"We no longer have to perform for God" ~Kirk Franklin
I was thinking of posting what I spoke on Sunday. And then I began thinking about ones that try to spice up the Word of God like it's an unseasoned raw piece of meat. The Bible is already good enough as it is. No need to put your opinion on it. The Word is alive by itself. Donald Lawrence had a song that said, "Let the work do the work." Part of the problem of why we see no growth in church is because, I believe, the Gospel is not being preached. Opinions are being preached. Your opinions are not going to get people saved. Your opinions are not going to get people delivered. Your opinions are not going to catch the fish you want to catch. Opinions fail. But the Word (Bible) will never fail. Opinions die when you die, but the Bible is what will stand forever. No matter what man says.
We live in a world now that is doing what is against the Bible, but we as a people have to be unashamed of the Gospel. Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Opinions are what you sometimes end up being ashamed of. Opinions have power. But you really want to really on the power of human opinion? That's called politics, and I'm know I'm not the only one that believes that we don't need any more politicking in the church.
We don't need to try to impress God with our fanciness. It's timeout to just dance and praise in church, then as soon as you leave the "church ground" you get mad of every little thing. It's timeout just showing the love of Christ in the four walls, but outside the four walls you show the false love of the Devil. Now is a time more than any to be real with God. To be real with your spiritual life. Now is a time to start applying church and stop just going to church. Now is a time to start living church.
Somebody is always watching. I'm not talking about God cause God sees all and knows all. I mean non believers and young believers. Keep that in mind the next time you let your temper get the best of you.
Stay Saved,
Daniel Richerson
*UPDATE 8/10/14*
Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." let the word do the work
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
ARE YOU PERFORMING OR BEING?
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Timothy 3:5.
Will you open your bibles after the music stops
After it's over, after it ends, after the music stops, what then?
Will you understand that Christ is King?Or will you just like the words we sing after the music stops"
A conversation with my sister prompted this blog. People know how to do church. People know how to dance, run, play the right chords, and make the right faces to get by. There's a difference between people that just do church and the ones that are the church. Church is not a building. Despite of what you may think. I learned a long time ago that the church is the believers. Which one are you? The ones that just do church, or the ones that are the church?
Now let me say this that I'm not casting stones. I'm guilty sometimes of just doing church and not being the church. Before I changed the name, I called the blog site, Keeping It Real. I'm doing my best to not come off as a perfect guy. Please believe I'm far from perfect.
I heard it said that the anointing it will break the yokes. Dancing or shouting is all well and good but is anybody getting free? Or are all we doing is exercising? I'm half black, but I will say black people are known for enjoying a good beat. So with that being said, being saved has to be more than a dance, right? It has to be more than a song that gives you goosebumps and gets you emotional, right? I mean people get emotional over "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith. That's not a gospel song. Then the question comes is being a Christian about putting a performance or is about becoming Christ like to the point where people see more of the God in you rather than you yourself?
Rapper Lecrae who is saved has a song from one of his old albums that says:
"After the show, after the set, after the music stops what's next?
Will there be fellowship, prayer, disciples?Will you open your bibles after the music stops
After it's over, after it ends, after the music stops, what then?
Will you understand that Christ is King?Or will you just like the words we sing after the music stops"
Stay Saved,
Daniel Richerson
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Tuesday, July 15, 2014
GET YOUR ZEAL FOR CHRIST BACK
This is going to be a bit of a call back to a blog I typed back in 2009. Before I get to it, I'm asking for your prayers. Now things may change after I post this but as of right now, I've been asked to do something real big. At least to me it's big. I'm not going to mention what that thing is just yet, but I'm asking for your prayers that God has his way and that no flesh gets the glory.
So back in 2009 I typed a blog called, "No Joy, No Strength. No Faith, No Strength." If you go back and read the blog remember it was back in 2009, and I've typed worse things in a blog. Anyway, this is the part of the blog I really want to call back to:
You hear it said all the time, "The joy of the Lord, is my strength." Yeah, that really sounds good, don't it? But, do you really carry the joy of the Lord or do you let the Devil ride? (Shout out Deacon Moody, the coolest deacon I've ever met.) Do you carry joy, or do you carry hate? Some of us, including me, need to check ourselves. We say the right stuff, but do we really mean it? A lot of us are weak because of our lack of joy. By the way people can sense that, which is why you can't get through to people. We often use the Bible verse, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy's gonna come in the morning." That's true, don't get me wrong. I truly believe that, but I think and believe that we can cause the night to linger longer than it has too. For some of us, the morning could've been here, but we let the Devil influence how we think and feel. Thus we stop believing. Thus we start to doubt. When people go to the altar to give their lives to the Lord, the verse found in Romans 10:9 "That if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved." A lot of people confess but they don't believe, and I think that's how we lose joy. In our heart, we truly stop believing thus we lose joy. Faith is also important for strength, because if we lose faith, we lose joy. My pastor defines faith as this, "You got to see it before you see it if you're ever going to see it." Now the Bible says, that life and death lies in the power of your tongue. So with faith, you got to see it, but I feel that speaking it will add more confidence to your faith. Now if you're gonna have faith, doubt has got to go. Trying to have faith with doubt is like trying to have a classy show on VH1. It's not going to work. I'm just saying if you're feeling weak mentally, maybe you need to get some joy in your life. Use your faith and speak that you will have some joy in your life. How to get joy, you ask? Jesus. Jesus can give you joy. As the late Rev. James Moore would say, "I know Jesus can give you joy! JOY! JOY!"
To be honest there's not much I can add to this but here's an attempt. Don't you wish that you didn't have to force a smile on your face? Don't you wish that you didn't have to be fake? There's an old hymn that says, "Since Jesus came into my heart,Since Jesus came into my heart;
Floods of joy o’er my soul like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart." When someone really has the joy of the Lord, they don't need to fake it. They don't need to force a smile. That's not to say that they don't feel other emotions, but they don't let the devil upset their rest. It took me a long time not to let people get to me. I'm not perfect in that yet, but I've gotten much better with that. As far as letting people do what they do and not letting it affect how I act. There's a phrase that has been used in the past decade that says, "Haters are gonna hate." People are going to do what they do behind close doors. What's done in the dark...you can only hide who you really are for so long until the mask comes off.
So the question comes how does one truly be joyful. I said in the post in 2009 that Jesus can give you joy. Kurt Carr has a song that says, "We got to put Jesus back number one." We have become so dependent on our phones and social media that when we wake up in the morning what's the first thing most of us do? Check for text messages and notifications. What if we woke up and actually started off when a Thank you to the one that woke us up? What if we started with a prayer? What if we started off with meditation on the word of God? If we really put Jesus number one, make him the first priority of your every day, joy will follow. Real joy. No longer will we have to fake being joyful. No longer will we have to force a smile on our face. Get back to when you first received Christ into your life. We need to get back to the zeal we had when we first got saved.
Now if you're not saved, the bible says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
Stay Saved,
Daniel Richerson
So back in 2009 I typed a blog called, "No Joy, No Strength. No Faith, No Strength." If you go back and read the blog remember it was back in 2009, and I've typed worse things in a blog. Anyway, this is the part of the blog I really want to call back to:
You hear it said all the time, "The joy of the Lord, is my strength." Yeah, that really sounds good, don't it? But, do you really carry the joy of the Lord or do you let the Devil ride? (Shout out Deacon Moody, the coolest deacon I've ever met.) Do you carry joy, or do you carry hate? Some of us, including me, need to check ourselves. We say the right stuff, but do we really mean it? A lot of us are weak because of our lack of joy. By the way people can sense that, which is why you can't get through to people. We often use the Bible verse, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy's gonna come in the morning." That's true, don't get me wrong. I truly believe that, but I think and believe that we can cause the night to linger longer than it has too. For some of us, the morning could've been here, but we let the Devil influence how we think and feel. Thus we stop believing. Thus we start to doubt. When people go to the altar to give their lives to the Lord, the verse found in Romans 10:9 "That if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved." A lot of people confess but they don't believe, and I think that's how we lose joy. In our heart, we truly stop believing thus we lose joy. Faith is also important for strength, because if we lose faith, we lose joy. My pastor defines faith as this, "You got to see it before you see it if you're ever going to see it." Now the Bible says, that life and death lies in the power of your tongue. So with faith, you got to see it, but I feel that speaking it will add more confidence to your faith. Now if you're gonna have faith, doubt has got to go. Trying to have faith with doubt is like trying to have a classy show on VH1. It's not going to work. I'm just saying if you're feeling weak mentally, maybe you need to get some joy in your life. Use your faith and speak that you will have some joy in your life. How to get joy, you ask? Jesus. Jesus can give you joy. As the late Rev. James Moore would say, "I know Jesus can give you joy! JOY! JOY!"
To be honest there's not much I can add to this but here's an attempt. Don't you wish that you didn't have to force a smile on your face? Don't you wish that you didn't have to be fake? There's an old hymn that says, "Since Jesus came into my heart,Since Jesus came into my heart;
Floods of joy o’er my soul like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart." When someone really has the joy of the Lord, they don't need to fake it. They don't need to force a smile. That's not to say that they don't feel other emotions, but they don't let the devil upset their rest. It took me a long time not to let people get to me. I'm not perfect in that yet, but I've gotten much better with that. As far as letting people do what they do and not letting it affect how I act. There's a phrase that has been used in the past decade that says, "Haters are gonna hate." People are going to do what they do behind close doors. What's done in the dark...you can only hide who you really are for so long until the mask comes off.
So the question comes how does one truly be joyful. I said in the post in 2009 that Jesus can give you joy. Kurt Carr has a song that says, "We got to put Jesus back number one." We have become so dependent on our phones and social media that when we wake up in the morning what's the first thing most of us do? Check for text messages and notifications. What if we woke up and actually started off when a Thank you to the one that woke us up? What if we started with a prayer? What if we started off with meditation on the word of God? If we really put Jesus number one, make him the first priority of your every day, joy will follow. Real joy. No longer will we have to fake being joyful. No longer will we have to force a smile on our face. Get back to when you first received Christ into your life. We need to get back to the zeal we had when we first got saved.
Now if you're not saved, the bible says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
Stay Saved,
Daniel Richerson
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