My Year End Reflections

2016 has been very... (insert whatever and how many adjectives you want)

Many of those who started the year won't finish it and many who didn't start it will live to see another year.

The political, financial, personal, professional and emotional landscapes for most as 2017 looms may not look promising and at the very least daunting.

But hope...

Hope is, in my opinion, as necessary to life as air. Hopelessness is a deep pit that can swallow you whole.

When our hope is built on shifting, sinking sand it is very easy for us to lose it.

But..

MY hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness...

God is still God. The sun still rises and sets. Jesus is still risen from the dead. So therefore I will always have hope because money, people, things, leaders, bosses, jobs, empires, nations pass away but inspite of our best efforts to destroy and eradicate God from our world HE STILL LIVES and HIS PROMISES are still TRUE.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

He has survived kings and queens, floods, Disasters, World Wars. He is here and has been here and will always be here; Yesterday, Today, and Forever.

He is here in 2016 and He will be here in 2017 and all the years after that. So while things seem uncertain. Take heart that God is and always will be! He is certain. He always fulfills His promises.

He will take care of my family and I. I may not know what that looks like but I know that it will happen because God promised that He will NEVER leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Joshua 1:5). Because I have NEVER seen the righteous forsaken or his children hungry (Psalm 37:25-26). Because although we might stumble we will NOT fall (Psalm 37:23-24).

Place your hope and faith in Him for

*On Christ, the Solid Rock I stand, 

ALL other ground is sinking sand, ALL other ground is sinking sand.

The Unlikely Missionary

DHW

*Solid Rock by Edward Mote is one of my favorite hymns

The Revolution is Now

I wrote What If I'm the One to Start A Revolution? 5 years ago. I felt then as I do now that God has one more great awakening in store for America. In the recent months I have begun to feel this great sense of urgency. Not because of our new president but because of how far the message of the American church has strayed from who God truly is.

I have been brokenhearted at how some churches have become so focused on money and trivial issues that they forget that it's about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is the Gospel? 

It's the Good News. It's that Jesus Christ came to earth; lived, walked talked, breathed among us; was killed so that we might have life in abundance and so that the relationship with God that was severed by sin was restored with His Blood; He rose again as He promised; He ascended to Heaven, and He is sitting right now at the right hand of God the Father talking to God on our behalf.

The gospel is NOT we bash you because of the color of your skin. The gospel is NOT religious persecution. The gospel is NOT taking away women's rights. The gospel is not normalizing sexual assault. The gospel is NOT rejecting people because of their sexual orientation. The gospel is NOT being mean-spirited or just plain hate-filled. Where hate abides love cannot abide. God is love and if you are full of hate He cannot abide (but that is another post for another time)

Jesus gives us Christians one mandate;

Go make disciples. 

And He gave us the perfect blueprint. Himself. Never once did Jesus bash, put down, condemn, alienate or be unloving to ANYONE especially not his disciples. Not even to Judas who He KNEW was going to betray Him. He never forced Himself or His message on anyone. He never guilted or shamed anyone into salvation. He gave them the CHOICE.

Choice is God's greatest gift to us. If they chose Him great and if they didn't He left them be but He still loved them because He knew that the way He lived His life was much more important and impactful then the words He spoke.

I'm positive that if Jesus were to visit some of our churches today we might be surprised at the reception we'd receive. (See the Cleansing of the Temple)

Holy Discontent

Bill Hybels* gave a talk and has a book on this concept of Holy Discontent. It is something that bothers you so greatly in your soul that it forces you to act.

I have reached that point. I have always been discontented by the way "people of God" beat and abuse and misinform other people about who God is especially young people. I've been a Christian almost all my life and even I have experienced the hurtfulness of this. I'm speaking from experience. This election cycle and the viciousness of the hate that is spewing from people, especially those who claim to know God  has pushed me to the point where I can no longer sit by and not say anything.

What we all fail to realize is that the only difference between a believer and a non-believer is the acceptance of Jesus Christ. We are still all sinners. We still all fall short. We still all need the grace of God. We do not instantly become better than someone else because we accept Christ. We just become saved by Grace.

It is time for all of us who know who God is and worship Him to stop sitting on the sidelines and stand up for what is right.

I'm tired of being a poor representative of Jesus. We cannot really believe that God is pleased with the way we as Christians have responded to what is going on in our world?

The time has come to stand up and fight for the Gospel and who Jesus is. We've gotten too comfortable. If you don't stand up that is ok. God does not need you or me to make sure that His message of love is preached but He sure would like you to be involved.

I ended my last message on revolution saying,
"So if I'm supposed to be starting my revolution, why am I still sitting down?"

Well, I'm no longer "sitting". I'm in the fight. Through prayer. Through writing this blog. Through speaking up when it is necessary and right now it is very necessary. Man's voice should NEVER be louder than God's voice. Through living my life in a loving and respectful way. Through worship. Through taking a stand when I see injustice.

When I stand before God and He asks me, "What were you doing when people were dying, being killed and being persecuted and you had the ability to offer hope and healing and unity?" I want to have an answer. 

The Revolution is Now.

The Unlikely Missionary

DHW

*This post does not reflect the views of anyone but me. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas & Happy Sunday!

There Are No Orphans of God

This time of year can be very hard, especially if you feel alone or forgotten. But I want you to know that in the kingdom of God you are not alone, you are not forgotten, you are loved.

Avalon sings this amazing song called Orphans of God. And whenever I feel my lowest; unloved, ignored, beat down, alone, unwanted, misunderstood, or cast aside - I play this song and remember that I am a child of God and He loves me and for this reason I am not alone. EVER.

I hope this song encourages you as it does me and remember...

You are loved 

and You are loved, 

We are loved.

The Unlikely Missionary

DHW

Praise Break! - Already Here

This song always touches me. We, since the beginning of time, have been waiting for the Lord. But He is already here, in us

Enjoy!

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

Reason for the Season

I learned at a young age that Santa was not real and that Christmas was not about receiving.

As far back as I can remember Christmas Day at my house started with church, then we would go visit people who may not have a visitor at a nursing home or the hospital. We would bring them gifts and conversation and sing carols and THEN we went home to eat and THEN we opened presents. We sometimes didn't open presents until well into the afternoon depending on how many visits we made.

As a kid, this was annoying because I wanted to get home to see what I got. Of course. In our little kid mind its all about the gifts! Now as an adult I appreciate that my parents put the focus on serving others and not ourselves.

That's what Christmas in about after all. Jesus didn't come to earth to be born because it was going to be a fun vacation, a reward for being a good Son. We are celebrating the ultimate act of service. Jesus was born to die in 33 years. We don't know when we are going to die but Jesus knew because His birth was an assignment to bring hope and salvation. His mission and death didn't catch Him by surprise.

What I didn't realize as a kid was how much our visits meant to the people we visited. Some of whom may not have had a visitor in a long time. And looking back I know that Jesus was pleased that we took time on His day to be hope and joy. Couldn't you just imagine Jesus doing something like that on His birthday?

The reason for this season is of course Jesus. And this holiday I challenge you to be His hands and feet. If you see someone in need offer a hand. My husband is amazing at this. If he sees a homeless person on the street and he has $5 he's giving that $5. No questions asked. If you know of someone who will be alone this holiday give them a call or stop by for a visit. If you know of a little child who won't receive a gift this year for whatever reason, when you buy your kid/niece/nephew/godbaby/grandbaby a gift buy another to share. We all are always just one step away from amazing blessing or terrible hardship. And Jesus always gave even when what He gave was of high price.

Love today. Show compassion today. Bless someone today. 

Expecting nothing in return. It will enrich your life.

For me, now as an adult, Christmas is my favorite holiday not because I'm gonna get gifts but because I get to be a blessing to people I love and care about.

God loves you, so share that love today. Be His hands and feet.

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

U R Loved by Israel Houghton

One of my fave artists.

You Are Loved!

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

YOU ARE LOVED

Even if no one else anywhere ever tells you this, I am here to deliver God's message to you that...

YOU ARE LOVED!

I have become overwhelmed by the number of hate crimes that have be occuring since this election and God has been moving within me to act. I'm not a speaker but I am a writer and through my written words God has always helped me to articulate what He wants me to know about who He is.

And I learned this particular truth many years ago...

God said and continues to say, no matter what you are, no matter who you are, no matter what you have done, no matter where you have been, no matter where you are right now, no matter what people may say about you, God loves you. God is love and He can be nothing else. Don't let people tell you that you have to do x,y, and z to gain or be worthy of God's love when the Bible says the exact opposite.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (NIV)

Before you were born, before you did or said anything God loved you. He always has and He ALWAYS will. You just have to be willing to believe it and accept it.

Society and so called Christians may want to disqualify you from God's love but they do not have the ability nor the authority to do so. There is one fact and one truth.

You are and always will be loved because God loves you!

Plain and simple. You just have to believe it and accept it.

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

Remember you are loved!

Be Thankful

Psalm 107:1; Psalm 136:1

Thanksgiving has just passed and we gathered with our families. For me and my family this holiday has never been about pilgrims but about being able to gather, when we normally probably wouldn't because life gets in the way, to look at all the ways God has blessed us and kept us. Its a time to pray and thank God for life, strength and each other and of course eat.

I know for some Thanksgiving is not a happy time because of history and current events but I want us to stop and think about the things we have to be grateful for, that we are thankful for. We take many things for granted and all we have can be gone in an instant. There are very few guarantees in this life.

I am thankful to God everyday because He is good. He wakes me up when many others don't. He starts me on my way when many others can't. I have ears to hear. Eyes to see. Clothes to wear, food to eat, and a place to sleep. That is all I need and God promises to supply all our needs. I am blessed beyond measure.

I'm not saying to not want more or to not be ambitious, I'm saying to just

Be Thankful 

for the little things, for the big things, for EVERYTHING.

The Unlikely Missionary

DHW

PS. To my fellow believers don't just be thankful to God so that He will give you things. Be thankful because you deserve none of the things God has already given you.

In God's Economy... Love is Action

In God's economy

Love is Action

Many of us know the 1 Corinthians 13 which has been dubbed the "Love Chapter" of the Bible.

It has always bothered me that people say they fall in love with people because to me this means that just as fast as it can happen it can end. And if that is true that means that God can fall in and out of love with us at any given moment. And if that is true how can God be love personified if love is so wishy washy? That doesn't fit with who God says He is.

But, when people talk about love its like this mystical thing that just comes upon you. But to God and in His Word it is much more than that. It is a conscious, and deliberate action that you can control. I've listed the ways that God says we are to love. Its here both in the the traditional version that I memorized this verse in when I was a little girl and then in The Message. I love The Message version of scripture and you will see it quoted here often because it breaks the Word down in a way that speaks to the way I speak, process and understand God's Word.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
NIV (Traditional)	The Message
Love is patient,  love is kind.  It does not envy,  it does not boast,  it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others,  it is not self-seeking,  it is not easily angered,  it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil  but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects,  always trusts,  always hopes,  always perseveres. Love never fails.	Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies.

As I said earlier God is love and love never dies. If this is true and I believe God and His Word and that it will not return unto Him void, therefore I have to believe that you cannot just fall out of love with someone. Either you stopped loving them or you never loved them in the first place.

Whether it is platonic love, romantic love, love of family;

Love is and always will be a verb.

How do you show love to your children? Through patience when they work your nerves. Or when I tell my one year old son to stop and he does it anyway holding my temper in check show him that I love him.

How do you show your neighbor love? Through kind acts, not coveting what they have, and by not forcing my beliefs on them.

How do you show love to your spouse? By keeping a short record of their perceived wrongs. By letting arguments and hurts live in the past and not looking back to them to throw in their face in a future argument. Through forgiveness, always looking for the best in them, being with them in the good times and bad.

The reason many marriages end in divorce is not because you fell out of love but because you stopped doing the work of love. You stopped being kind. You stopped being patient. You became prideful. You started being rude. Your record of wrongs became endlessly long. You didn't persevere. You gave up. Don't get me wrong there are times when there are things that a partner does (infidelity, bodily harm) that can destroy a marriage, a family but more often than not marriages and family bonds don't end on a whim. They end over time - days, months, years, decades - of inaction, of not loving.

We stop loving people all the time. We stop calling. We are inconsistent. We become short tempered with them. We become more focused on ourselves than the other person. We get brand new. We start smelling ourselves. That's why young people can be best friends one minute and enemies the next. We need to own the fact that we stop doing the work of love and when you don't have God in you, honestly it is quite easy to stop doing that work. Because even when God is in you it is difficult to love.

Love is not easy but we have to own our part in love.

You don't fall out of love. You just stop doing love. There's a difference.

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

There Are Too Many Pharisees in Today's Church...

There are too many Pharisees in today's American church. If you don't know what a Pharisees is let me explain...

PHAR'ISEE, n. Heb. to separate. One of a sect among the Jews, whose religion consisted in a strict observance of rites and ceremonies and of the traditions of the elders,and whose pretended holiness led them to separate themselves as a sect, considering themselves as more righteous than other Jews.

In today's world that would be a self-righteous person.

See here for a history of their exploits.

Before there was the church as we know it there were Jews and there were Gentiles. In case you are wondering, unless you have Jewish heritage we all qualify as Gentiles. The Pharisees were what we would consider modern day religious folks that think they are above it all. They were very law focused and intent and content to tell you all of the things you were doing wrong and in some cases using that guilt trip for personal gain. Hmmmmm. Sound familiar in present day?

Well, very much like today there are too many people condemning when there own condemnation looms over them like a heavy dark cloud. The Bible says in Matthew 7:3-5 (MSG)

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

When Jesus came his gripe with the Pharisees was their lack of care for the people in light of the fact that they were supposed to be God's representatives. That's why Jesus preached so much about love. Just never preached to condemn but to set free.

It's interesting how the Pharisees were looking for the Savior and because he was packaged as a poor, homeless carpenter who showed compassion for those the world forgot they missed him.

In this racially charged climate many of the evangelicals who claim to love God would easily reject the Savior as the Pharisees did because he is a Jewish man from the Middle East/North Africa.

It is amazing what hate and being self-righteous can cause us to miss out on.

My fellow Saints be careful that you yourself don't miss the Savior in this moment because of the biases you carry and please remember that God will remember how you have treated people in His Name.

Reacquaint yourself with the Pharisees and make sure you aren't one.

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

After This Election We Know We Should Pray but...

After the election My social media timelines have been full of people saying that we need to pray.

And they are absolutely right.

However....
The Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1-18) also says there is a time to pray and a time to mourn...

We have abbreviated this to the old adage there is a time and place for everything.

So we need to give space to those who are mourning, we need to give space to those who are angry and let everyone feel what they are feeling and stop telling them we just need to pray.

Why do we need to stop this? Because besides giving people space, prayer is not always the only answer that God gives us. Sometimes he calls us to pray but other times he calls us to march (think the walls of Jericho, see Joshua 6), sometimes he calls us to speak up (see Esther 4), sometimes he calls us to be still and listen (see 1 Samuel 3) and sometimes he calls us to fight (see the story of the Judge Deborah in Judges 4:6).

As a Christian even I am telling you that the "we need to pray" response to the hurt, fear and angst I am feeling is ANNOYING! I know I need to pray but at this point God wants more than our prayers. He wants our understanding, our compassion, our holy discontent in the injustices that are happening to our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles and everything in between.

So please give folks space to feel. And you pray that my feelings are channeled into the right healthy direction.

Make no mistake we are going to need prayers for the fight that looms. And there will be those called to pray and those called to fight.

Just don't keep telling me to pray. I know that already.

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

EXTRA: God has never been a God of words only. James 1:22 says, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. So for all my prayer warriors out there, we have to be ready to apply the actions God calls for when we pray and He answers. Don't just talk about it, be about it.

Pray... God Hears

I love music because it is the way that God ministers to my heart. I will be sharing a lot of music on here but today I just wanted you to know that God hears you when you pray and He WILL ANSWER!

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW

Your Unlikely Missionary is Back

It has been 5 years to the month since my last post. Five long years. Many things have happened to me in this span of time that caused me to turn my line to God off. I have experienced great highs and incredible lows.

Life happens...

But during this election season God has been weighing heavily on me as I have watched hate, lies, death, hurt and turmoil permeate and dominate my social media timelines.

It made me especially sad that many of the people spewing these offensive things were people who proclaim the name of Jesus.

I would like to say, on behalf of the God that I serve...

I'm sorry!

I knew God was real on a sunny day more than 20 years ago when I felt a hand in the middle of my chest push me out of the path of a speeding taxi. He reminded me again when I was 19 and I had planned to commit suicide. And He reminded me again just yesterday.

When God's hand is on you there is no escaping.

And I can tell you with confidence that the God that I serve is a God of Love not hate; of Inclusion not exclusion. He died for everyone, not just for some, EVERYONE - Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, India, First Nations, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Gay, Straight. And now more than ever both you and I need Him and His Love.

So I'm back if for no other reason but to share with you that God is Love because He has been Love to me even when the church and the people of God have failed me. God and church are not synonymous.

Church is full of flawed people as this election has shown. And it is something I have known for a very long time. But that does not mean that God is. I hope that by following my journey you will come to know a God that is Loving, Forgiving, Accepting, Inclusive, and understands you.

I'm not your typical Christian so this will not be your typical blog. Everyone won't like or agree with what I have to say but that is ok too. I'm here for that one boy or girl or woman or man who is lost and alone and at the end of their rope. I have been there, I know how it feels and I know that God has never let me down and He won't let you down either.

I'm Back!

The Unlikely Missionary,

DHW