Honey Dips – Freetown

The deep disgust that most of us feel toward slavery is indicative of our support of freedom and justice. We can’t support a system that treats others as if they are property. We can’t support a system that keeps man in bondage, separates him from his family and exposes him to extreme cruelties. Our God is opposed to slavery as well and we clearly observe this in the account of Moses and Aaron who were commissioned to lead the Israelites into freedom, out of the bondage imposed by Pharaoh.

The lives of the Israelites were made bitter with hard service, with mortar and brick. (Exodus 1: 14). Pharaoh ruthlessly overworked them and they were abused, oppressed and degraded. Still, God had a plan to deliver them from Egyptian bondage.

There are many different forms of slavery that plague our world and lives today. Many are slaves to depression, procrastination, harmful substances. Some are slaves to the mind games and battles that occur within; others are slaves to investments, achievements, entertainment and pleasure. But, just as He offered the Israelites a way of escape out of slavery in the days of old, God offers us a way of escape from our varied enslaving “masters” at the beginning of a new year. He has been nudging us to boldly take a leap of faith and trust Him more than the comfort of our bondages; He has been calling us to return to Him in 2013, but fear triumphed over faith, every time and in this new year He will continue His relentless pursuit to help us to choose and embrace His offered freedom.

I encourage you to respond to the call in love for there is real freedom in God. Freedom from addictions, the mind games, the self-defeating habits and behaviors, the fears, the mini-gods.  Freedom from any giant the devil can and will throw your way. Let us not spend a new year complaining, blaming or comparing ourselves to others….let us take a journey with God to a place of blissful freedom. On your journey, expect giants…don’t lose faith…the giants are there to strengthen your faith muscle; expect rejection from some (consider John 15: 18 – 20); expect some growing pains….there is no growth without discomfort…we will be stretched and strengthened but most of all, expect to be delivered by God.

May you develop patience to trust God’s timing to deliver you ….. God doesn’t always remove us from our prisons or crucibles on our time table. May you confidently live in trust, always expecting God to deliver you because He has done that in the past. May you journey with God in peace because “our price has been paid by our Savior. No one need be enslaved by Satan. Christ stands before us as our all-powerful helper.” Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, Book 1, page 309. May you not only be freed but come out stronger and wiser too.

Freedom in Christ is yours in 2014; I dare you to journey with God and claim it!

 Question: What changes must you make in your life in order to develop a closer walk with God? What prevents you from taking a leap of faith and trusting Him to deliver you? What habits must you cultivate as you journey with Him on Freedom’s Road?

 Prayer: Lord, give me the courage to trust you more than the habit or situation that enslaves me.

P.S. Share with me your freedom story if you have been delivered from that which previously enslaved you.

– Dee

(c) 2013, Dentrecia Blanchette

Honey Dips – We’ve come this Far

We’ve come far from who we used to be but not far enough. This is in the ongoing cry for many Christians who have become impatient with the pace of the growth that is occurring within them. For some of us our growth and deliverance from an issue cannot come soon enough. This waiting period, this period of transition, this fixing period often seems like a death sentence.

Think of the Israelites on their way to the promised land…the journey was far from rosy. Think of Noah who prepared for a flood, something new to his time, one hundred and twenty years. Think of Moses who was prepared for His calling, eighty years in training. Think of David who was a shepherd for years before he was appointed as king.

Sometimes God takes His time to prepare us for greater or remold us in His image. He may take His time but He never stops working in us, developing and perfecting us. The period may be unfavorable and we may even become discouraged because of the slow growth we are seeing in ourselves but don’t allow the slowness to force you to look downward and doubt the hand of a God who in the past, in your life and the lives of others, have proven to turn every evil thing into a good thing in His time.

God always completes the task he has begun in a time that is best regardless of how long it takes.

God is working on your attitude, fears, pride, dreams, heart and mind….He is working on them consistently, perfectly, and lovingly.

When you are discouraged, remember that God won’t give up on you. When you feel incomplete or distressed by your shortcomings, life’s difficulties or uncertainties, always remember His promises and provisions for your life. He is not man that He will lie and the scriptures cannot be broken either.

Don’t give up on yourself or God because He is too wise and loving to allow sin to have a permanent claim on your life. He is too gracious to allow your bad habits and past to rob you of a glittering future.

If you are feeling discouraged by the slow pace that you are experiencing growth…return to your Creator, the Potter, God and be honest with Him. Allow Him to give you peace and change your perspective.

– Dee

(c) 2013, Dentrecia Blanchette

Honey Dips – The Best Gift

No matter how many ideal gifts we purchase during the season for our loved ones, no earthly gift can compare to the gift that God gave the entire human race, over 2000 years ago.

God sent His only Son to come to this earth to die that we unfaithful humans might have a chance to live with hope. Perfection, Jesus, came into our world to give us, corrupted humans, divine help. Jesus gave up His royalty and glory in Heaven for woe and misery on this earth to reach out to us as humans. By becoming man, God demonstrated that humans matter and His love is not too deep, good or perfect to offer to us.

I’m thankful that God sent us a gift even before we could truly appreciate the gift and today, out of all the grand, exotic gifts we can purchase for ourselves and receive, that gift is still the best gift given to humanity.

This Christmas take some time to offer thanks to God for sending Christ to this earth, for choosing a humble virgin like Mary, for fulfilling the promise He made since the beginning of time and for being faithful and loving enough to offer us the gift of love daily.

Don’t allow indifference like that exhibited by the Pharisees when Jesus was born to be your response to Jesus this Christmas. Don’t allow Jesus to get lost in the busyness or under the Christmas tree or in the meals we consume. Accept His birth. Celebrate His life. Relinquish the throne of your heart to Him. Give Him your heart and best that you own, like the three wise men. Acknowledge Him as your King. Make Him your Savior. Celebrate His priestly role on your behalf in Heaven.

This Christmas the best gift you can give yourself is a recommitted relationship with Christ. That relationship will bring peace, joy and love into your life like nothing else on this earth. This Christmas the best gift you can give your loved ones is love. That love can transform, heal and change even the most wretched of humans. This Christmas, as you unwrap your gifts, remember the best gift given to Humanity – Jesus!

“Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel”

– Dee

(c) 2013, Dentrecia Blanchette

Honey Dips – Thirsty

“For I will pour out water on the thirsty land 
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring
and My blessing on your descendants;” Isaiah 44: 3

When a believer has fallen into a low, sad state of feeling, he often tries to lift himself out of it by chastening himself with dark and doleful fears. Such is not the way to rise from the dust, but to continue in it. As well chain the eagle’s wing to make it mount, as doubt in order to increase our grace. It is not the law, but the gospel which saves the seeking soul at first; and it is not a legal bondage, but gospel liberty which can restore the fainting believer afterwards. Slavish fear brings not back the backslider to God, but the sweet wooings of love allure him to Jesus’ bosom.

Are you thirsting for the living God, and unhappy because you cannot find him to the delight of your heart? Have you lost the joy of religion, and is this your prayer, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation”? Are you conscious also that you are barren, like the dry ground; that you are not bringing forth the fruit unto God which He has a right to expect of you; that you are not so useful in the Church, or in the world, as your heart desires to be? Then here is exactly the promise which you need, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.” You shall receive the grace you so much require, and you shall have it to the utmost reach of your needs. Water refreshes the thirsty: you shall be refreshed; your desires shall be gratified. Water quickens sleeping vegetable life: your life shall be quickened by fresh grace. Water swells the buds and makes the fruits ripen; you shall have fructifying grace: you shall be made fruitful in the ways of God. Whatever good quality there is in divine grace, you shall enjoy it to the full.

All the riches of divine grace you shall receive in plenty; you shall be as it were drenched with it: and as sometimes the meadows become flooded by the bursting rivers, and the fields are turned into pools, so shall you be–the thirsty land shall be springs of water.