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REAL POWER: MAXING OUT ON GOD'S LOVE |
YOU NEVER REALIZE A
TRAP HAS BEEN SET UNTIL YOU ARE CAPTURED
You never realize that a trap has
been set until you have been captured. That is why traps are so
dangerous. You don’t know they are there. You focus on the bait
instead of the trap. The bait draws you closer and closer into the
trap until you reach the point of no return.
While your mouth is full of bait, you
can’t believe how good things are going and how lucky you are. This
is the best tasting bait you have ever had. You are proud of yourself
because you are so much smarter than the other falcons who are flying
around hungry up in the sky, while you are feasting on the ground.
This is obviously the opportunity of a lifetime. Catching that pigeon
was so easy. Maybe you will get lucky and catch another one before
long.
These are the thoughts of a falcon
that will soon be living tethered to a perch with a hood over its
head. These are the thoughts of the Life Long Disoriented who easily
succumb to any temptation dangled in front of their eyes.
When something is too good to be
true, you are walking into a trap. When you take the bait and feast
on your ignorance, the trap snaps shut, and you are captured. Freedom
is a thing of the past, and the taming and training begin.
YOU FORGET YOU ARE A FALCON MADE TO
SOAR IN FREEDOM HIGH IN THE SKY
Your captors quickly make you forget
you are a falcon made to soar in freedom. You forget who you are, and
someone else molds you and makes you into what they want you to be.
You quickly learn to enjoy your not-so-golden cage.
In only one or two weeks, the falcon
loses its memory of what it was like to be master of its fate and
captain of its soul. It had complete freedom to do what it wanted and
plenty of food to eat. It migrated across continents with the change
of the seasons. Now it sits on its perch in Nowhere Land with a hood
over its head. It doesn’t take much to keep a captive falcon happy.
A little food, some soothing sounds, and a few warm strokes remind it
that it’s safe in the presence of its master. As long as it remains a
slave, it won’t have to soar in the sky, it won’t have to hunt, and
its food will be delivered on time. All it has to do is sit on its
perch with a hood over its head for the rest of its life.
It’s amazing how easy it is to take
such a majestic animal and make it into a slave with a few days of
taming and training. It’s equally amazing how easy it is to get
people to give up their dreams and passion for life and put them in a
not-so-golden cage that restricts their freedom and limits their
potential.
In just a few months of training, you
make them forget who they are. They forget they used to soar like an
eagle. You put them on your perch and cover their head with a hood.
When you want them to do something, you take their hood off and give
them a small job to do. Soon they are back on the perch hooded once
again. Give them some food and a few warm strokes, and you can keep
them on their perch for the rest of their life.
THE FALCON RETURNS TO ITS PERCH WHEN
GIVEN THE OPPORUTNITY TO FLY AWAY
When bedouins hunt with falcons, they
don’t fly them only one time and then lose them forever. They release
the bird so it can catch and kill its prey. The bedouin follows the
bird, and when they catch up to it, they put it back on the perch, and
put a hood over its head. Modern falconers put small radio
transmitters on their birds so they can follow them for miles if
necessary in order to recover their birds of prey.
If I was a falcon and someone took
the hood off my head and released me, that would be the last they ever
saw of me. I would flap my wings as fast and hard as I could. The
only thing they would see is my tail feathers as I flew away never to
return.
Most falcons don’t see things my
way. Once they have been captured, tamed, and trained, you can keep
them for as long as you want. You own them. They are at your mercy
because they no longer think and act like falcons. They still have
all the falcon’s abilities. They still can fly wherever they want.
But they don’t want to fly away. They want their perch and hood.
I have known thousands of people
sitting on their perches in golden cages, and they are glad to be
there. They have forgotten who they are and that they used to soar
like an eagle. They have forgotten what it means to be free.
TEMPTATION
When you surrender to temptation, you
become a slave to it. When temptation comes knocking at your door, it
plants a thought in your mind that starts you on the path to
captivity. You take a few timid steps and nothing bad happens. It
doesn’t seem so bad. So far, so good. You take a few more steps, and
things are still looking good. You take a few more steps and
congratulate yourself on the fact that you are now a genius, and you
should have been doing this a long time ago. And then the trap snaps
shut and you are caught.
That’s the way temptation works. It
starts with a single thought that seems like a good idea at the time,
a single thought that doesn’t hint of any problems down the road.
That single thought is both the
problem and the solution to the problem. When temptation knocks at
your door, don’t even think about it. When someone tells you it’s ok
to stretch the rules or the rules don’t apply to you, don’t even think
about it. When you feel you can get away with it, don’t even think
about it. When you are sure you will do it only one time, don’t even
think about it.
It’s the first thought that gets you
into trouble and starts you down the path of destruction. If you
don’t think about it, you will never be captured, tamed, and trained.
You will not be locked up on a perch in a not-so-golden cage with a
hood over your head. You will never forget who you are and never stop
soaring like an eagle.
When you think of doing something you
know is wrong, you must instantly stop what you are doing and move in
a different direction. When temptation first appears, it fires a
warning shot across your bow. If you stop what you are doing and
head off in a different direction, you will be safe. If you continue
down the path of destruction, you will be trapped before you know it.
The first bad thought that pops into
your mind isn’t your fault. That is called temptation. Repeating the
thought and entertaining it is like putting one of your feet in
quicksand. You aren’t in trouble yet, but watch out. You are on
dangerous ground.
When you tolerate and indulge in your
temptations, you are jumping with both feet into deep quicksand. You
will quickly disappear out of sight if someone doesn’t rescue you.
EXCUSES DON’T COUNT
A list of excuses a mile long won’t
help you when you are sitting in your not-so-golden cage. After you
are trapped, tamed, and trained, excuses don’t matter. When it comes
to temptation, there are no excuses; there are only consequences.
As a physician I spent thirty years
listening to excuses and treating consequences. Although God forgives
you, life isn’t nearly so forgiving. When you pursue a destructive
lifestyle, eating unhealthy foods, abusing your body with chemicals,
filling your mind with toxic waste, and indulging in your temptations,
you become sick. Your body is sick, your mind is sick, and your heart
is sick. And there are no excuses.
Fortunately, all is not lost. God
specializes in dealing with consequences, and he knows how to open the
door to your not-so-golden cage. When you open your heart to his
love, miracles start to happen. You forget your excuses and focus on
God’s love. For the first time in years, you spread your wings and
fly like an eagle.
You must have zero tolerance to
temptation. Zero tolerance will save your life. It will allow you to
soar like an eagle and become all that you can be. When temptation
knocks, don’t even think about it.
Affirmation:
When temptation knocks at my door, I
don’t even think about it. It’s the first thought that gets me into
trouble, and if I don’t think about it, I will never be captured,
tamed, and trained. I will never be locked up on a perch in a
not-so-golden cage with a hood over my head. I will never forget who
I am and never stop soaring like an eagle. I have zero tolerance to
temptation. When temptation knocks, I focus on God’s love, spread my
wings, and fly like an eagle.
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RED SEA CHRONICLES DVD
When Dr. Dave isn't working as a flying doctor for the Indian Health
Service, He is sailing around the world on his sailboat. Find
out what it's like to sail on the ocean of your dreams by watching
Captain Dave's DVD.
Red Sea
Chronicles DVD Previews |
