Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the Word

2010-05-17T16:09:00.001-07:00

Community...

“Community is important because God does not want faith to be expressed only in an interior way within the hearts of individual disciples. Human experience itself is social, and faith needs to assume corporate form…The Spirit has a vested interest in the church, where men and women confess Jesus Christ and are open to participation in the divine life…Community is also central to the purposes of God because it allows the relationality of triune life to be reflected in the created order. This mirroring back gives delight to God and at the same time supplies fulfillment to our own lives as semi transcendent and relational beings. Made in God’s image, as differentiated creatures, as male and female, we too delight in community. Stanley Grenz writes, ‘God intends to bring to pass a reconciled creation in which humans reflect in their relationship to each other and the universe around us the reality of the triune God. God’s actions are aimed at establishing the reconciled community of love as the human reflection of the social trinity-the divine nature-which is love’ [(Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994), p.636.]

The Spirit is central for ecclesiology because he is the source of fellowship among humans in history and the bond of love between Father and Son in eternity. Fellowship on earth corresponds in a measure to fellowship in heaven. The Trinity is an open, inviting fellowship, and the Spirit wants the church to be the same, responsive in the same sort of way. God wants to hear from us an echo of the dynamic relations within his own life, anticipating the coming of the kingdom. The church is meant to resemble the triune life by being itself a place of reciprocity and self-giving. The fellowship that we have with one another is related ultimately to our fellowship with Father and Son (1 Jn 1:3). Fellowship refers both to divine life and to community life, because the community is meant to reflect the communion of the Trinity, which is the ontological basis of the church” (Pinnock, Flame of Love- A Theology of the Holy Spirit, pg 116-117).

Is the Apostle Paul a Chauvinist?

2010-03-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Book Review by Marilyn Williams
The Problem with Paul, by Brian J. Dodd

Brian J. Dodd begins his text, The Problem with Paul, with a quick lesson on hermeneutics. Dodd begins by previewing a paradox he will explore throughout his book. “For nearly two thousand years Paul has been a pillar of the Christian tradition, yet now he is a problem for many readers,” most specifically in the areas concerning women singlehood, sex and slavery (Dodd 11). Dodd, while suggesting a virtual dialogue with Paul rather than a defense of Paul, proposes that good hermeneutical principles can solve this modern, yet false paradox.

Dodd begins by explaining the common hermeneutical error most readers make when attempting to interpret Paul for their own situation. He explains this common approach begins the reader and focuses directly on Paul. Even with the recognition of the Holy Spirit enabling the modern reader with insight into Paul’s theology, Dodd explains the fallacy of this approach is that it is one-sided. If the reader merely interprets Paul from his or her own view, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, the reader is only getting half of a conversation from which Paul is responding. Dodd explains the danger in this one-sided interpretation is because “Paul did not write with you and me in mind, nor did he realize he was writing chapters of the Bible” (Dodd 13).

In order to better understand the conversation Paul was engaging in when he wrote his letters, one must begin interpretation through Paul’s response with his “Original readers” (Dodd 13). Unfortunately, we do not have the full spectrum of this ancient literary conversation, but by simply acknowledging this fact we can begin to dispel some of the modern misinterpretations of Paul. Further, Dodd explains we can begin to piece some of this lost conversation by adding another framework from which to interpret Paul: “Other readers” (Dodd 14). These other readers “are, at a minimum, scholars who read Hebrew or Greek, and who have translated the Bible into our language” (Dodd 14). This is helpful because translators generally see their craft as something to be continually refined and updated. In this way, when one includes “other readers” of Paul, most especially other scholars of Pauline Theology, a wealth of contextual and linguistic insight can aid in the proper interpretation of Paul’s letters. With this formula, Dodd proposes today’s modern reader to embark on the journey of interpreting Pauline theology as: “Me – Other Readers—Paul—Original Readers” (Dodd 9). Thus, Paul must be interpreted from his own ancient era, through today’s advanced understanding of Paul’s world, instead of from our modern 21st century and individualistic context.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, this formula proposes five significant groups to interact with in order to more fully and even accurately interpret Paul. While Dodd’s formula contains key players, one might also propose a different order with the same players involved. Instead of adding the Holy Spirit in as a last minute comment, it may be significant to work with the Holy Spirit before conferring to “other readers.” Perhaps a different order could be considered: Me – Holy Spirit—Paul—Original Readers—and Other Readers. In this way, a modern reader can enjoy both the benefit of modern day scholarship while also enjoying intimate interaction with the Lord as one reads the Word of God. All of the key elements are still in place, but the exercising of one’s spiritual ears develop as one dialogues with the Lord while engaging in Paul’s conversation with his original readers. It is to be expected that modern untrained minds will miss much in the beginning of this venture; but over time, the modern reader may become an increasingly refined vessel for the Lord to speak to and through. Not only would this order aid the believer in learning to hear the voice of the Lord as he or she reads the Word, but the believer will also benefit from an intimacy with God as he or she reads the Word which cannot be replaced, only enhanced, by technical analysis.

In addition to a new formula by which to interpret Paul, Dodd also proposes people who have a problem with the Apostle Paul’s theology are interpreting Paul from their own side of a bridge. Dodd uses the analogy of crossing over a bridge in order to fully understand and appreciate Paul’s theology. The one side of the bridge represents our modern world and the other side represents Paul’s first-century world. Before one jumps to unfair judgments regarding Paul as a person, theologian and Apostle, it is necessary to first cross over to Paul’s cultural context. While in Paul’s world, the modern reader must resist the temptation to judge Paul according to our 21st century culture and perspectives. Paul lived in a very different world. Therefore, the modern reader must not only visit Paul’s world, but sift through Paul’s cultural context to find the timeless principle which can then be brought back over to our 21st century.

For instance, even though many modern readers accuse Paul as being a male chauvinist, Dodd explains that Paul would have been referred to what we might call today a “Feminist” in his own day. To interpret Paul according to our cultural advancements in the perspective and treatment of women in our day is unfair and inaccurate. Paul lived in a day and age when women were silent, rarely allowed to speak for themselves and almost never spoken for in a positive light. In
this cultural context, Dodd points out in chapter two that Paul actually esteems women above their immediate context by praising women ministry partners, teaching mutual submission, and proclaiming both men and women as children of God who are equally gifted and sent out for the work of the Gospel (Galatians 3:28; 1 Cor. 11:4-5 & Romans 16:1-5).

Noting the trouble passages of I Corinthians 14 and I Timothy 2 where Paul is most often accused of arrogance and chauvinism, Dodd points out that in comparison to Paul’s wealth of positive and supportive notations regarding women in ministry work, these troubling passages can logically be isolated from the rest of Paul’s theology as culturally relevant to their specific situations. Their incongruence with the majority of Paul’s statements about women lends to a specific cultural context rather than a theological timeless principle. In this way, Dodd encourages the modern reader to take in all of Paul’s letters before judging Paul’s apparent theology, instead of passage by passage.

By interpreting Paul’s theology regarding women through the lense of Paul’s whole theology, as well as the cultural contexts he was addressing, Dodd proposes a timeless principle for us to take away from such troubling passages. We must recognize that Paul had one goal in mind; and it was not to change the cultural and political climate for women. Paul’s tunnel vision was to proclaim and defend the Gospel of grace. Contrary to both Greek culture and Hebrew Law, God’s grace could only be found through faith in Jesus Christ, making otherwise sinners righteous before a Holy God. The Gospel of Grace was indeed a radical message for Paul’s time. It proclaimed a freedom for the human soul which was unprecedented. No longer did humanity have to search for approval from God through sacrifice, rituals, appeasing mystical gods or even obeying God’s revealed Law. Instead, male or female, slave or free, a human being could now find acceptance from God through confession of one’s sin and faith in Jesus Christ, God incarnate.

Based upon 1 Cor. 9:19-23, Dodd proposes Paul’s intent for such troubling passages, “He wanted not-yet Christians to receive his God-given message about liberation through Christ without needlessly offending the sensibilities of those in the surrounding community and thus hindering their way to Christ” ( Dodd 34). Thus, Dodd suggests it can be accurately understood that Paul was not pro-silence or one-sided submission of women. Paul was clearly protecting this Gospel of Grace from any misunderstandings and abuse. The freedom this gospel brings to both male and female must be understood to be an edifying and selfless freedom, not offensive and self-serving. Perhaps Paul was dealing with the flagrant abuse of this freedom in the Corinthian Church and therefore he had to reign in the Corinthians in order to protect its testimony?

If the testimony of the Gospel of Grace is Paul’s motive, then one might also be able to bring this timeless principle back to our 21st century through the exact opposite cultural application. If we learn from Paul to protect the witness of the Gospel of Grace, so as not to misrepresent nor to offend anyone away from it, then in our modern 21st century, where women’s rights have risen in the west to an almost equal status with men, would it be just as responsible for us to go out of our way to ensure women’s equality in church as well as in marriage? Dodd’s interpretive conclusions of Paul would then logically follow such modern day applications; which of course would be just as radical in some of our churches today as Paul was in his time.

Dodd not only deals with Paul’s troubling passages concerning women, but also Paul’s modern day controversial issues such as sex, single hood and Paul’s seemingly aghast approval of slavery. Dodd proposes the issues of sex single-hood and slavery can also be properly understood when one crosses over the interpretive bridge before making a claim on this side of one’s 21st century cultural context. Dodd’s careful journey into the 1st century regarding these issues is just as thought provoking as Dodd’s journey into the troubling passages concerning women. While Dodd’s exegesis and logically driven hermeneutics are extremely helpful, they are a bit redundant. Reading through the book with such detail attended to each controversial issue is helpful, but tedious and perhaps tiresome when trying to read the book as a whole. Once one has caught the hermeneutical formula to correctly interpret and evaluate Pauline theology, it would seem Dodd’s book is best served as a reference book.

In the closing chapters, Dodd expands his interpretation of Pauline theology by acknowledging Paul was not perfect. For some modern day readers, this is problematic. But this would not be news to Paul; he was the first to affirm his imperfections and thereby affirm the very Gospel of Grace he proclaimed to others (2 Cor. 4:7 & 12:7-8). Paul rejoices in his own imperfections because it affirms God’s power amidst such jars of clay. In this way, even if today’s modern day reader is troubled by Paul’s imperfections of outbursts of anger, sarcasm and seemingly egocentric behavior, Dodd explains, “Paul’s weaknesses qualify, rather than disqualify, him as God’s messenger” ( Dodd 155). Just as Paul’s imperfections testify to the redemptive and transforming power of this Gospel of Grace, we must therefore read Pauline theology within the framework of God’s revelation of Grace through His Son Jesus Christ. Every other issue and problem, ancient or modern, stands in the shadows. In this light, as Dodd defends, “Paul is not always a problem” (158).

Works Cited

Dodd, Brian, J. The Problem with Paul. Downers Grove: IVP, 1996.

The Many Faces of Marilyn, by CBN, March 5, 2010

2010-03-06T14:26:00.001-08:00

“I remember being surrounded in a hallway by a lot of men. Then I don’t remember much else after that. I remember being given something to drink. It was sweet. I’m assuming it may have been some alcohol sweetened up with Kool-Aid. I was probably three.”
At that tender age, Marilyn Williams didn’t know it was wrong, but she knew how she felt.
“I can’t remember everything,” Marilyn tells The 700 Club, “but the feelings I have when I remember that are terror.”
The group stopped molesting her when she was still quite young, but Marilyn’s father continued to sexually abuse her for years.
“I remember wearing many pajamas to bed, layers and layers and layers, trying to do what I could to keep it from happening. As a young child, I think I have some snapshots of me sleeping in corners of rooms thinking that maybe the bed just wasn’t safe. If I slept on the floor in a corner, that would be better.”
When Marilyn was a teenager, the abuse increased.
“I remember coming home from school pretty much every day in junior high, and knowing that my father was waiting for me, lying there, usually naked on the bed or on a couch. He was usually drunk by the time I was home.”
Marilyn finally confided in a favorite teacher.
“[I thought] that she would keep my secret. Of course the next day I came to school, the police were there. My father was arrested that same morning. I’ll never forget just how ashamed I felt to bring this shame upon my family.”
Marilyn was taken to a children’s home for a time, but the reprieve didn’t last long. After some mandatory counseling by the social agency, both father and daughter were returned home.
She recalls, “My dad hadn’t changed at all. So I had to literally fight him off pretty much every day from ages 13 to 18.”
In her own fearful, vague way, Marilyn tried to let her mom know. “She thought my dad had really changed. So I didn’t fully tell her. I may have tried to drop hints, but she thought we were doing well. She thought everything was fine. At this point I knew that if I turned my father in again, he would most likely go to prison, and I would go into the foster care system. I was in high school, and that was my life – the teachers, my schooling, my extra-curricular activities. That was a support system, and so I didn’t want to lose that.”
By her senior year, Marilyn was deeply depressed. Her only hope of escape was going away to college until her dad took care of that dream.
“[He] basically said to me that my college fund was spent on his lawyer. The lawyer that he had to hire to defend himself from my betraying him is the way he saw it and worded it.”
Marilyn had heard about God in church though she didn’t understand much about Him. She decided to pray.
“I said, ‘The first half of my life has been really rough. Do you think You could make the second half better?’ It was about probably a year later that I met my husband, and I knew that God heard that prayer. It was as if He delivered a knight in shining armor, but he was in a Honda Prelude.”
They married, and she was finally free from abuse and truly loved. She’d even been honest with him about her past up to a point.
“I said to him I come from some form of abuse, have some incest in my background from my father, but I said, ‘I want you to know it hasn’t affected me whatsoever. I’m perfectly fine.’”
But of course, she wasn’t fine. Though finally in a healthy home, Marilyn had never had a chance to work through the years of trauma. But help was soon to come in the form of Christian friends from her high school days.
“That was an exciting time, because they began to introduce me to Jesus. I said, ‘Lord, You have been with me all my life and I will commit my heart, my life unto You.’ I just couldn’t stop reading God’s Word. That was a big change in me. The other was, I wanted to worship Him all the time. I couldn’t wait to get to church.”
Within a couple of years, Mike became a Christian too. Marilyn’s life seemed great now, but emotionally, she still had a long way to go.
“Why am I depressed when I have this beautiful home that I never had before? I started struggling with panic attacks and anxiety attacks. I began to experience flashbacks of the abuse that I had stuffed down, way down, from when I was a little girl. It was severe. I would lose the ability to discern past and present.”
Mike remained loving and supportive throughout it all.
“There were some days where he would come home and I might not recognize him. I might feel like I was 4 or 2 or 6 or 7. I was very confused, very disoriented many days. So he would tell me that I was safe here, that nobody was going to hurt me. This house loved Jesus. Jesus was a good God.”
Marilyn went for Christian counseling.
“That’s when I was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. They don’t call it that anymore. They call it dissociative disorder and I was frightened. I didn’t know how my husband would take this. Didn’t know what this meant about my future.”
What it meant was Marilyn suffering for nine years of sporadic flashbacks so severe that she took on other personalities to cope. After many years of hard work, light appeared at the end of the tunnel.
“Finally I got to this point in my healing journey, so to speak, that I was really ready to let it go. You know you’re ready when you really don’t care who did what to you anymore. You just want a life outside of it. One of the first things that He called me to was forgiveness.” First, her mother… “I started feeling this love for my mom that I just didn’t even know that I really had.”
Then the tough one – her dad. “I wrote my father a letter, and there was no response. He’s been in hiding ever since. Nobody really knows where he is. He was never willing and open to face his actions, never interested in reconciliation with me. But I felt a peace because the forgiveness in my heart towards him. Being open to that possibility of letting the Lord lead us through that freed me from that weight of the pain.”
It’s been ten years now that Marilyn has been free of the mental torment of sexual abuse. She and Mike have been married 25 years, have two grown children, and a grandson they adore.
“It’s just a really wonderful life, family and ministry. My mom and I enjoy a wonderful relationship, where I’m so glad that we were both willing to do the hard work of restoration.”
Marilyn earned a college degree after all and now speaks to women’s groups around the world.
“As I travel around the world, I find that women, no matter what culture, are typically exploited, abused, neglected. At the very least, they don’t know their value. It’s an amazing thing. We don’t really understand it, but as we behold the Lord, we become like the Lord. I had to spend a lot of time in the Word and in worship and in prayer. He has the power to heal you, no matter what you’ve been through. The Spirit of the Lord is our only hope for healing. It’s our only hope for sanity. It’s our only hope for a future outside of all this brokenness.”

The Many Faces of Marilyn

2010-03-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

The Many Faces of Marilyn
check out God's amazing power of healing in my life!

Called and Commissioned to Serve

2010-03-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

Commissioning: Repentance and Restoration
Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two wings they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth if full of his glory.”(1-3)

God commissioned Isaiah to be God’s mouthpiece by first revealing to Isaiah a vision of God’s holiness. Isaiah’s response was one of personal repentance. As Isaiah was given a glimpse of the majesty and perfection of the Most Holy God, Isaiah increasingly experienced personal inadequacy as well as remorse for his unclean heart and human condition. Even the seraphs surrounding the temple before this Majestic Lord had to cover their faces as well as their feet. God’s holiness was penetrating to the deepest core of every living creature who trembled before him. But still the seraphs were able to rise above their fears and inadequacies as they humbled themselves before the Lord and began to shout out praises to the Most High God. But Isaiah remained both remorseful and overwhelmed with desperation regarding his unclean condition standing naked in his shame before an upright and Holy God.

Woe to me!” Isaiah cried out, “I am ruined.” For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. (5)

But in all God’s power and perfection, God reached out to Isaiah in mercy and forgiveness through the touch of one of God’s angel.

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said,
“See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. (6-7)

From the altar in God’s temple, cultivating the coals for the great love and price of mercy and forgiveness, Isaiah received a prelude of all that was to come for every human being through the death and resurrection of the Most High God himself, Jesus-the Christ (the Messiah). The instant the angel placed the simmering coal of the great sacrifice which was to come for all mankind in conquering both evil and death, Isaiah was healed from his inadequate condition to see as well as serve the Living and Most High God.

Then I heard a voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? (8)

As much as we cannot fathom this concept, God desires to work out His redemptive plan through His redeemed people. He is looking for those who have both humbled themselves before His Holiness and continue to worship Him above themselves or anything else on earth. Just as the angels covered their faces and feet and yet sang praises to the Most High God, God is searching the earth for a man, woman, and child who will do the same. The result for those who follow this response of humility and worship before a Most High King is the same for them as the angels-they will be lifted above their shame praising the name of the Lord to one another. God is looking for those who are willing to embrace their shame as well as be lifted up out of their shame. There is no way out of guilt, remorse, and shame but through the holiness, love, and mercy of the Most High God, Jesus Christ. Once a person is touched by God’s sacrifice of Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, they are then set free to both worship and serve the Most High King.

And I said, Here am I. Send Me! He said, Go and tell this people…(8-9)

Where Isaiah once could not even see the Holiness of God without crumbling into a desperate heap of filth and shame, after receiving God’s forgiveness Isaiah now cries out to the Lord to be sent out on God’s behalf. Isaiah went from the clearest awareness of his inadequacies to serve the Most High God, to an eager vessel to be used by the most noble of hands and purpose. One touch of God’s forgiveness for all that was still to come to mankind was even enough to move Isaiah out of His shame before the Most High King and into active service unto the King. Isaiah went from an ashamed human being clearly convicted of his guilt before a most High God, to a redeemed human being crying out before the Most High God to be a vessel of God’s power and mercy to others as well.

How often I cry out to the Lord, “Here am I Lord, send me” before I have spent time in repentance and worship. Restoration comes first through the opening of my eyes toward my broken condition before a Most High God, and then through the receiving of God’s gift of forgiveness and healing. I am not only forgiven by the Most High King of all my trespasses of His holiness, I am also healed of my condition, my bent, to continue to trespass against God. It is in both my choice to acknowledge my broken condition before God, as well as His choice to forgive and heal me that I am then restored into the very image I was created to reflect-His glory! Scripture is consistent that God faithfully chooses to forgive and heal those who will acknowledge their sins before Him and who will then submit their worship to no other. If and when I choose to arrogantly serve the Most High King, even with the most noble of purpose and intent, without acknowledging my need to be cleansed and commissioned, I am a blind fool. Jesus healed the blind while on this earth to show us we must be touched by His power and mercy in order to see and serve the Most High God. His commissioning for ministry comes through His restoration, His cleansing and healing, of my broken self. His restoration comes as a faithful promise to my response of repentance and worship unto Him. I cannot go out in His commissioning unless I am first touched and healed personally.

While this healing is both effective and eternal, my human condition requires of me to continually remain in that humbled and worshipful place before the Most High God. God continues to respect my free will to either humbly acknowledge my sin before Him or to deny my condition. This response is a choice of mine which comes primarily from my response to His holiness. When God reveals his glory to me, will I deny him the worship he is worthy of? When God offers me the opportunity to see myself in the full light of his truth, will I bow down in repentance or will I turn away from the truth of my broken and sinful position before Him? God has mercifully revealed His glory to us for the very purpose that we would understand our desperate condition without His touch of forgiveness and healing. We cannot experience His restoration of cleansing and healing without continually remaining open to see ourselves in the full light of His perfection. Until the day comes where we are finally restored perfectly into his image as we were created to be, we will have to continually kneel before His altar of perfection and sacrifice, and cry out as Isaiah did, “Woe to me..” I am not worthy to see or serve the Most High King. In order for God to continually commission us to partake in His redemptive promises for mankind, we must remain open for both repentance as well as restoration before the altar of the Lord God. Isaiah experienced a taste of what was to come as a free gift of cleansing and healing for all mankind. Being on this side of the cross, although we have received even more of what Isaiah tasted, we are still awaiting the full measure of God’s cleansing and healing that has redeemed mankind back to God’s sovereign hands.

Upon receiving God’s gift of forgiveness, cleansing, and healing through his Son Jesus Christ, we are now free to continually go before the altar in the same manner Isaiah did, with humility and worship. Being invited into the throne room, we are now commissioned by God to invite others in as well, but our commissioning always follows our personal humility and worship before the Most High and yet Merciful King. Just as our repentance and worship must be constant, we can also count on his mercies to be continually available to us. “His mercies are new every morning…” ( ). Commissioning today is given exactly in the same light that Isaiah was commissioned to become God’s mouthpiece to God’s people: humility, repentance, worship, and obedient service. As we bow down to the perfection to and sovereignty of the Most High King as both the angels and Isaiah modeled for us, we too will find ourselves lifted out of our shame, able to see and serve the most High King.

Advent Devotions, Week Four, Devo 4

2009-12-24T10:03:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 4
COLOSSIANS 1:12-23

Look and see what Jesus has done! In these verses, Paul declares who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. As we have studied the first and second coming of Christ, we now see the entire mystery put together. These verses testify to Jesus being fully God as the first-born Son, and having everything- including the creation of the world under His authority. Not only is Jesus exactly like God, but it says here that God was happy to live fully inside His Son in order to then become the perfect sacrifice over all sin that
separates us from God. God was pleased for Jesus to make peace between God and us by sacrificing his blood on the cross. And why was God happy to offer Himself as a sacrifice for us through His beloved Son Jesus?

“So that all beings on heaven and on earth would be brought back to God.” (Vs. 20)

I think it would be safe to say that God misses us and is willing to go to extreme lengths to get us back!

How far are you willing to go to be close to God? How far away are you from the One who has sacrificed Himself to get you back? Take a moment to reflect on what you can do to dwell with Him more closely. He has given up everything to dwell with you; perhaps you can give up what is keeping you from being close to Him? God’s presence in our hearts and in our daily lives is the best present we will ever receive!
-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
December 24, 2009
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week Four, Devo 4

2009-12-23T07:39:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 4
COLOSSIANS 1:12-23

Look and see what Jesus has done! In these verses, Paul declares who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. As we have studied the first and second coming of Christ, we now see the entire mystery put together. These verses testify to Jesus being fully God as the first-born Son, and having everything- including the creation of the world under His authority. Not only is Jesus exactly like God, but it says here that God was happy to live fully inside His Son in order to then become the perfect sacrifice over all sin that
separates us from God. God was pleased for Jesus to make peace between God and us by sacrificing his blood on the cross. And why was God happy to offer Himself as a sacrifice for us through His beloved Son Jesus? “So that all beings on heaven and on earth would be brought back to God.” (Vs. 20) I think it would be safe to say that God misses us and is willing to go to extreme lengths to get us back!

How far are you willing to go to be close to God? How far away are you from the One who has sacrificed Himself to get you back? Take a moment to reflect on what you can do to dwell with Him more closely. He has given up everything to dwell with you; perhaps you can give up what is keeping you from being close to Him? God’s presence in our hearts and in our daily lives is the best present we will ever receive!
-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc
Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the Word
December 23, 2009
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week 4, Devo 3

2009-12-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 3
REVELATION 22: 12-21

Jesus is coming again! It is so easy to get distracted with our daily lives and forget what is coming! As we prepare for this Christmas season, let us not only prepare our hearts for Christmas day, but an even greater day, Judgment Day! He came once as a baby, but He will return as a conqueror! A star led His arrival, but the light of His glory will reveal His return! There was no room for Him in the inn, but the world will not be big enough for His coming appearance! Wise Men brought worldly gifts to honor Him, but He will bring heavenly treasures to reward His faithful! He had only a few visitors at His birth; but the entire world will see Him when He returns as “The First and The Last” and “The Beginning and The End!”

-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
December 22, 2009
http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions, Week Four, Devo 2

2009-12-21T08:21:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 2REVELATION 1:17-18
Whom shall we live for? No other, beside Jesus, has the final say in our lives! Jesus holds the key to where we will spend eternity. He has been given all authority and all power over heaven and hell. Why not give Him complete authority over our lives as well? As we surrender our lives to Him with each new day, we will begin to experience this same awesome power over the smallest and the largest of details in our lives. What greater reason to celebrate this Christmas season than the gift of God in our everyday lives through His Son Jesus Christ! -Marilyn Williams
Copyright: Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the WordDecember 21, 09http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions, Week Four Intro and Devo 1

2009-12-20T10:29:00.001-08:00

THE JESUS CANDLE
Reflections of Him…

Once again, be sure to light the three previous candles before you light the fourth candle. Repeat each candle’s name and significance as you light each candle. You are now ready to light the fourth candle of the Advent Season, the Jesus Candle.

WEEK FOUR INTRODUCTION

Depending on what day of the week Christmas falls on each year, your fourth week will bring a different number of days to complete this fourth candle. Some years you will do all seven, other years you may only have a couple of days before Christmas hits. You can simply do the devotions each year affords, or you can continue finishing past Christmas to complete the week. Either way, I hope and pray you are blessed by keeping your focus on Jesus throughout this chaotic, yet holy time of year.

ONE SOLITARY LIFE

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another village.
He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never owned a home.
He never had a family.
He never went to college.
He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born.
He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
While He was still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to the cross between two thieves.

While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth, and that was his coat. When He was dead, He laid in a borrowed grave through the kindness of a friend. Nearly twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is still the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress.

(Anonymous)
DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR WEEK FOUR

DEVOTION 1
REVELATION 1:4-8

Jesus is defined here as the fulfillment of everything that was said about the coming Messiah in the Old Testament; therefore, we can securely and confidently put our hope in this same Jesus to fulfill all of the Bible’s future prophecies and promises. When everything in our life is uncertain, we can turn to the final chapter of God’s plan for mankind: the book of Revelation! When you don’t know what to hope in or who to trust in, look to the One who is Lord over the past the present, and the future! What a gift
He is to us: He is both the giver and the gift!
-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
December 20, 2009
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week Three, Devo 6 & 7

2009-12-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 6
PSALM 145

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have so much to celebrate! There are so many reasons to give praises to our God! Psalm 145 is one big celebration of our Lord!

Verse 1 tells us our God is the King and we will have all of eternity to praise His name!
Verse 3 declares that He is worthy of our praise and no one could ever compare with His greatness!
Verse 5 tells us His works are wonderful and we should meditate on them!
Verse 7& 9 describe that His mighty works will be remembered forever throughout one generation after another!
Verse 8 shows us how gracious, compassionate, and rich in love is our God!
Verse 13 records that His kingdom is everlasting, His reign is over every generation; and, at the same time, He is faithful in His love for His people!
Verses 14-16 express His heart for the humble and the hurting, as well as His hand that provides for and satisfies every living thing!
Verses 17 & 19 declare Him to be a perfect balance between justice and love!
Verse 18 is the most miraculous; yet it tells us that He is near and listening to our cries!
And verse 2 & 21 direct us in how to respond to such a God as ours: PRAISE HIM EVERY DAY, FOR ALL ETERNITY!

DEVOTION 7
PROVERBS 12:20; PROVERBS 15:30

Proverbs 12:20 informs us that by spreading peace, we can increase our joy! Take a moment to think on ways you can spread peace to the little corner of the world God has assigned you. Start first with your attitude toward the people you live with. Are you doing your part to make your home a place of peace, not strife? How about at your work or in your school? Do you see opportunities to reconcile people to one another? Instead of spreading dissension through gossip—envy—or competition, are you spreading peace through integrity—forgiveness—and unconditional love? Look for opportunities to wear Jesus’ shoes of peace in a world of uncertainty and chaos.

Proverbs 15:30 further instructs us on how to bring joy to others. It is truly amazing how far a smile can go in a person’s day! As we wear Jesus’ shoes of peace and as we simply pass on even just a tiny bit of the joy we are given, we will soon discover that the joy of the Lord is an endless supply of strength in our lives and in the lives of those around us!
-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 19, 2009
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions, Week Three, Devo 5

2009-12-17T08:19:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 5
1 PETER 2:9-10

We, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior from the penalty of spiritual death for our sins, are called to show others the same mercies we have received from God. We are not only chosen by God to receive His mercies, but also to declare the praises of Him who has called us out of spiritual darkness and into His glorious light! Take a moment to consider how you can use this Christmas Season as an opportunity to declare His praises to the world around you. Think of who you can invite to your next Advent Devotional time as a fun and natural way to introduce them to God’s mercies that
have changed the course of your life forever!
Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 16, 09
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions, Week Three, Devo 4

2009-12-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 4
1 CHRONICLES 16:23-36; PSALM 150:6

Once again, we see how praising God always results in joy! When we enter into His presence by giving praises to His name, we cannot help but be filled with joy because Chronicles 16:27 tells us that strength and joy are in His dwelling place! Even the heavens and the earth joyfully declare His majesty to all the nations! Everything that lives and everything that breathes cannot help but rejoice in God’s greatness! May we continue to strengthen our faith by never forsaking the praises of our awesome God! Notice the words in “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” This song characterizes the faithful as the ones
who joyfully and triumphantly behold and adore Him.

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem, Come and be-hold Him, born the King of an-gels.
O come let us a-dore Him, O come let us a-dore Him, O come let us a-dore Him,
Christ the Lord.
Sing choirs of an-gels, sing in exultation!
Sing all ye cit-i -zens of heav’n a-bove:
Glory to God, in the highest!
O come let us a-dore Him, O come let us a-dore Him, O come let us a-dore Him,
Christ the Lord.
-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 16, 09
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week Three, Devo 3

2009-12-15T11:14:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 3
LUKE 1:44-45; HEBREWS 12:2; JAMES 1:2

Joy is a trademark of the Christian faith! We-as believers in Christ-may not always enjoy our circumstances or even feel the emotion of happiness; but joy is a gift God has placed deep in our hearts. Joy strengthens and inspires us on our journey from this life to our new life in heaven awaiting us. Jesus even modeled this inner joy during the most challenging time of his ministry here on earth. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy in knowing that He was making a way for
us to join Him in heaven someday! God also instructs us to joyfully accept even the disciplines of God in our life as a sign that God is at work in us to ultimately make us like Him, mature and complete in the Spirit. There is a time and a place for everything; let us hold onto the joy of the Lord as we direct our paths back to Him!
-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 15, 09
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
www.marilynwilliams.com

2009-12-14T10:15:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 2
NEHEMIAH 8:10; ECCLESIASTES 3:4-5: HEBREWS 13:15: PSALM 81:1

The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us, “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecc.3:1). It continues to explain it is good to weep, mourn, and grieve at times. God also instructs us to laugh, dance, and rejoice!

In Nehemiah, we see Ezra reading from the book of the Law of Moses to the Israelites who had just returned to Jerusalem from captivity. These people had suffered a long time of cruelty and had not been allowed the pleasure of worshipping their God. Ezra even had to translate the holy law to the Israelites because they no longer were familiar with their own Hebrew language after being in Babylon for so long. This was a sacred day, but also a day full of emotion. The people were tempted to despair as they began to think about how much they had missed their homeland, their laws, their language and most of all, their God! But Nehemiah told them not to grieve; but to celebrate this sacred day and enjoy the blessings they now had. God knew His people’s sufferings, He knew their weariness, and He knew what they needed the most at this point in their life-joy! Nehemiah explains, “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” What wonderful words for us to live by as well!

In the New Testament, Hebrews 13:15 confirms the calling of joy upon God’s people. God wants us to continually praise Him, even when we must lay down our hurt, our fears, our pain, and our worries as a sacrifice on the altar of our hearts. Instead of dwelling on our brokenness, God calls us to focus our hearts on Him where we can find the strength to overcome whatever we are facing!
-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 14, 2009
Marilyn Williams,
Ministry of the Word
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, week Three, Intro and Devo 1

2009-12-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

The Praise Candle
A Time to Celebrate…

(Before you continue to the third candle, be sure to light the previous two candles and take some time to reflect on what each candle represents. Light the first, second, and now the third- the lighter colored candle. Remember to go through both the introduction for the week and Devotion One on the first day of a this new week.)

WEEK 3 INTRODUCTION

As you light the third candle, the Praise Candle, you will notice it is a lighter color than the two previous candles. The difference in color symbolizes the “lighter” side of life, the element of joy that Christ brings into our lives. What better way to celebrate the Christmas season than to spend time praising our Lord! In Bible times, the Jews took celebrating very seriously. They saw celebrations as opportunities to deepen their faith and recommit their lives to their God. Often times a wedding, for instance, would turn into a week long celebration focusing not only on the covenant made between a man and a woman, but also focusing on the covenant made between their forefather Abraham and their Jehovah God. So it can be with the Advent season for you and me. Not only can we celebrate the fulfilled promise of a Savior on Christmas Day, but we can also extend our Christmas day into a season of reflection, reminders, and rejoicing in all that we have in Him today and all that is still to come!

DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR WEEK THREE
(Continue your sequence of having your personal and daily devotions by candle-light.)

DEVOTION 1
PSALM 100

Psalm 100 is just one of many psalms that gives praises to our Lord Jesus who is one with God. As we do much thinking this Christmas Season about Jesus coming as a baby over 2000 years ago, let us also praise Him as our living Lord today. In this Psalm, we are instructed to thank Him, praise Him, and bless His name—if we consider ourselves the sheep of His pasture. He tells us here to enjoy our worship, let it be full of sincere joy, gladness, and thanksgiving! So lift up your voices this Christmas Season and sing those same old songs from your renewed heart; let each word be a gift to Him this
Christmas Season.

Now is a good time to sing, or at least read the words, to one of everyone’s favorite Christmas carols, Joy To the World!

“Joy to the World, The Lord has come! Let earth receive its King!
Let ev-‘ry heart pre-pare Him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and
nature sing, And heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, The Savior reigns; let men their songs em-ploy,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,

Repeat the sound-ing joy, re-peat the sound-ing joy. Re-peat , re-peat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sor-rows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His bless-ings flow far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the na-tions prove
The glo-ries of His right-eous-ness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and won-ders, and won-ders of His love.”

- -Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 13, 2009
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week 2, Devo 7

2009-12-12T11:52:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 7
LUKE 2: 8-10

In the day and age of Jesus’ birth, shepherds were not esteemed as we might like to imagine. Shepherds were actually the lowliest of their society and could possibly be compared to the homeless of our day. The shepherds did not usually have homes or families of their own. They wandered from place to place and were considered dirty physically and unclean spiritually. It was rare to see a shepherd ever enter the temple or take part in religious customs in any way, as they knew their place in their culture.
But obviously God did not! Here in this passage, we see God inviting shepherds to be the first people to mingle with Him.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests,” scripture tells us that the shepherds went quickly to Bethlehem and found Mary, Joseph, and a baby lying in a manger (a feeding trough). The angels reached out to these shepherds by letting the shepherds know that this was Christ the Lord. The shepherds were the lowliest men on the face of the earth that night, but after being the first ones to see this newborn King, they became the most blessed men on earth! The shepherds gave praises and glory to God and it was the shepherds whom God chose to use to spread the word throughout the land of the arrival of a savior for mankind! What a beautiful story to show us God’s grace and love for all people of all positions and places in the world. He desires all to come to Him and receive His glory! The world may choose to have outcasts, but God chooses the outcasts to behold His glory and to pass it on to others! God is inviting you, no matter your age, rank, appearance or abilities, to come to Him through the precious gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, who is one with God Himself!
-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 12, 2009
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week 2, Devo 6

2009-12-11T15:38:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 6
MATTHEW 2: 9-11

When the Wise Men reached Bethlehem, the Scriptures say, “They were overjoyed.” After long weeks of searching and following the only light they had, the Wise Men not only found every hope fulfilled in Christ, but so much more! In response to their joy and their active faith, they bowed down in worship and gave their treasures to this new king. The treasures, which the Wise Men had once thought to be their most treasured possessions, were now surrendered to the One who had become their new
treasure. It is very interesting to note these gifts and their significance in that time period.

Gold: Gold was the gift most suited for a king. It also represented the treasure of one’s heart, as it is the most precious of all metals even today.

Frankincense: Frankincense was used in the Jewish custom for the worshipping of God. It represented prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.

Myrrh: Myrrh was a sweet fragrance and substance that was used to preserve a dead body.

How fitting were these Wise Men’s gifts of worship for this newborn King of the Jews: gold for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, frankincense for God Incarnate, and myrrh for The Lamb of God who takes away our sins through His death and resurrection.

-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc
December 11, 09
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word

Advent Devotions, Week 2, Devo 5

2009-12-10T12:39:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 5
GENESIS 48:7, 35:20; MATTHEW 2:18; 1 SAMUEL 16:1, 17:12, 20:6; 2 SAMUEL 23:14-15

Bethlehem had already been a place of history for God’s people for the preceding 2000 years before Jesus was even born. In Genesis, we see Rachel, the wife of Abraham’s grandson Jacob, die in the fields of Bethlehem while in childbirth. Jacob set up a memorial stone by her grave that can still be seen today. Later, Ruth—King David’s great-grandmother, was married in Bethlehem to a man named Boaz, the Kinsman-redeemer of her mother-in-law’s family. We have already learned that King David’s childhood home was also in Bethlehem. Later when David was being hunted by Saul in the barren hills of the Judean desert, David longs for the water of Bethlehem, and his three best men risked their lives to bring it to him. In the New Testament, when King Herod is threatened by the prophecy of the newborn king, he ordered all the male children who had been born in and around the village of Bethlehem and who were
two years old and younger—to be killed. Rachel’s name appeared again in Scripture, representing all the mothers of Bethlehem who were weeping over the loss of their children and refused to be comforted.

Bethlehem has always been connected with Israel’s history and with the line of King David, from which Jesus was prophesied to come. Bethlehem’s greatest moment was foretold in Micah; that from Bethlehem the Jews will see their Messiah’s birth. Although we have pictured the birth scene in a stable, it was probably a cave as the houses in Bethlehem were built on the slopes of a limestone ridge with many cave-like stables hollowed out under the houses in the rock. Whether in a stable or a cave, God’s Holy Scriptures prove themselves to be true over a time period of 2000 years.
-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
December 10, 2009
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week 2, Devo 3

2009-12-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 4
PROVERBS 21:3

As noted in yesterday’s devotion, Samuel was obedient when God told him to go to Bethlehem, specifically the House of Jesse, for the anointing of Israel’s next king. Years later, Mary and Joseph were obedient to the law of their day to go to Bethlehem to register for the census, even though Mary was well on her way with child. The Wise Men were obedient to the knowledge they were given as they followed the star, which led them to the Baby King from the Ancient of Days.

We, too, must be obedient to whatever place or situation in life God is calling us. Children, think about the ways you can be obedient to God in your every day? (With your parents…in your school… doing your chores…) And parents, do you have an attitude of obedience unto God in your every day? (Your work…your family…your neighborhood…your church…) Take a moment to bow your heads in silence and let God speak to your heart. Ask Him to show you where He is calling you to be more obedient.
His instructions to us are not pointless. Like the prophecies that came true through the obedience of God’s people, there are reasons, usually beyond our understanding—and maybe even greater than we can imagine, to His calling of obedience in our lives.
-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
December 10, 09
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week Two, Devo 3

2009-12-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 3
I SAMUEL 16: 1-13

This passage tells of Samuel anointing David, a young overlooked shepherd boy whom God appointed to be the future king of Israel. The first verse of this passage tells us it was Bethlehem where God sent Samuel, His prophet, to call out the next King after Saul. A man known as Jesse of Bethlehem was David’s father as well as the father of David’s older and ‘finer’ brothers. This story gives us the well known verse, “man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” What an encouragement
this story is to all of us, but especially children of all ages! God makes it clear that you are never too young, or insignificant, to be noticed by God. God has a plan for all His children who seek Him with all their hearts, even the youngest ones!

It is also important for the sake of prophecy to note that Mary, Jesus’ birth mother, was a direct descendent of David. This explains why Mary and Joseph, even though they did not live in Bethlehem at the time of Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus, traveled to Bethlehem for the royal census when everyone was called to report to their place of origin. Thus, a seven hundred year old scripture, foretelling the Messiah would come from the line of David and be born in Bethlehem, was fulfilled on that first
Christmas Day!
-Marilyn Williams

© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
December 08/09
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week 2, Devo 2

2009-12-07T08:46:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 2
JOHN 6:35, 47-51, 58

The word “Bethlehem” in the Hebrew language means “House of Bread.” Once again we see the perfection in God’s Holy Scriptures. It is especially fitting that Jesus, who later in His ministry years calls himself the “Bread of Life,” comes out of an obscure village set amidst wheat fields and named “A House of Bread.” Do you know Jesus as your daily bread? Is He the One who sustains and satisfies you? The French people have an old custom to eat bread with every meal. The bread is a symbol of life to them and it is even considered improper to ever throw any bread away! This, by the way, is where
we get our recipe for “French Toast.” The French created “French Toast” by dunking their stale bread, which they are not allowed to throw away, into milk and eggs. We would do well to model after the French custom in regards to the Living Bread we are given every day through Christ Jesus. Let us regard Jesus as the very essence of life, never wasting the nutrients awaiting us in His Living Word. The French have bread at every meal; likewise, let us eat of the Living Bread every day—as we continually make Jesus the essence of our lives.

-Marilyn Williams
© Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Marilyn Williams
Ministry of the Word
Dec. 7, 09
www.marilynwilliams.com

Advent Devotions, Week 2, The Bethlehem Candle

2009-12-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

WEEK 2 INTRODUCTION
(Continue your sequence of having your personal and daily devotions by candle-light.)

As you light the Second Advent Candle, the Bethlehem Candle, we remember that God came to us in the form of a newborn baby in a specific time in history and in a specific place in this vast world. As we learn more about Jesus’ birth as a baby, let us also keep in mind all that Jesus left behind, to come and be with us. It is truly a miracle that Jesus, being one with God the Father, would be willing to leave His home in Heaven for the “soul” purpose of showing us the way back to heaven! Although Jesus was
never truly separated from His Father in His Spirit because He is one in the Spirit with the Father, still Jesus must have missed the physical presence of His Father every day. Nevertheless, Jesus came down from Heaven in the smallest and meekest form of mankind—a newborn baby. This is a good time to sing, or at least read the words to O Little Town Of Bethlehem—a well-known Christmas Carol by the American Author, Phillip Brooks.

O Little town of Bethlehem! How still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light:
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
For Christ was born of Mary; and gather’d all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wond’ring love.
O morning stars, together proclaim the Holy Birth!
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sins, and enter in, Be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the Great glad tidings tell’, O come to us, abide with us: Our Lord Emmanuel!

DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR WEEK TWO

DEVOTION 1
Micah 5:2 and Matthew 2:1-12

(Micah 2)
Bethlehem was a small place; even God says so in the book of Micah. God foretold His people where their Messiah would come from 700 years before God sent His Son Jesus, the Messiah. In the book of Micah, God foretells His people that a ruler of Israel, whose roots go way back, would come from Bethlehem. Sometimes God calls us to seemingly small tasks or insignificant places. But let us be obedient, as Jesus was to the Father, and allow God to use us wherever and however—always trusting that
He knows best. There is never anything insignificant about God’s will in our lives!

(Matthew 2: 1-12)
In this passage we find the Wise Men coming to Jerusalem in their pursuit of the exact location of the One they knew had been foretold to be the King of the Jews. They were most likely astrologists and great scientists of their day, but they lacked the knowledge of what the Holy Scriptures said about the actual birthplace of this king foretold from days of old. They had recognized His Star from the East and they acted upon what they knew concerning the prophecies of this newborn king. With the knowledge they had and with a quest for more understanding of the Holy Scriptures, they set out to honor and receive the Messiah King! What an example of active faith these Wise Men give us today! We don’t have to know everything about God or understand all the Scriptures before we decide to follow Him. We simply must act upon what we do know, and He will guide us the rest of the way!

The Wise Men had stopped in the largest city closest to the star they were following, and asked King Herod if he knew where they could find this new king. King Herod sent for the priests and the teachers of the Jewish law to find out more about this new arrival of a king for the Jews. The priests and the teachers knew exactly what the Wise Men were referring to and even quoted the prophecy recorded in Micah chapter 5 (700 years before hand)! They explained that a ruler would come from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. He would shepherd the people of Israel and His people would return from exile into their own land. King Herod was obviously threatened by this prophecy, as he instructed the Wise Men to let him know if they found this newborn king. But the Wise Men were smarter than that. They simply went on their way and never came back through Jerusalem!

The saddest part of this passage is that the priests and the teachers, being Jews themselves—and in full knowledge of the scriptures, did not go with the Wise Men to receive their new King. Unlike the Wise Men, these scholars knew of the Scriptures, but they did not act upon them. By not going to receive their prophesied king, they had rejected God’s gift of His Holy Son right from the beginning! How tragic for us today, if we—like these priests and teachers—know of God’s Word and the message of salvation, but do not act upon what we know! Let this be a lesson to us: that knowing about Jesus is
not the same as knowing Jesus.

In order to find the good gifts only God can give us, we must be willing to follow what we do know about God, seek the Scriptures to lead us in our lives, and receive God’s Son as our king. The Wise Men brought Jesus their best gifts; but Jesus brought the Wise Men the greater gifts: joy, peace, goodwill, hope, and most importantly—a place in Heaven for all eternity!

Search your hearts and ask yourself, “Which group of people do I most identify with?”

1.) King Herod, feeling threatened by a power greater than himself?

2.) The Priests and the Teachers of the Jews who knew about their new king but did nothing with the knowledge they had been given?

3.) Or the Wise Men: actively following what they knew to be true, seeking after the One the Ancient Scriptures foretold of, and then going to Him in an attitude of reverence and worship with gifts as a sign of their faith?

Now is a good time to read or sing together the words to the worship song:
Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down:

Come let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker.
Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, and our Maker.
For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of his hand, and the sheep of his Hand.

-Marilyn Williams

Marilyn Williams

Ministry of the Word

December 6, 2009

http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions, Week One, Devo 7

2009-12-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 7

EPHESIANS 2:8-9

Take a moment to think back to past Christmases. Share with one another your favorite gifts over the years. You may be surprised how few gifts you can actually remember from each Christmas. This passage reminds us of the greatest gift we have to receive, the gift of God’s Holy Son. God’s gift of His Son is a lot like our gifts around the tree. The gifts are not based on merit or performance, but simply given to us out of love. We did not pay for the gifts we receive at Christmas, but instead somebody else paid for them. So it is with the gift of salvation. Jesus paid a very dear and precious price: Giving up His home in heaven and then giving up His life here on earth. In giving up His own life, He purchased new life—in order to free us from the penalty of death, which is eternal separation from God in Hell for the punishment of our sins. Not only did Jesus pay a price for this gift, but He also became the price, as it is His blood that purchased our place in Heaven with Him for all eternity! What a gracious and humble God to give up everything to gain us back! We must also remember that just like the gifts under our tree, the gift of salvation that Jesus paid so dearly for will go to waste if we don’t first receive this precious gift and then put it to use in our daily lives. Think of all the gifts you may have received that were really just a waste of someone else’s hard earned money! You never took the time to use it or you may have just unwrapped it and then simply put it away somewhere, thinking you would get to it someday. If we are not careful, we can be like that with the gift of salvation as well. Receiving and accepting the gift given in love is really quite simple. First, just like receiving a Christmas gift, we must receive it humbly. We must understand that we have done nothing to earn or deserve it, but because of His love for us, we can accept it. Then, in order to actually benefit from its usefulness and in order to truly get any enjoyment out of it, we must begin to put it to use in our daily lives. If we don’t, we run the risk of forgetting about the gift altogether! What a horrible thought to forget about or not to access the new life Jesus has purchased for us. He died trying to give us eternity in Heaven with Him, and an abundant life here and now! Let us not grieve His heart; but rather, let us bring pleasure to our Redeemer who has gone to such lengths to purchase us back for Himself, as His most treasured gift! -Marilyn Williams Copyright: Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc. Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the Word December 5 2009

Comments on the Advent Message

2009-12-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hi Marilyn, I wanted to email you today after MOPS to thank you again so much for coming to share with us. I have also included an email from a mentor that I thought you'd like to see. Praise God for the way He works...this gal came for the 1st time today and received so much!! God is good. Please pray for Kendra when you think of us! I also wanted to tell you how much I appreciated you sharing the story of when you didn't have a lot of money at Christmas and where you found the true joy to be/. there are quite a few moms in our group in that very same boat and I know they could relate to your story. so I pray that they found comfort and peace in your words and in what God can do in their Christmas! I prayed that each mom would take away a "nugget" from your talk. I know God answered that prayer. so, Thank you again for everything. you were truly a gift to us this season. I am looking forward to celebrating Advent in a whole new way as I see it in the perspective of preparing for Christ's 2nd coming, that way all new to me, but i see it now! Have a blessed Christmas/advent season. Adrienne Petersen I met a mom named Kendra today. She was there for the first time and I think she was sitting at Leslie Figley's table. I chatted with her after Marilyn's talk and she indicated that she wanted to come to Riverview as she didn't 'know' God and didn't understand what that even meant. She had no idea what Marilyn was talking about when she talked about Advent. Her question was, 'Is that a Christian thing?' We chatted a bit and I got her the advent book from Marilyn as well as one of our Bibles (she indicated she had tried to read a Bible once but it was written in a type of wording that she did not understand) and then Leslie came up and said she was inviting her to come with the moms at her table for a Christmas tea with their children and hoped she would come. ... See MoreSo thank you for having Marilyn come. God used her to speak to the heart of young woman who in her own words, 'I believe in God and I know that Jesus died on a cross but don't know how or why He died that way, but I'd like to know what they are talking about when they say they have a relation ship with God. How do you have a relationship with God?' Marilyn indicated that if she would read and/or do the advent devotional she would know Who Jesus is at the end. How cool is that?!!!!! God works all around us. And I love it that she came to MOPS and the Holy Spirit spoke to her heart. That's what it's all about!

Advent Devotions, Week One, Devo 6

2009-12-05T12:04:00.001-08:00

DEVOTION 6

ISAIAH 55: 1-3

What a fitting passage for the Christmas Season! We can so easily spend, spend, spend, and work, work, work! In trying to make Christmas the best ever, we can still miss out on the goods God has for us. It's nice to have the luxuries in life, but if we spend all our money, time, and energy trying to attain the luxuries, our daily labor and resources would be for naught. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the luxuries in our lives, but the Lord clearly tells us there is no real substance or lasting value found in the extras. We can enjoy the presents during the Christmas Season, but we must not forsake the reason for the season-God's love and desire to be near to us. Attending Christmas parties adds festivity to our season, but let us be sure to schedule time alone with the One who is presently preparing for us the biggest party ever: The Banquet of Salvation in the Dining Hall of God's Throne Room! While savoring our Christmas goodies, let us not forget to eat of His Word throughout this holy season. As we spend time with friends and family, may we also keep an open ear to His Spirit. These Scriptures tell us that if we eat what is good, our souls will delight in the best! He promises a covenant of eternal love to us if we continue to come and listen to Him. In Him, we will find purpose and joy for our lives, greater than anything we could purchase, make, or achieve on our own. Isaiah also warns us to seek the Lord while He may still be found. None of us knows how many days we have left, so let us make this Christmas Season really count! As we align our hearts with His thoughts and our deeds with His commands, we will go out with joy and be led forth with peace, even in the midst of the crazy Christmas Season!
(Optional: Reflect on ways that you might be spending your time and laboring in your efforts for naught during this Christmas Season. Think about how to replace those empty things with the things of God that bring true substance into our lives!) -Marilyn Williamscopyright: Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
Dec. 4, 2009
Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the Word
http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

2009-12-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 5
ISAIAH 40: 1-8

These verses reveal the comfort and the sense of purpose Jesus desires to bring into our lives. Back in Ancient days, when this was first written, the people would prepare the roads whenever a king was coming to visit their village. They would devote their efforts into smoothing out any bumps in the dirt roads and making straight any crooked paths. This was a sign to the king that they anxiously awaited His arrival and had done all they could to prepare the way for Him. Some of these verses prophesy about Jesus being a king from Heaven, yet laying down His kingship and coming to us as an infant to be a sacrifice for our sins. Some of these verses are still to come— when He comes again as The King of Heaven and Earth! Just as Isaiah called his people to put their hope in God and just as John the Baptist called God’s people to repent from their sins, still these verses call us today to prepare our hearts. We must devote ourselves to being ready for Jesus’ return as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

As we await His second coming, the Advent Season gives us the opportunity to survey all the roads that lead to our hearts. What is the condition of our hearts? Are we on track? Do the roads we travel need smoothing or straightening out? In whom do we put our faith and trust? Amidst all the holiday preparations this year, take some time to prepare for His return. It could be sooner than you expect!

Marilyn Williams

Ministry of the Word

http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

2009-12-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 4
ISAIAH 61: 1-3
(Light the Prophecy Candle once again and read the verses and devotions.)

In this passage, Isaiah speaks on God’s behalf of the coming Messiah and the Messiah’s job description. Because we have the recording of Jesus’ life in the New Testament, we can see how Jesus did all that was prophesied about Him! We must not only recognize Jesus’ ability in the past to fulfill His promises, we must also believe that Jesus will do the same in our lives today and in the coming age. He still and always will be the Sovereign Lord whom God’s Spirit rests on and is one with the Father and the Spirit. He is still preaching His Good News to the people today through His Written Word. He can still bind up our broken hearts and bring freedom to our captive souls! He wants to bring light to our darkness today. He still desires to comfort all who mourn and bring joy to despairing hearts. He is ready to plant seeds of righteousness in our hearts. He can still take our downtrodden lives and transform them into vessels of His glory.
We simply must believe and act upon His promises of old in our lives today. He does not promise the absence of evil in our lives, but rather the victory over evil in our hearts. He calls us in this passage to keep our eyes focused on the condition of our souls rather than the circumstances of our lives. Jesus has proven Himself by His testimony, here among us, to be the Anointed One—spoken of in the Old Testament through His prophets. Have you bowed the knee to His Lordship in your daily life? Are you looking to Him today to be the same God and do the same good work in your own life that He has already proven Himself able to do?

Advent Devotions, Week One, Dev. 2

2009-11-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

DEVOTION 2
ISAIAH 11:1
(Look up this verse in your Bible and read the verses aloud
after the Prophecy Candle has been relit.)

In this verse, God is explaining to His people through the Prophet Isaiah that the line of King David will be seemingly destroyed. Isaiah likens this coming doom to being cut down like a tree, all the way to its stump. But God continues this word picture with hope in the coming Messiah who will not only come from this remaining stump, but He will bring new life to an old root! Looking back from our side of history, we know Isaiah’s prophecy has been proven true when Jerusalem was overtaken in 70 A.D.,
leaving nothing but a future hope in a Messiah still to come. This verse reveals the sovereignty of God’s plans to prevail even in the face of adversity and destruction. Our precious Jesus, who comes to us in the New Testament, is the prevailing shoot from a seemingly cut off people that connects us to the Old Testament and delivers us from the hand of the evil one!

November 30 2009

http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions, Week One, Devotion 1

2009-11-30T09:52:00.000-08:00

The Prophecy Candle
Long, Long, Long Ago…

(As you and/or your family gathers around for Advent, it is good to ask or assign one member to light the candle, another to read the Scripture out loud, and a third to read the devotion. At the beginning of each new week, your family will need to read the new week’s introduction, as well as the devotion, for the first evening of that week. )

WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION

For this week, we will use one of the darker color candles. As we light the very first candle of the Advent Season, we remember that Jesus came into the world long ago as the Light of the World. We also remind ourselves that He is still the Light of our lives today, if we choose to receive the greatest gift any man will ever receive: Eternal Life. Long ago Jesus came into our dark world of sin. Today, He still lives at the right hand of the Father and in the hearts of all who will receive Him. He will one day come again in the full light of His glory— and darkness will be no more. Charles Stanley wrote this hymn, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, in 1744. As we read or sing the words, let us notice the things Christ came to do for mankind.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us; Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation, Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart.
Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child and yet a king,
Born to reign in us forever, now Thy gracious Kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit, Rule in all our hearts alone.
By Thine all sufficient merit, Raise us to Thy glorious Throne.
Amen.

He came to set us free!
He came to give us rest!
He came to bring us joy!
He came to deliver us!
He came to reign, rule, and rise up His people unto Himself!”
People from all nations cry out to Him and Haggai 2:7 says, “The desire of all nations shall come!” We know that He has been faithful to come once already, and we believe He will be faithful to come again! May Christ reign in our hearts today as we celebrate His long awaited arrival and as we await His promised return!
-Marilyn Williams

DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR WEEK ONE

DEVOTION 1
ISAIAH 9:2, 6, &7
(Look this up together in your Bibles and have someone read the verses out loud.)

It is interesting to note that scripture in the Old Testament often refers to Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ return at the same time, leaving us sometimes wondering if the verse is referring to Jesus coming as an infant and a Savior or to Jesus coming as a warrior and a reigning King. What is actually important to understand about these verses is that Jesus is always both the Savior and the King, never either. God gave the prophet Isaiah these promises about the coming Messiah as an infant as well as a returning conquering warrior. It is important for all mankind to know that we are walking in the darkness of
death until we receive the light of God’s presence in our hearts personally. Although Jesus was born a baby, Isaiah gives several significant names that we must know Him by: “Wonderful,” “Counselor,” “The Mighty God,” “The Everlasting Father,” and “The Prince of Peace”. He is not merely the baby in a manger! As we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth this Christmas, let us remember that not only has He come to us on that starry night long ago, but He still lives now and forevermore! Not only does He
reign from Heaven’s Throne, but if we crown Him our Eternal King, He rules in our hearts as well. He has come once as a gift for all, but He will return someday as a ruler over all. He didn’t come all the way from Heaven to merely rule over us, but to rule in us! Whether we receive Him as our Lord and Savior or not, He will still rule. The question to ask yourself is: Are you with Him; being ruled by Him from the inside out, or are you against Him—merely waiting to be ruled over by Him when He returns?
(Optional: additional verses; Romans 14:11, Matt. 1:21&23, Ps. 24:8, Is. 54:5)
-Marilyn Williams

copyright: Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc.
November 30 2009
http://www.marilynwilliams.com/

Advent Devotions

2009-11-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

Advent Family Devotions
Keeping Christ in Christmas

ADVENT FAMILY DEVOTIONS...
Keeping Christ in Christmas
by Marilyn Williams
© 2001 Marilyn Williams
© 2007 SBS Publishing
© 2008 Lulu Publishing
ISBN 978-0-557-02786-6

Every effort has been made to provide accurate information and proper acknowledgement
to all sources of information and quotations.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission.

For permission and further information:
Marilyn Williams
P.O. Box 302112
Escondido, Ca. 92030
www.MarilynWilliams.com

Advent begin tomorrow; get ready for your Advent Devotions! One will come to each day from tomorrow through Christmas. Enjoy!

ADVENT FAMILY DEVOTIONS...
Keeping Christ in Christmas
by Marilyn Williams
© 2001 Marilyn Williams
© 2007 SBS Publishing
© 2008 Lulu Publishing
ISBN 978-0-557-02786-6

Every effort has been made to provide accurate information and proper acknowledgement
to all sources of information and quotations.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission.

For permission and further information:
Marilyn Williams
P.O. Box 302112
Escondido, Ca. 92030
www.MarilynWilliams.com

Dedicated to my precious family…
my husband Mike, my
daughter Jessica, and my son Jacob.

Thank you for a
lifetime of joyous Advent memories in celebrating the holy season
of Christmas, with or without money!

Introduction
First Things First…

Greetings! I would like to introduce to you my family’s favorite holiday celebration: Advent! No matter how many resources my family has had to celebrate Christmas, we have always enjoyed celebrating Advent as a symbol of the true meaning and joy of Christmas. The study of the prophecies of the past and the promises still to come have increased our faith and deepened our understanding of our most precious gift in every Christmas season: the gift of God himself through the birth of His Son Jesus
Christ! Unfortunately, this priceless gift of eternal peace so often gets overlooked during this frantic Holy Season. These priceless moments of consistently gathering together around our Advent wreath, reading the scriptures together, and singing Christmas Carols a cappella style have encouraged us in family bonding and spiritual growth while engraving life-long memories into each of our hearts.

Beginning on the Sunday four weeks before Christmas, Advent focuses on both the birth of Jesus Christ as well as His return. Advent, derived from the Latin word “Adventus,” literally means “coming.” The celebration of Advent takes you and your family back into the Old Testament, revealing the fulfilled prophecies of Christ’s birth, while propelling you forward into the promises of Christ’s future return and how this impacts you and your family today. My intent in writing this Family Advent Devotional is to equip you and your family with a simple, yet instrumental tool in keeping Christ in the center of your Christmas! Holidays are such fun opportunities to teach our children and remind ourselves of spiritual truths that can otherwise be difficult to understand, and yet need to be celebrated over and over again. I hope and pray this Family Advent Devotional will be a useful and significant tool in creating meaningful and memorable family fun during this festive time of year. - Marilyn Williams

Preparing the Way
Ready, Set, Go…

Sometime in November, before Thanksgiving, you will want to gather your supplies for the Advent Season. You will need an Advent Wreath (any type of small wreath that will hold four candles, preferably with a place to put a larger candle in the middle), four candles of the same size, three of them darker in color than the fourth, and a larger candle for the center of your wreath. You will want to think ahead about where your family will be doing your Advent Devotions together as this will help you decide upon the size and type of wreath you want. I prefer a small to medium sized wreath. The wreath makes a great centerpiece for your dining room table during the holiday season and the dining room table serves as a practical setting for your family to sit together during Advent Devotions. There is no one way or style to celebrate Advent. The objective is simply to celebrate Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ return!

If you choose to purchase your wreath, you can usually find Advent Wreaths at most Christian Bookstores as well as your local holiday gift shop. If you choose to construct your own wreath, the sky is the limit! Even if you purchase an Advent Wreath, there are various ways to add your own finishing touches.

1. Your first decision is to determine your candle color. The traditional colors are three dark purple candles and one light pink representing the colors of Jesus’ majesty. Some say that the dark color candles represent our time of repentance and the darkness of our lives without God. While the lighter candle represents the joy we have because God has come to us and made a way for us to come to Him. You can even use three red candles symbolizing our sin and a green candle as a symbol of the new life we have in Christ Jesus as our Savior, Lord, and King. Some people simply use all white candles to denote the holiness of the Christmas Season. Once again, it depends on your style or home décor. There is no ‘spiritual’ way of choosing the color of your candles. You can
even focus on simply matching your home décor. Most packages that are sold in stores specifically as Advent Candles are the traditional purple and pink taper candles.

2. A larger white candle, representing God’s pure and holy gift to mankind is traditionally placed in the middle of the wreath and is lit either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day; however, even this may be altered with something else your family may decide to make part of your Advent Celebration. We have a big fat sparkly green Christmas Tree Candle in the middle of our wreath that we light every Christmas morning since my husband’s and my first Christmas together. When we were first married, we walked to the nearest thrift store in search of some very ‘inexpensive’ Christmas Decorations. We found this huge Christmas Tree Candle for about ten cents and it has been our Christmas
Morning Candle ever since! We light it at the end of our Advent Christmas Devotion, with the children, as a reminder of our covenant of love to one another before God and God’s covenant of eternal life to us through his Son Jesus Christ, the Lord of our home!

3. Decorating with fire retardant straw can also serve as a reminder of Jesus being laid in a poor feeding trough in contrast to the royalty He left in heaven to be with us! Be sure your candles and candleholders are secure, especially when decorating with straw.

4. Adding a white dove to your wreath can symbolize the Holy Spirit and helps us to remember we must be born again of God’s Spirit in order to have eternal life with God in heaven. (John 8)

5. A rose attached to your wreath can serve as a reminder that Jesus is The Rose of Sharon (Song of Solomon 2:1), crushed by men only to bloom in our hearts to live and reign forever!

If you are not a crafty person or you just prefer a simpler and traditional looking Advent Wreath, most gift shops can accommodate you. The most important part about setting up your Advent Wreath is to find a practical place and create a regular schedule that is workable for your family to come together on a consistent basis during this crazy time of year. I find that right after dinner works best for my family, even before we start cleaning up. So be creative and be sentimental; but most of all, keep it simple enough to be consistent. Whether you choose to purchase an Advent Wreath or whether you and your family choose to construct one, it is not the wreath itself that will become dear to your hearts. The fellowship time together and the spiritual truths that will be illuminated through the Scriptures will be creating and embedding life-long precious memories for each family member to store in their hearts for the rest of their lives. The Advent Wreath, along with its seasonal devotions, is a visual tool to help us understand and experience the depth of God’s love for us through the gift of His only begotten Son, Jesus. My family has celebrated the Advent Season with the same Advent Devotional for the last fifteen years. Each year, the Advent Devotions continually bring us awe and wonder regardless of the quality or quantity of gifts under the tree.

What’s a Family To Do?
Suggestions and Instructions…

The word “Christmas” is taken from the Middle-English expression “Christenmass,” literally, “Christ—Worship.” Advent serves as a beautiful and enjoyable way for every one of all ages to worship Christ during the Christmas Season. Ideally, Advent is set up to do every day during the Christmas Season, but if that is unrealistic for your family, Advent can simply be celebrated once a week as a family Advent day. Even if you can’t fulfill each family devotional during the week, the beginning devotion for that new week will transition your family into the next phase of the Advent season. As an alternative to meeting together as a family every evening, you can start with your weekly Advent time together and then give the remaining devotions to each of your individual family members for reflection during their own quiet times in the week. Join back together at the onset of each new candle to share what God has impressed upon everyone’s heart during the past week, and then transition into the next week’s Scriptures. It is a rare and precious opportunity for each member of the family to be pondering the same Scriptures during individual quiet times. As you can see, there is no one-way to celebrate Advent.

The work has been done for you, so just do what works best for you and your family! The idea is for you and your family to get away from the Christmas chaos and celebrate the past and future coming of Jesus as a traditional and consistent part of your Christmas Season. My family aims for every night, but we often have to do some catching up. That’s okay, too! Whatever you do, enjoy it! Don’t become so dogmatic about it that it becomes another source of strain and stress for you and your family, instead of the source of peace its message is intended to bring. You may want to start off slowly and simply, but you may find that your family enjoys celebrating Advent so much that everyone begins clearing their schedules as much as possible to make it happen!

It is also quite common to get additional and even unexpected company during the Advent Season. I have found Advent to be a comfortable and very natural way to lovingly share with friends, who happen to be in our home during our scheduled Advent time, about the true reason for the season! Guests will especially love singing Christmas carols together, even if it is a cappella style! You will be surprised at how powerful and how poignant are the extended verses of familiar Christmas Carols, which we rarely get to finish in their entirety. After you have done the initial setting up for Advent, you will find no preparation required. Simply turn to week one (THE PROPHECY CANDLE), continue the weeks through to the Christmas Candle, and have fun! The Scriptures are already in place and only need to be looked up and read out loud during your Advent time. The applications for each night’s scripture are already written and can simply be
read out loud. Younger children who are just learning to read find it fun to be the one to read the night’s Scripture out of the Bible, with a little of your help. Our children’s reading skills actually grew leaps and bounds after the Advent Season! Older children love to be the one to light the candle and introduce its theme, and of course all children love to blow out the candles. It is helpful to review the name and the significance of each candle previously studied, before lighting the present candle. We leave the candles lit throughout the entire devotional time. As we end each evening on a joyous note, we close by singing a few Christmas Carols together. The goal of Advent is to put the focus on Jesus as the true gift of the season. My hope is for the Advent Season to be just one more reminder for us all to be diligently watching and confidently waiting for Christ’s return as our personal Savior, The Lord of the Universe, and the King of all kings!

Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the Word: Guiding Lights for Godly Leadership

2009-08-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

Marilyn Williams, Ministry of the Word: Guiding Lights for Godly Leadership

Stirring: Looking Back

2009-08-03T11:56:00.001-07:00

Looking Back…
As I reflect back on my life, I can clearly see God grooming me for leadership. I can remember God stirring my heart to intercede conflicts toward peaceful resolutions and negotiate friendships of warring parties on the playground in my elementary years,. I also remember the stirring of my heart beginning in the end of sixth grade to be an active part of serving my school through student leadership. Later in Jr. High School, I even ran for Class President as the new girl who had just moved into town. I knew I wouldn’t win, but it was who I was and I could not help but try to find my place in the new school. In High School, I entered into Student Body Government, with Girls State Governor being the height of my high school leadership experience. I was also Speech Captain of my debate team and I lead and directed anything and everything I could get involved in. Part of this drive was most definitely God’s design in me, but part of it became an identity to exchange the wounds of my heart growing up in a sexually abusive home for an external identity of perfectionism and performance. God’s call for leadership in me and through me was getting muddled; and quite frankly, I was getting tired. By the time I graduated from high school I was burned out on leadership and life overall. I just wanted to find joy and love that was not measured by my performance. I was also starving for the very relationships I was either to busy to nurture or had shunned by using my leadership to distance myself from others to hide my inner pain. I didn’t know how to be a whole person in touch with myself and others, and lead people at the same time. Leadership had become a burden to me that was threatening to steal all joy from my life. But I was trapped. Deep down I knew I was designed to lead, but I was clearly aware of my inadequacies and self destructive paradigm.

After high school I finally surrendered all my inadequacies and paradigms to Christ. I admitted I had made a mess of the package he had given me and I was desperate for unconditional love. I confessed I had violated his perfect holiness with my sins and I asked him for forgiveness. Finally feeling safe in the Father’s love for me as I had never experienced before, I had no desire to throw myself back to the wolves. Coming to Christ was a life changing event in my soul; I wasn’t sure leadership would be a part of this new person I was becoming in Christ. I fought any calling toward leadership since the day I gave my life to Christ, afraid of the criticism and pressures I was sure I would disappoint and fearful I would return to familiar self destructive habits of perfectionism and performance. At first, I enjoyed playing it safe. But within a few years, I became restless with my life, even depressed. Still, I hid from God’s calling of leadership as well as my spiritual gifts. I did not want to crash and burn as I had done before. But denying God’s call in my life required that I hid myself from people altogether. I had friends and family, but I remained distant in my relationships and I stayed at home where I felt safe, not working a job or joining anything that would tap into who I really was. Even though I am a social creature, extremely extroverted, my fears and insecurities developed into a social phobia of being in public. I found myself not able to be with people with hearing loud self condemning accusations of defeat and shame in my head. Even standing in line to get a cup of coffee somewhere became painful. I knew this had to stop. I also knew this was not who God made me to be. I wasn’t being true to myself or my God.

After much internal suffering, I knew something had to change. If I didn’t start embracing who God designed me to be, I would become so depressed and anxious I would either loose my mind or give up on life altogether. I could no longer deny the stirrings within me nor His divine design. I finally surrendered to God’s call for leadership in my life, and gave Him permission to begin using me in that way. “Okay, God, I give. I will begin going in, not running from, the direction you are calling me. But I was cautious to make sure I did not define myself by what I do as I did before. I desired my identity to be securely upon the reality of who I am in Christ my Lord. I did not throw myself into busy work or find areas I could start leading right away. Instead, I entrusted myself to God’s hand of preparation for whatever areas of leadership he might have for me, according to His timetable. Submitting myself unto God’s design as I did as a child was scary, but I knew the leader He was making me to be would be very different from the leader I strove to be as a child out of survival. This time, I would lead out of God’s love and service, not self-identity and emotional survival. God assured me He was in control of this season of preparation, making me into a very different kind of leader than I previously experienced leadership to be.

After a long and often painful season of emotional healing and further spiritual maturity, God began to open doors of leadership for me. The first area of leadership opportunity and development was to embrace more of the wife and mother God had designed me to be. It all had to start in the home. Home was the safest place to begin being true to myself as well as to my God. My husband and children deserved the mother God entrusted them to, not a mother who was hiding from God’s design in her life. After a little while of building my confidence in who God created me to be at home, God then began to call me to lead outside of the home. My first position of leadership outside of the home was in a speaking and writing ministry, Marilyn Williams-Ministry of the Word. This ministry soon grew from me simply sharing God’s work in my life as an encouragement to other women to a non-profit ministry, Safe Harbor Ministries, Inc. I was soon teaching God’s truths and testifying to God’s power of deliverance from shame and fear to women all over the world. My husband and I directed Safe Harbor Ministries together. After building the foundation for this ministry for the first five years, God brought other women to join us in this venture. God also began to stir my heart to return to school to begin a degree in Theology and Leadership.

Once again, I was scared and I fought God about returning to school for a very long time. I knew I had lost myself in my schoolwork before I came to Christ, using it as an escape from my pain. As a result, I had no life outside of hours of endless homework and a continual pursuit of perfect grades. But after seven years of God’s relentless promptings to go back to school, I finally gave in. I am now in my last year of reaching my B.A. in Religion and Leadership at Vanguard University, and God has been faithful to teach me how to balance what He is calling me to do within right priorities, while maintaining intimacy with God, others, as well as myself.

I have gained a new peace and confidence to finally embrace the calling of leadership in my life. As I have stepped out into leadership opportunities, I have learned more and more about God’s design for leadership. Recently, I was hired to direct the Women’s Ministry at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido Ca, a church of approximately 7,000- almost 4,000 of them are women. I deliberately word my position, “I direct the Women’s Ministry,” instead of “I am the Women’s Ministry Director.” This is what I do, not who I am. I do not desire to find my identity in this position; but rather, I embrace the opportunity to put into practice the spiritual gifts and design God has given me for service as well as development.

It is my hope that you will do the same. If you are also called to leadership, on any level, my prayer is that my journey as well as the wisdom I am learning would encourage you to embrace your unique and divine design in Christ Jesus. He has entrusted us with His Kingdom Work for His return, there is no time to waste hiding or being ineffective. Jesus has modeled for us how to lead; and he is with us through the truth of His Living Word, along with His Holy Spirit in us to guide us into God designed leadership. Godly leadership has freed my old paradigms of destructive leadership both for myself as well as others. I pray it will do the same for you. As you read new postings each month, it is my goal to encourage, equip, and empower you to embrace and mobilize others into God’s redemptive plan for mankind.

Marilyn Williams

Guiding Lights for Godly Leadership

2009-03-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to “Guiding Lights for Godly Leadership”

This series is intended to be used as a devotional for leaders who desire to lead God’s way. It is a combination of my experience of God’s calling of leadership in my own life, and the wisdom God has taught me through His Word, godly training, and life experience. I pray these devotions will inspire you to follow God’s “Guiding Lights for Godly Leadership” into a life of surrendered obedience and powerful service unto God’s kingdom.

I will begin the leadership devotional with a brief introduction by “Looking Back” on God’s call to leadership in my own life. As a jump-start to the series, I have also included this month the key element of Godly Leadership, “Continual Repentance-a Part of On-Going Leadership.” Along with a posting regarding Repentance, “Reaping Repentance,” I have begun to explore the area of biblical “Commissioning.” I have grouped the stages of godly leadership as the following:

Stirring
Preparing
Commissioning
Assignment
Transition
Letting Go
Moving On

Be sure to look for further “Guiding Lights for Godly Leadership” exploring these key stages of godly leadership over the following months. I pray you will be guided encouraged, equipped, and empowered to embrace your calling of Leadership in God’s Kingdom.

Marilyn Williams

2009-02-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

Perseverance: Calling on “Elohim”- the Creator and Finisher of all things!

When Jesus was suffering upon the cross, feeling betrayed and abandoned by the Father, he chose to cry out to the Father in the form of “Elohim- the Creator and Finisher of all things.”

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani: My God, my God [Who started all this: the Creator and Finisher of all things] why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46

Out of all the names of the Father representing his vast character, Jesus chose to cry out to the One who started it all. Jesus cried out in his anguish to the Father --the creator and finisher of all things, the One who will now finish what he had started.

Perseverance requires we continue to have faith in the One who has begun a good work in our lives will complete it. We must hold onto the truth of God’s character displayed in His name Elohim (e-lo-HEEM): the mighty creator--the one who began everything and the one who will finish it as well. Jesus placed his confidence in knowing his Father Elohim would finish what he had started. In these uncertain and challenging times, we must faithfully cry out to our Heavenly Father, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). God will not be overcome by today’s economy. God’s plans for our lives will not be thwarted by the stock market crash. Let us cry out to the one who has begun his good work; he is the one who will complete it.

Let us know how you stay encouraged in the author and finisher of your faith!

Current Review of Marilyn's Message, She Did What She Could!

2009-02-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

Take a sneak peak at others are saying about Marilyn's Message:

She Did What She Could
You gotta love the word of God. Isn't it amazing that God's word is living, powerful, timely and relevant? I appreciated the fact that our speaker today, Marilyn Williams gave us a fresh perspective on an old story. Like many of you, I quickly identified with feeling inadequate. In many ways, I think our feelings of inadequacy come from putting too much pressure on ourselves. For as long as I can remember, I have always tried to over-achieve in all areas of my life. Motherhood has certainly been no exception. I am constantly trying to do more, be more and not disappoint. Oh, and on top of all that, yes, I very much want my life to count for eternal significance. It's no wonder life can be exhausting! Yup, by all accounts, I am a Martha at heart.
It's a good thing though that our mighty God is in the business of changing hearts. The message today gave me permission and freedom to be exactly who I am! God loves and cherishes me in spite of the fact that I am an imperfect mother, wife, daughter, servant and friend. Thankfully, He does not require perfection from me or even a checked-off to-do list. The story of Mary and Martha proves that faithfulness and obedience are more important to God then even our good deeds.
We live in a culture today where "more" is often seen as good isn't it? Yet we all know people who seem like they have it all or do it all but in reality, they are spiritually bankrupt. I am certain that Mary's story is in the bible to show us that ordinary women can do extraordinary things for the Lord. Mary shows us the importance of being still, listening and making the Lord a priority over all things. She also portrays courage and unwavering faith when she boldly anoints her King with precious oil. It made me think that if the Son of God appeared at my front door, would I have sense enough to stop what I'm doing and sit at His feet or would I be in the kitchen, fretting about what to serve Him and what platter would look best to serve it on?Dear Sisters in Christ,Let's do what we can. Let's stop listening to the lies and stop comparing ourselves to what we think we should be. WE ARE ENOUGH. And God delights in our wholehearted presence and adoration.For more information on Marilyn Williams, visit http://www.marilynwilliams.com/--
Posted by Mom 2 Mom at 3:50 PM

3 comments:
Webb Family said...
i was encouraged by what she said today too!
February 4, 2009 4:39 PM
.:The Halls:. said...
What an amazing speaker. Exactly what we all need to hear...WE ARE ENOUGH!
February 4, 2009 8:57 PM
Danielle said...
I was absolutley inspired and encouraged today! Encouraged to stay TRUE to myself and know that I am enough and do do enough in every aspect of my life. I have also always been an over achiever and although I know I need to slow down sometimes this really hit home. Marilyn made me want to go home and disect my bible to find all of those speacial, wonderful hidden meanings. What a wonderful morning!
February 5, 2009 7:58 AM
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Jesus is God in the Middle East!

2009-01-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

As my plane took off into the horizon, the reality of ministering to our dear Sisters from the underground church in Iran gripped me with last minute jitters. Considering the absurdity of an American woman traveling alone to the Middle East in our current times, I sensed God reassuring my heart, “It’s just you and Me, kid.“ My stomach tightened as I flew farther away from what I knew was my home country, but eager for all God had planned to do in this distant land.As our conference began, I was honored to be a small part of God’s good work in the hearts of our oppressed and persecuted sisters in Iran. But I have to admit, our surrounding circumstances were difficult, challenging, and eye opening for me. While some Arab countries are more “free” than others, the darkness which permeates such a land that rejects Christ is at best inhumane and uncivilized. Traveling as a woman without my husband by her side opened my eyes even further. The Islamic culture, whether or not it is mandated by law, is a culture which exalts a man to satisfy himself at every level-with no accountability as to how this self satisfaction may effect others, most especially women. Even little boys past a certain age are not subject to discipline by their mothers. I have come to the conclusion that any ideology or religion which exalts one’s flesh to do as he or she pleases, with no regard as to how this effects anyone else or society at large, would also produce such selfish and vulgar human beings as the Islamic culture. As a group of women at this conference, we were exposed to this self-indulgent behavior while walking from our hotel to our conference room, even while attempting to purchase a bottle of water for ourselves. What was mild and simply annoying to these dear women who are desensitized to this offensive Islamic culture, was quite shocking to me.Because our conference room ended up being about a half mile walk from our hotel, we had to walk a half mile three times a day through the narrow streets of a Muslim neighborhood for our conference sessions. The streets were narrow, dark, and literally filled with groups of men. As we would pass them, they would make crude comments, throw things at us to get our attention, and even touch us inappropriately. It didn’t help any that we were the only females on the street. Only the men in the Islamic culture are allowed to be out in public. It was strange to see the coffee houses and stores filled with men rather than women. A couple of our women were grabbed from behind and kissed or inappropriately fondled as we walked. I felt like vulnerable prey for devouring wolves. The women explained to me not to argue or fight back, as the men love to prove their dominance. We all knew they could overtake us if we opposed them, so we walked as quickly and quietly as possible. Strangely enough, these street challenges in this “free” middle-eastern country were minor harassments to the dangers these women face in Iran every day. They are accustomed to actual laws allowing a man to take and do whatever he desires with a woman at any time, irrelevant of her age or status of marriage. I write these things to you to communicate the vulgarity of any society that casts out the light of Christ Jesus and everything He stands for. The Bible tells us “The Heart is deceitful and wicked, who can know it?” I have now seen first hand the result of any human being exalting him or her self instead of humbling oneself and modeling after Christ Jesus. The result is frightening.While facing these oppressive surrounding circumstances, I was reminded of my own background of sexual abuse and irrational control by my father when I was a young girl. Even in these frightening circumstances, God was working in me to be able to relate to these dear women even more. God used my surrounding circumstances to help me reconnect with my past emotions. My background of incest from my father gave me just a glimpse of their everyday lives. Like my father who claimed to love me, yet continually violated me, these dear women are violated not by “street degenerates,” but by men who claim to be holy and are doing these things “for the good” of the women. I have had to unpack such a paradox of being violated by what claimed to be “for my good.” Not only could I relate to their inner confusion and shame, my father also irrationally controlled and monitored my every move. Like the Islamic regime, my father’s goal was to take away my freedom to be an individual with personal rights. My phone calls were taped, I was followed everywhere I went, and my mileage tracked. These dear women, who live under such an irrational and controlling regime, hope to be invisible at best. Any sign of individuality marks them as targets of cruel abuse and violation. As a result, the sexual violation is just part of the larger scheme to take away all sense of individuality, stripping away from a human being both their worth as well as their identity. I was able to share from God’s Word how we are each, including women, uniquely fashioned to be and bear God’s image on earth. I was even able to teach from our very own SHAPE curriculum, encouraging these dear women that God has a plan to glorify Himself and build His church through them. This was revolutionary for women who have grown up their entire lives feeling more like a gender than a person.As a child growing up under my father’s controlling and humiliating games, I could also relate to their resigned helplessness. They are not weak women, but they are overpowered and they have no where to turn. As a result, they have to turn inward to escape their reality. After I shared my own story one night, a woman who struggles with Multiple Personality Disorder shared that she now understood herself better and asked for prayer to turn to Christ for strength and healing. The smile on her face was beaming as she finally accepted herself and could openly share her story without shame. She was filled with the hope of Jesus, assured of God’s love and purpose for her life. It was more than rewarding for me to see how I could personally minister to these dear women from my own past diagnosis of MPD. I was a living testimony of hope, healing, and wholeness in Christ. As I shared my own testimony of God’s healing in my life, they were encouraged as to what God can do in and through them. We do not know how God will choose to direct their circumstances, but we know He loves them and has a plan to use everything in their lives for His glory and the advancement of His church. Because they live in Iran, they have much opportunity to minister the love of Jesus to other hurting and oppressed women. As a result, God’s church is expanding in Iran!God’s church is not only expanding, it is developing. What was a scattering of a few is now growing and increasing into many. Just five years ago, the Christians in Iran were scattered and isolated from one another. But today, their “cell groups” are expanding and leadership is being formed to provide structure and order. This is probably why persecution and oppression is also increasing. House arrests are at an all time high and a new law has just passed. If one converts to Christianity they are to be executed, with no right of defense and sometimes immediately. But where darkness increases, the light shines even brighter! Jesus is most definitely on the move in Iran; His church is growing daily! By the end of the week, I was not only overwhelmed with the evil that permeated this land, I was also greatly encouraged by God’s revealed presence in this dark place. Jesus is revealing Himself in dreams and visions to those who cry out to know the One true God.As I flew home, I asked myself, “Would I go again?” The answer is undoubtedly, “Yes!” The trip was not for me, but for our sisters in Christ who suffer much in Iran. I thought of the woman who was just sold by her husband to his drug dealer to pay for his drugs. She is now this man’s wife, he beats her every day and there is nothing she can do about it. I then thought of a young woman I talked with. She is feeling led to minister to other hurting women in Iran. But she is afraid her father will find out she was raped, fearing he will have her killed for dishonoring the family. She is not irrational; these are valid concerns in Iran for women. And finally, I thought of a woman I spoke to at the end of the conference. Her husband and her bought bicycles and evangelized from village to village in Iran. The people were very receptive and glad to receive the good news of the love of Jesus. The government found out about them and imprisoned her husband. They tortured him so severely that he cannot think with his mind the way he used to. His body remains infected. She could not take him to the doctors in fear of the government accusing them of speaking badly against the government, which is punishable by prison or death. They decided to escape Iran to get him the medical help he needed. But their 17-year old son could not go to with them. Minors in Iran cannot obtain a passport. The 17-year old son convinced them he wanted his father to live and he promised to stay to continue the work his father started in Iran. They now live as refugees in a foreign country with very little means to survive, and they fear for their son they were forced to leave in Iran. “Would I return to encourage my sisters?” “Yes!”I have to admit they were not the only ones encouraged. By ministering to them, I was richly blessed with faith, courage, and a deep appreciation for Jesus as never before. I have been given a glimpse into a society absent of Christ, and it has caused me to drop to my knees in gratitude. The benefit of having a Christian influence in our culture and country is now clearer than ever. By getting to know these women’s stories I have witnessed the faithfulness of God in miraculous ways. They are brave women and they have encouraged me as to how God can better use my life for His good work.