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.

Words of Encouragement

This is an attraction in Wisconsin Dell. It made me think about how God can shake things up. He can totally flip situations upside down!

So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. – Acts 16:8-10

Where can I find help? God sends help. The Holy Spirit kept Paul from preaching in the province of Asia. When Paul came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit would not let them. This is where our verses pick up. The Spirit kept them from going one way, so they went another way.

During the night, Paul had a vision that a man from Macedonia was begging him to come and help them. Paul when he woke got ready to leave for Macedonia and preach the gospel to them. It would seem then, since this is where God is sending them, that they would have instant success and no difficulties? That would be an incorrect conclusion.

If you are familiar with this scripture, this is where Paul and Silas are thrown in jail for casting out the spirit in the slave girl. It would seem that Paul and Silas would be upset. They have been beaten, stripped and thrown into jail. So what do they do? Do they feel sorry for themselves? Do they give up because this walk is too hard?

No, they praise God. They sing and praise the Lord as the others in the jail are listening to them. The scripture says that there was a violent earthquake and all the doors were opened and all their chains were loosed.

Paul received a vision for help and he followed the leading of God to go and preach the gospel. In the process Paul met with difficulty. But he remained faithful to praising God because he knew something important, that God would send help him. This same God that sent him to help someone else, would send help to him, because Paul knew he had to fulfill God's plan.

Paul’s faithfulness to continue in praise, not only released his chains but the chains of all the prisoners that were in captivity. Sometimes it is hard to figure out how God will work, but it is quite amazing to see when he does. Paul’s praising and singing released the prisoners in jail because he was in the right place, the place where the captives were. He was a captive himself, but yet he was free because of his help from God. He was a servant of God in chains for the sake of the gospel.

Today, let us remember something important, God will send our help. Sometimes he calls for other believers to go through some difficulty to be in the right place to help you be released from your captivity.

Lord help us today be released from the prison that has us held captive. Lord if you are sending us to show forth your praises and prayers until the earth be moved so that someone’s situation and circumstances can be shaken, then help us to see clearly that the place we are in is not to destroy us, but to help in the process of freeing the captives.

Words of Encouragement

This was from our balcony in Miami. It was so beautiful watching the sun rise up in the morning and to be reminded of God's beauty.

Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. – Psalm 5:1-3

Where can I find help? Rise up with expectancy. The Psalmist is seeking an answer from God. He is asking God to listen to his petition, his request. The request is for the Lord to give his ear to his words and to consider his very sighing.

How many times have you wanted to know if God was listening to your very sighs? Did you wonder is he listening to my cries for help? Does he hear me when I come seeking an answer? I know there have been moments in my life when things were so heavy that I wondered, God do you hear me, are you concerned about me?

I wondered in my situations and circumstances, was there a place that I could find help? The Psalm today gives us a reminder of where we can go to find help and that is in the Lord. The writer says listen to me because you are my king and my God and to you alone do I pray.

He says in the morning you hear my voice and I lay my request before you with expectation. What this reminds us is we must rise up early in the morning with an expectancy of God to hear us and answer our request. We must rise up early because when we linger, it gives the Devil the opportunity to torment and to tell us we are defeated and that God is not listening to us.

So instead, we should rise up early with the expectancy that God will not only hear our request but that he has an answer for us. There is no other place where I can find help, other than my king and my God to whom I pray.

I pray for us today that we find comfort in knowing that all that we seek, God already has the answer for. If it is comfort, he has the answer. If it is direction, he has that also. Lord help us to rise up early and come to you for the answer to our daily questions. Lord give ear to our request

The Week in Review

2nd and 3rd generation of children. This picture is of my 3 girls, my oldest sister, Arma's 3 girls, Dariana, Lacretia and Sonya standing in the rear (her son was missing). My brother, Keith's daughter is standing next to Sonya, my brother Antonio's daughter in all yellow is standing next to Keith. Sonya's daughter is standing behind my two youngest daughters. My sister, Emma's daughter was not present at the wedding.

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

Our goal as parent/care givers is to have children that have these attributes going for themselves: “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD;” Isaiah 11:2 KJV
Let’s take a few moments and look at this scripture. In this scripture from Isaiah, the prophet is talking about Jesus and what characteristics/attributes he has.

1. He first has God’s spirit - The only way that our young people will be successful in this life is when they have a relationship with the Father. Godly success is different than what the world says it should be. I’m not talking about having a good job or career or being famous or having lots of money, because none of those things can satisfy like the Lord and they are not using the Lord’s measuring stick. I’m talking about a child that grows into an adult and no matter where they are in this life they are walking with the Lord and growing. Yes the world’s standard may say that your child is a failure because her or she hasn’t gained a fortune, but in God’s eyes he or she is precious. What does it profit a man (or child) to gain the whole world, but lose his or her soul? Paraphrasing of Matthew 16:26

2. He has wisdom and understanding – To have wisdom means to be able to discern or judge what is true, right or lasting. To have understanding means to perceive or comprehend the nature and significance of something. To know thoroughly by close contact or long experience with. Jesus had wisdom and understanding because he knew what was true and what was right. He understood the Father because of his long contact and experience with the Father. If we are to help our children grow in wisdom and understanding we must make sure that we are giving them what is true and what is right in the Lord. We also must make sure that their experiences and contacts bring them to a place to know more and understand more about the Lord.

3. He has counsel and might – Advice or guidance especially from a knowledgeable person. He grew in might, might is the power, or force or influence held by a person. Jesus had the spirit of counsel and might meaning he was a knowledgeable person and was able to guide others. He also had power and he was able to influence others. We want to raise children that are knowledgeable about the things of God. As they grow in their knowledge then they can give help to those that are around them. We also want to raise children that have influence as they walk in the power of God. Influence for good and not for evil.

4. He had knowledge – Familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study. Jesus was familiar with the ways of God. He was aware of his presence. He had experiences with God, so he had knowledge of God. We want to make sure that we help our children to become familiar with God so that they are aware of what his will is and to understand his voice. We are to help them gain understanding through their study as well as the things that they will learn from life’s lessons.

5. He had the fear of the Lord – This fear means having extreme reverence or awe toward God. When we have reverence for God, we are careful in the things we do. It’s no different than if you were invited to visit the king of a country or the President. You wouldn’t just walk in and have a seat. You would be careful to know what do I wear before the king? How do I speak before the king? What is my behavior to be? You would want to know what you are to do and how to do it. That’s what kind of reverence we want to teach our children. You are going before a Holy God. Make sure that what you present to him is worthy of who he is. We must make sure that we are an example of this before our children as well.

Now don’t leave me. I know this looks like a tall order to achieve especially when for a mother just getting dinner on the table can cause you to have to pray and fast for answers. I am sure however that this can be accomplished. Why? Well first God would not give us the task, if it were something we could not obtain. God doesn’t set us on a path of impossibilities. He sets us on the path of success, as long as we remember we are walking with him.
In part III, of Raising Healthy Children, we will take a deeper look into how we can begin the process in our own families to bring these things about.

The Week in Review

Jewel's Gems

“The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth”

Originally preached by Jewel D. Williams at Faith COG 8/06
(Part II)

In this book, the author said, if Disney made a movie of what is taking place in our churches, it would be called, “HONEY WERE SHRINKING THE GOSPEL”. How is this happening? First, we have grown into a Christian society that does not present the gospel in its entirety.

We either remove the cross from the story because we feel it is too much and it is not necessary to the story of Jesus, or we do not tell of Christ resurrection, because we don’t truly believe it. Or we simply water down who Christ is and make him of no affect. We see it all the time, many preachers, writers and speakers that come across the airwaves that preach a softer, gentler Christ so that the people can stomach the gospel.

They preach the spiritually correct Christ. Or either we have the “ten easy step messages”, those are the ones that tell you how you can have wealth, health and success, but they never say you have to change or let go of anything you are doing in your life. They tell you that you can have it all, without ever telling you that you need to repent of your sins, where is that in the Bible? I heard of a popular preacher who said he doesn’t mention sin in his messages. He also said how people of all religions say they enjoy his sermons. That is because he isn’t preaching the gospel, for the gospel either calls you to repentance or it will offend you because you refuse to heed or change your ways.

Or we have created a new doctrine of salvation that is full of heavy man-made “to do,” types of things, and because of it, we make it hard for individuals to understand the simplicity of salvation. I read about a well-respected theologian who was asked to explain in detail his understanding on Biblical things. He stated this, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. He gave his answer from the simplicity of the Bible. Jesus came to save souls and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have become a society that is shrinking the gospel of Jesus Christ. What is the truth, uncut and unchanged?

In Colossians chapter 1:21-22, it presents what the simply truth is “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:” The truth of this simply message is this, the cross was necessary for your salvation. Without Jesus’ death on the cross you or I cannot stand before God, we are guilty before him and are on our way to hell. We were enemies of God, we were not on his side, but stood against him as one in another camp. Yet when we should have received death for being an enemy, we were instead invited into his camp and given life instead.

On the cross with Jesus was nailed every sin that men commit against God and against each other. So whatever sins you do and whatever sins have been done against you, were nailed on the cross. Jesus took them because you and I could not pay the cost of the offense of our sins. You and I were guilty. It doesn’t matter what you have done, nor does it matter how good you think you are, because even if you are not as bad as the next person, if you have failed to keep even one of the commandments, then you are guilty of breaking the law of God and you stand accused on all points of the law. The interesting thing is this, if it were not for God's prevenient grace you or I would not even know we were in need of a savior. This simply means God gave the same Holy Spirit that indwells in us (the believer) to help to draw us (the sinner), to prevent us from going to hell. He offers mercy to us and beacons us to come to Christ. So he helps us in those moments of clarity to realize how depraved we are so we can say yes to his calling. And do not think you have forever to refuse him. 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.

Reflection: Do you think there comes a time when a person can refuse God’s grace and miss the opportunity for heaven?

If you missed part I of this message you can go to "Week in Review" on April 13, 2008 to read the first part.

Words of Encouragement

Are your eyes seeing what God is showing?

Drawing: property of Joselyn Williams

Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. - 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philippians 4:8

What are your thoughts? Sanctifying Thinking. To sanctify our thoughts means to make our thoughts line up with what is right before God. It means we must have holy thoughts. The scripture says avoid every kind of evil. This means that we must yield ourselves to God so that he can sanctify us in our entirety. That means my actions as well as my thoughts.

To have sanctified thoughts means that I must daily consecrate my thoughts to God. That means that I don’t dwell on stinking thinking and instead I allow my thoughts to be set aside for God’s purpose. I set aside my agenda or what I want to dwell on in my thoughts so that God can have the control.

When the thoughts that would make me dwell in the wrong places tries to rise up, I am reminded to avoid all kinds of evil. The evil to avoid is allowing the enemy to feed us lies and us believing it. We need to ask God to help sanctify our thinking so that we can think the right thoughts and not dwell our thoughts on things that are not praiseworthy and excellent.

As we go to worship this week, let us go seeking a change in our thoughts. What are your thoughts? Are they thoughts on the negative, defeated ways or are they thoughts about the victory that is waiting for us? Lord help us to move from stinking thinking to righteous thinking. Help us to move from being shortsighted in our thinking to seeing the whole picture in our thoughts. Help by setting our thoughts aside for your purpose and your ways.

Words of Encouragement

Self-portrait composed and taken by my daughter, Joselyn. All pictures for this week property of Joselyn Williams.

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. – Hebrews 3:1-3

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philippians 4:8

What are your thoughts? Whole (Victorious) Thinking. To have victorious or whole thinking, that calls for our focus to completely change. What is that change? The change is from our shortsightedness of only believing in what I can see, feel or understand. It calls for us to think in a broader way. It calls for us to fix our thoughts on Jesus.

To fix our thoughts on Jesus, means that we are willing to stick closely to his plan. This scripture helps us know that Jesus is the source of our victory. When we understand that our life and thoughts must be focused on Jesus, we begin to have whole thinking. Whole thinking helps us to understand that every part of our life can be touched by the master’s hand. We can begin to think on the good things of God.

Our whole thinking covers the thoughts that are about truthful things, noble things, right things, pure things, lovely things and admirable things. It is our ability to think on excellent and praiseworthy things. All those things encompass Jesus as the source of our life and can only be accomplish when are gaze is fixed on him and see nothing else.

I pray for us today that we begin to think on the things that lead us to walking in the victorious life that God has for us. Lord help us to move away from stinking thinking and to righteous thinking. Help us not to be shortsighted in our abilities, but help us to have whole, victorious thinking that rest on the ability of your son.