Now that I am weak

 Praise the Lord! I hope and pray you are all being blessed by the Lord. I was thinking about all of the pain and suffering I went through over the past year. I've come to the conclusion that it was good that I was afflicted. David said the same thing in the 119th Psalm verse 71.
⁷¹It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
 My relationship with God is much closer now, my prayer life is stronger now and my study habits have improved. Funny how a little adversity can either bring you closer to God or drive you away from God. All my life I had a lot of pride, not that I thought I was all that good looking because in fact I had low self esteem when it came to my outward appearance. But I tried to make up for it with my accomplishments, playing football in high school and college. First in my family to go to college and graduate. I Wrote songs and produced music and had a career as a Registered Nurse. What did it all mean? Nothing, if it had not all led me to Christ and to such a time as this, then it would have all been for nothing.
 I have been through the crucibal of affliction twice, drugs first and then suffering these infimities in my body. God has forged me like steel. But now my strengh is not in myself but in my faith in God. College degrees and a quick wit don't amount to anything in Gods kingdom.      Paul said in 2nd cor. 12:7-10  
⁷And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measur
⁸For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

⁹And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
¹⁰Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I have yielded my spirit unto His, I seek him in everything I do. I have made a shipwreck of everything in my life that I have tried to do on my own. One of the reasons there are not more men in the church is the fact that men do not like to submit their wills to another, we are nsatural born leaders and we want to lead, we don't like being told what to do. I know I didn't and If you ask my wife she'll say I still don't, but I have been crushed time and agsain because of my disobedience and stuborness. When God breaks you only He can fix you. As I slowly turned my will over to Him He slowly began to restore me. As I am writing this God is already dealing with me about my next assignment and that is to lose a significant amount of weight and exercise more and I'm going to do it too but not depending on my own strength but leaning totaly on him because now that I am weak, He is strong, in me.
                                                            God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A watchman

Do you Know His name?

Praise the Lord! I pray you all are blessed as I am. My wife was not feeling well last night and I was reading the 91st Psalm to her and praying, as Gods word was being read it began to minister to us. The verses that really got my attention were verses fourteen and fifteen,
¹⁴Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
¹⁵He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
I began to think about all the times God delivered me from trouble, trouble I got myself into and yet he saved me more times than I can remember from certain death. When I was out there caught up in drug addiction He saved me and when I relapsed He forgave me and protected me until I laid down the drugs and came back to Him. Why? I often asked myself. He answered me in those two verses, it was because in spite of all I was going through I never forgot his name. Many nights I cried out to him "please take this addiction away from me!" only to pick it up again and run a little farther with it. I loved the Lord but I loved the drugs a little bit more at that time but God was patient with me.

Finally when I called on him in earnest to deliver me, he did, and He has kept me ever since.
 There is healing in the word of God also just ask my wife, she feels much better today. I thank God that I can call on the name of the Lord and He will incline His ear unto me. He hears us! Praise God!
This is worth the prayers, worth the consecration and the trials. The Bible says we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Psalms 145: 18+19 says 
¹⁸The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
¹⁹He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
Many know God by name but few know Him by person, they know of him but not what makes him him. I'm not talking about sinners(the unsaved) but about those sunday go to meeting Christians who are more into religion than relationship. Relationships take work and cultivation they don't just happen.
If you really want to be blessed and have peace of mind get to know Him and who he is. God bless you all.
                                               Brother Darrell, A watchman

A watchman on the wall

Praise the Lord! I pray everyone is having a blessed day. I realized the other day that by starting this blog and for the first time declaring publicly what God declared to me years ago through my pastor and through His word, I might have caused some confusion and skepticism among those who know me because I had never shared it before. By the way, for those that were wondering I did not make it to Deacon Broxtons Home going service. I still feel like I need a little more time to prepare physically for an outing like that. Please keep me in prayer.

I remember the first time I heard it. My pastor came to me about seventeen years ago and told me "God has made you a watchman on the wall." He put me in a chair up front near the pulpit up against the wall where I could see the whole church. At first I didn't get it. I felt like a security guard. I had only been saved about three years at that point and was just getting bearings in my walk with Christ. I knew back in biblical times a watchman was person who stood on the wall surrounding the city at night and kept watch over the city like a soldier on guard duty. For years that's what I did until I left that church a few years later. I didn't think much of it for years until God started to deal with me about it twelve years ago.

First God gave me the scripture Ezekiel 33: 7+8

 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood." I began to really appreciate the position of Watchman. Still I did not understand what God wanted me to do. Then one day He confirmed to me who I was and what he wanted me to do for Him.

One day while reading Psalms I came across this scripture, Psalm 32:8    

^8"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."

   That scripture bothered me for weeks maybe months, what did God mean he would guide me with His eye. I tried to picture God looking down from heaven with a beam of light coming from his eyes that would guide my way through life. It didn't make sense to me until one day it opened up to me, God was going to let me see things through his eyes. He was going to give me the ability to see things in this world the way he does. Once I understood what kind of "watchman" He wanted me to be my way of looking at things began to change, I was grieved by much of what I was seeing and I felt even more compassion for lost souls. Yet still I did not know how to use this gift so it could be edifying to the body of Christ. So God began to stir up another gift in me that I had not used in years and that was the ability to write. I discovered the ability to put pen to paper in the the fifth grade when I wrote a short story of fiction about my fifth grade teacher and an imagined affair she was having with another teacher at our school, I would have gotten an "A" too if I had just had sense enough to change the names.
For awhile I was a man with a calling with no way to minister, and then one day God put it on my brothers heart to bless me with a computer and there came my outlet, the Internet. I discovered that I could reach people all over the world. After a few false starts that I chalked up to learning experiences here I am writing under the unction of the Holy Spirit what God is observing concerning the Church especially in America. I plan on being obedient to my calling and going wherever it takes me. The Church is split into many pieces and heading on to dangerous ground. The word says judgement will start with the church FIRST. God has sent me and others like me as lonely voices in the wilderness saying "turn back! before it's to late!" We have abandoned the teachings of living holy and avoiding sin.
Yes I am a flawed vessel but that's what God uses, more important I'm a willing vessel.  He takes broken vessels and makes them whole.
I am being constantly upgraded and renovated by God as he seeks to make me the best I can be.
May God bless you all.
                                    Brother Darrell, A Watchman

Yes I Can!

Praise the Lord! I pray everyone has been blessed by God. As I said in an earlier post I have been in moderate to severe pain everyday for the last nine months until about three weeks ago. It got to the point that I would have to pray for God to give me strength just to get up out of my chair. I would often ask God to decrease the pain just enough so that I could tolerate the procedure as I also quoted the scripture Philippians 4:13 " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
 Then I would struggle to get up on my feet. Every time I needed or wanted to do something I prayed that prayer believing that God would do just what his word said it would do.

Since then God has touched my body and lessened my pain, it is time now for me to become more active, to venture out into the world again, Go to church again things like that. It seems so simple just get up and get dressed and go. Sure there will be some discomfort involved but compared to the past year it is very manageable, my leg strength may be down a little of course but that's it. Yet I find myself dreading going out. As much as in my heart I want to go to church and be with my church family a few times when the time came for me to go a feeling of apprehention came over me, a type of anxiety attack. The joy I felt when I first made the decision to go quickly faded as the time to go got closer and closer.
Their was no prayer or telling myself "I can do all things through Christ..." Today I asked myself why? Why don't I press through and go out the same way I pressed to get up out of my chair? I asked myself if He helped me then why wouldn't he help me now? He never changes.I trusted him to get up out of my seat I trusted him to get up off the floor when I fell and had no one to help me. Why don't I trust him to get me where I'm going and get me back? I used to. I heard God say "when you take the first step and get on the bus haven't I always kept you and made sure you completed what you set out to do and brought you back safe?" I had to say yes, I had to agree, God has been faithfull even when I was not. He is more than able to keep me from falling, in all ways.

Saturday is the going home service for Deacon Broxton and I'm looking forward to being there to see him off and I'm looking forward to taking another step toward a more active life in Christ. Please pray for me as I pray for you.
                                             Brother Darrell, A watchman                                             

No soul left behind

 Praise the Lord! I have not posted in the last few days because life can be hectic even for a basically home bound person like me. I feel kind of sad today because my church family suffered a loss Saturday night, Deacon Reggie Broxton when home to be with the Lord. He is rejoicing with the Lord right now no more pain no more sorrow, but for those of us left behind there is a bit of sadness, we will miss him.

In case you don't know it God is moving by His spirit in the body of Christ in America and if you don't move with Him you may get run over or worse left behind. No one knows the day nor the hour. Here is a little something God has dealt with me about and I hope it blesses you as it did me.


^{Matthew 10: 5-7            5}These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:  6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

⁷And as ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.



The Marines have a motto “no man left behind,” meaning they don’t believe in leaving any of their men behind on the battlefield, dead or alive. When you talk to servicemen about that motto you find out they are very passionate about carrying out that “duty”. We as Christians have the same mandate as the Marines “No soul left behind”.  God wishes that none should perish and that all shall have eternal life. When Jesus sent out the twelve he sent them for the “lost sheep” those who had fallen by the wayside due to lack of faith and understanding. In the war for men’s souls Jesus could have just sent them after those who were willing to listen and learn, instead he sent them after those who were reluctant to believe the Gospel, holding to the fathers mandate that none should perish or be left behind.

In today’s Church era we have strayed from the example Christ set for us. Today we leave all kinds of people behind for all kinds of reasons, maybe they don’t dress right or maybe they’re not the right complexion, or maybe they’re young and full of the “world”. For whatever reason we the Church have dropped the ball. Mega churches are proliferating across America as they draw in the hungry and the thirsty, but who cares for the souls of the well off and the satisfied? Who cares for the God haters and those possessed by cults and demons? We step over the dirty and homeless as we enter into our grand edifices dressed to the nines and forsake the “great commission” to go out into the highways and byways and compel the people to receive salvation.

We are soldiers in the army of the Lord and we need to adopt the same mindset as the marines. We need to be determined that no soul is insignificant and that no one should be left behind to be devoured by the enemy.

                       Brother Darrell, A watchman

Where are the woman of God?

Praise the Lord! I pray everyone has been blessed since my last post. I did not mean for this much time to go by since my last posting but life being what it is things happen. It has been almost three weeks since God lessened my pain and I think I'm finally truly believing it. My legs are getting stronger everyday as I can now walk around now and my pain is manageable now. After spending the last eleven months mostly in severe pain it has taken me some time for me to push myself to become more active. Sometimes we pray and pray for something and finally God gives it to us and then we have trouble believing He did it. God forgive my unbelief

I'd like to share with you today the follow up to "Where are the men of God" "Where are the woman of God?" I hope you will be blessed.

 

 Proverbs 31:10           10) “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.”

If you walk into just about any church in America these days you might say “this place is full of virtuous women, Look, they are everywhere!” In most church’s today woman far out number men, even with the men’s ministries like “Promise Keepers” and T. D. Jakes “Man Power” series and other ministries designed to attract men woman still out number men in the church. They are everywhere, on the Deacon board, on the usher board and the executive board. They teach Sunday school, sing in the choir and sit next to you in church pews all over this country, but are they real women of God or are they just doing what they’re “supposed” to do, what’s “expected” of them. After all they were dragged to church every Sunday as children by their mothers who where dragged by their mothers and so on and so on. It has become a tradition, a tradition that most women carry on out of a sense of duty. On the out side it looks commendable, but on the inside their hearts are far from God. They have secret agendas like getting a husband or gaining power and respect in the church and the community, what ever the reason living holy and serving God has little to do with why they go to church. 2^nd Timothy 3:6 talks about false teachers and “weak willed woman who are loaded down by sin and swayed by all kinds of evil desires.” I believe Apostle Paul was not talking about just non-believers here but believers also. They are wolves in sheep clothing. They infiltrate the flock and feed on those who are also weak and unable to stand against the wiles of the enemy. They sow seeds of discord among the brothren through gossip and back biting while all the time appearing to be devout members of the congregation. In a lot of cases they are hard working members, belonging to all the right clubs and church committees but they are just religious woman, just functioning out of habit who have long since lost sight of Jesus. 

“Who can find a virtuous woman?” The writer of proverbs asks, yes where are the woman of God? They are right there in those same churches except they have not lost their way, they have stayed on course, refusing to fall for the tricks of the enemy. In these last days many men and woman will come and lead many astray but the true woman and men of God are still holding on to His unchanging hand. Though they labor hard they have not lost sight of the reason for their labor, Jesus Christ! You Woman who are living all you know how to live in Christ, remain steadfast and immoveable, do not get caught up in your works as some are want to do. Serve God with all your soul, heart, mind and strength and let the light of Christ shine through you so that others may see it and glorify God. Then they will know where the woman of God is. God bless you all.

Brother Darrell, A watchman

                                                                             

Where are the men of God?

Praise the Lord! Now that I've started this blog my main concern is where do I begin. First off I started my day off with prayer and thank God I did because as soon as I booted up my computer I noticed my security suite was not working and I could not access anything. After a number of reboots without success I had to call my provider because now I'm thinking virus. To make a long story short after about an hour of work in my computer by one of their techs and much prayer here I am.
           For the last eight years or so I have been suffering from severe pain in my hips due to degenerative joint disease and have been disabled to the point of having to use a wheel chair at one point. Coupled with a bad case of sciatica my quality of life physically has had me on an emotional roller coaster but spiritually speaking It has been a blessing because it has brought me closer to God. The past year has really been rough but about two weeks ago after a seven day consecration God touched my body, I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. Today I'd like to share something with you from the heart of God.

The body of Christ in America has a severe shortage and it is a concern. God put something on my heart a while back and I'd like to share it with you and let me know If you are feeling what the Lord is saying.
         

WHERE ARE THE MEN OF GOD?

1st Corinthians 3:1-3           1) Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but
as worldly-mere infants in Christ.  2) I gave you milk, not solid food, for you
were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.  3) You are still
worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not
worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?


The apostle Paul was addressing the men of the Corinthian church when he wrote
this and unfortunately it can be asked of the body of Christ today. Where are the
true men of God? Men, spiritual men who are led by the Holy Spirit of God,
uncompromising in there walk with their consciences clear between them and
God and between them and men. Men who mean what they say, and say what they
mean. Men who are rightfully dividing the word of God and not bending and making
up scripture to fit their purposes. The body of Christ especially in urban areas
needs men who care about their testimonies. I'm not saying we need perfect men
because there was only one perfect man but we need more men who are willing
to press on toward the mark, to take hold that for which Christ took hold of them.
These are the men worthy to be called "Men of God" I challenge you today if
your mind is not made up, make it up and serve the Lord.

                                                                             Brother Darrell, A watchman
                                                                                          

Taking Up The mantle

Praise the Lord! Today I will start a journey that I have known I would have to take for years but still tried to run from for years. For years I have been involved in many ministries, I've preached, I've taught, fed the homeless, been homeless, worked with addicts and have been an addict. God has invested a lot of time and effort in getting me to this point. I have received many messages from God all concerning the condition of His people. Some I delivered some went undelivered. After years of hearing one of my former pastors words echo in my ears "God has made you a watch man on the wall." Now after years of running and years of affliction I am obeying Gods will and I'm going to share what God has given me to share and also share what it is like to try and live holy in these last and evil days where sex is available for a coke and a smile and getting rich at any cost is the mantra of all the people including the people of God.

I am nobody special other than the fact that my desire is to serve God with all my heart, soul, mind and strenghth and love my wife as Jesus loved the church and gave his life for it. My wife and I have decided to let nothing stand in our way. I look forward to sharing with everyone my journey in Christ and what thus sayeth the Lord. God bless you all.
                                                                                                  Brother Darrell, a watchman