Words of Encouragement

Picture taken by James S. Williams. When you look at the fields or flower gardens, they may not look like this now, but given time and care, they will flourish to look like this. Isn't that what God does for us? He gives us what we need so we can grow and flourish.

Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. - Psalm 25:8-10

Humble Yourself. To Learn of God's way. One thing that I find interesting about scripture is when it first starts with giving God honor before it talks about man and his ways. I believe the writers of the scripture is trying to tell us an important point, that God should always be first in whatever we say or do.

This is important for us to understand, especially when we try to understand what it means to be humble. The prideful places themselves first. I have heard someone say, I did this, or I achieved that and no one helped me. The prideful take all the credit. However, the humble understand that everything they achieve, have and will ever have, comes because of the graciousness of God.

The psalmist writes that God is good and upright and because of it, he will teach sinners his ways. He will guide the humble and teach us his ways. What a reason to rejoice, God will teach us and guide us. He will do this so that we can be obedient to him and understand his ways.

I pray for us today that we would humble ourselves so that we can learn God's ways. It takes a humble spirit to acknowledge the need for help. We need God's help in all the things we do.

Words of Encouragement

This is Foxy. I have never seen a dog more "human" than this one.









Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. - Psalm 145:5-7

Humble Yourself. The Lord Sustains. In a world were we are told to go and get for ourselves, the scripture tells us otherwise. The word of God encourages those that humble themselves by affirming that God will sustain. We are told to sing and give thanks to God for his sustaining power.

The dog you see is named Foxy. I have seen this dog do an interesting thing. When she has done something wrong and her masters call her name, she presses herself low to the ground and inches slowly toward them. She will even come and lay her head on their feet to accept the punishment for her "sins".

I have seen her disciplined, but because of how she presents herself, she most often receives the love and encouragement from her masters afterwards.

You and I can learn much from Foxy. When we know that we have done wrong, we should lower ourselves before the Lord and accept the correction that he gives. What we find when we go to our master is not only his correction, but also his affection.

We can rejoice in the Lord's ability because he will take care of those that humble themselves. He is the power that sustains us and protects us not only from our enemies but from the effects of a haughty spirit.

I pray for us today that we rejoice in the Lord for he is mighty and powerful. He has no limits and he will keep us as long as we continue to humble ourselves.

The Week in Review

A wonderful bunch of kids! Have you told your children that today?

RAISING HEALTHY CHILDREN
(As presented at the WCG Conference in 2005)

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52 KJV


This is a very simple scripture but it is filled with so much wisdom for a parent. Jesus, who is our example in all things, is also our example in what a healthy growing child should look like. We read Isaiah and know that to help this process of increasing in our children we must get them before the Lord. That is our ultimate goal for them to know our heavenly father. We want them to grow in God’s wisdom of his word, to grow by giving there bodies the healthiest of things to feed on and to give their minds and emotions over to those things that will have them thinking in a Godly way.



We have to bring our children to a place where they can do as Jesus did. You know the story about Jesus’ parents looking for him and they didn’t realize he was missing until they had gone quite a distance in their journey. And when they realize he wasn’t with them, they went back and found him in the temple. Jesus’ parents found him in the midst of the teachers hearing and asking questions.


We want them to be in the midst of the hearing and asking of questions. And when we allow them to be in the midst we may be astonished at their understanding and answers to the questions regarding God. We are to give them every opportunity to learn not only “book” knowledge but also “spiritual” knowledge. From this scripture we see three areas that we can help our children be the best that they can for the Lord. Those three things are, to increase in stature, in wisdom and in favor both with man and with God.


1. Increase in stature: the natural height of a human, an achieved level. This we understand to be our children growing up. They first begin to talk, then they walk and then they run. As a parent we do what we have to, to keep up with the child. We are also concerned with what they eat so that we can make sure they are getting the proper nutrients that they need. This seems clear cut, but there are still something’s that we can do that turns our children more toward God even as we help them in this area of their lives.


I am always looking for ways to do things better for myself as well as my family. I realize that as a parent you carry a lot of responsibility for what happens in the lives of your children. I won’t speak for anyone else but myself, I was becoming a fast food junkie. I was tired so we were eating junk food. I was frustrated because it just didn’t seem like I could keep coming up with something that everyone would want to eat, including myself. I hadn’t really learned how to prepare meals for my family. That wasn’t something I was taught to do. I had to stop and really look at what was going on.


I’m not against going out to dinner, but did you know we actually do our children a disservice when we don’t teach them about healthy eating and healthy behaviors? Some of the women my age have voiced this concerned, that they were not taught how to prepare meals and even though this seems like no big deal, as a mother trying to keep everything working properly, it can be. Some of us missed the older women teaching the younger women how to mother and how to be wives, so several of us are winging it. Now if you had that training, give your mom a big kiss.


I made the decision to stop that cycle at myself. I wanted to make sure I was equipping my children to handle this situation better than I was equipped to do. One of the things that I have been doing since my oldest daughter was about 3 years old is teach her something new to add to the things she can cook. Being a child the first thing she wanted to learn about was how to make something sweet. We were on one accord with that decision. It gave me the opportunity to teach her and use the time to plant into her life important messages. Now some of you may have sons and say that won’t work. I have to tell you it is just as important. See you don’t want to send your sons unprepared into life or into a marriage and work some poor women to death, especially my daughters.


Now I try to use meal times, the preparation of it and eating as times for us to really talk to each other. I also use it as a time for some really important lessons. One year I had a baking party for all the children in my family for Christmas. The smaller ones made crust for the mini cheesecakes. They loved destroying the graham crackers. Little ones have the gift of destruction so I thought that would be a good place for them to flow in their gifts. The middle ones put in the ingredients for the chocolate chip cookies and the teens, especially the boys were able to man the equipment. Boys like equipment so that was right up their alley to see how fast they could make the mixer go.


What an opportunity to be able to show them what the body of Christ looks like. Everybody has a part and no part is unimportant or insignificant. No one is too young or too old to be used in the service to accomplish a task. Just as we were accomplishing a task of getting those sweet smelling goodies made, as the church we are accomplishing something sweet in the nostril of God. Use those opportunities that you have to show spiritual principles. We have to make it plain. We have to be willing to tell our children things so they can understand the great mysteries of God.
When we were done they all got a chance to eat what they had done as well as take their creations home. I wish you could have seen the faces on those children. There was such pride in accomplishing something themselves. Even the boys tried to pretend they didn’t care, but you could see the pride on their faces. That’s what I believe is being lost. We are really busy I understand that, but we need to slow our lives down a bit and get back to or begin teaching our children how to cook, how to provide with their own hands. Even the world has an understanding of this concept. If you ever watch the food channels they actually have “cook with your kid” campaigns. They are trying to encourage parents to spend time with their children cooking and preparing meals.


You teach them something vital about working and work ethics. Each of my children has chores to do, even when they were two. Even if it was just picking up their toys. What does this have to do with their physical growth? I believe it has a lot. When you look at statistics our children have become obese sitting in front of a T.V. waiting for mom to bring them something to drink like she is their servant. I jokingly told a friend that when the women libbers changed MRS. to MS. They weren’t doing us any favor they don’t understand that MS. stands for Mommy Slave.
Well Jesus came to set the suffering captives free, and I took my freedom. My children all are a part of this family and I want to place in them that their health is important and they have a part to play in it. If you have medicines you are to take them on time. Stop sitting in front of that boob tube and go play and exercise your body as well as your mind. And then it is another opportunity for me to grow my children toward the Lord. I’m also teaching them stewardship of their time and their bodies before the Lord. God expects us to be good stewards of everything that belongs to him, so why not begin to use these times to talk to your children about it.
That’s what God’s word in Deut. 6:7 says, “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children” Tell them as you walk along the way, talk to them when you wake up, when you lie down, when your eating fits in just as nicely.” Every opportunity we have should be with the purpose of showing our children how God is a part of their lives and even the things that seem simple or meaningless are still important to God.


We have several things that we do that have become family traditions. At Christmas time we start on December first preparing for the holiday. We have a board that we go over each day with something we should be thankful about. We tell them that this is the celebration of Christ’s birth. So when it’s someone’s birthday, you bring him or her a gift. We begin everyone to thinking about what gift they want to give to Jesus. On Christmas Eve we have a family celebration. We read the Christmas story, we also then share what gift we will give to Jesus that year. Then each one shares what their gift is and we take turns praying for someone else’s gift. They have given gifts such as being nicer to their sister, because God wants them to love each other. Or to pray more, or read their bible more, because that would be something Jesus would like for his birthday. I’m teaching them how to do personal inventories to see where they line up with God’s will.


The children also get really excited about helping with baking so that we can give them as gifts. They remember this more than anything. If you asked what did they get for Christmas, they can’t remember but they do remember what we did. We also have a dress up dinner with candlelight and everything for New Years Eve. For the last few years my eldest daughter has cooked dinner. I’m talking real food. She cooked ribs, double baked potatoes, made rolls and a homemade chocolate fudge cake served with ice cream.


It has gotten so my youngest child will from time to time say, mom I need some pretty mood, light the candles for dinner and turn off all the lights. And I do it. I’ll bring out the china and set the table just because.
I also like what we do at the summer time. We have “Williams camp”. I create a program that runs for 5 – 6 weeks. This came about because I needed to find something for my children to do during the summer. I didn’t have any money to afford the costly park programs. So I asked the Lord to show me what I could do. We’ve been doing it now for about 4 years. We learn Spanish, taught by my oldest daughter. I have to tell you I was amazed myself how the Lord opened up my creativity in this area.
We also allowed the children a chance to see how it feels to do things for others. All of the things we made were given to members of our church and then to our seniors in nursing homes. We have arts and crafts, and we even have our own theme song for our camp. Williams camp if fun, we can play in the sun, and I forget the rest, but I know the children remember it. I also teach them some cooking. They learned how to make turtle cookies this summer. What has happened is even some of my teenage girls from church were involved and they were excited about being involved again. Now I know everyone won’t do this type of program, but what can you do with your time?


Come back next week for part IV, of Raising Healthy Children. If you missed the part III look under The Week in Review on April 20, 2008

The Week in Review

“The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth”
Originally preached by Jewel D. Williams

at Faith COG 8/06

(Part III)

Today could be your last day that God’s Spirit will beacon you and then you are on your way to hell because you have refused God’s grace. So you cannot save yourself, you cannot do this in yourself. However, Jesus said I will take the penalty of your sin. You were my enemy, but I’ll pay the cost of shed blood and shed my own.

But it does not end there. That is only part of the truth, and we want the whole truth. (READ 1 Corinthians 15:1-18) Jesus paid the cost, but if he had only died, and not rose again, then our preaching is in vain, our faith would be worthless. But Jesus did rise. He arose to show he had power to overcome death. He overcame the hold of sin on our lives. He overcame every thing the enemy could dish out against you. And when he arose he rose in power. Not only power over death, but power to impart to all those that come behind. So ordinary people can do extraordinary things, because we serve a God who has the ultimate power over everything. When he rose, he rose with victory for all believers, so that you and I can be victorious in our walk.

Paul’s warning is against those that would come and try to change the truth of God’s word to have you following after men’s philosophy. Men today believe that they know more than God and therefore they can interpret the word with out the interpreter, the Holy Spirit.

Look at what the word says about people like that, “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow” – Colossian 2:18-19. In other words, don’t listen to all these people coming with new revelations, new understandings that are contrary to the Bible as if they have been chosen to give a special revelation for today. They are not connected to the head, which is Christ. They will deceive you into being a disconnected body, separated from the head. And a body without a head cannot live or function. So, how does Paul’s warning apply to us today?
We see individuals in our time that have come with new revelations and new ways. Some are not new ways, but have us still today turning from the truth of God’s word regarding Jesus.

We see it in many of the different religions and cults. For example we, meaning Christians have fallen under the belief that we all Muslims, Christians and other religions all worship the same God. We do not. Where we get drawn into their philosophy is when they say they believe in only one God. Some of us may be confused with the Muslim religion for example, because many of their beliefs have things that originally came from the Bible. The historical foundation for the Quaran, for instance contains much from the Old Testament. But that is were the similarities end. The Muslims believe Christ was a good teacher, but they do not believe he is the Son of God nor do they believe he rose from the dead. One belief is that Judas was crucified in Jesus place. Some however believe that Christ was on the cross but he didn’t die. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is this, Jesus points out that those who do not believe in Him as their savior will not receive everlasting life. “I told you that you would die in your sins, if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” John 8:24. When the question, who are you, is asked to Jesus, this is the answer, “Jesus Answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. Jehovah’s Witness, now call themselves Christians. Yet, if you study your word you will see that we do not believe the same. The truth of their doctrine has changed each time a new leader has taken the helm of the Watchtower Society. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth of God’s word does not change, it stands true. This is one of the things Paul was warning against being caught in man’s rules of how you should worship God. They believe in a work doctrine instead of salvation as the free gift of Jesus Christ. They believe that if you do enough things you will be able to reach a place of good standing with God. Not so. Let me say this clearly, individuals in other religions and belief systems do not have to be bad people to be led in the wrong direction. If you meet any one from these religions they very well might be loving, caring people, even more so sometimes that those that say they are believers in Christ. So we cannot look at the people’s attitudes for example to determine what is the truth. God’s word has to be the yardstick we use to measure what is right.
Reflection: Do you believe that there is only one way to the Father, or do you believe that there are many paths to God? Come back next week for part IV of the message, The Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.

If you missed part II of this message you can go look under “Week in Review” on April 20, 2008 to read it.

Words of Encouragement

If you are a cloud watcher, do you see anything here? I see a city amongst rolling hills and a beautiful sky. I think this is just God's way of making us take time to see the beauty of his world. This picture is taken at sunrise in Miami. This last one is the close up of the first one. It is the top of the cloud. All pictures this week are the property of James S. Williams

" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." – Mark 9:23-25

Where can I find help? Do you have faith to believe? Jesus’ disciples tried to cast out a spirit from a boy but were not able to and the man now ask Jesus if he can help. Jesus ask how long have he been like this? The man says since his childhood. He then asks Jesus if there is anything you can do, would you do it?

This is Jesus’ response, if you can. In other words, do you not know to whom you are speaking? Jesus then says to the man, everything is possible for him who believes. The man in excitement says, I do believe and if there is any doubt in me, help me to overcome it.

Sometimes we do the same, we are faced with God and we question can you do this? We have situations that have been going on so long that we think, surely this cannot chance. We want it to change, just as the man wanted his son changed, but we have doubts they can. We go to God in our prayers and say, if there is anything you can do, please do it.

God’s response to us is, do you not know to whom you are speaking? It doesn’t matter how long the situations has been going on, God is able to change it. He then tells us that if we have faith all things are possible to us.

We should respond like the man and with excitement exclaim, I do believe and help me with my disbelief. In other words I need your help in all areas. I need your help to change my situations and I need your help so that I can trust that you will.

As we go to worship this week, go with the confidence that God is our helper. He will help us through our situations and our circumstances. He will sometimes send others to sacrifice of themselves for our release. That is what we are called to do as believers, be living sacrifices as Jesus was the sacrifice sent to release us from our captivity. Sometimes God simply wants us to look in the right places. We trust in things to gives us help, but God wants us to see it is him alone. We can know that when we call for God to help, he hears us and by faith we can believe that he will grant us what we need. So I pray for us to place our complete trust in the one that can help us every situation we face, our loving Father.

Words of Encouragement

This is a fountain at the Lowe's Hotel in Miami. I thought about what the pool might have looked like that the man was seeking healing from.


When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." – John 5:6-8

Where can I find help? Are you looking in the wrong place? Jesus sees a man lying down and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time. He had been seeking someone to help him into the pool of water when it was stirred, but while he was trying to get in, someone else came ahead of him, and he continued to miss his healing.

Jesus asks the man a question when he sees him waiting to try and get in the pool, do you want to get well? The man did not truly understand the question, because he began to tell why he wasn’t well. He began to talk about how he had waited and how someone else had taken his blessing.

I don’t think it is strange that Jesus did not address his complain, but simply when back to what he asked him in the first place, do you want to get well. Jesus grants the unspoken response with, get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

This man had an opportunity to meet the savior. Jesus was passing by his way and asked him if he wanted healing. The man did, for he had tried to get someone to help him, but it was not working. What this man didn’t realize was the ultimate healer was standing before him. He was looking for his healing in the wrong place. He was seeking the stirring of the water, but not the one that stirs it. He was looking at physical strength to place him in the healing waters, and not the spiritual strength that was the healing waters.

Sometimes that is how we are. We are looking for our help in the wrong places. We are limiting our help because we don’t see clearly what God wants to do in our lives. Sometimes God has asked us a question, "Do you want to be healed"? Instead of answering the question, we begin to tell him why we haven’t gotten better yet. We begin to complain about how others didn’t help us or how someone else took our place and therefore we missed our blessing. However, Jesus asks us a simply question, do you want to be healed?

Let us thank God today, for even when we don’t always see clearly, he answers us completely. He gave the healing even though the man didn’t see clearly the source of healing standing before him. Sometimes we don’t complete comprehend our source either, but that does not stop God from helping us. So I pray today, that we have clear vision and see from whence cometh our help, it cometh from the Lord.

Words of Encouragement

Do you know how many miracles you are looking at? This is a picture from the Meet and Greet at Langley Avenue Church of God, last November. How many? COUNTLESS!

The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. – Luke 7:15-17

Where can I find help? God is here. Jesus was walking and there was a funeral procession passing by. He saw it and took pity on the mother whose son had died. Jesus had pity on her and touched the coffin of her son and called him forth. The dead man sat up and began to talk.

All that were around were astonished by what they saw, but they still were not aware of what it was they were experiencing. They assumed that he was a great prophet and they rejoiced that God had come to help his people.

They were partly right; God had come to help his people. Except he had not sent a prophet, but he had come himself in the form of his Son. God with us, Emmanuel had come to help his people. What the people did not realize in the full sense of the word was, “God is here”.

They are not different than us today, we see the wonder of God as his miracles are performed, but we stop short of acknowledging that it is God’s Spirit. We say, oh that was this or that, and we marvel at what was done, but we stop short of giving God’s Spirit the credit. We may say, for example that person did a good job, but are not willing to go all the way and say that they were being led by God’s Spirit and in doing so we don't acknowledge the presence of God in our world today.

Lord help us. We are seeking your help, but we sometimes cannot see that you are right here with us. Your Spirit is available to help us, but we don’t always see clearly the full picture. Lord help us to recognize that you are still working miracles in the lives of everyday people and we only need to realize that it is you, because you are with us and you are our help.