our website - http://www.zookeepersministries.com