William’s Walk

Hello everyone,  Like I said yesterday, I started my study on the first book of Samuel earlier this week. Up to this morning I have read through chapter 11. There were many things I could write about but I don’t feel I should be writing just for the sake writing yet another email or blog. So after some thoughtful prayer I feel like the message that God wants me to convey this week is the upholding of faith during what may seem to be very saddening situations and the sacrifices that need to be taken in order for His will to be done. I will attempt to explain the first chapter of this book and highlight some important aspects of it.  

Hannah was a wife of Elkanah of which whom had two wives. Hannah was loved very much by him but was unable to produce children for him. The story goes on to say that year after year she would go to worship the Lord, and she would be ridiculed by the other wife for not being able to have children. She was deeply saddened and at times would not even be able to eat due to the severity of her depression. But even after all the torment she would continue to worship and pray to the Lord.  

While praying to the Lord she made a vow that if the Lord would remember her and give her a child she would in turn give the child back to the Lord for all of his days. She was witnessed by Eli “the priest” looking deeply depressed and appearing to be drunk so he questioned her on her state of being. She replied in sadness but also with respect for she new Eli was a man of God. After explaining her situation he told her to go along in peace and that God would grant her request. Over a short period of time the Lord did grant her request and she did become pregnant. And in turn, after the baby was weaned, Hannah did just as she promised and turned her son Samuel over to the Lord.  

There is more I can go into but I will stop here in order to make my point. We learn here that she went years pleading with God for her prayers to be answered. Not by her timeline but rather by the timeline of God. Her passion and honesty with the Lord and her perseverance paid off. And God did use her son for the work of His people. How easy would it have been for her to just give up and blaspheme God for ignoring her? How easy could it have been for her to keep her son after his birth and not keep her promise to the Lord?  

Do you have enough patience to wait until the time is right for God to answer your prayers? Do you know that just because we pray it may not happen like we are praying for it to happen and that we may be shown another way, God’s way? Do you fully understand that God is working in your life and if you can wait and be fully committed to the Lord, His will most certainly be done in your life? Too often I think we like to take the easy road, and pray for something a few times and if we don’t get immediate results give up. We then say it must not be the will of God or even worse say that He is not listening to us. Just by this passage alone you can see that God was listening was working on answering her prayers and ultimately did. What are we willing to sacrifice for the Lord in order for our prayers to be answered? She gave up her son. What will you give up in order to walk with the Lord? I am sure she was no different that you or I. We just have to be steadfast in our devotion to the Lord and must seek Him in prayer and in worship daily. Give all your situations and decisions to Him and trust that you are not alone in dealing with them. Talk to God about everything and He will be with you, just give Him time. Remember, that is His will we should be seeking not ours. 

Continue faithfully on your walk with God. Remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us. God just may call on you to give up something in order to complete his plan for you. Listen carefully to what He is telling you.  

Thank you all again for taking the time to read this, I will be in touch in the next few days.  

William

http://thechristianwalk.wordpress.com

1 Corinthians 10:13 (New International Version)

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Hello all,

Last night I started a new study. I have never read too much into the book of Samuel so I thought that would be a good place for me to begin my studies over the next week or so. I don’t have too much to say on this book as of yet, but I am sure with Gods help I will learn a lot from it during this time. Today’s message, in my devotional book, has lead me to further study the meaning of this passage above. I was surprised by the amount of commentary available on this one verse.

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” What I think this means is that nothing you will be tempted by is solely for you to deal with. If it is of this world it is a temptation common to all man. There will be differences in circumstances yes but all in all it is a temptation that is not designed only for you to fight. God also tells us that He will not let us be tempted by anything that we can not bear. That to me is a very comforting thought, to know that God is with us and He has told us that He will help us handle anything that comes are way. If God has told us this then how come we find it so hard to deal with things sometimes? Why do we to often take the easy way out? If we can believe and have faith in God and in what He has said to be true, then there will be nothing that we can’t handle with His help. I think that is where I have gone wrong in the past and the present. Too often I say to myself, “here we go again, more trials and tribulations to deal with”. I had this kind of attitude because I found myself not seeking help from the Lord. If I know he will deliver me from the temptation then why don’t I seek for His will to be done and not my own? The passage also reads that He will always give us a way out. So He really means we are not alone in these battles! How wonderful is that to know that He will not turn His back on us. There is a path for us to take, which has been provided by the hand of God, we just have to find it. And we don’t even have to find it alone. We have this battle in front of us and we know that there is a right way out of the battle. The right way is not to pretend it doesn’t exist and it will go away because, my friend, it will not. We have to force ourselves to deal with it head on. God wants to see how we can handle these situations, and God is forever faithful in that He will help us to be able to find the right path.

So today I will leave you all with this. No matter what you are going through, no matter how hard it may seem, no matter how sad you maybe, or how upsetting the possible outcome could be please be assured that all of God’s word is true. You will be able to stand up under the weight that has been put on your heart and shoulders. All we have to do to face it head on, and seek the path the God has laid out for us. Talk to Him often today and ask Him for His guidance.You will be glad you did and I’m sure that our Lord will be even happier that you have called on Him.

William

http://thechristianwalk.wordpress.com

Good morning all,

I want to first thank all of you who have taken the time to read my emails or have visited my blog http://thechristianwalk.wordpress.com . It’s a blessing to see how many people have visited the site and signed up to receive my writings. I will start today out by saying that for those of you who know me well I’m sure you can see that something in me has changed.  Many of you have seen me through my ups and downs and we can all agree that it has been quite the roller coaster ride. Some of you understand perfectly what I am doing in writing these emails. Some of you who don’t know me well have to be wondering why in the world is this guy sending out these emails and why are they being sent to me? And there are those of you who are still probably sitting there with your mouth hung open wondering is this the same Willie that I have known? I will explain and answer some of those questions in my email today.

For those of you that I know personally, I want you to know that I love you with all my heart and would do anything to help you to the best of my ability. Many of you have been there for me when I was at my lowest and I could never begin to thank you sufficiently. You all may not even know how you have touched my life but I promise you that if your name is plugged into the address line above you most definitely have. I feel as if our paths have crossed for a reason.

I feel that through Jesus Christ I have found a peace and a hope that one human can not give to another. I have personal accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my Lord and Savior and I hope and pray that you all have or will do the same one day. I am not perfect and still have many struggles to deal with but know now that I have help from our Creator. Like I have said before I feel as if I must, even if in just a small way, spread the Word of the Lord.

Another reason for these emails is to keep myself in check. If I put my spiritual self out there for all to see it will help me strive to stay on the right path with God. The other night I was at a Christian concert and one of the songs was titled, “From the altar to the door”. I got to thinking what that means. In the past I have had moments at the altar that could move mountains, but a few days later it was gone. I’d run back to being the old Willie just as fast as I could because it was what I knew and was comfortable with. But what I am doing now, with Gods help, is take what I get from the altar to my everyday life. I have thought that witnessing on a daily basis is kind of risky, what are people going to say? Will I be shunned by people I know for taking what seems like a hundred and eight degree turn in my life? This change in me came about very easy, however, it is keeping the change that proves to be rather difficult. Almost 30 years of living how I wanted to live isn’t something that is easily changed overnight. But I have made a promise to God to continue to work on myself daily and He made a promise to me that He will keep as long as I keep Him as my Lord and Savior.  With that being said, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t listen to what God is telling me? What kind of man would I be if I sat silent and didn’t tell people I care about of this remarkable change in me. Not a very good one. I have to share this because I have been called to do so. We are all called on by the Lord but do we listen?

To those of you that have replied with your support it means a great deal to me to know that I have it. The dialogue that I am starting to have is some of the best form of fellowship I could ask for and I thank you immensely for it.  If you have never met me, and are reading these messages, I would venture to guess that it is coming from someone who cares for you and wants you to see what can happen to a man if he embraces the Will of God. I want someone out there who may be just like me to know that they are not alone. I know the fear you may have of losing friends. I know how hard it is to step away from things in your life that have become such a part of you that you feel like you just can’t live without it. But I am living proof that it can be done. Jesus said, “I’m standing at the door and I’m knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in” (Revelation 3:20).

Law Four: We must individually accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our life.

He is knocking. Will you answer? Pray this prayer, or something similar. It doesn’t have to be scripted; it must only be honest and come from the heart.

“Jesus, I want to know you. I want you to come into my life. I’m sorry for the things I’ve done that have broken my relationship with God. Thank you for dying on the cross so that this relationship could be made right. I believe You are the only One who can do this. Only You can give me the power to change and become the person You created me to be. Thank you for forgiving my past mistakes and for giving me eternal life with God. I give my life to You. Please do with it as You wish. Amen.”  

In closing I will ask that if you want to forward this on to the ones you love. 

Good morning all,

I hope each and every one of you had a glorious Easter weekend. I pray that the multitude of people whom chose this weekend as one of the two Sundays a year that they went to church were moved by the Spirit to see the importance in finding a home church and begin walking with God on a regular basis. I know God is working very hard in all of us, but yet still our free will continues to get in our way. I was talking to a guy I know, a couple weeks ago, and he told me, “I will get more involved in church and stuff when I’m older”. There are many people who have this mentality and think that they have all the time in the world before they need to get right with God. I know we all want to live forever and many of us think that there is no way that our lives will be cut short. The truth of the matter is that nothing worldly is guaranteed. One thing that is true is Law number three.            

Law Three: Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our life. Let’s say that there is a guy that lives another 20 years without God and decided to accept Jesus the day before he dies. That would be wonderful, right? But how much more wonderful would it have been if for him to have lived out what God had planned for him for that 20 years? How wonderful would it be if we all were seeking and growing our relationship with Jesus on a daily basis? John 14:6 says, “No one can come to the Father except through me”. We find ourselves believing in God and knowing what we must do to find him but we as people try to ignore his truths. Your employer, mother, father, and even your pastor can not save you. As much as they may want to they can not. You can only be saved through the sacrifice that Jesus endured for you. The point that I am trying to get across is that we don’t know when we will die or when Jesus will return for us so we must be prepared now.We don’t need to play a guessing game on our life line. What we need to do is to the follow words from Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish” (John 11:25-26). If you have not already I will ask that you say this prayer with me and let’s take a huge step towards a happy fulfilling life.

“Jesus, I want to know you. I want you to come into my life. I’m sorry for the things I’ve done that have broken my relationship with God. Thank you for dying on the cross so that this relationship could be made right. I believe you are the only One who can do this. Only You can give me the power to change and become the person You created me to be. Thank you for forgiving my past mistakes and for giving me eternal life with God. I give my life to You. Please do with it as You wish. Amen.”

Thank you for taking the time to read my writings today, I hope someone will find it helpful.

http://thechristianwalk.wordpress.com 

Spiritual Law 2 

Good Morning all,  I hope all of you have a great East weekend but do not forget what this holiday is about. Without this Easter we would all still be lost and not be able to have a personal relationship with God. This is something the we all must have. I would hope it would be something we would all want. 

Law Two: All of us are sinful and separated from God. Therefore we cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for our life.I know most of us are “good people” but being a good person does not make one right with God. Because of the fall of man we are not even close to worthy to be close to God. This is not what God wanted. However, we were given a free will, a soul, and a spirit that is stubborn, selfish and rebellious. With that being said the rift between us and God grew. Our free will made it impossible for us to bridge the gap between us and God alone. It doesn’t matter how nice we are, how many good things we do, or the kinds of things we own. It doesn’t even matter how many times a week you are inside a church. As we spoke yesterday, Jesus was sent here to live the purest of lives and then give up His life for us. He was the bridge that man needed to be able to be close to God.  

Jesus, so long ago, gave Himself at the cross for you and me. This isn’t a myth or a story it happened just as the Bible tells you it did. I urge you to study your bible long and hard over the course of the next few days. Remember to praise Jesus for his pain and suffering. He did that of his own accord which the following verses will explain. 

John 10: 17-18 17”The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.” 18”No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”No one took Jesus’ life; He simply gave it to them. He did that for you and for me because the only punishment for sin is death. He died so that we would have everlasting life with the Father. With His life, death, and resurrection, if we can accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, we can be saved and forgiven for our sins. 

Jesus heard the call of His father and followed it without question. If we would just open our hearts and our minds and follow God, as He has commanded us to do, we will be able to begin to grow and have a relationship with our Lord. Be fearful of the consequences if you ignore the call. For the punishment is death and eternal separation form God. That isn’t anything I want for any of us.  

We all know that tomorrow is not a guarantee, get yourself right with the Lord today. You and I both will be glad you did. I call on you to pray the following prayer with me today, and let your relationship with God begin to grow. God loves you and wants you, but the choice is up to you to make. The choice is simple, life or death? I will choose life. Please pray with me. Dear Father,

I now believe that Jesus Christ is Your only begotten Son, that He came to our earth in the flesh and died on the cross to take away all of my sins and the sins of this world. I believe that Jesus Christ then rose from the dead on the third day to give all of us eternal life.

Lord Jesus,

I now confess to You, all of the wrong and sinful things that I have ever done in my life. I ask that You please forgive me and wash away all of my sins by the blood that You have personally shed for me on the cross. I am now ready to accept You as my personal Lord and Savior. I now ask that You come into my life and live with me for all of eternity. Father, Jesus - I now believe that I am truly saved and born again.

God is performing miracles as we speak, I know someone who reads this will be changed for the rest of their life. Please share this with someone today.

 If you would like to please visit my website to view this email and past ones http://thechristianwalk.wordpress.com     

Have a Wonderful Good Friday and Easter weekend!William

Hello again,

Over the course of the next few days I am going to be trying to discuss what is known as the four spiritual laws. The power to change one’s self lies within one area. A strong personal relationship with God is what one needs to be truly happy and saved. You may not even think you are lost but let me tell you I went 28 years with out having a personal relationship with Him and I was so far lost that I am still amazed that God took the time to find me.

The Four Spiritual LawsLaw One: God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
God created you. Not only that, He loves you so much that he wants you to spend eternity with Him. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).Jesus came so that each of us could know and understand God in a personal way. Jesus alone can bring meaning and purpose to life. We were created in the image of God, but we did suffer a fall from grace. In order for us to find our place with God we must learn to accept, love and follow Jesus Christ in our daily lives. The first thing we must do is to have faith that God loves us and wants us to have a wonderful life. He created us, why would he not want the best for us? He does, it is that simple. If you have children or know someone that does you see a portion of this love. Why create someone only to see them fail, God did not do that. The punishment for our sin is death, that’s plain and simple. But God gave us an out, because he wants to spend eternity with us. God wants you to be blessed in your time on earth but we have to seek and follow him in order to find purpose in our lives. We feel like our lives are in our hands but they are not. Know that you control nothing; everything you have and will have is because God wills it for you. There will be times when we all will struggle but that my friend is also part of the plan. Without any life experiences how boring of a life would this be. Our walk with God has to be daily. It can not be something that we pick and choose to do when things are going well. I pray that we all will continue to seek God and the path that He has in store for us. You must believe and have faith in what is written in the scripture above. Even more importantly put all of your faith in the Lord and He will bestow blessings upon you that you will not even begin to comprehend. I will end this message and ask that if you are ready to listen to what God is saying to you then please pray this prayer today. If you would like for someone to pray with you then that can be arranged, just let me know. By praying the prayer below you will be taking a huge step and will be forever changed for it.

“Jesus, I want to know you. I want you to come into my life. I’m sorry for the things I’ve done that have broken my relationship with God. Thank you for dying on the cross so that this relationship could be made right. I believe You are the only One who can do this. Only You can give me the power to change and become the person You created me to be. Thank you for forgiving my past mistakes and for giving me eternal life with God. I give my life to You. Please do with it as You wish. Amen.”

I will write about the other 3 spiritual laws in the next few days. God is telling me that people will be reached by this so I ask you all to please send this one to someone you know that needs a relationship with God. If you have any questions about anything please contact me. I don’t have all the answers but I would love to find them together.  

William

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Proverbs 12:18 (New International Version)

18 “Reckless words pierce like a sword,
       But the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Hello All,

How often in our paths do we cross people whom just seem to rub us the wrong way? We lose out temper and say something that we will regret shortly after. Regret and remorse is one thing but the words can never be taking away. As we are dealing with people in our witnessing and trying to bring them to God we need to be careful in our daily actions. If you are witnessed by others acting out in anger and using harsh words and then the next moment telling them about Gods love and compassion they may think you are a hypocrite. To often many people will tell you they don’t go to church because of the hypocrisy of the church members. They don’t understand how can one be in so love with the Lord but are so hurtful to there fellow man. It is not for us to judge others. We are called on to teach and spread the word with calmness and respect. Your actions today can turn someone away from God tomorrow. We all pass the person in traffic with the cross hanging from the mirror that are giving others the middle finger. Pray for those people because they haven’t found the peace that God will give to the ones who call on Him. Nothing in this world is so bad that we have the right to turn our back on Jesus’ teachings. When you feel the slip of the tongue, within the verse above is called the sword, stop yourself! Pray for strength! And instead of using a harsh word pick up your Bible and tell someone the path to salvation is through Jesus. If we focus on walking and talking like we do on Sunday during the other six days of the week, I promise that we can start to change other peoples outlook on God, Jesus and the church. Please do not be lukewarm in your walk. For Revelation 3:16 says “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Our-lives have been perfectly laid out for us in his word. Do not live for yourself, live for God and as close to God as we humanly can.Thank you again for taking the time to read this, and please pass this along to someone it may help. Peace be with you.

William

Hello All,            

            I hope you all have an extrodianrly wonderful weekend. I am going to try and expand on the church service last night in todays email. I have spoken before on the trials that we all go though in our lives. Last night, the way that topic was preached and they way I heard it was very powerful. One of the main topics was to not worry about what you don’t have or what may have been taken away but rather to rejoice in what you have left. God has a plan and a purpose for each of us. Just because we don’t seem to understand why we have lost a loved one, or why the economy seems so bleak doesnt mean that we are anyworse for wear. We find it so very easy to praise God and thank Him when things are going our way, but when we have a loss of something we try very hard to get i t back . Listen to what I am saying, I heard it load and clear last night. God is talking to us all, in these very difficult times He is not only talking to us he is yelling at us in our hearts and minds. He will give you everything you need to proceed with His work but you strong enough to listen? Do you even want to listen? I would hope so. Can we let go of our worldly ways in order to understand why we are here? I call on each of us to let go of what we have lost. And will even go as far to say stop chasing what you think you need unless you feel in you heart that God has told you to seek it. Gods word tells us that we do not need it unless he provides it for us. (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV) “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”We must be continuously seeking Gods path for us. It may not seem clear to us but no matter what may happen to you, Praise God for it. The enemy’ especially in this week will test you and tempt you. The enemy wants you to believe that what you don’t have you needed and that God doesn’t care for you and has taken it away. This is a most glorious week, without this week so many years ago, we would still be lost. Some of us still are but we don’t have to be. The enemy doesnt want for you to give any Glory to God for what God has given us. Rebuke the Enemy in Jesus’ name. Glorify and worship Him during your day. Pray many times today and throughout out the week. I urge us all to be clear in our thoughts, be thankful and give all the glory to God. Psalms 121:1-2 NKJV) “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; From whence comes my help? {2} My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” This morning I received some messages wishing me a happy St. Patrick’s Day. This generally is a day that people celebrate by partying and drinking. But do you really want to be three sheets to the wind on the day Jesus returns? That day is drawing near so you must live like it could be today. Instead of partying today try reading your bibles and praying to the Lord. Jesus gave himself up for you and I. Shouldn’t we do everything we can to praise him, especially this week? Of course we should!I know this email will reach someone who will change their lives today and I know someone will be affected for the better. We have no power but the power from God. Through him you can bless many and save lives today. Will we do what it takes to make a difference in someones life? We are all sinners and we always will be. We can not change that. But we can strive to seek God daily and thank Him for loving us so much as we have read in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I know that it is a very commonly known verse but just realize how strong a verse it is. We find it hard to give a dollar to the man on the street but God gave his only Son to us so we could be saved. The path is laid out pretty simple. Please walk the path with me. What will you give up to try and save someone this week? Just a kind word and a few moments of time to try and explain why you love God so much could help open someone’s eyes. We all have loved ones who need God. And I’m also sure we all have someone we don’t like or who doesn’t like us. No matter whom you know that is lost please just reach out to someone this week. If you are a Christian and want to serve God, then spread His word especially during this Easter season. You will be blessed for it. If you are reading this and you feel you need to be reached out to, let me know. Please don’t wait until tomorrow for today could be the day of His coming. William