“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life...” Deuteronomy 30:19-20a NIV
Simply trust.
Pastor Kerry Willis
"God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways-- the path that brings me back to you." Psalm 139:23-24 [TPT]
Simply Trusting...
Pastor Kerry Willis
A few days ago i posted a Toby Mac song basically saying i want to lose myself to find Jesus, nevertheless, today i am posting another Toby Mac song that declares i don’t want to lose my soul. Both are true of my own testimony. i surrender myself and sign my soul over to You, my Savior. Lord have mercy.
Simply trust...
Pastor Kerry Willis
“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 [TPT]
Simply Trusting...
Pastor Kerry Willis
This song is profound:
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
I will never forget the Sunday when I asked Brother Earl Clarke to close our worship service with the benediction. He arose to the microphone and spontaneously declared the powerful lyrics of this old hymn of the church. I pray you will be encouraged by it now.
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
This morning i prayed aloud: "Lord, [i am here at this time in this geographical place in my life] because i love You and because You love me and not really in that order. And, Lord, i am content. i need You for everything -- to stand up, to breathe -- and i am glad about that."
i say now, my Jesus, something i have believed a long time: Wherever You are, there is love and so i am here and HERE IS LOVE. Amen.
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
Written on the eve of January 22, 2021
National Sanctity of Human Life Day
There is still amazing grace for our silent disgrace.
This is my humble attempt to carefully and prayerfully speak the truth in love about something both sensitive and sacred. i have no personal agenda, only an allegiance to my Holy God.
To our Almighty Creator, the reality of abortion in our land is much more than what some have called "a (political) dog whistle." Abortion is, my friends, without doubt, an American tragedy to our Heavenly God.
What is wrong with us? How dare we reduce something as precious and essential as decisions about LIFE mostly to divisive political arguments? God forbid it. God forgive us.
Honestly, it totally breaks my heart both for the millions of precious children whose lives have ended or will be ended by abortion and for the millions of dear parents who have endured and experienced or will endure and experience the agony associated without abortions. (Over 60 million in the USA since 1973, when abortion was legalized.)
Here’s the good news in the face of these horrible truths:
There is still amazing grace for our silent disgrace. God’s love and mercy reaches to all sides and corners of this deep and painful shame. Because God gave His Son to be crucified on the Cross, we can choose to LIVE abundantly again on planet earth, knowing His full forgiveness. He also offers us an eternal future in His forever presence. We only need to repent and return to Him. It’s true. Jesus paid it all.
It’s past time for the Church to take back this issue of abortion and many other issues akin to it -- poverty, racism, addictions, human sexuality -- and for us as His people together to begin again in fervent praying that includes real lamenting and earnest seeking of God’s good heart. This is the unity needed most -- Holy Spiritual Unity.
Before it’s too late, let us, as His Church, once again raise our voices as one toward Heaven and cry out for His divine help and undeniable hope.
Beginning now, let the spiritual awakening commence in our country and spread around this world that our God so loves, still. O how He loves us. We can best return His love by turning away from all Sin and turning back to Him, immediately. So help us, Almighty God.
In the Name of Your Resurrected-back-to-LIFE Son, our Savior, and soon-coming King, yes, in the Name of the Wonderful One called The LIFE -- Jesus Himself -- i/we humbly pray. Amen, Amen, and Amen.
-kerry w. willis
Author’s added comments: Maybe if we as the Church would be poised and ready to tenderly embrace and amazingly love those faced with deciding between Life or abortion, the outcomes would begin to be more beautiful? Lord, turn our preaching into reaching, our finger-pointing into holy anointing. Lord, forgive us, forgive me. Make me like You, Jesus — a servant and a friend of the forgotten and the downtrodden. Amen. -kww
This song has been a favorite of my family’s for years. i chose it as one song sung at my Dad’s homegoing service on November 17, 2014, at the Free Grace Wesleyan Church on The Old Ferry Dock Road, Harkers Island, North Carolina. i hope it helps you, today:
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
i revisit this passage from The Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible often:
“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.”
1 John 3:16-17 MSG
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
Today, my Sunday message began with the reading of the scroll portion Jesus read from in Nazareth. Yes, the opening words of Isaiah 61. What hope He spoke as He revealed Who He was.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3 KJV
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
This sacred song is my fervent prayer often, even now. -kww
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
Dear Church:
Lost people matter to God.
"Deep down, most New Barbarians [lost people] want to experience God’s forgiveness and acceptance; they would like a second chance and a new life. The Church has what they are looking for, but is not offering it to them." -- George G. Hunter, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, 2000
"Lord give us Your eyes to see, so we can discover that lost people matter to you." - Prayer
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
Today, as i walked through a rural cemetery worshipping my God, it seems i heard Him whisper loudly: “Kerry, I want you to focus more the rest of your life on My Love for you!”
This song accented the whisper:
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
In God’s Word there are moving examples of God’s people praying together and great things transpiring.
I remember the story of Peter being in prison while the house church prayer meeting was underway and an Angel of the Lord came to the prison and freed the apostle. [Acts 12]
So, let’s not give up praying together. We can pray together right now.
Father God, we come to you as believers. We need Your help and Your holiness. Only You can save us but surely we believe You can!
Lord, we agree that we need Almighty assistance if we are to make it as Your children. Because we are Your children we have the privilege to ask for Your intervention and because You are our Father, Your sacred responsibility is to come to our cries and give us Yourself. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
“Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbors and hate the one who hates you.’ However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them. For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil. What reward do you deserve if you only love the loveable? Don’t even the tax collectors do that? How are you any different from others if you limit your kindness only to your friends? Don’t even the ungodly do that? Since you are children of a perfect Father in heaven, you are to be perfect like him.” Matthew 5:43-48 TPT
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
My dear friend and brother, Rev. Kevin Griffin, concluded his sermon today with this powerful modern-day portrayal of the Loving Father and the Prodigal Son [Luke 15]. He set the video up with these words: “Have you ever thought about what Father God thinks about when Father God thinks about you?”
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
Here are words of accountability spoken to pastors from the first pastor, the Apostle Peter, calling us to "lead from the heart."
"Now, I encourage you as an elder, an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ, and one who shares in the glory that is about to be unveiled. I urge my fellow elders among you to be compassionate shepherds who tenderly care for God’s flock and who feed them well, for you have the responsibility to guide, protect, and oversee. Consider it a joyous pleasure and not merely a religious duty. Lead from the heart under God’s leadership--not as a way to gain finances dishonestly but as a way to eagerly and cheerfully serve. Don’t be controlling tyrants but lead others by your beautiful examples to the flock. And when the Shepherd-King appears, you will win the victor’s crown of glory that never fades away." 1 Peter 5:1-4 TPT
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
This link should take you to a recent devotional i wrote for our district family titled “All The Way!” i pray it ministers comfort to you.
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Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
A sacred song that God used to help define my call to Himself and to full-time ministry back in 1992 comes to mind on this day called Epiphany. Truly, His call on my life was an epiphany — A moment of sudden revelation.
Also, on Epiphany, January 6, 1969, my Dad, Capt. Billy, in the early morning hours aboard his fishing trawler had a sudden revelation of Jesus hanging on the Cross and he gave His life to Him. The refinement that followed in his life was a miraculous witness to his family and many, many others up until he left to be with Jesus on November 17, 2014.
i hope this song blesses you, today.
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
“And I heard a thunderous voice from the throne, saying: “Look! God’s tabernacle is with human beings. And from now on he will tabernacle with them as their God. Now God himself will have his home with them— ‘God-with-them’ will be their God!” Revelation 21:3 TPT
Lord, what a powerful word from the writings of Your Revelation. To think that You would desire to dwell with us, even to tabernacle within us, is a thought too great to even imagine. Yet I do imagine it and know that it is my inheritance. Abide with me, within me, for forever and today. Amen. -kww
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most l!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
These prayers for love are at the top of my heart, today.
Lord, i want to love You above all else, always. i also want to love others as You have loved me. Love me and love through me. -kww
Lord, let my life be characterized by Your perfect love. -kww
[Prayers inspired by John 13:34, John 15:12, 1 John 4:18 & Philippians 3:12]
And here’s “a love song” to inspire you:
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
Sunday evening I spoke with my dear mother, Lady Melba, on the phone. She told me they had a very tender service Sunday morning at the local church where I was raised. The highlight seemed to be for her the singing of an old hymn based on Revelation 21. Here it is now, "The Pearly White City" in three renditions:
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most l!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
With all the talk about the upcoming January 5 senate runoff elections in Georgia, i wonder how many even know that the next day, January 6, is Epiphany.
On January 6, 1969, there was an Epiphany in my life that changed everything for my family and me and especially for my Daddy, for he was gloriously saved from his sins during the fourth watch of the night aboard the family shrimp trawler docked during a storm at Wanchese, North Carolina.
Yes, in the early hours of Epiphany 1969, after a dream of Jesus hanging on the Cross, my Daddy knelt in the floor of the bunk room and asked Jesus to be his Savior.
As a result, our whole family became Jesus-believers. Never underestimate the power of a father leading his family in the faith.
Holy Epiphany to you as January 6, 2021 approaches. -kww
Note: Epiphany is the day we celebrate the Magi, yes, the Wisemen, coming to Bethlehem to worship King Jesus.
Epiphany defined: a moment of sudden revelation -- the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.
Happens Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
After 2020, i’ve decided two words are needed for 2021: "SIMPLY TRUST!"
My two words come from Psalm 116:7b [TPT]:
"Relax and rest, be confident and serene for the Lord rewards fully those who SIMPLY TRUST in Him."
Lord, ‘Tis so sweet to simply trust in You. Amen.
Hope Happens HERE!
Presence Matters Most!
No Invisible People! UNITY!
Pastor Kerry Willis
