Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** I meet with several men every Monday morning. Our group has been getting together for several years now. I have to tell you, this get together is a highlight of my week. The conversations we have together set the tone for how I end up viewing my life the rest of the entire week. In my opinion, this is what Church is suppose to look like.  One day we were talking about an interesting subject. The topic we hit on was that of sobriety. Our conversation began as you might have thought it would. As we considered the issues that have worked to control us through substances that we chose to introduce as coping mechanisms in our lives, some interesting thoughts were brought to the table. Our conversation brought up topics that ranged from twelve step programs to self help initiatives.  One of my friends started talking about sobriety as something more than just kicking a bad habit in our lives. He started talking about sobriety as something more than just being free from some addiction. He was making sobriety out to be a lifestyle of living that made me think really hard about many of the ways I deal with issues that come against me.  You see, sobriety is really about being mentally healthy. It is about getting free of the things that control us now and, at the same time, recognizing those things in our life that might make it easy to trade one habit for another. What I loved about our conversation wasn't that is was dealing with right or wrong. This conversation really helped me to see how the word sobriety has a power to it that really can make victor living something easier to grasp.  As my friend was describing sobriety in the context of being mentally strong I remembered a verse from the Bible. Take a look at that verse with me now.  The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 1 Peter 4:7 (NIV) I found it interesting that my friend was talking about sobriety in terms of being mentally healthy and here is the Bible linking the word sober with mind. Later, I did some digging into this concept and found that many times in the Bible the words sober and mind are tied together. I love these, so called, "random coincidences." Sober has so much more to do with the mind than it does with not abusing substances. Being sober minded is something God takes seriously. I think we should as well. Let's take a closer look at what it might mean to be sober minded as we dive into several verses from the Bible that use this term. The first characteristic of being sober minded that I saw in the Bible was that of being watchful. In 1 Peter 5:8 it says that we are to be watchful because Satan is prowling around looking to devour us. In 1 Thessalonians 5:6 we are warned to keep awake.  It is when we put our brains on auto-pilot that we miss the signs of evil threatening our very existence. Victim thinking happens when we fail to pay attention to what is going on around us. It happens just as easily when we choose to react to things based on victim induced patters instituted before we were in a place where we could adequately process what was happening to us. Sober minded, to me, is all about being ever attentive. It is going through life with our eyes opened. It is learning how to recognize when we are in positions where negative patters are about to be reinforced with failed coping mechanisms. God has given us a powerful tool in the human brain. Sober minded happens when we let our brain loose to help us move in directions that combat past patterns and establish new ways of dealing with the challenges that come our way. The second characteristic of being sober minded from God's Word is summed up by preparation. In 1 Peter 1:13, it says to prepare our minds for action. God knew that our advisory would do all he could to lull us to sleep. It is when we turn to well worn patters of reacting to situations in life that prepar

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "No the answer isn’t trying to walk a narrow line between thinking too lowly and too highly of ourselves. How can one possibly do that on a consistent basis? As I pondered these two sides of spiritual brokenness it came to me that it isn’t balance we need, its convergence." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 169. I'm beginning to see how balance isn't really the answer to much in our world today. I'm not advocating for us to take a hard stance for or against things with no compromise. Compromise, for no other reason, is often a good idea because it causes us to have relationship so that compromise can be reached. Balance and compromise can be totally opposite things as far as I have come to realize. Balance when it comes to something as important as who we are just isn't something I'm seeing as being all that healthy. When we try to balance what the world says about us with what God says, life can be such a victim making prospect. Things of God rarely work when balance is the standard we apply in our lives. I'm starting to believe that convergence is much more applicable when it comes to living this life of a victor. Convergence is defined as the act of moving toward union or uniformity. Where balance speaks of equalizing all the various compartments of our lives, convergence has more to do with all our compartments becoming one. When it comes to who we are as it relates to what we do, convergence is really all I have found that works in this world. Balance happens when we try to give equal weight and attention to the various aspects of our lives. For me, I can quickly think of five different parts of my life that I find important. They are family, work, health, social life, and God. Balance says that I need to make sure each of these areas are given the kinds of attention and care needed to keep them in a position where they are doing for my life what I expect. In other words, if I spend too much time at work, then my family, health, social life and spiritual condition will suffer. Balance requires that we carefully adjust our focus in ways that make sure we aren't preoccupied in areas that will jeopardize any of the other importance sections of our lives. In theory, this is a pretty good strategy to consider. Problem is that it takes a lot of work to maintain a balance that makes life be all it can be. Inevitably, we will fail to make proper adjustments and being out of balance is the result. Convergence is a strategy that is beginning to make so much more sense to me. Where balance is allocating an equalized portion of time and effort to each of the important areas of live, convergence brings all the elements under one centralized focus. Problem with convergence is that if we don't choose the right focus, life will spin out of control as easily as it can if balance is our objective. Let me explain that a bit more. If we decide that convergence is the strategy by which we want to run our lives, and we choose family from which everything else springs from, we are setting ourselves up for disaster. If family is to be the focus, what happens when family dynamics change? What happens to your life when the kids grow up and move away? What happens if there is a divorce? What happens if a death causes family dynamics to alter drastically? As important as family is in my life, converging my entire life around family opens the door to failure in ways that make victim thinking a real possibility. When it comes to convergence, I am seeing that this strategy can only work when I choose to converge all the segments of my life into a relationship with God. If convergence means coming into union or becoming unified with, it makes a lot of sense to me to have family, health, work and soc

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** Yesterday I introduced a quote from my friend Ken Baugh. This quote came from a presentation Ken is giving entitled "Abundant Living In Christ." You can check out this amazing set of lectures for yourself by referring to the text of this podcast and clicking on the link included there. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4yqjWBtrQLsZh4PfRctI6A Ken said the following... "God’s love is like a mirror. The more we can see our reflection in His love the more we can weather the storms that come against us in ways that aren’t destructive. It is when we interpret our circumstance through the warped lens of our life that we create behavior that isn’t abundant living. When I see myself through the Father’s eyes and think the Fathers thought I will experience more love joy peace and hope." Yesterday I took us down a bunny trail of how a mirror works. When we view an image in a mirror the horizontal is flipped while the vertical remains the same. In other words, left is right in a mirror while up remains up and down remains down. I explained that I found this to be important because life is also made up of a horizontal component and a vertical one as well. When we view life in the mirror of God's Love our physical world, represented by the horizontal, can seem flipped in confusing and frustrating ways. The truly amazing thing is that the vertical component of life reflected back in the mirror of God's Love doesn't change. The vertical, to me, is the power that comes with a connection with our God. I left yesterday's presentation off with a thought that I wanted to dig in more on today. It is when we try to take the vertical realities of God and apply them in a horizontal way that trouble happens in the life of a victor. I believe this contention is confirmed by Ken's statement on behavior we read earlier. Ken said that it is when we fail to view our lives in the mirror of God's Love, destructive behavior can be the result. Taking things of God that don't change in the reflection of God's Love and trying to apply them in a horizontal strategy, when horizontal is flipped in that reflection, can be a frustrating and victim making exercise when it comes to living out this life. Let's take a promise from scripture and view it in the reflection of God's Love to see what happens. Check out with me now today's Bible reading. Take delight in the Lord,     and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 (NIV) In the past, I have literally torn this Bible verse apart looking for ways to trap God into giving me what I want. I believe this was done as I tried to take a vertical promise and bend it to fit the flipped way I see my horizontal life in the reflection of God's Love. Let me show you what I mean by that. What today's reading is saying is that if we figure out how to delight ourselves in the Lord, He is required to give us the desires of our heart. Believe me when I say I have researched the wording in this verse very carefully and this is literally what is being said. Now, all I need to do is figure out how to take delight in the Lord and I have it made - right? Here's where the left to right thing that happens in a mirror really comes into play. Let's say I think that taking delight in the Lord means to read my Bible more. If I use Bible reading as a strategy to get God to do what I want, then I have taken a vertical promise that can't be changed and applied it on a horizontal plane that is always backwards when viewed as a reflection in the mirror of God's Love. The results of what I want when it comes to converting a vertical connection into a horizontal reality will never be what my soul wants it to be. It just can't. It is like trying to fit the proverbial square peg into the round hole. It is when I take what is being reflected by God's Love and try to make it fit in my natural world the way I want it to fit, that life gets to be a frustrating exercise in

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** I have mentioned my friend, Ken Baugh, several times in past presentations. I have been blessed to be able to attend a lecture series Ken is hosting called Abundant Living In Christ. You too can connect to these teachings by checking out Ken's YouTube channel. To find it, do a search on Ken Baugh YouTube channel and you should be able to find it that way. You can also check in the text of this podcast for a link I have posted to Ken's YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4yqjWBtrQLsZh4PfRctI6A In a recent presentation, Ken said the following... "God’s love is like a mirror. The more we can see our reflection in His love the more we can weather the storms that come against us in ways that aren’t destructive. It is when we interpret our circumstance through the warped lens of our life that we create behavior that isn’t abundant living. When I see myself through the Father’s eyes and think the Fathers thought I will experience more love joy peace and hope." That first line so resonated with me. Ken said, "God's love is like a mirror." That touches me in such a deep and profound way. I have often said that if I could get close enough to God to see my reflection in His eyes, I think that this world would make so much more sense to me. You see, it is when we view our lives the way God does that our victor status really comes alive. I need to see my life the way God does or I will be tempted to try and make my life something I I have no business trying to make it be. I have said it over and over again, but anything we do tied to who we are is nothing more than a straight line to victim thinking. God's love for us is the foundation on which we need to be standing or life just won't make sense. This is especially the case when bad times hit. It is so easy to allow destructive and victim making behavior happen when God's love is misunderstood in ways that make our reflection something we just don't understand. As I was pondering the fact that God's Love is like a mirror, I started to think about how our image is reflected in a natural mirror. I hope this isn't to wonky for you, but I thought of something about a mirror that I think really does come into play as far as the entire discussion regarding victim thinking and victor living is concerned. Let me take some time to go down a rabbit trail with this thought. You see, the image reflected in a mirror is actually flipped. Right is left and left is right. The interesting thing is that up and down are not flipped when we look in a mirror. Check it out for yourself. Take a piece of paper and write your name on it. Now, take that paper to a mirror and look at the reflection. Your name is reflected backwards. Left is right and right is left. However, up and down don't flip in the reflection. So, what's so amazing about this little fact? Let me dig in on that point a little deeper. A mirror returns an image with the horizontal plane inverted. The vertical plane doesn't change in the image that is returned. We live in two planes when it comes to our world. We too have a horizontal and a vertical component as it relates to this life. The horizontal component represent all the things that we come into contact with in this world. Horizontal has to do with our circumstances, the things we choose to do, the linear progression of time in our lives, our interpretation of all that we come into contact with, etc. Basically, the horizontal elements of life are all the physical things that comes our way. Then there is the horizontal. I see this component as our connection with God. The horizontal represents our relationship with Him. This component of life is a lot harder to explain. It is is made up of more of the mystical things that sometimes scare us in ways that they really shouldn't. Prayer, leading, healing, meditation, and a whole lot more, are all parts of what I see as a vertical connection to our God. Now, here comes the

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "Nothing makes a person more able to cross the line from victim to victor than coming through bad times with our relationship with God intact and even more solid as a result." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 153. There is a saying people are fond of quoting when challenging times hit. It goes like this, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." My quote today is nothing more than just another way of making the point that even the bad times of life have purpose that might make the bad times somewhat more tolerable Though this may be true, you have to realize that God isn't throwing a bunch of bad things into your life in an attempt to make you stronger. The evil in this world is banking on you getting so discouraged by all the challenges you might be facing right now, to give up on the fact that God 's love is for you. It is when you come through a challenging time with your faith in God intact that greater strength comes as you survive the attacks of this world.  This point is emphasized by today's Bible reading. Take a look at it with me now.  But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Genesis 50:20 (NKJV) The things the evil in this world has done to you was meant to tear you down. God knows that evil is going to happen in this world. He also knows that our natural ability to survive in spite of all evil does to war against us will naturally build us up. He wants us built up so that we can be part of the process of saving this world from the ravaging plan evil has for for us all. Remember, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. We are part of a plan for life. The evil in this world wants us to forget that so that death will reign. So, why doesn't God just make evil go away? I believe it is because evil becomes a possibility as we are given the powerful force called choice. It is the choices people make that causes the vast majority of the evil that is trying to overtake our world today. Evil can't be completely eradicated without choice being taken away. Without choice, love just isn't worth the effort.  A love based on obligation just isn't the same as a love based on choice. Forcing someone to love you isn't a love you can trust. A forced love doesn't do for the object of that love what a love based on choice does. It is when we choose to love God in spite of the evil that befalls us as a result of choices others make, that a power comes into our lives that makes love a force to be contended with. Satan knows that and works to make our choices create as much evil in the world as possible so that our love will be lacking in power.  I am sure that God hates it when we face challenges of any kind. Don't you ache inside when something happens bad to one of your children? It must be just as painful when God's children question God's motives when it comes to evil in this world. I just don't see God as the bad guy when it comes to bad things happening to us. I also can't see God allowing badness to happen to institute some growth strategy in our lives. How could a loving father deliberately hurt a much beloved child in the name of toughening them up? Yet, that is what we blame God for doing when we think that evil is something God allows so that we will be made stronger in our faith. The reality is that everything in this life will make us stronger. It is when we face all the evil that comes our way standing on the foundation of the the fact that God's love is for us no matter what our circumstances might be at any given moment, that growth does happen in our lives. I just can't see God thinking that any pain is the lives of His children is a good thing

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** A few weeks ago, the pastor at my church, Aaron Jayne, gave a sermon that really speaks to the journey of moving from victim to victor. Pastor Aaron spoke on supply and demand. No, he didn't give a talk on economics. Pastor Aaron spoke about the supply side of the gospel and the demand realities of following The Law. You see, the Bible is broken down into two sections. The Old Testament is all about The Law. This was the do's and don'ts that God gave His people as they looked for a means by which they could earn their spot at God's table. The do's and don'ts of The Law were what it took in order for the people's sin to be overlooked by the perfect God they served. God demands perfection. Without that perfection, we don't have any standing with Him at all. Since we are a flawed and imperfect people, God explained in The Old Testament what it would take to make it so that He could overlook the flaws that we have introduced into our lives. Problem with The Law is that if we use it to make justice be what we expect, we are doomed. You see, no one has ever been able to keep all of The Law with the notable exception of Jesus. Once you break one of The Laws, perfection is never something that can be a part of our lives. The Law "demands" perfection and that is something that just isn't what mankind is capable of given the fallen nature of this world. If that were the end of the story, what a sad ending it would be. Fact is that under The Law, we are all doomed to being judged guilty when it comes to imperfection. The verdict for our being guilty of imperfection a death that is epitomized by eternal separation from the God that made us. Thank God His plan for salvation didn't stop there. Thank God for The New Testament of The Bible. Where the Old Testament is all about the demand side of God's justice, The New Testament is about the supply side of God's Love. God knew that man would never be able to keep The Law. The demand for perfection is simply too much for us to be able to attain to. Why then, did God give man The Law in the first place. I believe it is because He wanted us to realize that do's and don'ts are never enough when it comes to relationship with Him. He wanted the demand side of justice to be something that overwhelms us to a point of surrender. What was it that He wants us to surrender to? It is the supply side of His Love He wants us to give our lives over to. The demands of The Old Testament were replace with the supply of The New Testament through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is all about how The Law was fulfilled by the actions of God Himself on our behalf. The good news of The New Testament is that do's and don'ts have no place in a life that is surrendered to God's plan for relationship that came through Jesus actions on our behalf. It is in this part of God's plan that supply becomes so complete for us. Let me explain that a bit more. The Law leads to death. All the do's and don'ts that make up The Law make it so that failing to be successful at making those do's and don'ts part of your entire life sets the person up for separation from God. That's the death God is talking about when it comes to the demands of The Law. The Law works to suck the life out of the person trying to keep The Law. It does so because it takes so much work to make the do's and don'ts happen. The pressure that comes with the reality that even one slip up is punishable by death, makes the demands of The Law a killer in the life of a victor. The New Testament introduces God's supply side of love. What Jesus did for us is referred to as "The Gospel." Gospel comes from an ancient word that basically means "good news." The supply side of God's love really is good news. It is when we allow God to pave the way for our relationship with Him that the pressure of trying to make that happen through our own efforts goes away. As Pastor Aaron said in his

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "From God’s perspective we are totally worthless. That’s right. There is nothing of worth in the victim or the victor when compared to a perfect and infallible God." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 130. I know you have heard me deal with the point I'm making from my quote today many times in these presentations. Look, I'm not trying to get you to think less of yourself with the reality that we are totally worthless before this God that loves us. I'm trying to get you and me to stop thinking of ourselves at all when it comes to how we feel about God's love in our lives.  You see when we look to what we can do to prove that we are lovable before this God, we take the good news of Jesus and twist it into a religion that does nothing but bind us up in victim thinking ways. Worth will never be enough to prove that we deserve the love God is so desperate to give us. Worth requires that we do things to prove our identity merits what we think it is worthy of. Compared to an all-powerful, all-knowing and perfect God, how can anything we do ever compare when it comes to worth and our identity? If this line of thinking depresses you in some way, I hope I can change that thinking in my presentation today. The fact that our worth does nothing to prove who we are to this God should be the most encouraging and freeing news you have ever heard. Why? Because if this fact is as true as I'm beginning to see in my life, all the effort that I expend on trying to prove my worth can be used to do other, more productive things. God rejoices when we come to this point of surrender as it relates to worth and identity. When we surrender to what God says about who we are, worth becomes something that we just don't have to prove.  I love today's Bible reading. It really shows us the Father's heart through the plan of salvation we have available to us. Let's read today's verses now. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7 (NIV) We didn't receive God's love gift of salvation because we were worthy. It was because of His kindness and love for us that He can overlook our worthlessness through Jesus' death on the cross. That's why it should be so freeing to come to the understanding that our worth before God is of no value whatso ever. It is when we accept God's loving kindness that we can stop wasting our time and energy in trying to prove our worth to this perfectly worthy God. Not only do I love today's reading because it highlights God's plan for this world, it makes some amazing statements of fact about who we are in God's eyes. The end of our reading makes three promises the victor needs to know is there, even when victory is so far from our lives. The first promise is that we are justified. What this means is that the fact that we are worthless doesn't carry any weight when it comes to this perfect God. Because of Jesus, the fact that we have fallen short and will fall short in our lives has no bearing on whether God loves us or not. His love is for us because God's standards for justice was met on a cross some two thousand years ago. We are free from having to defend ourselves. We are free from having to prove our worth. That is freedom indeed! The second promise from today's reading is that we are heirs in God's Kingdom. Specifically, our reading says we are heirs to eternal life. Elsewhere in the Bible it says we are heirs to the Ki

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** I came across a devotional the other day that really spoke to me. Dave Whitehead, Senior Pastor,  of Grace Community in New York City wrote this commentary. "The amount of online access that we have with each other has created an inordinate focus upon outward appearances. Our Facebook status or Instagram update only increase the pressure to cultivate a “personal brand” that is carefully groomed for Internet consumption. Yet God has a different way of seeing things—he looks at the heart. What would it look like to take some of the time that we spend on managing our outward image and reallocate it toward cultivating the state of our soul before God? We may be uncomfortable at first, but we also may find a deeper sense of direction and satisfaction than any outward image can produce." It is so true that humans spend unbelievable amounts of time and financial resources on their outward appearance. We in the US tend to be the leaders of this trend. In 2016 the beauty and personal care market generated an astounding 84 billion dollars in domestic sales alone. Toss on top of that the dollars we shell out for clothing, cars, houses, vacations, food and all the other things that we love to post on our Facebook feeds, and you begin to see how true Pastor Whitehead's devotional really is. Social media has created an outlet for our natural human drive to express ourselves in a way that is seen as unique and awesome. The social tools that we have available to us make it that much easier to portray an image we want the world to see when they think of us. The image that we might be able to create using social media is way to shallow and temporary to support what our soul needs to feel like the victor God wants us to be. Worse than that, what happens when the image we are portraying just doesn't fit the reality of how we feel. Victim thinking and victimizing events happen when we fail to maintain an image we think we need in order to be seen in the light we desperately need. Those of us caught in the trap of having to create and maintain an image of self based on what we do and how we feel are in such danger of slipping into victim thinking ways. Social media tools have given us a platform that helps us to leverage all we do in ways to help build an identity that suits our needs. Problem is that all we really see on social media is the best of a person's life. For those of us who are struggling with identity, what we see on our social media pages do nothing more than drive us into more and more despair as we compare our lives to what we see others doing in their life. I've used this quote before but it fits here so perfectly I want to say it again. My friend likes to say this about the dangers of comparing ourselves to others. He says, "We get ourselves into trouble when we compare our insides to the outsides of others." Social media is all about letting others see how amazing and awesome the outside of our lives really are. Do you think I'm being too harsh with my commentary of social media expressed in that last line?  Think about this for a minute. When was the last time you saw a picture of a person feeling totally hopeless over the loss of a job? When was the last time you saw a post that expressed the angst your friend has at making a relationship work? When was the last time you used social media to share how lonely you feel and how lost you are at times? I'm not knocking social media. I'm not even knocking our use of social media. No, social media isn't the issue at all. Pastor Whitehead hit the nail on the head when he said, "What would it look like to take some of the time that we spend on managing our outward image and reallocate it toward cultivating the state of our soul before God?" Social media isn't being used to help us cultivate our soul before God. That's a victim making reality if we don't take steps to change how we use and enjoy social media, in my opini

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "That’s what flourishing in peace can do for a human’s life. We get connected to a power that makes big things happen in this world." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 114. I was once in Sedona AZ. What an amazing place. There are seven spots around Sedona that the locals call a vortex. Apparently a vortex is a place where people say natural energy is somehow concentrated in a way that you can actually feel it. Folks make trips to these spots to get connected to a power for all kinds of reasons in their life. The first time I was there, my wife and I were staying a short walk away from one of these vortex spots. We decided to go check it out for ourselves. When we got there we had to climb a little hill. Once on the top of that hill, I too could feel the energy emanating from this spot. I don't know if it was some magical concentration of power like the locals want to believe or just the mere fact that on the other side of this little hill was a 1000+ foot drop off. I have to admit that standing on that hill top was very energizing. I actually felt something that I could describe as power in that spot. I'm not sure that I need to turn to the supernatural to explain that power. Anytime I have stood on the edge of a vast expanse, I have always felt something akin to energy flowing in my veins. This spot was but another example of the power that comes when nature does things to awe us in ways it can from time to time. Even if what I felt at this spot wasn't the result of some mystical phenomenon, I really would like to go back there and experience that feeling again. There is something appealing, and maybe even a little addictive, to being connected to a power that is greater then our own, even if that power is nothing more than adrenaline flowing through our veins. I believe that victors can make a connection to that power when they move in ways to make peace in the soul something that guides their lives. It is when we come to a place where true prosperity is a flourishing in our soul as a result of the peace God gives that a power, not unlike that I felt on that vortex in Sedona, is available to us all. When we are flourishing in our soul, the peace that comes makes it so that we are not pulled in ways by circumstance like others in this world. This doesn't mean that we aren't taken aback when bad things happen to us. It is only natural to be caught a bit off guard by the way evil can work in and around our lives. Flourishing in the soul with God's peace makes it so that even in the bad times our circumstances don't have the power to alter our identities in victim making ways. In other words, we can be a victim of evil without letting victim thinking take over when God's peace is something that soothes our soul. Take a look at today's Bible reading with me now. Check out what God wants us to know about His peace in our lives. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. 2 Thessalonians 3:16 (ESV) If we think that peace means that nothing challenging will happen in our lives, we are setting ourselves up for victim thinking. It is mighty easy to read today's verse and believe that God is saying that we will always have peace. In fact, that is what He is saying. Problem is, He is the one that decides what that peace is to look like. We don't have any say in the matter.  It is when I think peace is the result of not having troubles in my life that I can really get myself into places where victim thinking controls my actions. Flourishing in the soul with God's peace happens as we take the last sentence from today's reading and apply it to our lives.  Our reading today ends with the line, "The Lord be with you all

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** “Self-centeredness leads to a demanding spirit that will ultimately leave victimization in its wake. ‘I AM’ leads to openness, freedom, acceptance, generosity and love that goes so far beyond what you and I will ever be able to provide on our own.” As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 98. God often referred to Himself as "I AM" in the Old Testament of the Bible. I believe that self-centeredness comes as we fail to realize what this "I AM" is all about. When we take on the responsibility of defining and making happen our own identities in life, "I AM" takes on a meaning that makes victimization happen in ways God never intended. “I AM” is such an appropriate description for the name of God. Basically what God is trying to get across is the fact that when it comes to anything good, God is the “I AM.” In other words, if you think good is all powerful, God’s name is “I AM POWERFUL.” If you think good is loving then God’s name is “I AM LOVING.” There are so many attributes that might be associated with a good God that it is just easier to shortened His name to “I AM.” The Bible says that we are made in the image of God. I believe that this means that the name “I AM” is something that has meaning in our lives as fully as it does in God’s. Problem is that we either have no idea as to what “I AM” means in our lives or we take “I AM” so personally as to eliminate God completely from the picture. Even though we are made in God’s image, we are not the “I AM”. Only God has that name. We do reflect His name in ways that make this world see Him in the light needed. It is when we take on the identity of “I AM” that we live in a place where victim making is the norm. There is nothing wrong with reflecting who God is. It is not a prudent strategy to believe that we somehow are what God says He is. Most people deal with the issue of not having a clue when it comes to the “I AM” living inside them. These are the folks that are working so hard to prove something that God has already made happen. It is when we come to grips with the “I AM” inside each of us that identity starts to have the power to make victors of us all. When it comes to God’s name reflecting in our lives, we need the Bible to help us flesh that out. Today, instead of reading just one verse, I want to take a look at some of the places where we too can apply an “I AM” based identity. Each of the verses below are connected in one sense. Each verse is a summation of what Jesus said as He made “I AM” statements. “I AM” in the life of a vctor only happens in Christ. “I AM” doesn’t happen as we work hard. It doesn’t happen by desiring it to be. It only happens as we are in the one that the “I AM” describes in the first place. Take a look with me now at several places Jesus makes “I AM” statements. Let’s see if we can’t figure out what “I AM” might look like in the life of a victor. In John 14:6 Jesus says - I am the way, the truth and life. This means we can know the truth and move powerfully in that truth.In John 15:5 He says, I am the vine - This means we have a connection.From Revelation 1:8, Jesus tells us  - I am the Alpha & Omega - Jesus will always be there.John 6:47-50 has Jesus saying - I am the bread of life – I take this to mean we find the nourishment needed for life in Jesus.In John 8:12, Jesus says - I am the light of the world - We don't have to face the darkness alone.He says in Matthew 28:20 - I am with you always - We are never alone.And in Revelation 1:17-19, Jesus claims that - I am alive forever more - We have a hope for eternity.There’s some “I AM” statements that make sense to me. Those are characteristics of who we are in God that I believe He wants to be the foundation for all we are and all we do. Ta