my thoughts and my heart

Snowed in…Soo many thoughts…

desiwilliams — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:34:31 +0000

“When Christ rose from the dead, he was communicating to every one of us who call ourselves believers that we, too, can rise above the hopelessness of the moment we feel trapped in.” -Pete Wilson

Psalm 62:2 “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

“While life is uncertain, God is not. While our power is limited, God’s is limitless. He still has the whole world in his hands. While our hope may be fragile, God is hope himself.” -Pete Wilson

“God wants to turn our doubts into faith. God wants to turn your guilt into grace. God wants to turn your fear into courage.” -Kevin Campbell

“Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I’ve become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can’t do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I’ve become

I focused on the score, but I could never win
Trying to ignore, a life of hiding my sin
To label me a hypocrite would be
Only scratching the surface of who I’ve been known to be” – Rush of Fools

Titus 3:4-5 “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,”

Philippians 3:13 “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,”

Psalm 31:15 “My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.”

“Hoping for something will almost always disappoint. Hoping in God will always move toward something good, even if we can’t see it.” -Pete Wilson

James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

‎”Darkness brings no rest tonight, a hundred thousand thoughts inside my mind. Like a tiger I am caged inside, these walls of condemnation I can’t find. I am caught in between the truth and a lie. There’s a battle in my soul I’m broken inside. There’s a dirt thats stain me deeper than my skin. Will I ever be clean again? Take me down, down to the river for my guilt has burdened me…” -Chris Moerman

“Scriptural principles are designed to protect us and bring peace. But God does not force obedience. The Bible neither says nor implies that we have to live up to the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount in order to be loved. God’s children discover that following those rules is the path to joy, security, and a sense of well-being. In contrast, disobedience brings heartache and suffering into one’s life.

Our obedience is not required for God to love us. He cares for even the most evil and murderous man, which mean that no one is able to sin beyond the Lords’ redemptive grace. He will always forgive. But do not fall for the opposite error either. Grace is not a license to sin. God allows us to experience the consequences of wrongdoing. That’s what a loving parent does to be sure a child learns the value of doing right.

God loves without condition. To show His great care, He gave solid principles on which people are to build their lives. His affection is in no way diminished toward those who ignore biblical rules, but His heart is grieved by their defiance. He delights in believers who seek and follow His will (1 Thess. 4:1).”- Devotion from Shane Tarpley

If you meditate on God’s Word and carefully obey it, then success is inevitable. Obedience brings success. Joshua 1:8 “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

The measure of our spiritual progress is not how much of the Bible we know, but how much we obey. Those who constantly learn but fail to obey end up deceiving themselves. James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Peace in my weakness

desiwilliams — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:28:37 +0000

I am broken.

My heart is heavy.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

I find rest in a faithful God.

2 Corinthians 4

Happiness as a destination or a condition?

desiwilliams — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:12:07 +0000

“People get lost as they think of happiness as a destination. We’re always thinking some day we will be happy. We’ll get that car or that job or that person in our lives who will fix everything but happiness is a mood, a condition not a destination. It’s like being tired or hungry. It comes and goes and that’s ok. And if people thought of it that way they’d find happiness a lot more often. We all struggle sometimes.” -One Tree Hill

What’s your first love?

desiwilliams — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:41:14 +0000

I feel like in this season of my life I am learning so much about life and about myself. I feel that it is important that we always remain teachable because God will always be growing us and stretching us if we allow Him too. If we become unteachable we’re essentually saying we know everything and there’s nothing that we could be better at. Only God knows everything and we should be in constant relationship with Him.

I love that I serve a God who is constantly pursuing my heart. I love that God never leaves me. If I ever don’t feel God, the question I must ask is where am I? God’s been here with me the whole time. If I feel distant from God, it’s not because He’s left. It’s because I’ve drifted from Him. I love that God has placed such amazing and wonderful people in my life to encourage me and speak truth into my life even when it’s not always easy. I value an honest friend, one who will tell you truth even when it hurts.

Something that has been on my heart and that bothers me is what I’m about to talk about next. But before reading this next part please read all of it to fully understand my thoughts. If you only read part of it, it might not make much sense.

One thing I’m seeing happen a lot or that I would consider a common theme happening in our world is that people in ministry can tend to let their priorities get out of order from the way God designed them to be. What I mean by that is that it should be God first, then your family, then your ministry. But it often tends to go God first, ministry second, then family last. I think the reason that happens so often is the people in ministry associate the two…well if God’s first then your purpose behind your ministry is about furthering God’s kingdom well then those go together is the thought. Yes, they go hand in hand but God first is your relationship with God. Your first love is supposed to be God, then your spouse; because God gave us a helpmate, a spouse for a reason…to help each other through this crazy journey called life. Ecclesiastes 4:9 says “Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor”. Then you should love your ministry after that. Because if you do it that way your spouse is going to be able to support you in your ministry, encourage you in it, help you and stand behind you in your ministry. Now let me stop right here for a second and say I’m not bashing or hating on people in ministry. I just see that many times the families of those in ministry get neglected because of it. I believe people are called to ministry and that people in ministry must know that it is a calling on their life. Ministry is more than a job. It has to be your passion. But in that you cannot put it above everything else in your life. Yes, ministry requires much more time than a normal job. And that’s just it, it’s not a job it’s a calling and a passion. But with that time you must be careful not to neglect your family. I see it happen so much and that is exactly how satan attacks people in ministry through their time. You must remember to have that family time. Not even just family time, but being a good steward of your time. That may sound silly, but you need to manage your time wisely in ministry because there is so much to do. Also that you’re not just giving what’s leftover at the end of the day to your family. Really that’s with any job that you should use your time wisely.

I’ve been on both sides of it. I’ve worked in ministry, where I learned it must be a calling and passion for you. I’ve been a spouse of someone in ministry. So I’ve seen both sides. It’s hard, it’s not easy, but God didn’t say this life would be easy. I just look at it this way if you have your ministry succeed over the sake of losing your family what gain is that?

Love God. Love your family. Then love your ministry because then you can share in it together to love people the way God has called us too.

I would encourage those in ministry to read the book Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley.