What I Learned in Church: The Early Edition

Feeling a little inspired today. Thank God for my good friends and their good energy. The company you keep is very important. God has been answering my prayers and revealing some great friends and making room for them in my life.

So I finally decided what I’m doing for Lent this year. This year, I’m staying in-doors. That’s school, work, home (or someone’s house) til Easter. My apologies in advance to the three people who are going to miss hanging out with me.

So let’s get in this book. Deuteronomy 26 breaks down First Fruits and tithes, going into the reasons why we give God the primary glory for all that we are blessed with. Then we repeat, “Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.” That’s an easy way to remind ourselves that God is ALWAYS there, not just when the sun is shining! In Romans 10, (a VERY important chapter) we break down the basis of salvation. If you believe in Jesus, you will be saved. And then, in Luke 4, Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. The devil tries him up and he holds on to his faith, conquering the devil.

And you've heard all this before. But have you really thought about it?

On Friday, I listened to a radio show titled “Black Churches: Accountability to the Community”. My first thought was, “What’s the community’s accountability to the church?” Can you imagine Peter, Paul, Simon, or any of the founders of Christianity saying the things that Christians today say. They all got asked to follow Jesus and they ended up leading within a few years. Today, we grow up in the church; we stay in the church for years and are not becoming leaders. We give tithes wondering when we are going to get it back. We keep asking what the church can give us, without ever learning how to give.

Look at the book again. We've already been given the blessing. We already have the power. It’s because of God that we have. So we’re not giving our tithes and waiting for a return. We've already been blessed and are giving God what’s his. Giving without concern; giving full of joy is the blessing in itself. There’s no more to it. Remember, God always being there means he was there BEFORE you got the gifts to give. God has already given us to power to be a blessing to ourselves and others. What are we doing with it?

And what do we really believe in? What’s in our hearts? Sure, many, many of us confess with our mouths and call on the name of the Lord. But what we believe in our hearts will be manifested in our lives. That Jesus gave died and rose again means eternal life for us as well. AS WELL! It means that we have the possibility of being just like Jesus. THAT’s what the founders of Christianity attempted and taught. That we could also fast and resist the Devil. Not the way we do now. What do we do in adversity? Do we stand girded with the armor of God? Or do we run?

Saying you believe in Jesus is just a step. Putting true belief in our hearts is a process. Do it! Fast. Pray. Believe, not just when people ask you but especially when you get tried up! Stand!

Tomorrow, you may not get challenged this way so think on it now. Maybe you should stand tomorrow and help your church. God has already done his job. Have you done yours?

What I Learned in Church 2-10-13

Father Joe is always on time. Spiritually, that is! That man will have you forgetting you’re Catholic…five hour long church trying to play the saxophone and preaching two extra sermons… At least there’s only one collection.

Seriously, we’re still in and out in an hour and a half.  At least he makes people want to go. That’s huge in this day and age. People are ready to give up at the slightest bit of controversy or difficulty. Lord knows the Catholic Church has had some difficulties. (Understatement) We have greed running rampant in other churches, Sex, All kinds of Sex and Even More Sex. How do we respond? The same thing we always do. We run. "I don't want to go to church"

Don't let a few bad apples run all the good people out of church!

Don’t let a few bad apples run us out of anywhere. We abandon everything. We come, we consume, we ask, we take, we get full and when we get asked to do some real spiritual work, we pack up all we’ve taken over the years and run away, leaving only the trash behind. We do it in our schools, we do it in our neighborhoods, and we go all the way with church. We might change churches for a short while but eventually we just leave.

I read this book one time (or three/four). It may or may not be 100% true but it does illustrate the possibility of man. The one thing I believe is that we must never give up and (SPOILER ALERT) we (the good people) win! So why you running? Think you’re not good enough?

God will perfect whatever is defective

(Isaiah 6) “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

I’m not going to front; right after that God told Isaiah not to tell anyone they were saved so they would suffer a little more and repent before he let them off the hook. That happens. You can’t avoid it. Sometimes we try to avoid the temporary discomfort so we stay in the mess we’re in instead of moving forward through to the end. Go one through it! Again, a lot of ups and downs in that book but it ends well.

Isaiah 43:1,2 “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

You know there’s a lot of fire and brimstone in the bible. Don’t be afraid. If you choose the right side, you won’t get burned. Just make sure you choose right. No fence straddling.

(1 Corinthians 15)And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.

It’s simple. We believe in Jesus, not some magic superhero who flies in and stops us from being assholes. We believe in a man being able to transcend the flesh and distractions of the world to attain true peace. We believe that we can practice and practice and attain a similar peace. (And that may be where we falter…) Too much unattainable magic and not enough practical advice.

So here it is:

•         Repeat after me “My miracle is on the way.”
•          Get ready. That means look at your faith.
•          Stop dwelling in the past.
•          If you don’t know how to pray, learn.
•          After you pray, meditate. (Meditation first step is clearing your mind)

Jesus removed his self from the world often to focus. And when he did, he was listening. He wasn’t doing a whole bunch of jaw-jacking and not waiting for an answer. Shut up sometimes! To be clear, shut up for at least five minutes every day (to start).

·       
             Keep casting your nets! Some of my friends are wonderful salesmen/women not because they know anything about what they are selling. They are great at it not even because they don’t take no for an answer. It’s because they keep going, believing that someone will say yes. Just like Colonel Sanders, it might take 1010 attempts and the majority of your life to get your miracle. Why are you giving up on yourself?

      A lot of yall give up at 23 after two ‘No’s. And still try to claim you believe in something.

Luke 6 - Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” … When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,…

How many of yall would listen to someone who wasn’t an expert in “your field”.  I can hear the majority of you now running back to your egos at the mention of similar advice. “I been doing … for … years! What you trying to tell me?” “If you know so much, why don’t you do it?” The least we can do with any advice is to meditate on it. Find a way to make the best of everything given us.

So, one more thing before I go. Fight!

Believe in what you say you believe in. I’m getting tired of all the woe is me, look at how strong the devil is, illuminati, conspiracy this, conspiracy that talk. Too many of us say we believe in eternity and still deathly afraid of every little fool hollering boo at our God. SMH.

Isaiah 41:10 I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them.

Don't worry I will ALWAYS be with you (not only when the bullies aren't around). AND ALL (A-L-L, every single one) enemies will be ashamed and disgraced; they will be as nothing and perish. Shoot, you won’t even be able to find them if you look for them! And Lord knows yall like to look for enemies!

Gina noticed that the message is always the same and said that’s OK because that’s what the Bible is. Something happens, you maintain your faith, God shows up. That’s it. And it only works that way. Not – something happens, you run like hell or something happens, you have faith for two days, then you give up and do it your way on the third day… That’s the way you do it. It’s called faith because it works especially when it doesn’t look like it will. That’s it.

1300 words later, the simple truth is, if you say you believe in something, prove it. If it’s worthwhile it WILL work! Watch!

What I Learned Outside of Church

What I Learned Outside of Church 9/23/12

I wonder if it’s a thing when ALL of the readings tie together as easily as they do this week. These readings are not picked by a pastor so he could match them to his individual message. They are sometimes seemingly random and difficult for even the most learned bible scholars to connect. Essentially, they provide priests with options for the Sunday sermon. Today, one message was clear. Maybe it’s because of where my life is now.

            This week, we start in the book of Wisdom. The first line of the chapter is the key. “For, not thinking rightly…“ We start out with a little hope and, when it doesn’t work out the way our impatient ego demands, that little bit of hope dies. Hopeless, we choose a life of vanity and ego. We become self serving instead of servants. After we have become self righteous people, we hate to see righteous people. They are reminders that we have given up hope while people still exist who have not given up yet and, likely, never will. It’s a form of envy. This hate says, “How dare you find hope where I could not find any!” It’s all ego. The Bible calls ego self/selfishness/flesh.

            The verse in James covers two chapters. So… You know what that means. Chapter three starts out with the power of the tongue. It points out one of my favorite Ras Kass lines. “I gave man dominion over the Earth, to master the wealth. But most of my children don’t have dominion over thyself.” Just like in Mark 7, it reminds and encourages us to be careful of what comes out of our mouths. “…but no human being can tame the tongue.” is not saying it’s not possible. It’s just saying that it seems that impossible. Of course it is possible. It’s just with so many people not practicing self(ego) control, it can appear that no one is practicing self control. Remember, we hate righteous people so we avoid them. We chose to be hopeless and the law of attraction is surrounding us with other hopeless people. Of course, looking around us, it would seem impossible to control our tongues because who around us does?

            The end of chapter three and beginning of chapter four we are warned of the dangers of ego. Jealousy and selfishness are obviously the fruit of ego and lead to disorder and EVERY bad habit. The ego is the cause of war and division. If you are only serving your self(ego), then the laws of abundance will be abandoned and, instead of cooperation, you will choose manipulation to get what you want. The ultimate form of manipulation is bullying which, on a larger scale, translates to war. Being around a bunch of hopeless people, we tend to distrust and bicker amongst each other. Why? Because we don’t have a common goal/cause. We are each serving our own egos and denying each other. Of course, we are going to hate on that and call each other haters.

            Even the disciples fall victim to ego. In Mark Chapter 9, Jesus catches them arguing over who is greatest. Sound like a dick contest? It was. Jesus took the opportunity to instruct them in humility. “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Even the churches today slip up with this one. They proclaim to the uninformed that Jesus had a favorite. Jesus Loved the world. That is the entire planet, not the ‘world’ as in worldly ways. Then he grabs a random child and reminds us all that giving up our egos is the only way we can achieve Godliness from a child through Jesus. We always use children as symbol of innocence. We should also see children as the last time we were egoless. It’s parents who instill ego into children, either directly or by modeling.

So we come full circle. Through children we can remember being egoless and hopeful. Now is the time to reflect on when we gave up hope and embraced ego. Maybe we haven’t given up hope totally and it’s situational. From time to time we just choose ego. It takes practice. The practice shouldn’t be selfishness but selflessness. The question in situations should be whether it is mandatory to hold on to our selves. It never is if we believe in what we say we believe in. Practice! Ask yourself ALL the time and EVERY time if you can serve God by giving up your self.

What I Learned Outside of Church...

Where is your faith?

I didn’t make it to church but, being a part of such an organized church, the weekly readings are easily found online. So, I’m taking a stab sharing my own understanding of the day’s readings. Usually, the readings are harder to put together into one message. This week, providence came in the form of various issues with family and friends. I thank God for the ability to connect and focus on the solution MOST, if not all, of the time.

So let’s start with the prophet Isaiah. In chapter 50 the church’s focus is not forgetting that God is there all the time to help, encourage and protect us from ALL things. But, sometimes, we forget. And, reading the WHOLE chapter (Because that’s how WE role), we see that Isaiah was REALLY discussing us turning our backs on God. God has never left us. We leave God. We forget that God is with us in the dark as well as in the light. If we want to receive those blessings from verses 5-9, all we have to do is remember and not turn our back on God because God won’t turn his back on us.

Moving on to James Chapter 2, we all know the verses about faith without works being dead. But let’s get into the details of the work. I work with a lot of different charities and community groups. The main hindrances are politics, egos and cliques. So while we all are focused on work, work, work to prove our faith, there is also a warning against the very divisiveness that will kill any good work. Treat Everyone The Same. Don’t have your favorites. Don’t choose political parties. Don’t make allegiances to cliques or classes, because THOSE things will become bigger than the work and turn a positive into a negative.

            My high school alumni are battling that right now. In order to work, some people want to consider class, age, social status, friendships, egos before just getting to work. So much so, a lot of the workers have been turned off despite the overwhelming need and urgency at my high school now.

I remember my faith so I respond with work. I work with everyone. I avoid cliques. I just WORK! I remember that the work is more important than any petty differences among my alumni. My faith in God and the success of my school means that I KNOW my work will not be in vain. I know that the real work will not be stopped. With a strong faith in God and my community, I remember that God in with me no matter how troublesome the problems within my alumni seem. So I work. And, with God, we will win.

And now, the gospel according to Mark… In Chapter 8, after Jesus feeds 4,000, he warns his disciples about eating of the Pharisees and Herod and they misinterpret that to mean real food. It’s the spiritual food he is talking about. They may have begun with good intentions but are now poisoned with rhetoric, politics, egos, and traditions of divisiveness. If only the disciples were able to hold onto that message… Then, after Jesus heals a blind man, he tells them of his coming death and Peter tries to rebuke him. After all Jesus has done to teach and prove his powers, including instilling his disciples with similar powers, Peter and the rest of the disciples still held onto selfish (corporal) beliefs and responded incorrectly. Death is not the end for Christ and true Christians. It’s just a process. But, because we still hold on to so much of this world (almost to the point of turning our backs on God’s world), we are still afraid of death. We still try to avoid losing all the things we can’t take with us.

So often, even in the midst of God, in the middle of doing Godly work, while the sun is the brightest, we bring the shade of worldly ways and lose our focus on God. We see it in politics, we see it in our churches, and we see it at home. We see people choose their own egos and turn their backs on God. We see people dismiss each other when they could be collaborating for the common good. We see people choosing failure over cooperation. And sometimes, we do it ourselves.

            Jesus came and went. Although he will come again, he’s not coming to lead us, but to see how well we have led ourselves. Dr. King, El Shabazz, Gandhi, and Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy are gone. They will Not return! But, like Jesus, they left us with instructions to lead ourselves. The work is not hard anymore. The focus is. Stay focused on God and not all the reasons to quit. We say we believe in victory but get discouraged when the other team shows up.

We must have faith in our work! We must also work our faith. We say we believe in this or that. We say out God is almighty. Prove it!

The Power of The Media

Mark Chapter 7 (Read it ALL) This is just a high light. “14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. 16 [[f]If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”]”

Everyone who knows this story knows it’s about food. But doesn’t Jesus use parable to go deeper than the surface? So let’s go deeper.

I have a friend whose favorite rap artist is Brotha Lynch Hung. If you don’t know who he is, he is likely the MOST vulgar rap artist out there. He makes Eminem seem like a gospel artist. This friend of mine hardly ever curses, didn’t drink until recently and still only rarely, and is one of the nicest guys in America. Isn’t that an oxymoron of American culture?  How could it be after more than twenty years of listening to vulgarity this man can lead an unvulgar life

            Simply, he is responsible to his actions. So many of us are so irresponsible for our actions.  [] Tradition is why we do it. “I just don’t know why I did it. Must have been all the Basketball Wives and Bad Girls Club.” “My friends…” “My Family…” Or the worst one ever… “These kids…”

            A picture was posted on Facebook and the question attached to it was simply, “Does this offend you”

The answer to a true believer should be ‘NO’. It is possibly offensive to the person who made it. He and he alone will have to deal with the consequences of his actions. That is, unless a person CHOOSES to internalize this picture and allow it to control their response.

            What I see and am commenting on is a tradition of being influenced and/or controlled by the outside factors. The people I read about and am descendent from in the Bible are stronger than that. The power to tread scorpions is ours. “…nothing shall by any means hurt you.” That is, you/we who believe.

            What goes in doesn't defile you. What comes out does! Be aware not of what's being given to you, the media, associates, environment, family; be aware and responsible of your response (what comes out). No matter what, you are responsible for your actions. Why is it that we know better and still give all the power over our actions to outside influences? Maybe we don’t know better. Maybe we don’t believe in what we know. Maybe… we don’t believe in what we think we believe in…

Choosing God - WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN?

Some (A LOT) of my ‘Christian’/Religious brothers and Sisters make me wonder. Often. We all allegedly read the same book. How did they miss the part where God wins and the devil loses?

Listen to them speak and it will make you wonder who they believe in.  All I hear sometimes from people is – “The devil is a lie” “The devil is busy” “The devil is working today!” “The devil keeps poking me on Facebook” “The devil is doing that thing with a piece of grass in my ear to make me think a fly is on me.” The devil. The devil. The devil. And after all that, you might get one “God is good”.

And I go – What do you really believe? Did we read the same book? Through the law of abundance (which is called choosing God/living in the spirit in the Bible) I would believe you love the devil. So guess what the universe is going to give you more of?

Choose GOD!

Philippians 4:8-9 is the work you have to do. Everyone loves 4:6 because left on its own, you can ask God for what you want and don’t have to do any work. But NO! You must always work. THINK! THINK! THINK! Ephesians 6:12 says it is not about anything else but how you think. And the WORK is Ephesians chapter 6. “Put on the whole armor of God” Righteousness, truth, faith, salvation, Spirit and never stop praying! READ whole chapters if not whole books.

In Galatians Chapter 5, the Fruit of Spirit is Love. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through Love. Part of the spirit of Love is truth. A real Preacher (Ecclesiastes) will tell you the whole truth.

In Ephesians 5 – God’s example is Love. Live not as unwise but wise. Live as light and find out what pleases the Lord. It’s all in 1 Peter chapter 2 “So get rid of every kind of evil. Stop telling lies. Don't pretend to be something you are not. Stop wanting what others have. Don't speak against each other.” “People who don't believe might say you are doing wrong. But lead good lives among them. Then they will see your good works. And they will give glory to God on the day he comes to judge.” “By doing good you will put a stop to the talk of foolish people. They don't know what they are saying. God wants you to stop them.” “Live like free people. But don't use your freedom to cover up evil. Live like people who serve God”

It’s that simple. Choose God. Show it ALL the time! 

What I Learned In Church 3/4/12

Today we read: Genesis Chapter 22, Romans 8 and Mark 9. In these chapters we examined Abraham's faith, Paul told us “If God is with you, who can be against you?” and we witnessed The Transfiguration. We should know Abraham’s story. He was impatient so God put him to the ultimate test. He had to wait until he was 100 years old (exaggeration) to have children. Then he was asked to make a sacrifice and he offered up his only son who he waited nearly a century for… Some of yall don’t even like your kids and you wouldn’t give them up like that. Even for God. And that’s how he got his blessing.

            Fast forward a few generations. God gets tired of the endless cycle of messing up, punishment, forgiveness, trials, blessings… God says- let’s skip a few steps. Hey Jesus! Come do me a favor… Now we have an example of perfection to strive for and endless do-overs. And then theirs is the power. “If God is with you, who can be against you?”  No one!

            Lets look back at the example in the flesh. Two of the three men who went straight to heaven come back to chop it up with Jesus. That’s the power that is available to us and Peter wants to put Jesus, Elijah and Moses in boxes. God's power is limitless. Why do we always try to put the limitless inside a box.

            My boy Robert says it this way, If you didn't understand #TheMatrix the first time you watched it, you're a fucking idiot or at the very least you have ADD or ADHD or OCD.

            I’m a little bit nicer but, the sentiment is still the same. When you truly understand what it means to have access to limitless power, the sky is the limit. If you are still limiting yourself and/or God, something is wrong.

            I see a lot of people who “know the bible” but still live within limits. Something is wrong. We have a mental disorder or like Robert says… dee-deedee!

It’s simple. "Listen to God"   Trust what you hear from God. If you are having trouble, now is the perfect time to give up some stuff/distractions so you can hear. I believe in us. We can do it.

What I Learned In Church… February 5, 2012

 Before we begin:

Announcements– I know what you need. I'm not what you need but I can show you where to find it!
(Just something that was on my mind...)

The readings for today are Job 7:1-7, 1 Corinthians 9:16-23, and Mark 1:29-39.

So we started with Job suffering for the sake of God. He had no idea he was working towards the glory of God. He won by enduring his trials but he had no idea it was just a bet. He wasn’t happy about it at all but he won because he was always faithful. It's depressing when you don't know it's for God.

            When you know it's for God you have a choice. You can chase the reward or serve out of duty. Paul did both. He chose duty so he could give up his ego. He refrained from the reward and focused on the work. Service! That’s the word people like Tony Robbins use. It’s a word of abundance.  The law of abundance means we serve and are given more opportunities to serve. We want the blessings so we can serve our families. But we get caught up in the blessings only and the blessings turn into just stuff. That's when our ego has run all the way out of control.

In the words of Father ‘Lotto’ (He’s been quoted as wanting to hit the lotto so he can get his freak on.) "Share the wealth Don't share your opinions"

Serve for the Love. Love has no expectation of reward. Jesus had a duty. He carried on without waiting on reward. As soon as people started jocking him, he left town. That’s egoless.  Who do we know that avoids adulation?

Disagreements are opportunities to serve. Give Love not your opinion. Trying to win an argument is not fulfilling. Fulfillment comes from giving Love without expectation of reward. That's serving. Only expect more work and be grateful for the opportunity.

To be specific, let’s focus on differences of opinion.  Some call them disagreements. Others call them arguments. In our daily lives, we get ourselves into these things often. The question is What Would Jesus Do?

Not argue! Not fight so hard to be right. No care so much about being ‘felt’. You feel me? What Jesus would do is serve no matter how hard it hurts. Serving in this instance means putting aside your ego and how you feel about the matter. How you feel about the matter is unimportant. Humble yourself like you’ve lost everything you own and all you have to give is Love. Give it all away because it’s the only thing you will never run out of. Let God take care of the rest.

I am working on killing my ego. That means losing on purpose when I find myself getting into petty arguments.  I let God handle me. I serve the needs of whoever I’m communicating with. God takes care of my true needs and my ego is never one of my needs anyway. Sound to deep for you?

Here’s the simple key to arguments. Practice (That means you won’t be able to perfect this tomorrow but one day) losing arguments. Focus on what the other person is trying to do. If they are purely serving their own ego, abandon the argument entirely. Look deep though! Look beyond ego if possible and serve the deeper. Find a way to Love the person that is fulfilling for the person. That is seeking God in all situations.

Believe me, I love nothing more than a verbal gut punch and dragging people through the mud, but, I Love God more. Now is the time to serve. Give Love. Give Love. Give Love. As He first Loved you. Walk by faith. Try it. Not by sight. Close your eyes literally so you can see the truth of a situation.

In Jesus’ mighty name we pray…

PS-St. Agathas rocks the House!!!

The Tebow Problem

I think it’s all calmed down now. I can speak the truth about a problem that is plaguing America. The problem is “Tebowing”

            It’s not Tim Tebow. In fact, none of this is his fault no matter how much we want it to be. Oh the “church people” have been waiting for Tim Tebow for years and years.

           

I just figured out that Tebowing was praying. So people are so afraid to even say praying, they made up a stupid word. I know speaking directly about God is taboo but this is ridiculous. It’s called praying! Enough is enough.

            Thank God I question everything, even Him. I wasn’t buying Tebow at Florida. Mostly, because I’m an SC fan but also because it seems fake for someone to be so positive, I had my doubts. I was certain he wouldn’t make it in the NFL. He was too small. He wasn’t accurate enough. His arm wasn’t big enough.

But Tim Tebow is serious. He is real. He’s accomplished a lot. That is his faith. That is God. I still don’t like Denver but Tim Tebow is here to stay and so is his faith. HIS FAITH!!!

            Attention band-wagon riders, hipsters, followers, bloggers and twits: Tim Tebow is not taking you to heaven with him. He will not pray over your parlay ticket. Denver is not a safe bet for a Super Bowl any time soon.

            “I need Tim Tebow to pray for the Saints.” SHUT UP!

            God is not a football fan. In fact, if Tim Tebow’s parents did it right, he’s not even praying over the game while on his knees. He’s praying for your souls. Tim Tebow is a living, walking, talking running John3:16 sign.

           

The problem with “Tebowing” is that the couch potatoes will get even lazier, spiritually.

NOOOOOO My brother! You got to get your own Jesus. Riding on Tebow’s jock is not how it works.

Allow Tim Tebow to inspire us to new levels of faith separate from football. Let Tim Tebow inspire you to be a fan of God. Know more than John 3:16. Read the whole chapter. One day read the book of John. Another time read the entire Bible. But do something soon. And do it on your own.

            Don’t use Tim Tebow to test the water. He got his groove. The water is fine (FOR HIM) and soon he’ll be gone without you…

Be careful of being manipulated into complacency.

"Most evangelicals, like most Americans, don’t show up to the voting booth at all. Their political commitments are not nearly as strong as their faith commitments.”

God’squarterbacks: Click to read article

In an election, who does that favor? It IS an election year BTW! Not the time to be manipulated. This year is huge. It’s time to choose.

I’m sure Tim Tebow is praying you don’t choose him. He’s praying you choose God.

What I Learned In Church: January 8

How The Catholic Church has changed!

My next Catholic visit was St. Agatha Parish. It was close to being at Our Lady of Lourdes. Only the choir was a little different and, in the South, traditions last a little longer. We used to Baptize/Renew vows on Saturday. (Who changed that?) and we used to pray/meditate in silence before service... 

SMH

 St Agatha was POPPIN before service. I didn’t know what to expect this time. But I liked the crowd. I liked the vibe. I Loved being early! So with no further ado, let’s get to the Word:

The readings were: Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:2-3a,5-6, and Matthew 2:1-12.
Jesus' coming was foretold, Jesus came to save Gentiles and THEN the two responses to Jesus' coming/birth.

What is the Epiphany? An album by Chrisette Michelle? The manifestation of Christ? The beginnning of Christ's journey? All of the above!

Let’s just focus on the last two though. Turn to someone and say "The glory of the Lord shines in MY life, and in MY household!” Then go out and remember to make it true every day!

Rise up! The glory of the Lord is upon you. Beware of the power of words. Don't dwell and talk about the problems. Talk about the healing! “I am HEALED in Jesus' name!” The power of life and death is in the tongue and you will eat of its fruit. Proverbs 18 :21

So, declare victory.

There were two major responses to Jesus’ coming. The wise, celebrated the coming salvation. A few people were threatened. Herod killed his wives and sons for "eyeing his throne". He worked very hard to kill Jesus as well. But it was not God’s will.

Many of us say and go through the motions like we are with the wise men. But often our true actions and motivations are more like Herod. In our lives, choosing God often requires change. We get scared and even threatened by the prospect of change. Relax, chill out, God cannot be out done!

My secret weapon is that God wins. So many people have forgotten that, so sometimes the world looks a little scary. Often we are so afraid to choose God that we get stuck and, instead of making any decision at all, we end up holding baggage. Drop the baggage today. When you even think someone has something against you, go and make peace.

The point is Jesus represents newness in all our lives. We like new shoes but we don’t like new lives. Sometimes we have been doing things a certain way for so long that when a choosing God/WWJD moment comes, we reject the newness of Jesus. Proverbs 3:1-5 concludes, “Lean not onto you own understanding…”

It’s not just about reading and understanding. It’s about your perspective. In order to be truly Christ-like, there will be moments when we must give up our life, that is our perspective, and use a new one. It’s not about dissecting the Bible in order to justify living our way. It’s about dissecting the Bible in order to learn to live Jesus’ way.

Since there were no distractions this week, I’ll add my own sidenote:

(Sidenote) When you take a walk in someone else's shoes, the fact that they are not your shoes should be the first thing you recognize AND ACCEPT. We like to do it the selfish way... Cut out the toes... Shave the heels... Put an insole... 
Walk in them. You don't have to stay there but just understand what it feels like. If you want to help the owner of the shoes, help. And remember that you can only help those who want and are willing to change. Also, be aware that you may be the one who has to change and walking in someone else’s shoes may help you more than them…

What I Learned In Church: New Years Day

 For the New Year I went back to my Catholic roots. The first stop was Holy Name on Arlington and Jefferson. We walked in a little late. It was no one’s fault (Gina). We walked in on the gospel. (My father says if you make the gospel and Communion, you went to church.)

The readings were from Numbers chapter 6, Psalms 67, Galatians chapter 4 and Luke chapter 2. Sometimes you have to turn a picture sideways to get all one-thousand words. We start with God’s promise to bless Israel. Then we practice praying for God’s mercy. THEN we look back on what God gave us in Jesus’ life. We were all unable to live under the law and Jesus presented the key to our salvation. He gave his life to teach us how to Love. AND THEN we go back to His birth. The shepherds, the wise men, the magi, the priests, the scribes, indeed the entire nation of Israel and the world was waiting on something to help them in their lives. So desperate were a few that they looked to and celebrated the questionable birth of Jesus to unwed parents.

How desperate are we to get out of our situations. Would we worship a child? Would we follow a man who threw his inheritance away to travel the world with a bunch of hippies? When we are lost, do we know where to turn? When all seems lost are we willing to follow the lead of a man who couldn’t/wouldn’t stop himself from being crucified?

Looking back on all of this now, we can see the power of God but, what about today? What about right now in our very own lives? Following Jesus’ example sometimes means utter and complete humiliation. Who is willing to give up their swag/pride for a minute/day/year for God’s promise?

When we walked in, the celebrant was going off on a tangent about black Jesus. Standing in front of a huge white Jesus on a cross, the celebrant explained that a black Jesus should be in the manger. “It is racially insensitive to not have a black baby Jesus in the manger” And this was a week after Christmas. It was my first visit to Holy Name so I don’t know when they put the Christmas decorations. I do know that it seemed a little late to be discussing Christmas decorations. I’m just saying

Focus

What a show! Who says Catholic Church is boring?  The celebrant (I don't know if he was a Deacon or a Priest) was colorful. After calling white Jesus racially insensitive, he proceeded to sing with the choir, walking around the sanctuary dancing. He reminded me so much of a wino (Gina said his name is Ned-The Wino) who just wandered in and started talking and singing and dancing. I'm waiting on him to fall down and start crying.

There was a Re-Commitment Ceremony too! Father Joe reminded us that the marriage bed is undefiled and only judgment awaits the unmarried (ahem…) [Hebrews 13:4]. The couple was in their fifties. They had been married for a while. It was wonderful to see the spark still there. They had a youth to them. Most of all there was Love. Thank God they chose to share it with us all in the church.

We ran over into the Spanish mass. Bless their hearts. They just came on in. Nothing can stop God's worship. 

All in all, the message is the same as it always was. God is Love. He Loves us so much, He sent His son to show us how to Love on His level. Jesus’ example was evident in the married couple that day. God promised us the greatest blessings. The greatest blessing is Love. It’s here now all around us. We just have to remember to look for it and most of all give it.

My New Year’s Resolution

It’s been a few days. How is every doing with their resolutions? Me? I didn’t make any. After years of making fake ones, forgetting to make any until March, making unrealistic ones, not remembering what they were after two weeks and just trying to fit in with the masses; I determined to stop bullshitting myself.

Of all the improvements and changes we want to make in our lives, how many of those are really self-centered? Are you doing these things for you or to fit in? Is it just tradition to change your life on January 1st? Is there truly something about the changing of a calendar that makes us want to change? Why didn’t we think of these things before? Or what is it about January 1^st that makes it easier to do so, if it’s easier at all.

Sometime in June or July I started to question “traditions”. There is nothing wrong with tradition. I questioned a lot of things. I questioned our motivations. I questioned our priorities. I questioned the: who, what, when, where, how and why of just being ourselves. There IS something wrong with not questioning ourselves.

Within our individual spirituality, it’s much easier to fall back on dogma and doctrine than it is to deal with what’s right in front of our faces.  What’s right in front of us is our self. Whether or not we make resolutions or any changes in our lives we have priorities that guide our decisions. Those priorities should be controlled by us but if we remain afraid to address our self, then our priorities are controlled by a myriad of outside forces: tradition, emotion, other people, buildings, institutions, and holidays. All things which are not bad at all except for the fact that we are being held back by something!

So many of us are so close to our breakthrough, we can taste it. We can see it. Sometimes we think we can touch it. So we reach but there’s that something. All those outside forces can become that something if we don’t deal with our selves. Many of us have all the answers but none of the courage to face ourselves in the mirror and make our selves do what we know is the right thing to do.

So we turn to our outside stuff. We put our most important step off until next year. Now next year is here and tradition tells us to make some resolutions. Why not? Let’s lose some weight. Why don’t we remodel the house? Maybe it’s time to tell off all the people who’ve been getting on our nerves all year. It all sounds good.

But forgive me for asking so many questions all the time. I have to do it though. Why New Years Day? Why haven’t we made any changes before? Is October really that shitty of a month that you don’t want to make changes? Are you having too much fun in April? Why are we waiting on the calendar to tell us what to do?

One resolution I heard was something like – I resolve to stop putting up with the BS. I wish I could remember who it was. I would try to make them famous. Maybe its better I don’t remember, because one thing was missing. When are we going to stop putting up the main bull-shitter in our lives? That is, when will we stop bullshitting ourselves?

In our day to day lives, we talk a lot of shit. We talk the most shit to ourselves though. We say we want to start eating healthy for the New Year but we woke up on January 3^rd (We party that hard!) hung-over. We must have fried food and A LOT of it. Lately, I’ve noticed people starting their resolutions later and later in the year. Let alone January, some people start in March.

There must be some magic to changing the calendar that allows us to be able to what we couldn’t do during the rest of the year. But if there is, how does it work. Do we need to only make certain resolutions? Do we need to make our resolutions more realistic?

I say none of that. The magic of New Years is in the myth of a fresh start. We get reminded of God’s forgiveness and our never-ending fresh starts.  We don’t have to wait for a particular calendar day to come around in order for us to make a change. All we have to do is remember that we can change. Any day!

If you have made a resolution or three this year, good luck. If you haven’t, good luck too. No matter which group you are in never forget that you can grow any day, at any time. It’s never too early or too late to take honest inventory of yourself and make some changes. Once we start learning, we don’t stop.

Never stop learning. Never stop growing. If you didn’t do so hot this season and you need another holiday to jumpstart your growth, Ash Wednesday is February 22 this year. The Lenten season is the perfect time to fast and pray for a new direction.

Either way, good luck. You can do it!

My Mission Statement

Jason Sloan

          My mission is to build wherever it is God leads me. From my inner-self to my outer-self, my family, whichever other families see fit to include me, my community, my city, my state, my nation, and the world which I eventually create for myself, these all deserve my best and highest effort. I aim to be an asset to every institution I touch. I plan to replace old cycles of material/spiritual poverty and despair with new cycles of growth and abundance. Whether I build from scratch or improve on existing foundations, I intend to inspire abundance and growth every place I find myself.

          To inspire abundance, cooperation, Love and Christ-like living.

What I Learned In Church 12/19/11...

12/18/11

It may take a while before I get to my actual church. I’m visiting everyone else’s churches first. This week was Metro Church Calvary Chapel. A nice church. I like them smaller. I don’t want to be anonymous in a church. The pastor was a funny little man full of Love and energy. The congregation was like a big family. Real low key vibe. Cute little church in Santa Monica. I may go back.

After that, it was Masonic St’ John’s Day at Victory Baptist Church. I went with my father. Two Words, one day. And then I finally got to chop it up with my big-big sister T. Today was truly God’s day. I’m blessed to have been active in it.

So on the way to Calvary, Brandi called herself a pessimist. I said she just wanted to stay prepared for the worst case scenario. That’s not the same as expecting the worst outcome. The details are not important but we get mixed up by them. God winning in the end means you are not a pessimist. When you believe, you become an optimist. Different people get to God in different ways. But they get to God. That is all. The details (the how) is unimportant. The how is what distracts us from God. We try to control how but that's not in our power. That power is all God. Our power leads us to choose God and he takes it from there. I think God proved my point later that night.

The focus was on the coming of Jesus. After all, he is the reason…

The scriptures came from Isaiah Chapter 7 (14-17), Chapter 9 (6-7), and Luke Chapter 2 (8-20).

The Old Testament is full of Israel getting chance after chance to get it right and choose God. Then Isaiah foretells of a coming savior in the midst of Israel’s poor decision making. Then Jesus actually came to fulfill God’s promise. Unfortunately, after a million chances, a warning and fulfillment; we still don’t choose God. We prefer to stay stuck in the past. Per Pastor Steve – The Past often has to do with fathers. We may or may not have one and he may or may not be any good. But we have the fulfillment of Jesus. He came to make us all brothers and sisters and give us an everlasting Father. The everlasting Father is here now and endures forever.

So we have a choice. We can stay in our unfulfilling pasts or we can choose the brighter present and future promised us by God through Jesus.

Jesus was born to give us second birth. That we may die no more. But we still choose to die. We don’t choose God. We choose drugs. We choose stress. We choose getting older. Instead of preparing ourselves for the next step of our eternal lives we say things like “I’m seventy-five years old” as an excuse to stop living.

The time is not for excuses. It’s time to live and never stop!

Just a little FYI:

It is a myth that Jesus was poor/came from a poor family. 2 Corinthians 8:9 He was rich. He made himself poor for us. And then he handled the misinterpretation with humility. We misinterpret being born in a manger as a sign of poverty but it's OK. It still serves God. (Some details are not important to serving God)


(St. Johns Day)

The word came from Proverbs 3:1-6, Luke 1:26-33 and Matthew 1:18.

We get focused on Stuff so much during this time that we forget Jesus was not about Stuff. He came to change us. Not to change the law, but for us to grow past our current conditions to something better.

THIS is a season of change. Let the coming of Jesus represent the fulfillment of God's prophecy. New births and youth should remind us of the fulfillment of dreams and plans to honor God's word. And the word is Love. Bless and encourage change and growth EVEN and especially if it threatens traditions. There is only one tradition worth saving, Jesus' tradition of Love.

Mary reminded Pastor of the Unmarried Pregnant Black Teenaged Girl which, by the way, is becoming rarer. According to USA Today, from 2009 to 2010 there was a 9% drop in unplanned pregnancies among 15-19 year olds. Thank God and praise His name.

A few young people still get sidetracked. They end up missing out on their education, settling for any job and anybody. Some of us got side tracked. Some of us did some sidetracking. We all “made the best of it”. We were still trapped in a life we weren’t prepared for.

If we really cared about each other, as well as ourselves, we would not want to lock each other up. We would stop using tricks to sidetrack each other.

Because we choose God, we don’t focus on the past. No blame. We just don’t do sidetracking anymore. And if we have already sidetracked/been sidetracked, we stop. We DO building. We DO choose God. We DO what Jesus would have us do. We Love.

What I Learned In Church 12/11/11

What I Learned In Church 12/11/11

Let me start by thanking God for forgiving me for making my obstacles bigger than Him. Thank God for Your undying Love.

            This past Sunday I was at Triangular. I grew up there, as well as in other churches. I am just now though learning and understanding the philosophy of this particular church, just as I am coming into a fuller understanding of the Love of Jesus.

            Before we begin, let me share a few thoughts and announcements:

• Another day older but more so infinitely more mature.
• The Question of the Day was designed to show how we sometimes make man into idols and put men before God. I forgot, though, to ban preacher men from answering the question. (Thanks George!)
• Have you tried Jesus? Seriously!
  We have truly tried everything. All that IS left is choosing Jesus.
  That doesn't mean voting for a Crazy conservative next November. That means choosing Love now and letting that light shine everyday until November and beyond. This country and this world need and deserve your Love now and forever. Start with your self and watch it spread through your family to the world. Keep building. Keep growing. Never, not for one second, stop Loving. Choose Jesus from now on!
• We are Love so look for US everywhere.
• Keep on being a bright light; don't be a dim light.
  
  

And now the Word:

So, by his own words, Eddie Long's church is in jeopardy. Where Is The Healing? The healing is going on now. The people are leaving because they are supposed to. Revenues are down because they are supposed to be down. Eddie Long ("My church is in jeopardy") It is. But not The Church. Brick and mortar is in jeopardy all over because we've been choosing buildings and not God. God is clearing out the rift raft so we can choose Him and not idols. 

Healing is taking away obstructions between you and God. Obstructions are not just obvious sins like adultery or homosexuality or lying. Obstructions are making yourself, your life, your church and your problems bigger than the Real Church.

God is working with New Birth. In Matthew Chapter 9 Jesus first forgave the palsied man his sins so he could be healed. Then he told the man to rise and take his bed and go home. I’m sure Eddie Long asked for and was given forgiveness long ago. He and New Birth are still being healed. This is a specific process.

Healing is a process specifically for the individual. If you have someone to forgive, there is a healing process just for you. Remember the 7/70 plan (Matthew 18:20-22 - forgive him seven times seventy) It's not about being able to feel good It's about being able to do better. To Love better!

Attacking Eddie Long won't fix the problem. And forgiveness is not giving him a pass. Forgiveness is seeking and waiting till we find healing for Eddie Long and the church AND his accusers. The Church WILL get better. That may or may not
Include New Birth but The Church will be better.

"Pick[ing] up your bed" is taking dominion over your life. That bed was that mans life. Control that which has been controlling you. If it’s drugs, sex, lying, eating, did I say sex? Don’t play with it or let it play with you. No matter what it is, remember the Bible has a happy ending. Seek forgiveness and allow God to heal you. It’s a process. Go through it. God wins in the end. Despite how it looks now, God is working towards the best. Get on His team.

It’s funny. As soon as I heard Reverend Greg say Eddie Long. I said to myself – Awwwww man! More of that bull! But God uses everyone to shine his light. As we look to New Birth and pray for healing for that church, we should see God working in our lives to heal us as well. We should remember to remain patient and long suffering as we go through all that we must to be healed.

We’ll end with a special prayer for my Brother's Brother. Thank God for his healing hands.

Letter to Jay-Z, Willie Lynch , Daddy and Everyone Else Who Ruined My Life

Letter to Jay-Z, Willie Lynch (click for the original letter), Daddy and Everyone Else Who Ruined My Life

This is a shout out to the assholes, a toast to the douche bags, and cheers to all the scum buckets.

You are no longer powerful in my life. In fact you are no longer a part of my life at all. You are on your own kiddos. For your sake I hope you can live on your own, you parasitic leeches. I am assuming full responsibility for my life from now on. I have established my independence from your our relationship.

I must admit I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to live with you as a crutch. Just imagining being responsible for my own actions without anyone else to blame seemed inconceivable. Then one day I tried it.

It was wonderful.

It was everything everyone always tried to tell me and so much more. More! This is living! Real living. The truth. The gospel according to Rhonda Byrne.

I’m free. I’m above all the hating and haters. And because of that, I have absolutely no need for scapegoats. There is no one to blame for my life but me.

So this is the break up letter to Jay-Z, Willie Lynch, Daddy, The Police, Some Snitches and everyone else who ruined my life up until now:

It’s not your fault. It was no one’s fault. I take full responsibility for where I am in my life. That means the past does not matter anymore. The only thing that matters is what I do from now on.

That means I forgive you all. I forgive you Jay-Z for killing Tupac and Biggie and/or taking over their spots at the top of the rap game. You almost ruined my life by doing so. I do enjoy your flows but every once in a while I miss Tupac. And someone must be responsible for that void in my life.

Then you went and joined the illuminati. (What ever that is) I saw some pot-head on YouTube explaining how you were in a secret society and that meant it wasn’t the fact that I kept showing up to interviews two-hours late and drunk that was to blame for my lack of a job. It was you and the illuminati. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an illuminati box on my welfare application so I was denied. That was your fault too.

I forgive you Willie Lynch, whoever you are. Until I heard about you, I thought my cousins kept stealing from me and lying about it because they were just bad people. But no, it was you, Willie. You made them do it. And when I turned my back on all my family it wasn’t either of our faults, it was you, Willie. I was just about to thank you for clearing all that up but after we reconciled and I explained and showed them all your letter, my family got into a huge slapping melee. Slap, slap, slap…  My head still hurts at random times behind that.

I forgive Daddy for hooking up with my mom. She is kinda fine, so I understand why you had to hit that. And then, I know she’s hard to deal with. So hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I get it. You hardly ever have any money now (because of Jay-Z and Willie Lynch) so I know there was no way to expect you to buy rubbers back then. So here I am. And here you are, so broke you can’t even afford to spend time with me. No worries! I’ll just get my drink on and do some gang bangin’ cuz.

I also forgive you, The Police, for your constant harassment of me. You got all these rules like you’re concerned for my welfare or something. Always trying to look for my weed. I forgive you for taking me to jail instead of listening to my sob stories. Even though I knew I was telling you an original lie, you showed me I was only lying to myself. I forgive you for that too. I wasn’t ready for no dramatic self-realization.

Since I forgive you all, you are no longer as necessary in my life. I will go one listening to your music like you were any other musician. You no longer have the power to brainwash me and make me act real niggerish when I find myself in Paris. I will no longer be a slave to capitalism. I will no longer allow myself to use and be used by my own family. I am no longer lost and empty, trying to fill the voids in my life with liquor and fake relationships. I love you all. I may even start obeying the law now that I see those rules weren’t made just to pick on me.

So, in the spirit of appreciation and not that of regret, thank you. It was nice knowing you all. If we are in each other’s lives beyond this point, our relationships will be entirely different. No more blame games. You will merely be a talented rapper/businessman, a desperate example of the worst of the free market, a loving family member, my community protector and just some guys who talk too much and you will either be in my life or not and it won’t change me one bit.

I love you all but you are no longer in charge of my life. I don’t have that much time for you anymore. I will from now on be too busy living. Period.

Goodbye. Good luck with ALL your bullshit.

FYI – I do believe Jay-Z is a good rapper/businessman. I have a good relationship with my father; he is in fact one of my best friends.

On amore serious note, it is my duty to inform all that while your life may have some huge problems, there is no one to blame but yourself. And I wouldn’t even suggest giving your self a hard time about it. I write an adult blog and I expect to be talking to only adults. So I can say, as adults, we are all responsible for ourselves. One of the main parts of being responsible means living without excuses.

There is so much I can say about excuses. In short, living without excuses means we will not be conspiracy theorists anymore. I don’t believe in coincidence. But that doesn’t mean correlation or causation. There was no Willie Lynch and even if there was, his life has nothing to do with your current laziness. You’re just lazy. No one forced any of my family members to be assholes, they just are.

The police and snitches get paid to find, catch and tell on people when they are doing wrong. You are doing wrong. If you chose to stop doing wrong, the police would be no more than direction givers and traffic directors. But you choose to do wrong so your life reflects that choice and ALL that comes with it. Your absentee parent is not a ninja who sneak s into your bedroom and steals all your rubbers, forcing you to become a naked-dicker. You just are.

You chose this life so far and you are free to choose otherwise as soon as you let other people stop driving.

Take control of your life and stop blaming others. I believe in a mighty God. He is so much bigger than racism, sexism, capitalism, haterism, Hovism, tattle-tale-ism or any other –ism you can come up with.

For every excuse/conspiracy you can come up with, I have one answer. Choice. You can choose God or the bullshit. Take your pick.

What I Learned In Church: Prison

This is from a bible study in prison. We learned quite a bit that can be used by anyone seeking God. This is just one bit: 

“I Wanna Be Free”

It’s called an emotional heart attack. We get so overwhelmed with “The Drama” of life that we panic. It may not be as severe as a panic attack or an anxiety attack so we ignore the fact that we are acting out.

Samson had one. He was constantly turned against by his own people. It seemed like nothing he did was good enough. He could always turn to God but after a while, he got tired of not having someone human to talk to. So he turned to Delilah. I always thought she was his wife or girlfriend. But she was neither. He had a wife. And they don’t suggest that their relationship was any more than her being a shoulder to lean on. It doesn’t even seem like she set out to set him up. She just had a stronger allegiance to her people than to him. She could have been anyone. She could have been a homeboy from the other side of town. She could have been a coworker having a drink with you after work.

Today, in our lives, pressures build up and our emotions beat us up. We run to the wrong people, bad habits, old sins for help. Sometimes we find ourselves unloading ourselves on the first person who will listen without even considering who we are talking to.

Again, I must reiterate, that I’m not talking about panic attack levels. So many of us have so much baggage AND we are so used to taking the path of least resistance that one bad day at work can lead us to talking to the wrong person, firing up a cigarette after ten years, cussing, sleeping around or even just flirting with ideas you turned your back on long ago.

At the extreme, people claimed to have “Snapped”, they say they “Couldn’t Make It Anymore”. “They let me out of prison and I walked right into another one”. But that’s the extreme. You read that and say to yourself – I would notice if it gets that bad. But what about when you’re just a little bit more uncomfortable than you usually are.

In prison the stakes seem a little higher. Physical freedom is the focus. But whether or not you are in prison, - the real prison is the one inside ourselves. If we don’t get free inside ourselves, we’ll end up right back in prison or locked up on the outside

Prison is a walking cemetery, and so is “life” until we decide to change.

When we put our hope inside God’s hope, we are free. “Walketh not in the counsel of the un-Godly” (Psalms 1:1-3) The counsel of the un-Godly is not just a bunch of hoodlums on the corner. The counsel of the un-Godly is anything you turn to to relieve stress that is not God.

It’s easy if the un-Godly things in your life are people. CUT THEM LOOSE! Forgive them and let them go! …or the other way around if the situation requires.

But when they are things, we tend to let them become Delilah and weasel their way into a prominent position in our lives. It’s not always the hard stuff. It’s TV. It’s playing golf. It’s Facebook. It’s whatever we do to avoid dealing with ourselves and instead of seeking God.

And I’m not saying they are bad. I sure as hell ain’t getting off Facebook. It’s just being careful to not replace God with distractions. In ALL things, we should seek God. It’s sad to allow ourselves to be distracted by anything. And it’s potentially destructive to put anything in a Delilah position in your life. Most times God is available right inside our ordinary lives. We just don’t seek Him. When we look at our average everyday life we don’t see God. We see a rut.

Seeking God is an exercise (and I use that word exercise on purpose) in endurance. It is believing long after we got tired of believing. It’s holding on to our marriages. It’s staying focused on our real brothers and sisters. Staying vigilant lasts a little longer than a staring contest.

Hang in there, even if you get sidetracked. (Ephesians 2:1-5 ) There is a promise. (Genesis 22:16) God wins in the end.

What I Learned From WikiLeaks

I wrote this almost a year ago. I just now got to typing it in. It was right on time. 

            I heard about the WikiLeaks scandal but didn’t get a chance to read about what happened. Today, March 31, 2011, I read about the man responsible.

            Now that’s faith! He’s gay in the military. He’s been a vocal atheist all his life. But he believes in something – the truth. And that’s exactly the type of messenger God would use! Exactly!

            Faith is faith. Belief is belief. Actions speak louder than words. One man’s faith is changing the world. And he doesn’t even know Jesus. I know Jesus! I know a bunch of Jesus’, I helped a few get green cards. But that important one? What have I given him?

            How many of us would give our freedom for the truth? How many of us would even risk getting cussed out for the truth? The faith of a mustard seed can move mountains. What do we really believe in?

            How many times a day do we get our faith tested? Or are we still hiding from the world? Jump off the porch of get out of my house! We got some major spiritual warfare going on and right now I’d rather have a gay atheist on my team than a lot of you ‘Christians’.

            And yall want to rebuke Satan all the time… Please! Rebuke yo’self fool! Yall punk asses better get some faith AKA grow some balls and start fighting for some truth. EVERY DAY!!!

            Start fighting the small battles. The (am I fat?)’s. The (am I stupid for dating this married person)’s. Let’s see you win some of those fights before you start talking tough. #fixyourownbullshit.

            We do have some huge battles ahead. For now let’s focus on getting ready and staying ready. Practice. Pray. Repeat. Each day. Every day!

            Practice keeping it 100. Start with yourself. Practice acting on faith, not fear. Keep drilling. Keep training until you are a mountain of truth until you are a powerhouse of faith.

            My brother said anyone can remember some numbers out of a book. And I’ve heard of and met atheists who can quote more bible verses than any “Christian”. But who dares to live the life we pay lip service to every day?

            Thank God for sending Bradley Manning to remind us what faith can do. Any faith. Imagine what ours can do!

God’s Will Be Done

Today, for the first time, I realize the extent of God/Jesus’ Love. I knew God/Jesus Loved me always. I knew Jesus died for me. Today I put the two together. The entire crucifixion was done out of Love. It didn’t matter whether or not people saw/accepted that Love. That was pure Love.

            I’ve always said I’m not a Christian, I am Christian. Christian meaning Christ-like. I’m on the right path. I’m just realizing how far I have to go.

Here I am surrounded in life and in jail by people who need my Love. I almost missed the opportunity to give it. And it was all around me.

            So I’ll stop complaining. I’ll start thanking God for my strength. I’ll ask God to forgive the weak. I hope one day, they seek their own justification.

            Today, I have mine.

            Thank You God!

            What a wonderful day.

Jail

So I’m in jail, hopefully for the last time. Would saying this is so contrary to what was expected of me fifteen years ago be an understatement? I still thank God, I’ve avoided REAL prison. He knows, I could have been there too. (Ah-Hem-Hmm)

There are five counties in the immediate Atlanta metropolitan area. I’ve seen the inside of four of their jails. I didn’t think anything of it the first couple of times. I made some mistakes. (A lot of them drunk mistakes) I wouldn’t repeat them. But this year, it became apparent. I haven’t repeated any specific behaviors. But I also haven’t changed my mentality.

I picked up this quote sometime in 2009. “The path of least resistance makes all rivers, and some men, crooked” – Napoleon Hill. I think I get it now. I was one of those men. I’ve been going with the flow for far too long. Some kind of way, I’ve flowed into niggardom. That (niggardom) is the negativity, depression and hopelessness plaguing most of America.

I must get out, if only to show the rest of America how to get out of it. But seriously, I got things to do. I’m late for an innumerable amount of appointments with destiny. I hope I can reschedule.

I’ve seen enough. I’ve learned what I needed to. Time to get back on track. We now return to our regularly scheduled program. This was just a test. No let’s see if I passed.

The blessing is always being able to remember who I am. The other blessing is I’m not too far off track. Niggardom will have you believe all is lost. Never was that the case. I have been flowing. I just got off on the scenic route. The expressway is just around the corner. I’m gone!

I won’t forget those I left behind. If I can get out, everyone can. Some can’t see it and I can’t help them from the inside. Once I get out though. I’ll show them the way. After that, it’s up to them. Most won’t come. Thank God for the few who will.

There was also a time when I wouldn’t be honest about where I’ve been. Actually, it was quite recently. While I might have recounted exploits and situations, I did so with a detachment that wasn’t honest about the mental and social state I was in.

There is no need to be apologetic about who I am. God loves me. My family loves me. My friends love me. (An amazing number still love me!) I finally figured out, that would never change. All I have to do is be myself.

Today, I admit my guilt. I’m guilty of being dishonest. I was so scared to be myself, I was dishonest about who I was. I lay my sin at the cross. If the unyielding Love of God, My family and my friends is any indication, I’ve been forgiven long ago. I realize it now. Now I am free to be 100% of the me I am.

Now that I am free physically and mentally, I have no fear of bondage literally or figuratively. Once again, the sky is the limit. The Easy Rider is now a juggernaut. Watch out world. Jason is Free!