My wife and I and a three or four other people have been doing a weekly prayer walk in inner city Nashville for right at nine months now. We missed the past two Fridays, but were back on track this morning.

For the first time, today we had more men than women, 5 and 3. Two of the men (Henry and Kevin) are guys in the rehab where I work who used to hang out and buy drugs in the neighborhood, so it was great to have them with us this morning. We also had Ashish who is a missionary from India who is working in the neighborhood. And then we had Peter who called me out of the blue on Monday and asked if he could volunteer at the rehab. I told him about the prayer walk and he showed up. Peter is recovering with 4 1/2 years clean. Plus we had Jeanie who who grew up a missionary kid in Mexico, Linda who God told to move into the neighborhood a few months ago, and my wife. It was a powerful group of prayer warriors that God supernaturally assembled this morning. Wow.

We carried the Salvation Army flag (which stands for the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Spirit) and walked down Second Street, one of Nashville's premier drug streets. Henry spotted a woman he knew and boldly went and prayed over her. We all joined hands and began to pray in the middle of the worst block. After a few minutes a guy walked up and said "Praise the Lord," and went into the house we were standing in front of.

He came out a couple of minutes later and said: "God is good," and the guys with us said: "All the time." He introduced himself and said he was excited to see us praying in front of his property. A drug deal was going on to our right as he talked. Due to cold weather this morning only a few people were on the usually crowded street.

We then walked over to the Salvation Army Central Command, went in their lobby (boy was the heat nice) and prayed for God's ministry through them. It was really exciting to have a few new people with us today. God answered our prayers that He would begin to reach the dealers and users of Second Street. We all feel that Henry and Kevin are the first fruits of a great spiritual harvest. Thanks for your prayers for us and for the Magness Potter neighborhood in Nashville.

1) American's enslaved several hundred thousand of their own sons and daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

For about 250 years in America men claimed "ownership" of and forcibly exercised absolute control over other people. At the beginning of the Civil War around three million people were being held as personal property (like cattle) in life-long bondage and forced labor in the United States.

Very few men could have absolute control over a woman and the "legal" right to her and not take sexual advantage of her. Thus many slave women had their "master's" child. Because of this it was made the law of the land in the South that the child of a slave woman must be a slave. In many states it was illegal to set them free even if the master (father) wanted to. It is estimated that the gene pool of African Americans is 25% white. So how many of those three million slaves were descendents of slaveholders? You do the math.

This happened so often that many slaves were "white". Mark Twain wrote a novel about this called: "Puddin Head Wilson". After emancipation a lot of freed slaves simply merged into the white population. This was known as "passing". James Weldon Johnson wrote a novel about "passing" called: "The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man". I read both of those books and they are eyeopening and heart-rending. For more on this see today's post on my blog hiddenhistory.

To forcibly hold other people in bondage and make them work for you without any pay is a horrible crime. But to hold your own sons and daughters in slavery . . .

2) It is estimated that Americans have killed about 45 million of their unborn sons and daughters since 1973.

3) Like any other country in the world, there is a lot of untold abuse of children in America by their parents -- through words, through abandonment, by giving them alcohol or drugs, sexually, mentally, and violently. Having been a counselor and chaplain in an adult rehabilation center for four years and worked with between 1200 and 1400 men, I've come to believe that child abuse is much more common than most people think.

God have mercy on us for the evil that we have done and are doing to our children. And God help the children who have suffered so much to heal and recover and find peace.

I was looking through Richard Carlson's book "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff For Families" yesterday. In it he said he likes to end letters with the phrase "Treasure Life". Now Richard didn't say what he meant by those words, but this is what they mean to me.

Treasure your own life. You will only be alive on Earth for a few years so take the time to appreciate the opportunity you have to live. Avoid self-destructive behaviors. Enjoy your life. Make it the best life possible. Keep a positive attitude. Develop a close, humble, and submissive relationship with the Living God. Respect your life -- be kind to yourself. You have tremendous value as a human being so live like it.

Treasure the life of other people. They are extremely valuable, too. Be kind to everyone you meet. Respect them. Use manners, be polite. Smile at people. Befriend them. Help them. Serve them. Love them, even if they don't love you back. Pray for others. Help them live better lives. As far as possible steer them away from self-destruction.

Treasure the most innocent form of human beings -- those between conception and birth. Respect those who live in the womb. Speak up for their rights. Many today are all for killing the unborn but if we destroy one form of human life, we disrespect all human life, including our own. Be kind to those who promote killing the unborn -- pray for them that the hardness of their heart may be removed.

If you are caught in the current of compulsion, driven by destructive desires, haunted by harmful habits -- God can set you free! A true story.

About three years ago I was about to interview a new man in the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center where I work as chaplain/counselor. I'll call him Rob (not his real name). Rob was about 40 years old and weighed about 250 pounds, no fat. He had lost his job, his family, his home, and his hope due to years of using crack cocaine.

Before I could ask him anything, Rob said very harshly: "I'm not staying here!" I asked him why and he replied, full of anger: "I am going to leave tonight and go kill both of my parents."

I asked Rob why again and he began to rant and rave about how cruel and evil his parents had been to him. He had thought about it for years and now had made up his mind, he was going to kill them. I did my best to talk him out of it. "If you do that, you will spend the rest of your life in prison. Do you want that?"

"I don't care, because it will be worth it," Rob replied. This man was serious -- the door to my office was closed, and I began to be a bit concerned for my own safety. After I said everything I could think of to say, I finally asked Rob if I could pray for him. He said that was alright and bowed his head."

I prayed a strong prayer for a couple of minutes that God would set Rob free and show him how to let this go. After I said amen, Rob just sat there with his head in his hands, so I payed a second time a little bolder. Rob still set there with his head down. I prayed a third time even stronger. Rob was like a statue and since I didn't know what else to do, I prayed a fourth time over Rob. This time I stood up and put my hands on his head. I shouted: "Lord, set this man free from the desire to kill. I rebuke the demons of murder, anger, and bitterness and command them to leave, Rob in Jesus' name." I prayed on in desperation for several more minutes.

When I ended the prayer and opened my eyes, Rob still had his head in his hands, but this time tears were running down both cheeks. He looked up and me and said: "I'm not going to do it. Instead, I'm going to do what you told us in our class tonight."

"What's that, Rob?" I asked. "I am going to read the Bible every day for at least 5 minutes," he said. (I had taught the guys in a class earlier that night to try an experiment and read the New Testament every day for at least 5 minutes for 21 days). We talked a while longer, then Rob hugged me and left my office.

The next few weeks, Ron would frequently come up to me and say, "I'm still reading the Bible." One day he told me, "I can't stop at 5 minutes, and sometimes I am reading a half hour." After a couple of months Rob was put in charge of running our front desk. When Ron left our center after 6 months he was up to reading the Bible for an hour and a half every day. He was happy, peaceful, and excited about his new lifestyle. The last time I heard from Rob was about a year ago, and at that time he was still clean from drugs and alcohol.

I've seen God set dozens of men free from their current of compulsion to drugs and alcohol. And he can set you free from whatever has you in caught in it's current. No habit is too great, no preference too strong for God's delivering power.

Call on Him with all your heart. Cry out in desperation, don't hold back the tears. And begin to read the Bible (especially the New Testament) at least 5 minutes every day without missing a day. Victory and personal freedom will be yours.

Are you leisurely going with the flow of our society? Are you being comfortably led wherever popular culture, public opinion, the media, peer pressure, and your own desires and compulsions take you?

Once I went on a float trip down the Buffalo River in West Tennessee with a few other guys. We were floating the river in canoes and it was very fun. There was a good bit of white water on the Buffalo and it was exciting to run the rapids.

At one point my canoe capsized and being unhurt, I continued to enjoy leisurely drifting with the current without my canoe. In a couple of minutes I looked back upriver and all the other guys had pulled their canoes over to the bank and were getting out. I decided to join the group, so I began to swim upstream.

To my surprise, even though I was doing my best to swim upstream, I was still going downstream. I was literally swimming one direction with all my might and being compelled in the opposite direction. The current was far stronger than I had realized and it now had me. Of course it had had me all along -- I just didn't realize it until I wanted out.

I began to yell and my friends started to run along the bank after me. It was very frightening. After several minutes of being washed helplessly down stream, I finally grabbed an overhanging branch and my friends pulled me safely on shore.

Boy, did I underestimate the strength of what held me in it's power. I thought I was floating down stream of my own free will, when all along the current had me in it's great power and was forcing me toward danger. I didn't know I was a prisoner of the current, until I tried to get free.

So how about you? Are you casually drifting downriver or courageously fighting the current of compulsion? "I'm free," you say, "I can quit any time!" Are you really free? Can you really quit -- have you even tired?

Try this challenge. Choose one of your own desires, compulsions, or behaviors that is causing problems or pain in your life, and go all out to stop it within the next 21 days. Can't think of one? Ask a family member, friend, or co-worker. I bet they can help you think of something you are flowing with that is not good for you.

If you try this experiment, you will be surprised to discover the control that that particular desire, compulsion, or behavior has over your life. Then you will either become determined to overcome it, no matter how long you have to fight it. Or you will justify it to yourself and your friends and jump right back into it's controlling arms as it leads you to pain and self-destruction. It is your choice.