Reflection: Looking at your chains.

“Let us tear off their chains and free ourselves from their restraints.” Psalm 2:3

Recently I returned home for a visit. The visit was planned to revitalize my heart and soul and sometimes all you have to do in order to get away from the woes troubling you is return to your roots and have some quiet time with the Lord. The trip was really good for me; just what the soul needed.

On this trip, without realizing it when we planned it, I passed by the place I was first saved and baptized. It had been 19 years since those days. Now when you look back it’s always a dangerous thing if not done with care. We are warned all through the bible to not look back only look to the Lord and where your feet are being lead. Once you are bathed in the blood of God the person you once were is dead.

We humans have an odd habit of visiting with the dead. We visit people we miss and loved, how many times do we visit the person we once were like this? All the time you hear stories of “Glory Days” remembering fun things or events, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. I’m more talking about visiting with your old self like visiting the dead.

How many times have you visited a grave and talked to the grave in hopes that the person could hear you? On this trip I did a little of this. Many times have I mentioned that after I was baptized the first time I was tested and I failed those tests and ran.. Well there is a lot to that story. Looking to the church I was first saved at and then looking at the river that I was baptized in it done something to me. It made me sit quiet with the Lord and ask why I had to go through what I did.

Sitting with the Lord, I reflected on my growth. God has done a lot with the mess that was me. Growth is a hard thing. It costs a lot to grow. It takes time, dedication, challenges and struggles. But it also takes breakthroughs and victories. Man times we humans get caught up in the negative that has happened and do not focus on the good that comes from our past. Looking at what we learned from the Glory Days is just as important as the struggles and hardships in our lives.

We did not learn how to love in a day. We did not learn how to do anything in a day. But as we grow and learn, and you hear this a lot in sports, a lot of times you have to get back to the basics to move forward. That’s what this trip was for me. It helped me strip it down to the basics. They are basic foundations that you have in order to build upon.

Job 4:17-21 speaks about having a weak foundation; one without wisdom will cause the house to crumble.  Stronger still is 1 Corinthians 3:5-15:

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become obvious for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work burned up it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet will be like an escape through fire.

Growth can only come through God. Each of us go through a lot of things to get to where we are.  This passage also speaks to something else. Our work will be tested by fire, and if our work is not strong enough it will burn up, we will survive but it will be like coming through the fire.  I have survived through Christ and only by God’s grace which I did not deserve.

Now the image with this story is a place in Kentucky, where I am from. The very town I was born in, well where the hospital was at anyway, has a tourist attraction above it called Chain Rock. The story goes that this rock, which is massive in size, had broken free from the mountain. They had feared the possibility of the last few things holding it there would break free and this boulder would roll down the mountain and destroy much if not all of the town.

The people built a huge chain, large enough that you can walk across it without much difficulty, and literally chained the boulder to the rest of the mountain. That must have been a scary time for these people, but what does that say to you about faith? To me it sounds a little like this, “Lord, I trust you, I do, but just in case I’m going to do a few things just to make sure. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I’m just being careful.”

Now the further irony to this, the rock never broke free from the mountain and moreover the mountain has now built back up around the boulder securing it in place. The city of Pineville, KY is safe once more. It brings to mind Peter walking on Water. It was all about his faith that allowed him to do as Jesus had done.

Too many times do we restrain our faith and trust in the lord with Chains. There comes a time in our lives that God calls us to cast off our chains and shackles to be free in his grace. Now as we grow with a slaves mind, this is scary. When a Slave does these things it leads to death if we’re lucky and if we are not then it leads to torture and torment, or at least embarrassment.  God calls for us to cast off the changes of slavery that this world has put us in. Only if we do this can we walk with purpose and be one with God.

When God calls to us in this way, he has something for us to do. It may be as small as buying someone some shoes, a meal or going out of your way on your way home to give you a chance to touch a life that you would not meet otherwise. Sometimes it is a Mission trip to another country or just to the local homeless shelter. It might be to allow a perfect stranger in your car or worse… Into your Life! What God can do through you and with you is ultimately up to you and your dedication to the Lord.

No one can serve two masters, so do you wish to keep on the chains of slavery that this world has you under or will you cast them aside to allow God to use you? Will you walk on Water or drown? Will you chain down your faith or let God take care of your problems? All of this is up to you, how much will you allow your chains to keep you from God’s Grace and keep you from sharing this Grace with others?