I'M ENCOURAGED

I’ve never been one to cry over a TV show or a movie. I’ve seen stuff that makes other people cry, but I never did. The famous Fresh Prince episode when Will’s father shows up. That episode used to get my dad all the time. Never got to me. I’ve seen the Green Mile which had my sister and Dad crying. I enjoyed the movie, but didn’t have me crying. I’ve seen Toy Story 3 which got to a lot of people. Again, I liked the movie but it didn’t faze me like that. But…

The other day I was watching Tyler Perry’s Madea Big Happy Family The Movie. If you haven’t seen the movie, you may not want to read any further because I will give away some parts. Now if you know the story of the movie, it’s just like the play. A dying mother is trying to get her family together to tell them that she doesn’t have long to live. Her children, who are grown, have so much issues that they can’t get passed them to hear what their mother has to say. Anyway, the mother ends up dying. The funeral scene is taking place. For some reason, the scene got to me. I found myself sitting in the chair and the tears were flowing down my face. Mind you both my parents are still living. So it couldn’t have been that. I just know that the tears flowing down myself felt like a release.

Before I put that movie in the DVD player, my day was hell. I could be religious and say that this was all Satan’s doing, but that would be a lie. My actions caused it. I’m not afraid to admit that. I won’t admit what I did, but I do know that I knew it was wrong and I felt like crap afterwards. Besides all that I was not doing what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t checking in with people just to check in and/or to tell them what I needed. Needless to say I wasn’t in the random crazy mood that you usually see on YouTube or used to hear on my podcasts. Big Dusty was on vacation and Daniel Richerson was real down. So when I popped the movie in, I was enjoying the movie because I’m a fan of Tyler Perry’s work, and I’ve seen this movie before with my little sister. This time I was by myself. It was almost as if God needed to get me by myself to talk to me through the movie.

It was the thought of my mother that got to me as well. My mom has done too much for me. We talk about the love we get from God and the fact that we don’t deserve it, but if some of us would be honest, we don’t deserve the love we get from anybody. You got to see it from my side of things. As I’m typing this, my little sister is closing in on graduation from college and going into the real world. I’m not. I went to college but didn’t care. I took the same attitude I had in high school, which wasn’t a good one, and bought it to college. Yet Mom still loved me and wanted to see me do well. Have I ever felt I let her down enough for her to hate me? Oh yeah, but as soon as I feel like that, Mom calls me to check on me and tells me that she loves me. What kind of love is that? So it was the thought of my mom someday going home to be with Jesus, and I did nothing like find work, or find a wife, or just plain make anything of myself. That stuff is heavy for a 24 year old to think about. It was like I felt the emotion of the characters that lost their mother, even though again, both my parents are still alive.

I felt something telling me that it’s not yet too late, but don’t wait too long because soon it will be. Sometimes something catastrophic got to happen to folks to light a fire under them. I started feeling like if I wait any longer, something catastrophic is going to happen. I don’t want that to happen.

So before I started typing this I was again feeling like nothing was going to happen. It wasn’t like I wasn’t doing anything. I was applying places, not getting answers, but yet at the same time I heard testimonies at church where people applied places and immediately they were hired. You can imagine how I felt.

In the Bible, 1 Samuel 30 starts off with David and his men were going to Ziklag, not knowing that at the same time, the Amalekites burned Ziklag to the ground and took the women and children as captives. So you can imagine that when David and his men finally made it to Ziklag how they felt. The Bible says that the men starting crying until they couldn’t cry anymore. Then you get the 6^th verse of 1 Samuel 30 where it says, “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” I bring that up because as I was feeling like I was feeling, the song Encourage Yourself by Donald Lawrence dropped in my mind. The song starts off with, “Sometimes you have to encourage yourself…” David was in a depressive state. The Bible says he was “greatly distressed.” Who could blame him? Not only were his men going through, but his own wives were kidnapped as well. Yet in the midst of all that, “David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”

Why can’t we do the same thing? Why not follow the example of a guy who was, as the Bible put it, “a man after God’s own heart”? Isn’t David in the lineage of Joseph who was the husband of Mary who gave birth to Jesus? Again, why not do the same thing as David? If we’re saved, God is our God. So when we get distressed, and it does happen whether we want to admit it or not, we need to encourage ourselves in the Lord our God. We are the seed of David. Whether I want to or not, I at times act like my dad. Why? Because I’m his seed. Since we’re the seed of David, shouldn’t we at times act like David? The song says, “When the spirit of the Lord comes about my heart, I will dance like David danced.”

Thanks for reading this blog. Hope you got something out of it. Follow this blog. Share this blog around for those who you feel might need to read it. Feel free to check out my other blogs. Friend me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. Follow me on Dailybooth. Follow me on Tumblr. Follow my wrestling blog.

Stay Saved,

Big Dusty aka Daniel Richerson

YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE MY SHEEP, WHY AREN'T YOU FOLLOWING ME?

“You say that you are my sheep, why aren’t you following me? You say that I am your shepherd, why aren’t you following me?” “I told my sheep to visit the sick and to take the stranger in. When you see someone who’s naked, you throw wool to cover their skin. And you say I say I am your shepherd, why aren’t you following me?”

You got everybody claiming to be a Christian, but don’t want to follow. You got everybody claiming to be a Christian, but don’t want to live it. You see most of the entertainers that receive awards thank God, yet don’t want to follow.

“Why aren’t you following me?”

 Jesus wants you to follow him. Everybody can praise him. The Bible says, “Let everything that have breath, praise the Lord.” So if you’re breathing, you can praise. But being a Christian is more than praise. Don’t get me wrong, being a “praiser” is important. When praises go up, blessings come down. Like a parent that God is, he wants to be praised to perform. But how many people are praising but not following? Those secret habits that we can’t break, or should I say, don’t want to break, whether we know it or not, is hindering the way we live as a Christ follower. When we should be seeking God, when we should be seeking Jesus, we’re stuck in our habits. When we should be waking up thanking God for another day, we’re waking up stuck in our habits. We shout on preachers saying, “Jesus is a habit breaker.”

“And you say that I am your shepherd, why aren’t you following me?”

 We know who can break the habit, but we’re not following him. Some entertainers know where their gifts and talents come from, but refuse to follow him. We say amen when we hear, “Without God, we can do nothing. Without God, I am nothing.” Yet refuse to follow. Sheep follow the shepherd. Goats have to be pushed. Goats have to be forced. What are you a sheep or a goat?

“You say that you are my sheep, why aren’t you following me?”

 Many big brothers are annoyed when their little brothers follow them everywhere. Many big brothers try their best distance themselves from their little siblings. So we claim to be Christians, right? As Christians we have the best big brother ever. God is the father, Jesus is the son. Jesus, the son of God. As Christians we are adopted into the family. Therefore Jesus is our big brother. He is our shepherd, and he’s welcoming us to follow him. We got to stop with the secret habits. We got to stop getting away from people to get our habit in, whatever that habit may be. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Now if we want the habit broken, we can’t continue to entertain that habit. You know what gets you off. You know your weakness. If you can help it, don’t entertain it. Circumstances happen, believe me, I understand that, but that’s not an excuse. You may have to literally walk or run away, listen to music, read the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in prayer, but praying while you’re in the mood to do whatever your habit is won’t do any good because your mind isn’t in the right place. I know what I’m talking about. You’re in the mood. You’re a couple of seconds away from doing what you know is wrong. So while you’re 99% in, you try to pray. After you open your eyes and get off your knees, you still end up doing the habit. Why? Because your mind wasn’t on God. Your mind wasn’t on Jesus. Your mind was on the habit. God will keep you in perfect peace if you keep your mind on him.

“When my sheep hear my voice, they come running to me.”

Sheep knows the voice of their shepherd. So the question comes who are you listening to? Are you a sheep or a goat? What are you a sheep to? Who are you allowing to be your shepherd? Who are you following?

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Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson aka Big Dusty