Reflections on Sunday, February 24th, 2008

This past Sunday was, as always, a remarkably emotional rollercoaster filled with signs of God’s grace and mercy for His people. From our sad unfortunate loss of Eddie and Jeremy to sunny California to the story of a crazy drive of the Pastor despite God’s signs, any person in the congregation would have thought it was all planned out in advance to make such a great cohesion of a service. Part of Jeremy’s departing words included the notion that he “never went to a church where he felt like every sermon was directed right at him.” I believe that is what makes Liberation Ministries unique in essence of the words shared and the community in the congregation: religion is translated for relativity. I, too, after every sermon since the first one I attended last year felt like God through this church was speaking directly to me; His grace and mercy is felt every single Sunday and that is what drags me still out of bed on time despite going to sleep the night prior to at 3a.m.

Signs; we see them, we acknowledge them, but yet we still ride against the grain every single time and avoid the path they appear to lead to. Pastor Darrell’s story of ignoring every single sign to stay inside and not drive/fly/travel anywhere, but still doing so was a clear example of this. Recently laid off, I feel like it was a sign from God that it was now my time to move back home to the islands. So many things are pulling me there; my parents are getting a divorce leaving behind a distressed mother, my brother who has a newborn son (*my God child) is leaving for Officer school, and my younger brother is graduating. These are all obvious signs to me, but sometimes I have to wonder if it’s the not-so-obvious signs that I should truly follow. One of my favorite songs’ lyrics say “do I really want a God that I can understand, still I close my eyes and try to reason why, but since when does my desire dominate The plan.” Sometimes I just want to scream out loud “JUST TELL ME! I’M TIRED OF PLAYING THESE GAMES!” (*And in games, I refer to throwing me through all these trials and tribulations). At the end of church though I realized, our choices truly define who we are, thus innately we all will not follow “the signs” the same way.

Pastor Darrell hits the black ice, the car slides, turns, glides in circles over the slippery ice….Flashes of a lifetime of memories, of his family, of his choices dawn on him…Suddenly the “killer” ride slows the circling and the bumper simply “taps” the railing halting the life-threatening experience. The end of the Pastor’s story expressed one extremely important point that if misconstrued can be taken in an extremely wrong manner: God’s grace is always there. No matter the choice you end up making, He shows mercy, He shows grace, and helps guide us to humility and progression. This is not to say that we can make as many unjust/bad choices in our life and receive no punishment, but know the one and only judge in our life decides how He is there for us. We have no control over the omniscient. The one thing I do strongly believe in though; God speaks to us through our core: our heart. If we follow our heart, God will bring us to and through all of our crazy rides. Like the title of my favorite song from the Praise team: “God is Here.”

Reflections on Sunday, February 10, 2008

What I got out of Sunday's service is that we should be thankful for what God has done for us especially the ability to wake up! Pastor Darrell used a scripture in his sermon and it was Acts chapter 16 verses 16-38. He also gave us a recipe for Praise so that we might get closer to God!

In my personal experiences in life I can honestly say that I wasn't close to God, but yet he was still blessing me and I thought I was the one taking care of me! I remember when I had just had my 11 year old and we were traveling to Alabama around February and it was around 1-2am and I was driving. We had a Ford explorer at the time. My ex-husband had taken my newborn and my toddler out of their car seats and we had word because of this, but he didn't put them back! Out of nowhere I hit black ice and started to spin out of control I tapped the break and did what I remember seeing in the drivers manual. While we were spinning I saw this 18 wheeler that I had passed about 2-3 miles back vastly approaching. We hit the left side guard rail and slide all the way to the right side of the road and we stopped. During our sliding a car was coming up and they almost slammed into us. We got out of the truck to see the damage and the 18 wheeler was just passing us. The only damage we had was a slight bend in the bumper. When we got back in the truck we noticed that some of the bags we had had shifted to the front and where in the children car-seat. Now, that I think about it I didn't even praise God or say thank you for what he saved me and my family from! I would have been devastated if my children's life would have been taken that morning. Until I started attending Liberation Ministries I was a lost soul, but now I thank God or try to everyday! I give God Praise and he blesses me in return! I wanna thank Liberation Ministries for helping me to accept God into my life, my heart and my home! I love all of you!


Sis. Shantae Sharp

Reflections on Sunday, February 3, 2008

This past Sunday I had the honor preaching to the faithful few about a topic that is near and dear to all our all hearts and minds. The sermon was simply titled, “The Potter’s House”. In our human experience there is a constant opportunity to listen to the voice of God and allow the move of God to be evident in our lives. In order for this to take place in its fullness we must allow the space for God to continue to mold and shape us.

Jeremiah 18:1-12 gives us a synopsis of a conversation that God has with the prophet Jeremiah in relation to the children of Israel. God instructs Jeremiah that in order to hear his words he must go down to the Potter’s House. When Jeremiah arrives the potter is sitting at a wheel, working with the clay that is within his hands. As the clay is marred, the potter continues to reshape and remold it into its correct form. God reveals to Jeremiah that we are indeed the clay and he is the Master Potter. Every now and again we all must take a trip to the Master Potter and be reworked, restores, rejuvenated and revived.

Fortunately, the potter is waiting consistently and patiently for us to allow ourselves to be molded back into what God created and intended us to be. Nevertheless, there are a few questions that might hinder our journey:

1) What will God think of me, if I ask for a remolding?
2) What will the church think of me, if I am honest that I need God’s help?
3) Will I disappoint everyone that I told I had a new relationship with God?
4) What if I make the same mistake again?
5) What if I like doing what I am doing, feel bad about it, but ain’t planning on stopping no time soon?
6) What if I am just so broken that I cannot make it to the potter’s house?
7) I don’t know the benefits of the potter’s house! So what’s the use of going?


At the end of the day; these reasons are all pointless when confronted with the majesty of God. We are constantly in the hands of the Master Potter. God knows who and what we are. God is the almighty, the omnipotent and sent his Son, Jesus to cover a multitude of transgressions. By denying ourselves access, to the potters house, we are actually denying the reason Jesus came and sacrificed HIS life. Simply stated; not accessing the Potter’s House ignores the redemptive work of Christ on the Cross.

We all have the privilege of serving a God whose hand is not short, not is his ear deaf, but all power is in HIS hand. Allow this power to continue to shape and mold your life TODAY!


-Pastor Darrell L. Goodwin