Prayer Request for Jane Williams' Eyes, Part 2

In your praying for Jane's healing, please remember to honor Jane by praying for the greater healing of others in Jesus' name. 

Prayer Request for Jane Williams' Eyes

Acts 3:6. Peter said, "I don't have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth", see.

Dear Church,

Jane Williams has served Columbia, Missouri since her college years in Mizzou.

Her contributions have included *inner city missions, *prayer walks with Pam Ingram (going house to house asking for prayer requests), *assisting and restoring abused women, *reaching out to the poor, *ministering the prophetic word to prisoners, *taking foster children into her home and loving them as her own, *co-ordinating the Katrina hurricane relief in the mid-Missouri area, *envisioning and then helping build Love Inc of Columbia, *playing a vital role in encouraging prisoner re-entry in our city, *being, on a daily basis, the supportive wife of her husband (Pastor Scott Williams), *being the loving mother to two kids that reflect their parents well (Aaron and Suzy Williams), *organizing benevolence direction at Columbia Christian Fellowship Church, *introducing my case and my innocence to countless people until someone listened and helped her get my freedom and name back, .......just to mention a few.

This Tuesday, Jane's going in to have surgery done on her eye. She'll be awake through the process and is nervous. I can imagine why. The prospects of being conscience while someone pokes around inside your eye has to be intimidating. At this point, she has to have this procedure done though. Earlier this year, she lost her sight in her good eye.

Both Jane and her twin sister (Judy) have had damaged eyes since they were small babies, due to complications in the hospital care post birth. Both sisters have extreme problems with both eyes. Both sisters have had multiple surgeries on both eyes, so both of them have really never had "good eyes" ever, but the one eye that Jane has relied upon for years is the one that has experienced complications and wherein the vision has gone.

So,... I'm asking you to pray for her. Pray for her peace. Pray for her doctors. Pray for the massive scarring she has on both eyes. Pray for the health of both eyes. Pray for healing. Pray for a miracle. And pray, preemptively, for her sister's eyes as well. She's hoped for healing for her entire life, at least all the years that she's known Jesus, but hasn't gotten it yet. She believes in miracles, but she's been so concentrated on being the hands and feet of Jesus and being the practical miracle for others that she needs us to intervene and intercede in prayer on her behalf for the miraculous.

The last half of November and the month of December is when our church exhorts each other to be a Community of Compassion and give to the indigent and hurting. Jane heads up this effort every year. This morning (11/28/2010), she will get up again and ask us to give. As always, she'll do her best to encourage us to be difference makers and impact players in the kingdom of God. I'm asking you to give to her, to impact her, to make a difference in her life. Give her your prayers. Lift her up in your praises to our Lord. In your worship of God's glory, in your hearts ~ pray for her.

Acts 3:6. Peter said, "I don't have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth", see. No one's even asking you for your money this time around ~ just your prayers "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" for Jane's eyes.

Thank you, in Christ, Josh

Happy Thanksgiving! His Love Endures Forever!

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day (October 3rd, 1863)

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln

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It seems that the origin of Thanksgiving in this country [in these "United" States] was wrought in the desire to rest from war and conflict. This Thanksgiving, pray for peace. Each of us have known, know conflict. Wars are not limited to battle fields. More often than not, they tend to find their way into our homes, our communities and hearts and minds. This Thanksgiving, pray for peace ~ your peace and your neighbors peace. And pray we all receive our peace straight from the King of peace ~ our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Josh

Fearless?

When I see Jesus, I see love - the perfect fearless love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is fearless. Was He when He faced the Cross? That's an interesting question. It's commonly believed that He was, but even if that were true, of what? Was He afraid of dying? No. He knew He'd raise. Was He afraid of suffering? Maybe, but not with fear as we know fear, though I believe He wasn't. He knew His purpose, lived His purpose, and His purpose was/is amazing love.

‎"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18. 

His love was/is perfect. He knew no fear of His own. If any fear was known by Him in the garden, on the road to the Cross and on the Cross, and I do believe this, it was our fear and our sorrow. His purpose was redemption. He saved us wholly, even from our fears. He redeemed us from OUR fears.

"God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7

"We love Him because He first loved us". 1 John 4:19.

Are you loving fearless? If not - pray and listen to His heart beat, listen to the rhythm, listen to His leading and -

- He/His love will make you/your love fearless.

I Just Wanna Be Like You, ........Jesus

Wake Up, Church! The Abused Need Us! From the Pulpit and Beyond, They Need Us!

I was the 17 year old kid in this pic, the child of alcoholic parents, the mentally and physically abused son of a mother and father addicted and... know this story all too well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUkYXHiB88&feature=related

I question, I wonder... When will we, as a nationwide (a worldwide) church, know it as well, as Christ knew the sufferings of others on the Cross, and intercede both from the pulpit and from beyond it before another young man/woman or other young men/women are given the history of pain I now carry with me? 

Our Lord is good and the Lord's people [His church] are good. I just wish the Lord's people would wake up and... do whatever's necessary to intercede on the behalf of the innocent.
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Isn't it enough? It is enough! Just ask the kids, home alone, terrified for their lives, as they waits for their drunken parents to come home, as they're uncertain as to whether they'll come home in a good mood or with a twisted desire to hit'em with a wrench or an extension cord, lock them in a room or say hateful things.  

"Why are you here?! I never wanted you to begin with! I should've had an abortion! Go get me a beer, it's about all your capable of! I wish I had a boy! I wish I had a girl! I wish I could prove you aren't mine! What happens in this house, stays in this house or I'll kill you! I should've worn a condom!" Enough is enough! Families need us! Our kids need us! 

Alcohol abuse/Drug abuse/Child abuse are all too real to those of us who've known it or, it breaks my heart, know it. Pray the church wakes up. The abused need us.

I posted this on my profile late last night and have gotten a few short comments. They're worth sharing on here.

"Awesome words, Josh" ~ Mike (my cousin) and Terri. 

"Very true..." ~ Amy Shields 

"Even though the earth is rocking back forth like a drunkard under the oppression of wickedness, and the church has been somewhat silently watching in complacency and lethargy, the Lord, for His name sake is stirring hearts. The Lion of Judah is roaring loudly in the hearts of His people. The church is waking up because the cries of the afflicted and the oppressed are reaching our eyes and ears and we can no longer sit in silence. The Lord is raising up intercessors all over the nation. With one voice and one spirit, we cry out "Come Lord Jesus, Come!" ~ Jean Elizabeth Lee

I pray your response is as thoughtful. I pray we wake up and act swiftly on behalf of those who need us. I pray we always pray to intercede. And I pray we never stop praying for them. 

They need us. 

What Are You Willing To Trade?

See His Love

Redeemed

 "Oh, thank the Lord. He's so good! His love never runs out." Psalm 107:1

The Right Now 2010 Conference. The Theme? Lead Beyond Our Walls. Wow! How appropriate is this for me, for men like me, for men like I use to be!?!? God is good! He's better than that. He's great!

This past Sunday, I attended church at my local church http://www.christianfellowship.com/ and heard a sermon on Christ's determination to build us up and His willingness to stay the course and not give up until our lives [our walls] are built as He would have them built. 

We've been going through the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is the story of how God lead one man into a course of action that would forever change the outlook of a nation and the courage of a generation of people called by God.

The passage used to get the point across?   

Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left therein, though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates, that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono." But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?" Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. ~ Nehemiah 6:1-4

Nehemiah represented something even bigger than that though. He foreshadowed the One to come, the One that has since come and will come again, the One that would not come down until the work was finished.

Nehemiah was determined to continue the work on the wall. Christ finished the work on the Cross. 

"It is finished" ~ Jesus, moments before He died on the Cross for our sins. St. John 19:30 

Centuries after Nehemiah, Jesus carried the Cross through the walls, bore it beyond the walls and, 3 days later, resurrected. 

Now what? 

Right Now 2010 "Lead Beyond Our Walls". Now us. That's what. I'm excited about the next few days. I'm looking forward to learning and receiving. 

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Visit http://collateral.rightnow.org/RN_Event_site/RNcon.html, if you're interested in learning more about what the next few days holds in store for me. 7 to 9 friends of mine are going with me. 3 are road tripping with me to Dallas from Columbia. 4 to 6 will be meeting us there. Thousands of others will be attending. It's gonna be awesome.

ABC News release done today on my story ...and some words of my own on the matter.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/man-freed-spending-half-life-bars-murder-commit/story?id=11893519&page=1 Please post a comment direct on ABC's comment section on this link. 

Some of you may want to comment on this ABC News Facebook post. The more attention it gets, the better it is for other stories similar to mine http://www.facebook.com/abcnews/posts/175405452474847 
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A friend of mine has been reading through some of the comments on ABC News' Facebook post and she asked me a question.

"People should read your case file and blog before they judge you. Does that bother you?" My answer to her and to the rest of you. "It's life. Everyone goes through that in some fashion, so...no, it doesn't bother me."

Those who think and judge like them are just under the illusion that they are somehow untouchable. They think they're exempt from things, such as this, happening to them, so they think that gives them the right to condemn others and overestimate their own citizenship, safety and opinion.

That's sad though, because to live a life that mentally revolves around yourself is a cowards way out. To not care because it's not likely to happen to you is spineless and shameful.

People mess up. It happens. That's the reality of life. It's the reality of juries. Men are sent to prison, sometimes death on account of their mistakes or misdeeds. I once faced the death sentence. Thank God I wasn't given it. I would have been dead before my exoneration, if that would have happened. I hope and pray we all understand just how serious this fight is. People's lives are at stake....sometimes their deaths are too.

I hope and pray the people who would choose to oppose this do not themselves someday face the fears and struggles I came to know. I really do.

Our Lord Jesus is our example. He came and died for our sins (all of our sins). He cared about more than Himself. He could have chosen to not die, but He rather chose to die...because His love extends beyond His own concerns. It extends to us all. So, He died and subsequently rose from the dead 3 days later....for us ALL. He loved [loves] us that much. Amazing!

So, please don't get angry with them. Care about them. It's America. They have a right to express opinions, regardless of how ridiculous and unfounded they may be. Rather, pray for them. Hearts such as theirs need our prayers and our love, not our rage. 

There are two ways to deal with our wounds. One is through rage. The other is ...love. One acts out and brings the reckoning. The other reaches out and offers forgiveness. I'm asking those of you who support me, and I've noticed that it's the majority of those commenting on my story, to deal with this in love. 

There has been so much wreckage already. So many lives have been damaged. So much hate thrown around. People have been put through everything from death to prison and the annihilation of reputations. Some of it has been earned. Kenny Hulshof and the police who manipulated the death of Lawless and my imprisonment for the furtherance of their own careers have earned the ridicule and loss of fame and name they've incurred upon themselves. Still yet....this is exactly where love is needed. This is exactly where forgiveness can do it's most.

The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is our example. It's mine.

So, fight the good fight. Fight for justice and the exoneration of our brothers and sisters still locked away unjustly. Fight for what's right and against what's wrong, but, please, do so with love. Love conquered the Cross. Love can conquer the hate and destruction this case and others like it have rendered as well.