The Unlikely Missionary

Avalon is one of my favorite Comtempory Christian groups. I have basically every CD they put out. I know all the songs by heart and have even sang them in church. Needless to say, I'm a fan. lol.  This song, Take You at Your Word just seemed fitting for today. The more you read and know of God as you walk in relationship with Him you realize you can take Him at His Word and your heart can rest assured that He's God you. We just need to be reminded sometimes that, Your word is life, Your word is love, Your word is true I can take You at Your word And my heart can rest assured Oh, I love you, Lord I trust You As I live I've learned That I can take You at Your word The Unlikely Missonary Damaris  

I realized the times in my life when I was the most blessed was when I wasn't actively trying to make it happen. Now that seems counter to the world and it should. The world says, create a plan, work the plan by any means necessary and meet your goal. And if you didn't meet the goal you didn't try hard enough. God's Word says, I am sure that the good work God began in you will continue until he completes it on the day when Jesus Christ comes again. Philippians 1:6 ERV It says nothing about a plan, it doesn't list out steps, it doesn't say if you work hard enough. It says if God has placed something in your heart to do He will complete it.   Since I was young God placed in my heart the following things. Get married Have kids Have a home My priorities in life have changed over the years but these three never did. And I worked hard to make it happen in my own strength and that didn't go too well.  Remember : IF God places it in you, HE will com...

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...

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

I feel like Peter walking on water. I’ve grabbed hold to the promises God has made me but halfway through the journey I let the logic of what I think I know and people have told me talk me out of who God has proven Himself to be and I begin to sink.  Matthew 14:22-33 I am pessimistic to my core. It’s an oxymoron to how I should be as a believer but I’ve been taught to view the glass as perpetually half empty. This can keep you expectations tempered but also strangle the life out of your dreams. Mind you I’m a dreamer. I know, it’s like how can that be? Because I know in my heart that God performs miracles everyday. I just often don’t believe they will come true for me. So I dream. When in my darkest nights I dream about the house God told me I’d have. Like Peter it energizes me and then I take the step out of the boat. I ride that high. Taking steps toward it. But then something happens that takes my eyes off of Christ (the wind) and I begin to sink. It can be crippling. ...

Have you ever just sat and observed people? I've been a very cautious person since I was a little girl. In my cautiousness I have learned to study people. I have often struggles when people put me on the spot because it takes me time to process things in order to come to the best answer or solution. God does this too. He observes us. He learns us. He knows us. And He doesn't act until we are ready because He knows the best path for our lives. We often get angry at God for not answering our prayers when we want Him to. Its not until God gives us His best that we realize that what we requested pales in comparison to what God's plan is. In this season of my life I have learned great humility and great strength. I never knew I was strong until I got evicted from my apartment at 6 months pregnant and decided to live and fight instead of lay down and give up. It was in this season that I had to evaluate my relationship with God. If I hadn't been forced to ...

The one disservice that I think many churches give to their young people is we don't teach them to trust God. That seems counter intuitive because churches preach about God's faithfulness all the time. We sing about it in songs. But we always add conditions to His faithfulness to us. Only if we work hard. Only if we are living right and paying our bills and not making any mistakes. Then we go out and work jobs that run us into the ground. We are scared about bosses and others taking our job. We worry about bills and lights to the point of lashing out at loved ones. We even worry ourselves sick or to death. If we are doing all of this what would we need God for? If we are driving the ship what do we need the captain for? And so We effectively work Him out of our life and then get mad at Him when our life veers off course. Thats not trusting God. Churches today teach young people to chase wealth. We teach that when we mess up we aren't redeemable and are castaways. We t...

It was a rough night for me last night. I hold a lot of things in because I don't trust many people with my heart. So when I do and then it is stomped on something rises in my that makes me lash out. Then when its all over I'm broken. But last night, as I sang my son to sleep I sang the song I love you Lord. And as the song soothed him it soothed me too. The one thing I never did before after being heartbroken was sing. Music is very spiritual for me. God speaks to me in and through music in a way that no one else can. Even after my son was asleep I kept on singing and my anger subsided and I just heard God tell me He loves me in spite of what other people say or try to label you as or do to you. I love you and I see you. You are important and special to me. Normally it would have taken me hours to go to sleep on a night like last night but it only took 20 mins. I woke up today, in a good place. Not because last night doesn't still hurt or that the words don't sti...

If the reports of Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast are true, which knowing him I believe them to be, I issue a stiff warning to my brothers and sisters in Christ. Galatians 6:7-8 says, Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. To sit by and watch a man - who has shown no care or reverence for God, who clearly serves mammon (money) and has no concept of love your neighbor as yourself - on a national stage ask for prayer for the ratings of a TV show, God will deal most harshly with you. He is, each and everyday making a mockery of who God is.  If I didn't know who Christ is and Trump was my introduction I would run far away from Christ because I...

For a while I let fear of this new president grip me. I worried about the impact this would have on my life and what it meant for the safety of my husband, son, brother, father, and friends. But then I remembered 2 things. One : My ancestors have been through worse. We survived slavery, Jim Crow, Institutional racism to be a thriving and vibrant community. Closer to home, I just think of my own personal history. My mother was a new immigrant escorted to school by police during integration. She was an activist. She survived racism and discrimination. So, if she can survive all of that I have that strength within me too. So I need to put my big girl panties and keep moving forward. Knowing your history is so important. Two : GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE! I don't care who Trump and the others think they are but they ain't greater than God. We have to be careful who we give power to over our lives. He may be president but he is not the author of my destiny. He didn't create...