The Heart of Worship Blog has been created to share the Heart of God through creative expression! We intend to uplift, encourage, and be a blessing to all!
If you only knew just how excited I am to be able to greet you all this holiday season!! I am overjoyed! My mind is racing with all that I want to say, and my heart is filled to overflowing because of the many many blessings that have overtaken my life throughout this year! As I began to think about what I could and would say, I realized just how passionate I am about writing and sharing with all of you through the Heart of Worship Blog. It is another gift that God has placed on the inside of me and again, I am grateful for the opportunity and the ability to be able to share it with you!
This has been an an amazing year of blessings, victories, accomplishments, trials, and triumphs, and I am still here to tell of it! I have been in the fight of my life and I AM WINNING! I know that some of you may not have been through the same things as me; nevertheless, I'm sure that you can say like me and with me, you stand victorious and YOU ARE WINNING!
This year I lost one of the greatest treasures in my life, and that was my mother, Evangelist Annabelle Thompson Moore!
She went home to be with the Lord on March 11, 2013 and I literally thought that I would stop breathing! I have faced many challenges and hit some hard places in my life, but I've never lost a mother before! So, I sit here today, 9 months later, thinking, pondering, laughing, crying, and still gasping for air in and effort to catch my breath! It's at the thought of everything that made my mother, my mother! It's all of her quips and quotes, her humor, her sassy stance, her wisdom, and insatiable LOVE & PASSION for God! She truly placed and left her thumb print on my life, and for that, I AM!
It has been the amazing challenges of this year that have strengthened me, developed me, humbled me, built character in me, and proven to me that I can do ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST THAT STRENGTHENS ME!!! With the Love of God and the help of my family and friends I've been able to meet and face every obstacle head on!
It truly amazes me how God has this incredible ability to mold and shape every one of my situations, be it good, bad, or ugly, to work out for my Good!
I love how Jeremiah says it,
I am learning to safely nestle and tuck myself under the protection of my Daddy's wings! I am finding as I go from glory to glory and faith to faith that I can put all of my weight on Him and simply lay back in the strength of His everlasting arms! There is so much more that I can say, but I will end saying this:
Don't focus on the failures of yesterday
Focus on right now potential and hope of your future
Take the time to embrace the Love of God
Make the time to Love on You
LIVE, LAUGH,& LOVE on those that you call Family & Friends
Please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers, thanking God upon every remembrance of YOU~
I can hear my mother saying, "Baby the race is not given to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but it's to the one that endures to the end!"
I would also hear her say, "slow and steady wins the race." I'm like Mommie can you just tell me what you're trying to say without the parable? She would say, "honey it's not how fast you're going, but that you don't give up before the end of the race." I didn't always understand what she was trying to say, but the older I got it all started to make sense.
I began to think about the scripture in Hebrews 12 that tells us how to run our race, and shows how the pioneers, and more importantly, Jesus blazed the way for us. The Message translation really breaks down this passage and says: "Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!"
The more I looked at that verse, the more I began to see that starting the race, staying in the race, and finishing the race is not all about me, but about those that are watching and waiting on me to blaze the trail before them. I believe that's what my mother was trying to say to me!
Jesus was our perfect example in that He endured the cross and despised the shame for our freedom.
Where would we be if Jesus would have quit or given up before going to the cross? He came into the world knowing that the goal was to redeem sinful man, and with everything that He had to endure He never took His eyes off the goal! WOW!!! What a selfless and loving God! He gave his only son Jesus, and Jesus said, "no man take my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. I am so glad that He endured the cross for you and me!"
Today I want to encourage you to keep your eyes on Jesus as you continue to run the race that is set before you! Life has an interesting way of showing up with all kinds of distractions to get us off of our course, and to throw in the towel before we get to the finish line, but we must keep on going!!! It is our endurance and staying power that will give us the fortitude to not just continue the race and reach our goal, but to Finish Strong!
Don't forget that fulfilling and completing your God given assignment is not all about you, but those that are divinely connected to you! What an awesome responsibility and privilege we have to pass the baton, but if we give up before we reach the next runner, we hinder the team from finishing the race. So again, Don't Give Up! You're Too Close Now!!!
Happy Wednesday to everyone! Whew!!!!!! It has been a while since my last blog! It seems like everything has been moving so fast and I'm just getting a chance to slow down! Trust me I have been longing and it has been my hearts desire to get back to Heart of Worship Blog!
God has really been blessing and opening doors, which has been keeping me busy! I thank God for the opportunity to do what I love! It was the enemies desire to stop me, but I am in pursuit of The One that has apprehended me, and so I am chasing after God with a passion! At the beginning and the end of the the day my Heart is to Worship God!!!!
Have you ever had a yearning in your heart for the one that you love? You just had to hear their voice, feel their touch, be in their presence. Well, that is how I feel about my Father! I have found the one whom I heart and soul longs for, and I don't want to even think about living a day outside of His Presence! He gives me my reason and purpose for living!
Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about several things that I would blog about once I got the moment, but there is one thing I that I can't shake and that is "focusing on the things that matter the most!" I think once I received my diagnosis and started walking through my process I began to place more value and emphasis on Life, Loving, Living, and Giving! I began to see where I was allowing the small things to take over and consume my life, or as my mother would say in her sassy way, "sweating the dumb stuff!" There is always going to be the little foxes that come to destroy the vine, but we must redirect our focus to "the things that matter most."
It is amazing that when I redirect my focus that it always lands me back in the seat of gratitude and thanksgiving! The little foxes usually come with murmuring, complaining, frustration, and such like!
But when I begin to shine the light on "the things that matter," like Life, Family, Love, Relationship with God and others, Health, Strength, and such like, my perspective is broadened! I can now see and enjoy all of the beautiful things that have been placed in my life and that surrounds me! I can see the splendor of God!
Today I encourage you to take a moment to take your focus off of the things that you can't change, and "focus on the things that matter!"
I never thought that a diagnosis of the "C" word.....cancer, would bring me to a place of gratitude. I never thought that receiving a diagnosis that the cancer had moved from my liver to my lungs would make me more determined to "LIVE!" I never thought that I would be fully living to the point that I don't waste time living in fear of dying. I never thought that this life altering thing could drive me to the point of being more intentional about counting gifts! I never thought that I could take pleasure in a broken life; a life that He would bless and give thanks for. A life full of grace that has been blessed, to be broken, and given. Shared!
I never thought that I would come to a place that I could find joy. The true joy that comes from the word Eucharisteo, which means thanksgiving. I never thought that I could find joy and fulfillment in giving thanks in everything and every situation. I love where Ann Voskamp says in her book "One Thousand Gifts," "The holy grail of joy is not some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be --unbelievably--possible!"
WoW! The concept and idea that joy could really be found not in some far off exotic place, but right in the middle of my mess!
Yes! Right in the middle of it all, I begin to offer thanksgiving, fully embracing my right now life! My life with all of its complications, mishaps, whatever's. Not realizing that right on the heels of my thanking and giving in thanks, I am literally preparing the way for my miracle! "Eucharisteo--thanksgiving--always precedes the miracle." The miracle that comes from a shared life, meaning the more life that I share, the more life I receive!
"Thanksgiving is necessary to our living the well, whole, fullest life." It is the heart of ingratitude that keeps us in a place of lack: not the lack of money, but the lack of joy, wholeness, peace, and the overflowing full life. I believe that I have found the key to my salvation, the key to my joy in exchange for sorrow, the key that has unlocked my inner beauty instead of ashes, the key of Thanksgiving and Gratitude!
When something is not habit or way of life I believe you have to be intentional in making changes. So you may be thinking......
***How do I make the great exchange of Gratitude for inGratitude?
***How do I begin preparing for the miracle through giving thanks?
***Where do I begin?
I want to encourage you to begin right where you are! To begin giving thanks and counting the gifts that you already have. I hope that you will join me as I begin again........Counting Gifts!
..............."I know that where you are in your walk you are probably far removed from this place; nevertheless, I thought you'd love this song by Jonathan McReynolds "No Gray!"
This was the text that I received from my God-Son last week, and I'm thinking to myself, I still have things that I'm working my way through! I have to make the decision to Die to my flesh daily! I sometimes have situations and circumstances that are facing me and I have to choose, and choose again......LIFE! Deuteronomy 30:19 says, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,thatI have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may Live;
The world has much to offer, and there are so many distractions, but it is up to us as to whether we will receive the blessing or the curse based on our choices. I don't know about you, but I want to be blessed beyond the curse, so I Choose Life! After looking at the lyrics to the song "No Gray" I started to think about how many of us are in this place where we feel split and divided; part of us loving God, and part of us loving the world! No man can serve two masters, we must Love one and Hate the other! We have to be white or black, with no shades of gray!
God tells us that he would rather we be Hot or Cold than lukewarm! At some point and time we have to stop straddling the fence and choose which side we are going to be on!
Are you finding yourself up one day and down the next?
Are you being influenced by the world?
Do you constantly find yourself torn between making the right and wrong decisions?
If this is you, today I encourage you to Choose Life!
Here are the lyrics to the song "NO GRAY"! I pray that you allow these words to penetrate your spirit!
Verse 1:
Lord I'm split in two
Part of me loves the world
And the other loves You
So what do I do
I wanna be saved
But I got to stay cool too
And no I'm not a fool
I know eventually I'm gonna have to choose
And really I don't wanna lose
My ticket into heaven
And a chance to be used by You
Chorus:
And if it's God that I'm after
Then I can't serve two masters
And before something happens
I got to turn it all around
Because I know
I can't just have my cake and eat it too
Cause it's real easy to stay on the fence and still do you
And it'd be cool if we could love the Lord and still go do our thing
But see it doesn't work like that
I got to be white or black
Oh ooohh
Verse 2:
Lord I've realized
when it comes to sin
You just don't compromise
It's a matter of death and life
Be weak and do wrong
Or be strong and do right
And I don't wanna keep going to church
Singing about how much You're worth
And then continue doing my dirt
Living as if I didn't care if You're hurt
Chorus:
And if it's God that I'm after
Then I can't serve two masters
And before something happens
I gotta turn it all around
Because you know
You can't just have your cake and eat it too
Cause it's real easy to stay on the fence and still do You
And it'd be cool if we could love the Lord and still go do our thing
See it doesn't work like that
You got to be white or black
Bridge:
We saint's got to
Get it together
Just got to
Get it together
And if it's God we're after
We got to pick one master
And before something happens
We better turn it all around
Because you know
You can't just have your cake and eat it too
Cause it's really easy to stay on the fence and still do you
And it'd be cool if we could love the Lord and still go do our thing
See it doesn't work like that
You got to be white or black
Cause it don't work like that
You gotta pick white or black...
No Grey, No shades of Grey, it don't work like that!
Yes I'm a proud YaYa!!!! Today was BJ or should I say Jodie's (since he's a big boy now) first day of Kindergarten! He got up this morning and ate his breakfast, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and put on his clothes just like an old man! LOL! He told his Diddy and I that yesterday was his last day being a little boy and now today he's a Big Boy! He was so ready for school!
I'm so proud of his mom, my daughter Paris, for doing such a good job with Jodie! I know that it hasn't been easy for her as a young mother, but I commend her for taking the necessary steps to being a great mom!
We want to thank Mrs. Chatman for giving Jodie such an awesome foundation at "Happy School," as well as everyone who has poured into his life from birth to now! I can't help but think about Mom today (tears)! I know she is smiling down on all of her grandchildren! She was always so proud of all our accomplishments!
I truly pray that you had a wonderful weekend and that your day is going well!~
The weather has already done a shift and most of us are in the hustle and bustle of getting our children back to school! Don't try to hide that smile, I know you're happy that they are back to school and out of the house! Oh the joys of a closed refrigerator, a little more food left in the cabinets, and a little more money in your wallet! :-)
I'm still trying to understand what happened to our summer here in the Mid-West. It has been rainy, and windy, and now chilly; I think we had summer for about three weeks!
Maybe we'll get a few more weeks of warm weather before we completely transition to Fall!
Now that I got that out I wanted to share with you a few tid bits from my worship experience on Sunday! WoW it was amazing! As a worship leader it is not often that I am sitting out from ministering; however, yesterday I didn't sing because I was working my way through a sinus infection. It took all of my strength to get ready and get to the House of God, but once I got in the presence of God I felt my strength being renewed! I had no idea what God had in store for me as I was able to soak, receive, and be ministered to!
I needed my cup to be filled again, that I may give out of my overflow!
I had been in the service for all of 20 minutes when I could feel the well of tears stirring up on the inside of me, and I began to search for tissues in an effort to maintain my mascara, eyeliner, and foundation. It was not working! As the fire of God's presence began to fill the room, it was as if I could feel the light of heaven shinning directly on my soul! I could feel the pull of gravity (the weight of His glory) pulling me downward and before I knew it I was eating the carpet!
It was the fire of God!!! I had been singing "set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control, I want more of you God!" That is exactly what He did!
God set the fire down and in my soul and began to peel back some more layers, revealing those things in me that He desired to consume and burn in His presence! My heart had been made ready in worship, making it easy for me to say "YES!" I so love that fact that God is commited to finishing what He has started in our lives, pefecting everything that concerns us! Sometimes it takes burning up everything that's not like Him, and sometimes it requires a little tilling, pruning, and cutting away the excess fat around our hearts! Today I am so very thankful that God thought enough of me to change me and conform me into the image of His Son! Sometimes I'm unable to see me for me, but the Holy Spirit will so graciously shine the light of His presence on my soul like a mirror, then washing me of all impurities. Today I pray that you allow yourself to become vulnerable in God's presence that He may shine the light of His glory into your soul, perfecting you in every area of your life! Please join with me in praying that God will set a fire down in your soul that you can't contain or control! I pray that this song blesses you~
I can hear my mother saying, "Baby the race is not given to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but it's to the one that endures to the end!" I didn't always understand what she was trying to say, but the older I got it all began to make sense.
I would also hear her say, "slow and steady wins the race." I'm like Mom can you just tell me what you're trying to say without the parable? She would say, "honey it's not how fast you're going, but that you don't give up before the end of the race."
I began to think about the scripture in Hebrews 12 that tells us how to run our race, and shows how the pioneers, and more importantly Jesus blazed the way for us. The Message translation really breaks down this passage and says: Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
The more I looked at that verse, the more I began to see that starting the race, staying in the race, and finishing the race is not all about me, but about those that are watching and waiting on me to blaze the trail before them. Jesus was our perfect example in that He endured the cross and despised the shame for our freedom. Where would we be if Jesus would have quit or given up before going to the cross? He came into the world knowing that the goal was to redeem sinful man, and with everything that He had to endure He never took His eyes off the goal! WOW!!! What a selfless and loving God! He gave his only son Jesus, and Jesus said, "no man take my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. I am so glad that He endured the cross for you and me!"
Today I want to encourage you to keep your eyes on Jesus as you continue to run the race that is set before you! Life has an interesting way of showing up with all kinds of distractions to get us off of our course, and to throw in the towel before we get to the finish line, but we must keep on going! It is our endurance and staying power that will give us the fortitude to not just continue the race and reach our goal, but to Finish Strong!
Don't forget that fulfilling and completing your God given assignment is not all about you, but those that are divinely connected to you! What an awesome responsibility and privilege we have to pass the baton, but if we give up before we reach the next runner, we hinder the team from finishing the race. So again, Don't Give Up! You're Too Close Now!!!
Trust is so much easier in the absence of a circumstance! Trust is definitely easier when it is not your reality, but someone else's present situation! Trust is not quite as easy when it is a matter of letting go of your failing plight, in exchange for allowing God to intervene and take on what you can't handle! Trust allows you to move beyond the pit in your stomach in exchange for peace that passes all understanding!
Trust gives us the freedom to be like a child and take that leap of faith into our Daddy's arms! Why? Because we are able to rely on His integrity, strength, and ability to catch us! Trust is knowing that no matter how big the situation, there is nothing to hard for God! We are admonished to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not to our own understanding. In all of our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our path! I know that is easier said than done at times, but when we allow our hearts to totally rely on the Father it takes the responsibility off of us to try and make happen what we can't do anyway.
Our trust and confidence in God allows him to show himself strong in our lives, and allows us to do the miraculous, just as when Jesus bid Peter to come to him on the water. In Peter's human ability he could not walk on water, but through His faith, trust, and confidence in God he was able to do what no man had ever done before. It was only when Peter took his eyes (faith and trust) off of God that he began to sink. So it is with us when we take our focus off of our Heavenly Father and begin to put our trust in people and things! People and things will fail us, but God will never fail! Today I take another opportunity right in the midst of my unpredictable situation to confidently place my whole heart in God's hand and trust Him beyond what I see!
My Prayer: God I thank you that in the midst of the storms that are rising in my life, you are showing me how to keep my balance and ride the waves! I trust you God to keep me in every season of my life! I choose to worship you even when I don't know how to trust you! I thank you that you are a faithful Father and that you are taking me from glory to glory as I walk in your image and likeness!
Five (5) years ago my husband and I stood before our family and friends to join together as one. It was on July 27, 2008 that Keith and I made a covenant commitment to love one another, to serve one another, and to serve God in our marriage.
My husband of 5yrs has proven to be the one that God has for me, and more than that he has proven to be my prince charming, my angel, my king, and my friend! I am so very blessed to have him as my life partner, my covering, and my friend.
He has brought so much peace, joy, and laughter to my life! He has stood by me in sickness and in health! His love for me has been more than I could have imagined, and the way that he looks at me.............there is no mistaking that he adores me!
I know that God loves me because He sent the most amazing gift to me in the person of my husband, Mr. Keith "Diddy" Litmon!
Keith, I want you to know that I Love you and I thank you so much for teaching me how to Love and to be Loved! You have blessed my life in so many ways! More than that, you have embraced everything that I cherish and hold dear! You are an amazing husband, father, and friend! You have supported me in every endeavor and have brought great stability to my life!
I salute you and celebrate you for being man enough for me, man enough to stand up with me and for me, and man enough to stick and stay! I love what you said to me before we got married, "divorce is not an option, and I'm not going nowhere!" Litmon ILuvu2Life!
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