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I’ll Have a Glue Thanksgiving Without You

Episode 72

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If you’re listening to this today, Thanksgiving Day, instead of listening to this right now, let me encourage you to go check the turkey, check on the biscuits, hug your mother, sit down with your grandparents and listen to those stories they want to tell you. Then come back and listen to Living the Freedom Life. I want to share with you some things I learned about glue today.

Happy Thanksgiving Day Everyone! You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life Ep 72 I’ll Have A Glue Thanksgiving Without You

It doesn’t take long to realize that you have something to be thankful for. It doesn’t matter if you traveled to get near family for this day, or they traveled to you for this day, I even have a friend that’s hosting a “zoom giving” day. A virtual Thanksgiving online. Pretty Innovative and cool if you ask me.

Yeah, sure, all of us have a Hallmark type of gathering in mind but most of our holidays happen differently than that. Fractured families, exes, inlaws, grown kids, travel schedules, travel restrictions, Granny passing, there are some families that are reminded of a tragic event that happened around this time, whatever the case may be in your family, that no longer fulfills that Hallmark picture in your head, things are different than they were.

You see, Things are different when the glue is missing.

I remember as a kid, we had to have a separate table for me and my cousins to eat. We would run around in a pasture, get in trouble for playing on the Round Hay Bales, then go play in the barn, then we were restricted to play inside, We’d go down to the basement and play games there, those were great memories. All of it was because we were together, and that takes glue.

Things are different when the glue is missing.

My daughter now lives several states away and she is at the age where she needs some furniture. I’ve been restoring a table for her, and we’re taking it to her for Thanksgiving.

As I was restoring this table, when I put it back together, I forgot to use wood glue. I found out quickly that I needed to disassemble this table (again) and then use wood glue in addition to what I had used. It made the table stronger, solid, I could trust setting something heavy on it. I could tell, it was going to be dependable for many more years to come.

Things are different when the glue is missing.

Let me pose something to you.

My grandmother was the glue that held my family together. My wife’s mother was the glue that held her family together as well. When I was restoring that table, it wasn’t even going to make the trip, unless I had glue holding it together.

Things are definitely different when the glue is missing.

You may say “Well, You just have to have the right mindset to see it” …and I think that is a problem in our society. To be in the right mindset, it takes work to apply glue. And one of the main issues that I see is that people don’t want to put forth any effort. They don’t want to work for it. They just want to experience the Hallmark feeling. There is a consumer mindset to this. We just want to plop down, in front of the TV, and watch.

I want to challenge you to be the new glue. I know, it’s obvious that the glue is missing. We’ve established that. There is a problem. The question is, are we going to just continue to be depressed about the situation and try to find ways to avoid it, or do something about it?

Be the new glue.

It’s going to take effort and applying glue takes work. Hard work. Hmmmmmm.

Restoring that table for my daughter taught me something about glue. I want to point out 7 quick things that I learned about applying glue.

I had to disassemble the entire table…again.
1. You may have to undo some things over and over again.
Once I started, applying the glue wasn’t that big of a deal.
1. The hardest part is starting. That’s true in Ministry, 90% of ministry is just showing up.
Then it required pressure
1. When you apply glue, the parts just kinda slip and slide around because they don’t know where to land. Family will be like that too. You may have to apply some new pressure in order to give direction. When you glue wood together, you use clamps and screw them down tightly until it dries. That’s pressure, that’s also direction.
It also required clean up
1. Whenever you apply glue, things are going to get messy. Just expect it and be prepared for it, and things will be okay.
The reward is far greater now.
1. It’s one thing to go to a store and buy a piece of furniture. But it’s entirely different when you restore something and it’s reward is far greater. The Hallmark movie that you liked so much, that took screenwriters, producers, an entire crew to film, lighting, audio and then editing. There was a lot of work done to put that movie in production and it provided a livelihood for a lot of families. That person who was a part of working on that movie, they watch it with a different intention, now don’t they? The reward is far greater for them.
Because of the Glue, The table is now trustworthy.
1. Before, that table was rickety. Now, I can trust it to set things of value on it, things of weight, I can show it to the ones I love.
And the last thing I want to point out about what I’ve learned through glue is that it will last much longer now
1. I signed the bottom of the table, where no one would see it, just for her. No one else needs to know…well, okay, YOU will, but if you are looking for something that means much more than the wood and the function of a table, that is what lasts. The work I put into that table, will now last much longer than that of the table.

So today, things may not look like the picture in your head about Thanksgiving.

Things are different when the glue is missing.

Now, go be the new Glue.

When you dare to do that, you are Living the Freedom Life.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. Until next time, this is Kyle

Forgiveness

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With Thanksgiving coming up I thought we would have a discussion about something that I’ve found everyone struggles with. Forgiveness. You may even have someone that comes to mind.

Even as I mentioned the word, Forgiveness, you already have a picture in your mind of what that looks like. Even if you don’t, That’s okay, Most of us don’t have an accurate picture of what true forgiveness is anyway. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life Podcast Ep# 71 and we are starting a new series on Forgiveness.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be the prerequisite to the happiest time of the year, we have more data and proof that we are heading into the most stressful time of year. With Thanksgiving approaching and travel, We’ve been dealing with covid-19 for so long now, that’s enough to stress anyone out.

I don’t know about you, but I want to travel for the holidays just to get away SOMEWHERE. Now people are trying to put restrictions on how we gather with family for the holidays. Not to mention any family grievances, pent up feelings, sorrows and just downright wounds that this time of year reminds us of, thrusting those memories to the forefront as if we are re-living them just by driving down that old familiar driveway.

This is a stressful time and, it’s filled with, well, unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness is a big deal. In fact, the Bible talks a lot about this.

Luke 23:34 “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing”

Luke 6:37 Don’t hold unforgiveness so that you will be forgiven.

Eph 4:32 Paul instructs us to forgive others, just as we have been forgiven

Mark 11:25 Says that even if we hold unforgiveness in our heart, it will hinder our worship and prayer. We are to take care of that first, then we can go worship.

So, scripturally speaking, there’s a lot of pressure put on forgiving others. We can easily interpret this as, we better know how to do it and do it completely or it will not be done for us.

I don’t mean to get legalistic on you, but this does sound like a requirement. Forgiveness is a pretty big deal, and it’s probably the number one issue that I run across with my coaching clients. So, if you struggle with forgiveness please understand, you are not alone.

That’s why I wanted to begin this series on forgiveness during this time of year. Because usually we hold unforgiveness towards the ones we love the most, and that’s usually family. Thanksgiving is not always a happy time, we don’t have the Norman Rockwell picturesque type of Thanksgiving, especially in 2020. Thanks covid-19. And just for the record, yes, I was being sarcastic. And I do listen to my own podcast, by the way.

You’ve probably already heard this, but Harboring unforgiveness in your heart is like “Drinking poison and wanting it to affect someone else”. As absurd as that sounds, that’s what a lot of us believe. And I’m here to tell you today, that Speck of unforgiveness is like Darkness invading your heart. It’s like a seed of Darkness that will grow. And God doesn’t want that for you. He doesn’t want that for me.

I want to share with you a couple of First Step exercises to begin the Forgiveness process. And yes, it is a process. How many of you know that you can’t unsee something? I know, there are times where that would be awesome. Anyway, forgiveness is a process, And forgiving someone challenges the way we see that person.

As much as I wished, you can’t snap your fingers and instantly forgive someone. That’s just religion, most any way you slice it. That may be acceptance, but it’s not forgiveness.

I’m sure you already know this about me, but I’m a follower of Jesus. That means I follow him, which means I study what he did, how he did things, and why he did them.

Well, as it turns out, he gives us a pretty good and extreme example of the beginning stages of forgiveness on the Human side of things.

(Yes, to you theologians out there, that is the Human side of Jesus, not the Deity side of Him, God does instantly forgive, because he knows no time and therefore that process happens in an instant. There is still a process to Forgiveness.)

You know the story, at the height of his pain and agony, after he has been humiliated, beaten, stabbed and everything else, that’s when he musters the statement “Father, Forgive them, they don’t know…”

Here are three things I would like to call to your attention:

They don’t know, understand, comprehend ~ the same as you.
1. This has nothing to do with intelligence, it has everything to do with uniqueness and choices. One is not better than the other, they just don’t know, understand or comprehend the same as you.
2. Why then, would you not forgive them?
They don’t feel, see, hear ~ the same as you.
1. Our senses are how we interpret the world. How we interpret the world depends on our choices and how we interact with it. They don’t feel, see and hear the same as you.
2. Remember, unforgiveness is like a dark seed in your heart.
3. Why then, would you not forgive them?
They don’t react, respond, are empowered ~ the same as you.
1. This is a combination of the first two points. This is the process of how a person makes a choice. Your process and theirs usually aren’t the same.
2. If you want to forgive someone, one of the worst things that you can do is try to figure out their logic.
3. When we release their logic to them, why then, would we not forgive them?

Now, before we run out of time I want to make one more point. And please, let me be very clear.

Forgiving someone has nothing to do with me trusting them. I learned at an early age that trust is not given, it’s earned. Once you’ve earned trust, you have it until you do something to tear it down. Once it’s torn down, in other words, you don’t trust them anymore, it’s our job to present opportunities for them to build back Trust.

This works in great harmony with setting boundaries. A topic we can discuss later.

And by the time I see now, we need to discuss everything later, in other words we are out of time now.

Join us next week as we will continue this topic on forgiveness. Thank you so much for listening today, and thank you for giving me an opportunity to earn your trust.

Until next time, living the freedom life, this is Kyle.

Happy Trash Day

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With all of the celebration coming up, of us surrounded by holidays, let’s talk about the one that no one admits to celebrating until we don’t have it in our lives. Trash Day! Yeah, Trash Day.

I know, you may think that I’ve gone off my rocker…When we don’t take out the trash, it doesn’t take long for it to pile up and things get nasty. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, ep 70 Happy Trash Day!

I’ve recently seen a lot of evidence supporting Taking out the Trash lately. Just look around, it doesn’t take long for you to see the need to take out the trash.

There’s even a TV show that highlights people that are unable to tell the difference between trash and items that are usable to them. Over time, they collect all of this stuff until there is no room for…well…anything else.

This is why there is a multi million dollar industry that banks on us having more stuff than sense to get rid of stuff! Some spend hundreds each month on storage they don’t need, on stuff they don’t use. When all we need to do is realize, . . . we need to take out the trash.

Yes, you could argue that Americans generate more trash than any other nation and that is a concerning problem.

But outside of the political viewpoint of this, let’s look at three things that Trash Day can teach us, if we look harder.

Here are three things:

We are made to be Consumers

Even the Garden of Eden was set up so that we can be consumers. We were told to partake of the garden.

Which means there will be Waste

Naturally, when you are a consumer that means you “consume” something and whatever is left over, becomes waste. However, when we are consumers and that’s it, that can be a problem. Which moves us to the next point.

We are made to be Contributors

Let me ask you this, have you ever had restless leg syndrome? Most of that is caused by pent-up energy with nowhere to go. We are made to make a contribution to our circle of influence. A few episodes ago we talked about our circle of influence, everyone has a circle of influence. We are made to be contributors.

Which means there will be Work

It isn’t always fun, but there will always be work, and a lot of times it’s extremely rewarding. I do not like to go to the gym, but when I go, I find that it is not that bad once I get there. Getting there, showing up, is usually the hard part. Okay, who am I kidding, all of the gym is the hard part, that’s kinda the point. But the reward we get from it, I have found this to be a common avenue for God to transport His blessings to us, is through work. Maybe we’ll get into this topic on a later episode. There’s a lot to say about that, so for now I’ll just put it in our third point.

We are made to be Conquerors

That’s right, not to sound like a DJ Khaled song, but we were intended to experience, personally, conquering things. Bragging and gloating means something entirely different, and that’s not what we’re discussing right now. That reveals something else in your heart that we can discuss later. But I’m talking about things that conquer you. and this happens to everyone. We are made to conquer those things, no matter what they are. We are made to be conquerors.

Which means there will be Winners

And simply put, that’s you. Jesus is sitting on the edge of his throne just waiting for this to become truth between your ears.

But, we all have to start somewhere. And for some, that beginning may mean taking out the trash, in one area or another. It may be extreme for you to do that, it may feel like you are losing a lot. But you will gain so much more.

For all of us, If we don’t maintain the trash in our lives, things will get cluttered and hinder the rest of what we explained. It will hinder us being the Conqueror that we were made to be.

We can help.

These are the reasons I’m so passionate about Coaching. I had an example this week, that I can’t coach myself. That’s a hard truth. But, I can’t coach myself.

It’s like me standing up, reaching down to my feet and trying to pick myself up off the floor. It can’t happen.

I have coaches in my life. And that’s what we offer others at Kyle McMurray Coaching.

We want to help. We appreciate you listening today, thank you for letting us come into your life, into your routine. It means a lot to us.

Until next week, Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle.

Ep 69 Veterans Day!

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I just found out that this broadcast goes further than I expected, Living the Freedom Life isn’t just in the United States. I want to say welcome to our listeners that are abroad.

Zech 4:10 says “Don’t despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.

It doesn’t matter where you are or where you stand on political issues, here in the states, this Wednesday we will celebrate Veterans Day, the people who served our nation and preserved our freedom. That’s what we are talking about this week on Living the Freedom Life.

We may have our problems and issues as a Nation, but our everyday freedom, is only afforded to us by people we should celebrate next Wednesday on Veterans Day.

You don’t have to think very long to find someone you know who has served our country. Please, make sure and thank them for your Freedom.

Even if you don’t know them, especially if you don’t know them, this wednesday, walk up to someone that you recognise as a verteran and Genuinely thank them for serving you and securing your freedom that I hope you exercise in our nation.

I was watching a recruiting video the other day and it was introducing a new branch of our Military. You may already know about this. It said due to a shift in the security environment in space, it’s validating the nation’s newest branch of the military, The United States Space Force. Touting their Motto, Semper Supra (Always Above)

They conclude that “The sky is not the limit”. I looked at some videos explaining what their cause and mission is. You can see them too.

https://www.spaceforce.mil/Connect-With-Us/Videos/

They are not only focusing on space exploration, and emulating what you may have seen in a movie or TV show. They are starting out, well, according to the scale of things, they are starting out… small.

They introduced and addressed the need for our immediate atmosphere and the security of it. Everything that we do depends on satellite connectivity. The Space Force will begin their focus on the importance of keeping that Network stable, secure and safe.

Think about this. We’re only one generation removed from people not knowing how to even turn on a computer, much less care to depend on it. Now I don’t have to explain to you how important our devices are today. The DSM 5 even explains that our attention toward our devices are far excessive and cause other, peripheral behavioral issues.

Cyber attacks and data manipulation are probably some of the greatest threats to our nation in this day and age. These networks not only give us the capability to say hello to Aunt Edna up in Jackson, Wyoming, but it controls our fuel, food, traffic, Commerce, any type of financial need… and that is just a personal level. Think about on a National scale. Not just civilians, but the welfare of our nation would be at risk if anything happened.

We would have to be agile enough to revert back to some technologies and Military tactics that are fading away if we don’t get ahead of this growing need of “Orbital Security” we will have to face it in catastrophe. I don’t know if that’s what they call it, I just made up the term Orbital Security. But you know what I mean.

Something as small as a quarter, that is floating in our atmosphere at 19 miles a second, that’s 67 thousand miles an hour, could now be a weapon that could take out an entire satellite, supplying data to an entire region. Affecting millions!

That’s a pretty big deal and it needs protecting. I don’t know about you, but not everyone can go up into space. It takes a lot of training, I mean everyone’s seen the movie The Right Stuff, So they already have recruitment and boot camps active with leadership in place. They are ready to go.

Well, do you think I’ve gotten off track from talking about celebrating Veterans Day? No, I haven’t at all. I’ve been in fact explaining the importance of Veterans Day all along.

Veterans, I hope I don’t offend any of you here. You see, a lot of people think Veterans Day is all about old people. Honoring those who served in Wars that we read about in history books. That’s not accurate at all.

As a civilian, there are things on a global scale that go on daily that we don’t know about, that I don’t want to know about, because I can’t do anything about those issues.

But they still need to be taken care of or my personal space that I enjoy, will be, well let’s just say it will be disrupted. That needs to be protected. That is personal freedom. That is Living the Freedom Life.

Veterans Day is not some archaic holiday, honoring old people wearing hats with ships and planes on them. Because, in their prime, those old people were, well, you wouldn’t want to mess with them.

Veterans risked their lives, gave up their lives, and they do not need to be forgotten. We need to thank them.

Let me put it this way, to the amount that we are able to show appreciation to our Veterans on this day, Look at how we show Jesus our gratitude that He gave HIS life for us.

I’m not trying to throw guilt on anyone. I’ve got news for you, ALL of us fall short of this. Everyone.

All we can do is live the life worthy of His death. He died a death that we don’t have to. He gave up His life and now it is our responsibility to live the life He was supposed to live here on Earth.

Veterans Day is a wake up call for us to see that there are everyday Freedoms that we have that cost someone their life. Now it is our duty, it is our responsibility to live a life worthy of someone laying down their life. Go, live a life that will make that person who is now in eternity, make that person proud of how they see you live. I pray they are able to say “Now THAT is why I did what I did and it was worth the sacrifice.” I hope that Jesus will speak those words over you one day when He says “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:23).

Until next time, Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle

Ep 68 Listen to What You Are Saying

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I know that we’ve already talked about Halloween a couple of episodes ago, but I want to expand a little more on something I mentioned then. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life and this is episode number 68 Listen to what you’re saying

I wasn’t raised in an overtly Christian home. Both of my parents were decent people, but we NEVER talked about eternal things. We only went to church to pay homage to my grandparents. And here is what I would like to share with you today. I’m a Halloween baby. Now, I’m not mentioning that for Happy Birthday accolades, but I’m sharing this with you today because of the messed up theology I had about my birthday when I was growing up. I somehow formed a belief system that the day of my birth had something to do with who I was. As I mentioned before, I even had life examples to confirm what I was believing.

Which brings us to a saying we have at Kyle McMurray Coaching “You will find what you focus on”.

This is true with our political situation that we are facing, it’s true about our past, it’s true about how we interact with people, it’s true about how we face the day ahead of us.

If you, in a genuine way, say to yourself “today is going to be a tough day”, how many of you know that today now has a greater likelihood of being a tough day.

Have you ever talking to someone and couldn’t recall the name of something, and then you say aloud, “Oh, I’ll think of it in a minute”. Then 20 minutes later you interrupt everyone and say “Rumpelstiltskin!” No? None of you. Well, I hear that it happens to people.

Now on the other side of this, I’m not one of those “name it and claim it” people. Just because I say that “I am a kid of the King and God, I’m expecting a miracle”. You know what, He just may do it, He surely has the power to do that. But more than likely, He wants to see me get off my rear and go to work every day, love and encourage my wife, do the same for my daughter and be a good friend to those around me and invest wisely into the people who need and want it.

I saw a post the other day that read, “Want to see me turn $40 into $400? Spend the $40 to fill up your gas tank and go to work”

If I have a tendency to do those things as an expression of who I am, well, of course things are going to change.

Sometimes God is just waiting for us to take action and use the gifts He has given us. “Walking by Faith takes my initiative to walk, then He does His part.”

So, getting back on track, There is power in our words. That’s how God created, He spoke. And we are made after His image, so that is how we work as well. But that is where it begins.

You can see this in three ways that there is power in your words.

That by speaking, you listen too. Because it sets the stage on our actions by telling yourself “This is what we are doing”. David used to tell himself things all the time. He would say “Soul, we are going to worship God today” and as it turns out, during some of the crummiest days of his life, that’s what he did. There is power in your words.
It tells the enemy to sit down and back off. If you set your mind to it, think about this, the battlefield is the mind, you are clearing the battlefield. You are wiping the enemy off of the battlefield. There is power in your words.
It builds our faith! It gives us a “see, I told you” moment within our own logic. It gives us opportunity to see and make connections in our own logic, to have examples that no one else can disprove that God’s goodness towards YOU is true. In the OT they were told to stack rocks and build altars in order to remember the things that God has done in their lives, so that they have examples to teach their children and others. This is the power of your words, and you have this power in you.

In Genesis and the account of Creation, God spoke to the light, darkness, the air, and the waters. But in the account of creation, after He speaks, then it forms. It may take some time for it to happen.

I’ll say it again, Sometimes God is just waiting for us to take action and use the gifts He has given us. “Walking by Faith takes my initiative to walk, then He does His part.”

Which brings us back to our opening statement, “You find what you focus on”.

The power of our words helps us focus on different things.

We have a coaching practice and a lot of what we do, I touched on today. We help people get to the place where they can look back and say “Wow God! You are real because there is no way I could be here without You”. We had a client say this very statement this week. We get to show people that path, the path to their next level of finding out what God’s plan is for their life and activating it. We want to help that to become a reality in your life as well.

I really appreciate you listening today. You trust me to come into your life each week through these speakers. Thank you.

To our clients, thank you so much for trusting us to walk with you and coach you along your path. There is no greater honor.

The Cloak

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A cloak is an outer garment that hangs loose from your shoulders. And if you think about it, a cloak usually worn by someone creepy. If you see a person wearing a cloak, they’re probably trying to hide something. Dracula wears one, even the Grim Reaper wears a cloak. Let’s be reminded of something when we think of these images. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, Episode 67 The Cloak

Some people love to play dress up and be someone else for a while. It’s an escape and for Halloween, that may be why it is so attractive to some. It seems innocent.

However, dressing up for Halloween can be scary, unless you keep in mind all the things we talked about last week. To use Christian language, there are opportunities for “open gates” when you entertain those types of things.

But if you know anything about the psyche of a little boy, that boy needs to feel like he has what it takes in order to “take on the world”, and to feel that he can overcome anything in life he may face. Dressing up for Halloween and being scary to others can be a shadow of that. It can make him feel powerful. And if you’ve studied Developmental Psychology, that can be a good thing. It gives an opportunity for a little boy to learn to be brave.

Odds are that if you are listening to this you’re not 5, we are living life. And like we’ve said earlier, it’s a little creepy to wear a cloak.

However, all of us wear some type of cloak in our everyday life. Oh sure, we call it “being all things to all people”. But where is that line of “playing well with others” to be drawn?

What is our cloak of today? It’s not just a Hollywood thing. A cloak is meant to hide evil.

What is your cloak?

Listen, even Adam hid. So this is nothing new.

One of the first steps towards restoration and Living the Freedom Life is to STOP wearing your cloak! It’s that simple. Don’t be secretive.

I know Living the Freedom Life isn’t about a long list of things you have to do to be a good Christian and what to stop doing to be a good Christian. Living the Freedom Life is becoming the person God made you to be. So, when I say STOP wearing your cloak, what I’m really saying is that you don’t have to be secretive about you.

There was a time when I wouldn’t say that I was from Tennessee, or that I was raised in deep east Texas. I’m from the country. I was not raised on a paved Road. In fact, we had to make sure we had at least a quarter of a tank of gas just so we could get home and back into town the next morning. I used to be very secretive about …well, me.

There are three things that Secrecy does:

Secrecy is one of the first signs that someone is up to no good. If someone looks at you from the corner of their eye and suddenly gets quiet when you walk in the room, YOU KNOW THEY ARE UP TO SOMETHING.
Secrecy builds suspicion, it puts others in a place to ask questions that may not be any of their business. What are you doing, why are you doing this, where are you going. If you feel irritated when you get asked those questions, you may want to dig deeper and ask yourself why are those questions irritating you? It may be that you are hiding something. Which brings us to number three.
Secrecy puts people on the defensive. When we are confronted about hiding something or being secretive, what happens? We get defensive. “That is none of your business what I’m doing, my motives or why I’m doing it. Leave me alone”. And we usually push them away. Isolation is the last thing we need in those situations.

Now, this doesn’t mean that when someone asks you what, why, and where that they are accusing you of being secretive. But this dialogue gives an opportunity for us to examine what is going on inside. It may give opportunity for God to do something deeper.

Look, I’m about to tell you something I didn’t read in a book, or learn while going to a church building, or listening to a preacher. In other words, “flesh and blood did not reveal this to me” the Bible would say (Mt 16:17).

See, Living the Freedom Life is about being the person God made you to be. Like, the thing that He had in mind when He made you. That is what He wants for you. I’m not here to talk about religion. I’m talking about how your life can be so much better than you can ever dream of. He designed your life to be that way.

That is not for us to decide how we are to “live our best life”. “Live your best life” That has been a power phrase recently and I don’t agree with it… completely. You see, at one time, I was living a pretty awesome life, according to what I wanted out of life. I rarely know what the best thing is for me to eat for lunch, much less how to live “my best life”. We don’t know what our best life is, or what it even looks like. If it were up to us, all of us would still be striving to have what we think we want and need, only to end up trying to fill our lives with more stuff we are striving to have.

I want to tell you three quotes and I want you to listen closely.

Smooth seas do not make good sailors.

Pain is the most anointed of teachers.

Self-comfort is the killer of dreams.

Those are three quotes in my life that have changed my view on what Living the Freedom Life means.

Does that mean that “since I started following Jesus” my life is one big sacrifice? No. Well, . . . not really.

“I have to learn to sacrifice what I think I want and let God provide in my life what He knows I need.” ~ KM Coaching

And that’s a big statement, but one you’ll hear frequently during our coaching sessions.

We’re out of time but I want you to know, you may be surprised at how many people wear a cloak.

If you feel like you have to be someone you’re not, or you’re hiding who you really are, you’re not alone. Give us a call, drop us a message, get in contact with us, we would love to help you on your journey towards Living the Freedom Life.

Remember, We give away what we have, let’s make sure we receive life. Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle.

Something Spooky

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:53 — 8.5MB)

I was born on Halloween. That’s right. Halloween.

In our family, I was the eldest grandchild, the only grandson. My Granddad nicknamed me “Spookum”, I loved that nickname. I don’t ever remember hearing him call me Kyle and strangely, I took pride in that.

I wasn’t raised in an overtly christian home, but I always felt an uneasiness about celebrating scary stuff and death.

Having that background, when I came to know The Lord, it took on a different challenge. It began to speak to who I am and confirmed what kind of person I was.Out of seeking truth, I began to believe a lie. Well, several of them. I began to ask deep seated questions about “Why was I born on this day?” So as I began to discover more about God, me, and the origin of Halloween, I began to see there is a pattern in my discoveries. This is where things were distorted.

You see, we’ve talked about this before, Satan cannot create, he only distorts what is already there, he distorts the truth, he is the father of all lies.

Halloween was birthed out of the love for Fall and the Gospel. Whaaaat?!?!?! Stay with me.

So let’s talk about the history lesson on the origin of Halloween.

So, Halloween was never a Christian holiday, obviously. But as I just mentioned, watch the pattern of distortion.

In the early days, Catholics would call it “All Hallows Eve”, you may have heard about this before. But it first occurred the day before All Saints Day. Where did THAT come from?

Well, that’s a great question, let’s look for a moment at All Saint’s Day to get a better understanding of “All Hallow’s Eve”. You’ll see that they will come out of the same principal. One will be distorted so much that it is unrecognizable to its original intent.

The first account of All Saints Day was actually from the early Greek Christians. They kept a festival on the first Sunday after Pentecost, (pay attention) honoring the martyrs that died to keep that bible on your phone, intact. They were martyrs for the faith and people were honoring them and their life. People died so we can have a bible today. So it’s a little more than a “Pastors appreciation day”.

You may think that none of this has anything to do with Halloween, but it actually does.

People wanted to “honor” those people so badly that they started dressing up like their favorite Martyr. Truth is stranger than fiction, right? That’s where we started dressing up for this day.

I can just see, at one point some witty teenager somewhere thought it would be funny to dress up like his favorite martyr, John the Baptist and put a fake severed head on a platter, and that’s what started it all. Seems innocent enough, right? No? Well, let’s move on.

In 609AD All Saints Day was made official by the Catholic Church.

Pope Gregory III in the 8th century, changed it, he moved it from the 1st Sunday after Pentecost (Spring) to November 1st. Why? Simply put, it was in the middle of crop planting season and they wanted to celebrate after the harvest, when everything was plentiful and it was more likely people had some extra money.

Moving to Halloween, Early American settlers, The Pilgrims, they banned the celebration of Halloween in America because of its pagan roots, or “anti-Christian” roots. As a matter of fact, Halloween wasn’t celebrated in America until 1845.

Get this, in Ireland The Great Potato Famine (WHAT???) Yes, the Great Potato Famine of 1845-46 drove a flood of immigrants to America. They brought with them their version of Halloween. Gradually, celebrating Halloween spread throughout the rest of the country because of what….yes, The Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

The Celtic call this Samhain (Saw win, or Saw ween). They celebrated this time after the harvest because they believed Spirits crossed through the veil of death, and gave their wisdom to the priests. In turn, the priests would pronounce the year ahead and it was a time of (I guess) Prophecy, and announcing the clearing and cleansing of the land, and a time of transformation so that the cycle of death and rebirth may continue to run. If you look into this, it gets weird quickly. All of this is based on ancient witchcraft. There is no doubt in this, it’s very “in your face”.

Yeah, in Biblical times there were accounts of Jacob, Issac, and Moses, they would show up in the Bible, but not like this!

Now, I just used some biblical terms but let me go on the record and say I do not believe any of this about Samhain (Saw ween) or Halloween, or however you want to pronounce it. It’s evil, it celebrates evil, it celebrates witchcraft, and it feeds on fear and horror, and I will have nothing to do with it.

Now do I believe that little Timmy is going to go to hell because he wants to dress up for Halloween as Captain America or Thor? No. Do I believe that everyone who decorates their yard is practicing witchcraft and promoting evil? I don’t know, there are some who just want to provide some innocent (to them, innocent) entertainment for the community. If that is their motive, then they may not be aware of the spiritual aspect of what they are doing, what they are inviting in, so, have some grace. Don’t go do more damage to the cause of Christ by spewing religion at people. Give them grace and wait for the appropriate time where it would actually do some good. It may promote some healing. I plan to talk about this next week.

What I am saying is that we need to take our religious hats off and instead of pounding our fist on the table and saying “no I will not participate in Halloween”, do your own research and apply some love for a change. See how this lines up with what you know is true.

Do you see how people in history have gotten it wrong? The enemy has distorted something that was once special and sacred.

The same motives of why we celebrate our veterans on Veterans Day and Memorial Day to honor those that sacrificed their lives for our freedom in America, the same motive is why we also need to honor the ones that have come face-to-face with evil and have given their lives just so we can have a Bible that some people don’t take the time to read. THAT is how Halloween got started!

I’ve jabbered long enough on this episode. Here is the undertone of what I want to say here,

When I really started to find out what my theology was, what I really believed about God, it wasn’t pretty. I thought that because I was born on a celebrated unholy day, that I was somehow evil. There were some things in my life that gave evidence and proof to that. There, my belief system was established.

There is evil out there and it is so subtle we don’t see it, and that is the enemy’s plan. He wants us to think that “this isn’t hurting anything”. We’ll talk about that in a later episode. It creeps in so easily that we don’t notice that it’s there. All I’m asking is pay attention to what influences you, even at the most basic level.

If you had a Maserati, would you put used, burnt motor oil in it? Would you put the cheapest gas in the tank? Of course not.

You are made the same way. Pay attention to the things that go into you. What you see, what you listen to, how you think.

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, that exchange has already happened. You are pure. Jesus gave you life, He didn’t just give you life, He gave you HIS life. That means you are pure. You are Holy. See, Jesus didn’t just come to just clean us up and get into Heaven, to give us a boarding pass. He came so that we can live. You are made to have an amazing life. A truly amazing life! Living the Freedom Life is not something that is elusive.