I wondered where this phrase “off the chain” came from. After consulting a few websites, it seems that the origin of the phrase has some roots in slavery, referring to the chains slaves would wear. When a slave was set free, he was said to be “off the chain.” Freedom is a wonderful thing and we really experienced it last night at our monthly meeting called Refuel. I think I remember writing about Refuel last time, but it was truly “off the chain!”
Last night’s theme was “Battle.” We focused on the battles that we all face. We heard a testimony from a young man who went through terrible times with drugs and alcohol. He wept as he spoke of the people who helped him struggle and the people he’d hurt along the way. He is now set free from that and is using his testimony to bless people. We watched a video of a teen going against the flow and having others follow him. The praise and worship was incredible. Jeremy, our worship leader, spoke of freedom in worship and how God is worthy to be praised openly and without fear of rebuke from anyone else. Worship is individual, even though we were in a group. It is awesome to be in an atmosphere where there is no pressure to conform to someone else’s view of worship. Some sat quietly, some knelt, some clapped, shouted, and raised holy hands to God–the pressure was off, and the worship “off the chain!”
We ended the night with the drama team from Crosspoint church performing the “Everything” skit. I hope to have the video posted to this blog or Youtube some day. I will keep you updated about it. If you haven’t seen this video yet, CLICK HERE to see it from another drama group. It’s truly the most powerful drama I have ever seen.
After the drama, we began to share our battles. I began with sharing about my struggles with anger, then one by one all over the auditorium, both young and old shared battles. Here are a few that I heard: Anger, Pride, Selfishness, Pornography, Bitterness, and Depression. One young lady even stood and shared openly that she struggled with abusing herself. God’s Holy Spirit was so prevalent in that place last night. After all of these people stood and shared, we broke out into prayer groups. We had about 8 groups scattered over the auditorium. Within our group we had a young man who shared about his struggle with alcohol–17 years old. One young mother wept as she shared that the father of her child needed to come to God and we prayed for that. My children who were in that group were so impressed with the courage and openness of it all.
After it was all over, the parents of the young girl who confessed the self-abuse came up to me and told me about how the drama skit penetrated the young girl’s heart. We prayed together again. It was awesome!!
God is really blessing this event. I am so thankful to be a part of it. To Him be the glory!!
Keith Davis' Blog 