The Unlikely Missionary

I love Christmas but over the years it has become an increasingly stressful time. I live for all that comes along with Christmas. The gift giving. The tree, the sweets, the decorations. It all brings me joy. And I want to pass that joy to my children. But for the last 5 years I haven't had a home. My own home anyway. Which means I can't do Christmas the way I would like. My traditions like my life are just being pieced together. Fit in when they can be. And we're low on cash during this time of year which adds to the stress. Add to that working hard all year and feeling like you have nothing to show for your blood, sweat, tears, ears, elbows and toes. It all culminates on a day like today. Everyone has their things that make this time of year hard. And it can be tough getting out from under the cloud. Today definitely didn't help my mood. It was raining and cold and cloudy all day. Many times I felt like I wanted to just break down and cry. Especia

Biblical Feminism This is a LOADED title and maybe it will become a series. We'll see. But today's post will touch on two things. Patriarchy and women in the Bible. People say that the Bible stresses a patriarchal society. I agree and disagree. In today's society men use their power to crush and abuse women and children in their care. When you look at patriarchy biblically what you find is that yes, God did put men over women and children. Not to abuse them but to protect them. Abraham , I'll be talking about Abraham a bunch today because he was one of the clearest examples of what the man's role in his household was. Abraham was in charge of his whole household from his wife on down to the child of his maids and servants. They were all from the House of Abraham. He was responsible for their shelter, their food, their well-being and their safety. That's a huge deal. Unfortunately a lot of that responsibility has now been put on women when they nev

God does NOT have a covenant with the United States I'll repeat for the Christians in the back. God does NOT have a covenant with the United States . The Church in America is really quite pompous I have discovered as I have gotten older. It bothers me to watch some of these folks talk about the covenant of God and America as if God needs us. He doesn't need us. The only nation God has a covenant with is the nation of Israel and yet we in the US believe that godly morality resides in the West. As if God changed His mind over the years and moved it to us. How crazy is that when our country didn't even exist when the Bible was written? When I was a kid it never quite made sense to me how Israel was across the Atlantic but we were the nation of God. It didn't make sense because it's not true. We as believers have individual covenants with God. The more believers in one area, the higher the God concentration. Like mass immunization creates group immunity. Peopl

It's still incredible to me that evangelicals are saying that God chose Trump. It's incredible for the obvious reasons: He clearly has broken every commandment there is but especially the two most important ones, Love the Lord your God with all you heart, mind and strength and Love your neighbor as yourself. But the least obvious is that God never wanted us to have a king (president, ruler, dictator, tyrant, etc) in the first place. When the Bible says there is nothing new under the sun there really isn't. I'm reminded when the children of Israel asked Samuel for a king. Samuel was distressed and asked, "What for?" Their response back was "because everyone else has one". Not the greatest of reasons huh? So he went to God with all this and God said, let them have it, they have rejected me anyway. They asked and He ALLOWED them to get what they asked for . They wanted a king, they chose Saul. I put allowed in all CAPS because the one thing w

Side Chick culture is rampant out here nowadays. It's not only glorified but celebrated. No women should ever be ok with being on the side. We are all worthy to be the one and only as God intended. In God's Economy men are one woman men. If you were supposed to have more than one God would have took more than one rib and made more than one Eve. So even though side chicks are fashionable these days the consequences can be devastating. Take it from the original side chick: Hagar. Now if you don't know the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar read up on it here . But in a nutshell, God told Abraham who was a very old man that he would have a child and the nation of Israel would come through that child. His very old wife Sarah didn't see how that was possible with her so she concocted a plan to make God's plan happen. Note : God doesn't need help btw. So she sent Hagar to have sex with her husband and get pregnant. Which she did. Now this isn't a tradit

Color is such a big deal in America. It's sickening really. Color is really an American construction that came about because of slavery. During Jesus day and in most of the world today, except for America, people are classified by where they come from and who they belong to. For example if you are from France, regardless of if you are black or white, you are French. They, your ancestors, may belong to Cameroon or the Ivory Coast but you are a French citizen and therefore French. It's not that easy in America where the whole point of slavery was to purposely steal, conceal and rob people of that very thing. Taking children from there mother's and selling them away so they never truly know where they come from and to whom 'they belong. ]Histories lost. Identify destroyed. It was purposeful. Doesn't that sounds familiar? History is now repeating itself as this administration steals children from their parents. The purpose is to strip them of where they come fro

There are a lot of King Sauls in the church today. They look good, they sound good and they even smell good. Cuz that’s what matters to us nowadays, right? Folks who are InstaReady, right? But their life, their walk with God is foul. And we make excuses for it because they look the "part". Folks out here running around without the fear of God forgetting how the story of King Saul turned out; defeated, chased and at a witch's door step . Have we learned nothing from when God called David? 1 Samuel 16 But the  Lord  said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The  Lord  does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance,  but the  Lord  looks at the heart.” When Samuel went to Jesse’s house looking for the next king he made the same mistake that we church folks make now. We are looking at what a person has and looks like and not the Jesus that exists inside of them. That is the reason that

This has to be one of the saddest stories in the Bible. Living in America we have bought the idea that money will solve all of life’s problems. This story however shows how wrong that thinking is. If you have never read the story of the rich young ruler read it here . In a nutshell this young man had all that life could offer. He had it ALL and yet.. something was missing. So he went to Jesus and he asked him what must he do to be fulfilled and Jesus said give it all up and follow me. How many of us are not willing to let go of what we have in order to gain what we actually want? A preacher once said, God cannot bless a closed fist. We want peace but aren’t willing to follow the source of peace. We want joy but are unwilling to let go of that which steals it away. We want happiness and love but we aren’t will to do what is necessary to have those things. The deepest part of this story is when it says that this young man left sorrowful. He left sorrowful because he knew that he was cho

Happy Resurrection Sunday! Just when Satan thought he had fought God and won, then came the morning! Hallelujah! The Unlikely Missionary  DHW They all walked away, nothing to say They'd just lost their dearest friend All that He said, now He was dead So this was the way it would end The dreams they had dreamed were not what they'd seemed Now that He was dead and gone The garden, the jail, the hammer, the nail How could a night be so long? Then came the morning Night turned into day The stone was rolled away Hope rose with the dawn Then came the morning Shadows vanished before the sun Death had lost and life had won For morning had come The angel, the star, the kings from afar The wedding, the water, the wine Now it was done, they'd taken her Son Wasted before His time She knew it was true, she'd watched Him die too She'd heard them call Him just a man But deep in her heart she knew f

Today is Good Friday! We generally are happy to see Friday come but today is especially special for those of us who know and serve the LIVING God. 2,000+ years ago Jesus died tonight but we don't serve a dead Savior. We serve a RISEN God He is alive and deserving of our praise today. So I'm leaving this praise break with you today because the spirit of the Lord came down and dwelt among us and we have life because of it. We stand in awe of Him today.  Hallelujah! Not by might Not by power By your spirit God Send your spirit God You are the fire We are the temple You are the voice We are your song You are our God We are your people You are the light We stand in awe We stand in awe of you Not by might Not by power By your spirit Send your spirit God You called us out Out of the darkness Into your love , into your light Grace upon grace Beauty for ashes You come to us. We come alive We stand in awe of you We stand in awe of you Not by mi

When my husband called me to tell me that we were evicted from our apartment it crushed me. I was at work, 6 months pregnant and stressed out. The sheriff was there and all he allowed my husband to take was his phone and the clothes on his back. This wasn’t sudden. We had known for months we could be evicted but I thought that God would by some miracle save me from my bad decisions. But when it actually happened it crushed me. I was homeless. I was the good Christian girl with two degrees and a job and I was homeless. I was ashamed. I was devastated. And my faith was shaken. And those close to me made me feel even worse. I was at a crossroads in my faith because we are often taught that if we do all the right things God is gonna bless you. Which many interpret as nothing bad ever happening to you. As I have learned that’s a bunch of hogwash. Pick a disciple, John the Baptist, Jesus. Jesus especially. Goodness does not equal easy street. I asked, why me Lord? I’ve done everyth

God says to tithe. God says to tithe 10% of what you make. If 10% of what you make is $15 and you give $15 to further the work of God, You and God are straight. I hate that some churches have turned tithing into an auction. Can I get another $100. C'mon we need $100 for the building fund. Take those checkbooks out. I know we have another $100, $100 here. Going once, give to the Lord twice. Sold to the deacon with the puffed up chest. This has always bothered me. Didn't Jesus shake the tables in the temple for the same reason? Now I will say this. It makes no sense for people to ask why the church needs money. Churches pay bills just like everyone else and they also do charitable work. However, asking the church to fund a plane purchase is ludicrous. Here's looking at you Creflo Dollar. Churches are supposed to be good stewards of the Lord's money. Jesus, Peter, Paul all depended on the kindness of others on their ministry journeys because you have to pay C

As I was writing the Myth Busters post it occurred to me how much the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus mirrored our current society. Even the man that currently sits in the White House. If you missed the Myth Busters post check it out below. Read: Myth Busters: You Can Go to Heaven and Come Back The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:18-31 In a nutshell the Rich Man lived a life of excess to the point of being obnoxious and Lazarus was a beggar who lived his days with dogs licking the sores on his body and hoping to get some scraps from the Rich Man's table. In today's society we see many - our current president and many congress members included - who live their days, as Eugene Patterson put it, in  conspicuous consumption. The dictionary defines it as expenditure on or consumption of luxuries on a lavish scale in an attempt to enhance one's prestige. Did you just get goosebumps like I did, because doesn't that describe them to a t

NO YOU CAN'T We seem to be fascinated with death and wanting to know what it is and where we go and can we barter with God to get into heaven. We even have movies and books of people claiming that they went to heaven. But that's really impossible. The Bible tells us why in the parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus. (Not that Lazarus, another one. It was a popular name back in the day) You can read the story in Luke 16:19-31 . In this story we have a beggar, Lazarus and this Rich Man. As is true even today this Rich Man treated the beggar incredibly poorly. Meanwhile Lazarus just wanted the scraps from the man's table while dogs licked his sore covered body. Then both men died. The beggar ended up in heaven at Abraham's side and the Rich Man ended up in Hell. Side Note : Even as I type this a new post is coming to me so stay tuned. The Rich Man in hell looks up and sees Lazarus chilling in heaven and asks Abraham if he could send Lazarus to dip his finger in

I am a worrier. I wish I wasn't but I am. And my worry can then become overwhelming. Worrying that I'm not good enough, worrying that I'll be rejected, worried that people are talking about me behind their back, worried that I won't have enough money, worried that my life will fall apart if I make a wrong moved, worried that if I dream that when they don't come true (notice I didn't say if) the disappointment will be devastating. Worrying... It can be incredibly crippling. Each an everyday it is a fight for me to not let my worrying about what ifs destroy my present and future. Worry is useless. Worry saps our strength and steals our focus. It causes us to be more awestruck and dumbfounded by storms than by the one who silences storms with a word. — Judah Smith (@judahsmith) March 11, 2019 But each and everyday is a what if. Life is a big what if because its a series of choices and each choice has a consequence, good or bad. What I have to remem

It's March and if you didn't know its my birthday month. Whenever birthdays come around and you get older you get more introspective. In writing this blog I find that i have been looking at my life a lot and where I've been and how the things I've experienced have affected my today. And although I knew this its become clearer to me over time that I wore a lot of masks. While some people may call it fake I call it the hazard of growing up churched. You learn all the rules and the things to say at church and in front of church folks but then you separate that from the other elements of your day to day life. In my case I grew up feeling invisible. And it was a blessing and a curse. When you are invisible you can observe a lot while being unnoticed and therefore you learn a lot but it is a very lonely place to be at times. We are meant to do life with people but when you are made to feel small or insignificant you then diminish yourself even further. They call i

I don’t know about you but I live under the constant pressure to be great. To make something of myself. To make money. To have a good job. To own my own home. It stresses me out. On a good day I manage to get my kids ready, make my husband his lunch for work, all my blog posts done, get my podcast copy written, post to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram a couple of times, and reward myself with a latte. On bad days I sleep through my alarm cuz I was up with my sick kid all night. The latte is a necessity but I can only afford regular and forget podcasting. If I have dinner on the table before 9 I call that a win. In either case the needle doesn’t move. I still make the same amount of money. Live in the same place. And when I look up I wonder what do I do it all for? Celebrity life is an anomaly that we all aspire to. We want to be balling. We want all the money, the houses, the cars. And we work hard, looking at all the ways influencers do it and yet, I’m not living the life that I see t

If you hadn't heard NYS passed a new abortion law . The response on both sides of the issue has been crazy. Read:  My Thoughts on the Abortion Debate As a Christian I have always had a problem with the way the Church has handled this debate. In Episode 8 of the Podcast I give my thoughts on how the Church should be addressing the situation. We should be part of the solution not adding fuel to the fire. But that requires us to do some introspection. No matter what one decides, or which side you sit on, the fact of the matter is we all are free to make our own choices, God still loves us because we all fall short and as a Christian we are to be the manifestation of God's love. You can listen to this podcast in the player above or in  Apple Podcasts ,  Stitcher  &  Spotify . Please rate and subscribe. For more Unlikely Missionary follow me on Facebook at  Facebook.com/UnlikelyMissionary . The Unlikely Missionary DHW

How often do we surrender our happiness to others? Every time we allow others to steal our joy or blame someone for why we are miserable we give them power over our lives. Life is a series of choices, life or death choices. It can be a literal life and death choice i.e. if you have diabetes and choose not to take your insulin or it can be figurative i.e. you allow someone to get under you skin and it changes your whole mood. Read:  God Gave Us the Gift of Choice In Episode 7 of the podcast I talk about the fact that the only person's actions we can control is our own and that we should choose happiness. I can't control what people do to me but I can control how it affects me and how I respond to it. I have chosen to be happy. You can listen to this podcast in the player above or in  Apple Podcasts ,  Stitcher  &  Spotify . Please rate and subscribe. For more Unlikely Missionary follow me on Facebook at  Facebook.com/UnlikelyMissionary . The Unlikely Miss

Jesus never knocked on doors to spread the Gospel. I know I just got cut off from a lot of church folks but that's ok. The Bible does tell us to go tell the Gospel (Mark 16:15). I don't dispute that for a second. The thing is that Jesus effectively spread the Gospel and didn't knock on a single door.  Doing this always terrified me as a child because I didn't feel comfortable walking up to complete strangers and because I hated when people did it to me. 9 time out of 10 I always left those situations feeling harassed. Jesus didn't harass people with the Gospel. Instead He did these three things. His Reputation Preceded Him If you are a kind, loving person who is living right people will tell other people about you and the God you serve. Your life is your testimony. The way you live your life is a much greater witness then anything you say, He Had Organic Conversations that Led to Kingdom Conversations I never outright tell people about Christ. Mostly

When my kids get really upset I sing them a song from one of their favorite shows, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. It goes, "Let's count down to calm down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Then at the end we say, "breathe" and take a breath. I started doing this with my son when he was still a baby when he would be having a meltdown. The sound of me singing a song he knew always calmed him. Now my son does it with his sister when she is upset and hard to soothe. It instantly calms her just like it calms him. In moments of my greatest anxiety I find that God always brings an on-time song to my mind and tells me, "Just Breathe". In the end, its the breaths that we take that help us know that we are alive and remind us that we are loved by God and still within the reach of His grace and mercy. So I leave with you today this thought, God has promised to never leave you, nor forsake you and He can work EVERYTHING  out for our good. So Just Breathe. It will be alr

Happy New Year! As promised the podcast is back. In Episode 6 we are talking about activating Jesus in our crises. We often have them. I was in the midst of one when recording the podcast. When our boat of life is in the midst of the storm and we are being tossed to and fro we have to remember that Jesus is in the boat with us and that at His Word the storm will cease. You can listen to this podcast in the player above or in  Apple Podcasts ,  Stitcher  &  Spotify . Please rate and subscribe. For more Unlikely Missionary follow me on Facebook at  Facebook.com/UnlikelyMissionary . The Unlikely Missionary DHW

Man doesn't determine who goes to Heaven. I know church folks believe the opposite of this but.... only God saves only God qualifies only God determines who goes to Heaven Now that may not seem fair but you can't go over to someone's house and tell them who they can and can't have over. Heaven is God's home so He can admit anyone He wants to. You just have to get over it. The price of admission is the blood of Jesus and the housewarming gift you have to bring is your belief and confession in the fact that Jesus died for your sins. Will you accept the invitation? The Unlikely Missionary DHW