Red Words Ministry

08/28/2026

GOD IS THE BELIEVER'S PORTION AND CUP by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Psalm 16:5,"Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure."

"Thou my everlasting portion. More than life are friend to me. ALL along this pilgrim journey. Savior, let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee. All along this pilgrim journey, Savior let me walk with Thee."

I have heard these lyrics of composer, Fannie Crosby's,sung since I was a child. I have read the verse above and other scriptures that are similar many, many times, however, I must admit that it wasn't until yesterday that I truly understood what is meant by the "Lord is my "PORTION."

In my worldly thinking, I thought of the word portion in terms of dividing up property or money amongst someone's heirs or in terms of a parent giving each of his/her hungry children their "portion" of the meal. Yesterday, however, I was moved to research what David really meant when He said, "Lord, you are my portion" and boy oh boy was I blessed by what my research discovered.

When God allotted parcels of land to the 12 tribes of Israel, God didn't give a portion of land to the tribe of Levi, because they were to forever be GOD'S priest and as such, God Himself would be their "portion". If God is their portion then the Levites actually received more than the other tribes put together. When you have God, you have it all, because "the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness there of. The world and they who dwell therein."(Psalm 24:1). The commentator said, God Himself is our ultimate inheritance, security, and complete satisfaction."

David not only said that the Lord is his portion, but He also said that the Lord is his "cup”. That means that God is the ultimate provider, who assigns a person's daily life, experiences, and satisfaction. Oh how blessed we BELIEVERS are to have God as our cup.

The song says, "All that I need, all that I needed, all that I need is in Jesus". I can now sing with new joy and new understanding, "Thou my everlasting portion; more than life or friend to me. All along this pilgrim journey. Savior, let me walk with Thee."

Aren't you glad that you are a BELIEVER because that makes the Lord your portion and cup.

Keep the faith! Much love! GOD BLESS!

08/22/2026

THANK YOU LORD FOR THE OIL by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Psalm 5:5,"... He anoints my head with oil.

The phrase above probably means little or nothing to the average person today, but it had an enormous amount of meaning to the ancient Hebrews, and it most certainly should have profound meaning to all who are true BELIEVERS IN JESUS.

It was the tradition of the Hebrews for a host to anoint the head of an honored guest with oil to show that guest just how much his/her presence meant to the host. The moment you allowed Jesus to be your Savior, you became an honored guest in the house of the Lord. You don't have to be rich, famous, talented, or live a squeaky clean life to have God's anointing. All that You need is to be saved by the blood of Jesus. Thank YOU Lord for the anointing.

Secondly, shepherds anointed the heads of sheep for medicinal reasons. The oil that the shepherd rubbed into the faces of the sheep hindered bugs from from biting them, healed the sheep’s wounds, and kept the sheep calm. Temptation and trouble will try to bite you, and the wickedness of people will wound you, but God's oil can prevent the bites, soothe the wounds, and keep you calm in the midst of your storms. Thank You Lord for the anointing.

To be anointed with oil also signified being set a part for a special purpose. At God's command, Samuel the prophet/judge/priest, anointed David to be the future king of Israel. David was only a teenager between ages 13 to 17, he had no claim to fame, no college degree, nor was he from a noble family, yet God chose him for a special purpose, and God is choosing YOU for his service also. Thank YOU LORD for the anointing.
(TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW)

08/17/2026

PASSING THROUGH; DIDN'T COME TO STAY
By Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Psalm 23:4-5, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and Your staff shall comfort me."

WOW!! This scripture is such a comforting and reassuring statement made by David, This is the kind of statement that every TRUE BELIEVER IN GOD should be able to make because you have seen God bring you safely through troubles and trials; through dangers seen and unseen before.

The operative word in these 2 veses is "THROUGH." David is acknowledging that he is in the midst of some kind of harrowing and horrible situation, but he didn't come there to stay. David new that "this too shall pass." He is just passing THROUGH this metaphorical valley. God won't let this valley be his permanent home.

This statement is a testament to David's deep and abiding faith in God. A faith that is reinforced by remembering all of the troubles that God has ALREADY brought him safely through.

Notice that GOD prepares a marvelous feast for David AFTER he walks out of the valley. The enemies who were after David can see that David is being lavished by God with delectable delicacies, yet there is nothing they can do to hamper David's pleasure.

You might be in the midst of the darkest valley right now yourself, but hold on to your faith. Believe in your heart that you are just passing through; you didn't come to the valley to stay. Yes, you are in this terrible valley now, but remember that a divine blessing has been prepared just for you on the other side of the valley, and there is nothing the devil can do about it, because God is the one who prepared the blessing for you. Don't worry, and don't give up because you are just passing through. You didn't come to the valley to stay.

Keep the faith! Much love! God bless!

08/11/2026

THE SLIGHTLY SICK SHOULD HELP THE VERY SICK(part 3) by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Matthew 9:10-13, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, tax collectors, and sinners came, and ate with him, and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked the disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors." ... Jesus said, "It is not the healthy that need a physician, but the sick. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have NOT come to call the righteous, but the sinners."

Why have we in the church become so much like the Pharisees of old? Why is it that we who are chronicly sin sick shun those who are acutely sin sick instead of bring them Dr. Jesus who will heal their wounds, calm their raging fevers, and ease their pain. Here are a few reasons that this happens.

Too many of us go through the expected motions of religion without ever developing a deep and loving relationship with the Divine. Religion without a relationship with the Lord causes us to be hung up on rules, regulations, rituals, and doctrine. None of that is wrong or bad on the surface, however, when we adhere to all of that without having a loving relationship with the Divine, we become nothing more than clanging cymbals or sounding brass. We are like hobby horses. Making a lot of motion, but going nowhere.

Secondly, we forget that Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are,"You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets." If you are void of love for God, your neighbor, or yourself you are practicing a religion that is void of a relationship. Nothing you do will mean anything if it is done without love( read 1 Corinthians 13, Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:29- 31)

Thirdly, too many of us think that just because we don't sin the same way that those who are "ACUTELY SIN SICK" do, we are better than they are. Just because you don't break the Big Ten doesn't mean that you are not in sin. Don't forget that envy, jealousy, bigotry, greed, arrogance, backbiting, and lust are sins also. Not helping your neighbors who are in need, when you have the means to help them is a sin. Jesus made it plain that being judgemental and self-righteous are also sins. We who are chronicly ill cannot afford ro look down on the Acutely ill, because our chronic illness is still sin, we are just saved by grace.

4thly, we have become so much like the Pharisees because we have let culture, tradition, and generational norms become too entangled with our faith. So much of what we say is sin is really about how we were raised, but has little or nothing to do with what the Bible actually says.

Lastly, too many of us say one thing, but live another. We teach love, but find all kinds of reasons to marginalize and ostracize other human beings. We support politicians and public policies that demean and degrade other human beings, simply because they are different or less fortunate. We look at people and see their differences instead of seeing their humanity. All of that is hypocrisy and hypocrisy does more to harm the church than any other sin that we can commit.

The church can and should be the source of change in this world, if we would intentionally live by the words written in the Gospels in Red. These are the words of Christ Himself, and we cannot go wrong when we internalize His words and practice them daily.
KEEP THE FAITH! MUCH LOVE! GOD BLESS!

08/11/2026

08/11/2026

THE SLIGHTLY SICK SHOULD HELP THE VERY SICK(part 2) by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Matthew 9:10-13, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, tax collectors, and sinners came, and ate with him, and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked the disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors." ... Jesus said, "It is not the healthy that need a physician, but the sick. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have NOT come to call the righteous, but the sinners."

Every member of a church is chronicly sin sick.
That is NOT the problem. The problem comes when the Chronicly ill sinners think that they are better than the ACUTELY ill sinners, and that leads to the Chronicly ill members acting more like the Pharisees than the original Pharisees. The Pharisees found all kinds of reasons to exclude people, while Jesus was trying to bring everyone in. The Pharisees wanted to exclude people from the Family of God because of their ethnicity or lifestyles that they saw as sinful. All that the Pharisees saw was the color of someone's skin, their, language or their sins, but Jesus saw past all of that, and saw their humanity. Jesus loved them no matter what!

A Christian should be, as much as possible, like Jesus, but all too often our actions are everything EXCEPT Christ like. I HATE to see young men sagging their pants under their hips rather than wearing them up to their waist, and I HATE seeing women in clothes that are too revealing. Yet, if a man or woman comes to church dressed this way, I will be the FIRST ONE to welcome them to our church, and to make them feel loved, and wanted, because Jesus loves and accepts them just they are. I am not concerned about a woman wearing pants or men wearing hats in the building, or people wearing shorts, or workout gear. If they don't know Jesus, and we turn them away we may have lost the only opportunity that we had to lead them to salvation. I don't want their blood on my hands. If you judge any of these people and reject them based on appreance you have become a modern day Pharisee. If you thoroughly study the GOSPELS, you will see that JESUS NEVER talked harshly to any one except the ultra- conservative Pharisees, and the merchants who were defiling the Temple. JESUS NEVER talked harshly to even the worst sinners. The fact that Jesus chose Matthew, a tax collector, to be one of his disciples, and to eat at Matthew's house, demonstrates the heart of Jesus because tax collectors were the most depised people in Judea.

At 4 of the 6 churches I have pastored, I was told in essence that "I" was bringing the WRONG KIND of people into the Church. They didn't like the fact that drunks and drug addicts were joining THEIR church. These "Pharisees" also said that "they are joining church, But YOU haven't CHANGED THEM." First of all, it was the HOLY SPIRIT that brought them into the church. I just made the environment easy for the Holy Spirit to work by being loving and caring to them. Secondly, it AIN'T their church nor is it my church. The Church belongs to Jesus. He purchased it with His suffering, death, and resurrection. 3rdly, it is not the job of any of us to change anyone. It is the job of the HOLY SPIRIT to change people, and that change won't be on our time table. Our only job is to reach out to sinners and to love them the way that Jesus loved them. Jesus told His disciples to go fishing, but Jesus never told them to skin the fish either before or after they had been brought into the boat. Leave the skinning to Jesus.

Jesus is ALWAYS about love, liberation, and the lifting of all of humanity, therefore, and we His church should have the exact same agenda.

KEEP THE FAITH! MUCH LOVE! GOD BLESS!

08/10/2026

THE SLIGHTLY SICK SHOULD HELP THE VERY SICK by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Matthew 9:10-13," While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, tax collectors, and sinners came and ate with him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked the disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors." ... Jesus said, "It is not the healthy that need a physician, but the sick.. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have NOT come to call the righteous, but the sinners."

One of the hurtful things about many churches in our time, is the fact that so many function as Museums for the Saved instead of being a hospital for the sick. We have become like private Country Clubs, Masonic groups, and fraternal organization, that have the right to reject the applications for membership of those they see as undesirable. In contrast, churches should be willing to accept any and everybody. PERIOD! The old church used to say,"WHOSOEVER will, let them come". Instead of being the one place that ALL HUMANS can come to find healing, comfort, and acceptance, the church has all too often been the place that further wounded people rather than healed them, disturbed them rather than comforted them, and rejected them rather than accepted them.

The Pharisees(the religious big shots, conservatives, and KNOW-IT- ALLS) copped a nasty attitude with Jesus for eating with those they deemed as "UNDESIRABLE" and beneath them, but Jesus made it clear that the very people that the Pharisees rejected are the very people that He came to save. If you read between the lines, Jesus was really telling us that we are ALL sin sick, and the saved sick should help the unsaved sick. Yes even those of us who have been saved a long time are sick.The saved sick are chronicly il but their salvation helps them to manage and control the illness.The unsaved sinners are acutely ill, which means their spiritual fever is high, and their emotional pain is debilitating. The CHRONICLY sick should be welcoming the ACUTELY sick with loving hearts, and open arms so that through them, the the acutely ill can find Dr. Jesus who will ease their pain, and bring down their fever.(to be continued Monday)

07/29/2026

STONES THAT MAKE US REMEMBER by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

Joshua 4:1-3, "...The Lord said to Joshua,"Choose 12 men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan... carry them over with you, and put them down at the place were you stay tonight "

After 40 years of wondering in the wilderness, the 12 tribes of Israel were about to cross the Jordan River into the :Promise Land". God commanded that one man from each of Israel's 12 tribes to carry a stone a piece out of the Jordan, and to put them down at the place where they were to camp for the night. These 12 stones were to be used to remind the future generations of how God brought them out of the wilderness and across the Jordan on a dry river bed, just as God did for their foreparents when they escaped across the Red Sea, leaving Egypt.

Those were actual stones that the men took out of the Jordan, but figuratively speaking, you as a BELIEVER should, have some memorial stones to remind you of how God brought you ourt of your wilderness, and safety across your Jordan. One of the stones that you need in your memory bank is the stone of PRAYER. I am not against change, but I truly lament the fact that most churches have gotten away from having old time "Devotion"" and midweek prayer meeting, when the Senior Mothers and Fathers in Methodist churches, and the deacons in Baptist and C.O.G.I.C churches, would get down on their knees, and pray those fervent, heartfelt prayers. Those old saints new how to pray, and their prayers sound like poetry written by a master poet. I believe that those prayers are covering us today.

The second stone that you need in your memory bank is the stone of the old Songs of Zion. I love Gospel music, but sometimes I need to hear the Spirituals that our ancestors sang as they did back breaking work "From can't see in the morning, until can't see at night. "The old Spirituals such as "Nobody Knows The Trouble I See", "Walk Togeter Children", and "Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow " should remind you that our foreparents truly suffered, and they will make you thankful that you don't have to suffer the same way they suffered. You need to remember the meter hymns that the old folks would "LINE OUT", such as :Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah" and "I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry", because these songs remind us that most of our people coming out of slavery couldn't read or write. The 1 or 2 people who could read would Line out the words first, so that those who couldn't read could learn the lyrics. Meter should make YOU thankful that you are educated. You should also have some hymns in your memory bank such as "Blessed Assurance," "Amazing Grace", "Pass Me NOT Oh Gentle Savior" and "Come Though Fount Of Every Blessing" because these old hymns will give you strength,and comfort in the midst of your storm. (To be continued)

07/04/2026

COME SEE!

John 1:46, And Nathaniel said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him. “Come see!" By Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

One day, when I was in high-school, a friend told me that I need to come to Greater Mt. Zion to hear a preacher named C.B.T Smith, whom my friend spoke of with absolute passion. At that time I was good about attending regular Sunday worship, but I most certainly DIDN'T attend revivales. I was extremely skeptical that this preacher was really as wonderful as my friend described him, but I decided to the attend the last night of the revival. He turned out to be every bit as phenomenal as she said. He came every spring to that church and every spring from then on, I attended their Revival. After I left Austin to go into the ministry, I was sure to go hear Pastor C.B.T Smith whenever he was was preaching in the area. I was full of skepticism about C.B.T. but in essence my friend said to me what Philip said to the skeptical Nathaniel about Jesus,"COME SEE". Nathaniel was never the same after he met Jesus for himself and I was never the same after heeding her advice to "COME SEE".

If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit is telling you to "COME SEE". Billions of people over many generations have heeded those 2 words,"COME SEE" and by doing so the entire shape and tone of their earthly lives changed for the the better, and they were given divine reservations in Glory that can't be revoked. Psalm 34:8,says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. That's saying "satisfaction guaranteed."

If you have already accepted Jesus in your heart the "HOLY SPIRIT" is still saying to you,"Come see".Come see that you are not only saved, but you will find more and more of those intangible things like love, joy, peace, hope, and wisdom in your life, if you continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus. Come see how He will use you in His service. PLEASE COME SEE. AMEN

07/04/2026

I LOVE A SAVIOR FROM THE SLUMS by Pastor Maurice Washington Maurice Washington

John 1:46, "And Nathaniel said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, “Come see!"

The Big shot, high brow, Jewish people of Jerusalem, and other places in Judah, looked down on the town of Nazareth. Today Nazareth would be referred to in negative terms like ghetto, barrio, hood, podunk, the other side of the tracks, or the slums. The people of Nazareth were looked down upon by the hoity toity people of that time, the same way people look down with contempt on people of East Austin, East St Louis, 5th Ward of Houston, the 9th ward of New Orleans, West Side of San Antonio, Chicago's south side, South Central L.A. and East side L.A, as well as Compton, Calif. Many of us view these places and the people that come from them negatively.

Ancient Nazareth was seen as one of these undesirable spots, yet Jesus the Savior of the World came from this slum. He was looked down upon by His fellow Jews just for being from Nazareth, which is why Nathaniel asked the question above.

The question was never given a direct answer, but once Nathaniel met Jesus, he knew the answer was yes, because he met Jesus the Messiah, for himself.

It is because Jesus came from the slums, that in His first declaration about Himself, He boldly says that He has come to preach good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, set captives free, give sight to the blind, a give liberty to the oppressed.(Luke 4:18) It is because Jesus was from the slums that He identifies with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, and the prisoner(Mat 25:42-46) You cannot call yourself His true disciple if you can't help the people Jesus identified with.

Lastly, this passage is telling you, that you too can become a SOMEBODY regardless to how this sinful world sees you. What matters is how YOU see YOURSELF in light of who GOD says you are in CHRIST. I love my Savior from the slums because He has made me SOMEBODY in Him. To God be the glory.

God bless. Amen