freedom

give me the beat boys and free my soul.

the isrealites were freed. slaves have been freed. animals were freed from the ark. countries have been freed. i have been freed.

freedom is a beautiful thing. when you are in bondage to something, anything, there is nothing sweeter than the feeling of freedom that comes when the chains are gone. money. time. relationship. addiction. satan can use any weakness we have to keep us chained down. but Jesus is so much stronger than that. He has the power to break those chains. and he does. if we let him.

jesus has been speaking freedom to me a lot lately. i felt it in my spirit and last week i felt it physically. i was standing in a van riding through the Masai Mara in the Rift Valley with nothing but incredible landscape painted during his creation with wild animals of every kind roaming around and the wind blowing right through me. i felt such freedom riding through that place i can't even describe it. but more than actually feeling that on the outside, i felt it on the inside.

jesus has freed me from my chains. he has freed my heart from hurt. he has given me freedom, so i can have the freedom to experience what i did in Kenya. he has freed me so i can live downtown jackson and love my neighbors. he has freed me so i can disciple middle school girls. he has freed me so i have the freedom and be available to go where he sends me next.

my chains are gone, i've been set free.

where the spirit of the lord is, there is freedom.

every face has a name

what a glorious morning outside! after leaving the gym i wanted some coffee, but not any that i make cuz i don't make good coffee. i went to the coffee shop at the king edward hotel, they make good coffee. when i left i was driving up captiol street and saw lots of friends. lots of friends leaving the church downtown that serves breakfast. it was like an outpouring of friends walking towards me. richard. carlos. mike. third eye. anthony. cole. lots of others.

when i left king edward i thought to myself, i love living downtown. i love everything about it.

but when i passed all my friends i thought to myself, i love living downtown because i know all these beautiful people!

the lord wrecked me about a year ago. he created each person on this planet - he says so in Genesis. even though some people choose a different life, we are all created in his image. all. in my former blindness i would have looked at "those people" and felt sorry for them, but now i look at them as who they are, who God made them to be. i know them by their name - and the cooler part is, they know ME by my name. that makes me happy.

each face i see has a name. each name has a story. each story has a God on the end of it that loves them, just like he loves me, and you. it blows my mind that i even get the honor to drive down captiol street and see my friends and wave to them and see them wave and smile back to me.