SAY I LOVE YOU WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE

 Jon Huber passed away December 26, 2020. 10 days after turning 41. Jon Huber was known as Luke Harper under the WWE umbrella. Under the AEW umbrella he was known as Brodie Lee. His passing took a lot of people by surprise. As I read tribute after tribute, one dominating thing I saw over and over was tell your family and friends that you love them. That got my mind working. How often do I tell my family and friends that love them? Why is that such a battle to say those three words "I love you" to somebody but it's easy to say I love God. I love Jesus.

1 John 4:18-20 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath not seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

One commentator said, "It is easy to say we love God when it doesn't cost us anything more than weekly attendance at religious services. But the real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us."

So what is the problem? Maybe it's the fact that some of us have never experience what love truly is. We have experienced a generational fabrication of what was told to be love but it is really poison being passed down. 1 John 4:8 "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." So it also could be we're trying to love people without keeping God in it. Some of us are trying to show the love of God without God. 2 Timothy 3:5 says, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." I know this is against God himself to post other versions of the Bible other than KJV to some, but the English Standard Version of the same verse says, "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people."

If this pandemic taught us anything, especially in the body of Christ, it should've taught us that we don't need to dress for convocation to get into God's presence. The song writer said, "Won't He make you clean inside." The late Bishop G E Patterson said, "Salvation is an inside job." Another song comes to mind that says, "Something on the inside, working on the outside, oh what a change in my life."

Back on topic. Do your love ones know that you love them? Do they know just by what you say, or does your actions show it also? 4 years ago, I spent my Christmas in the hospital. While my family was opening gifts and eating Christmas dinner, I had oxygen in my nose and eating hospital food. I bring this up because my Mom and Grandma took me to the hospital. That's love through action. They could've just said like some people in the church say, "I'll be praying for you." DC Talk has a song that says, "Love is a verb." I've never been in a relationship, but I do know that if you tell your partner you love them, but never show the love, what you say means nothing. How you show the love is just as if not more important than how you say it.

I know I'm guilty of not saying I love you when I probably should. I'm guilty of not initiating the fact that I love someone. Saying I love you too to somebody is easier for me to say than to just come out and say it first. It's hard for me to openly express my love for someone or something out of fear of being trashed for feeling how I feel. I'm still in that learning process of learning how to like and love myself. I'm still learning how to stop feeling guilty about making decisions that will positive affect my mental capacity. I understand it's easy to roll your eyes when the subject of mental health comes up because some still chooses to believe that it's not real. It's also easy to deny something is real when you've never had to deal with it. Like some people still saying that the pandemic is not real, only for the same people to find out that it is real when it's too late.

2020 has shown that death has no age limit. Richard Pryor said in one of his specials, "Death don't [care] where it go. If it gets a two for one that's a good day for death." That has definitely rang true in 2020. I heard someone say years ago, "Appreciate what you have today cause it may not be there tomorrow." Appreciate your parents today. Appreciate the elders that are still here today. If you have any friends, appreciate them today. Appreciate the roof over your head today. Appreciate God today.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

WE'RE BETTER TOGETHER

Philippians 3:13-14 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul was speaking for himself here, but in reality this is for all of us. We're all pressing. So since we're all in the pressing, we have no time to try and compete with each other for position. Since we're all pressing, we have no time to be petty and hold grudges. We're supposed to be a body of believers, but we're trying to one up each other for position. This year has been a trying year for all of us, no matter how much we try church it using cliché terms, if we're honest, this has been a trying year. Still yet...

My late Pastor Gray once said, "It's time out for the church being a theater. The church is a hospital." People are coming in seeking help for issues sometimes they're not willing to talk to anybody about. I think part of the reason people post their problems on FaceBook is because the church has lost it's focus. They come to church for help, they come for answers, and get nothing. So they go to social media to let it out because they know that holding it in is not healthy. At the same time letting it out to just anybody is not healthy either because not everybody has your back. Some are just looking for gossip when they ask how you are. 

I can't speak for anybody else, but for me, I don't care about spots or position. Want my position so bad, you can take it. I'll still sleep at night. I have a lot more issues to worry about than some spot on the chain in church. I'm coming to the hospital because I still get angry. I still have high anxiety. I still get depressed from time to time. So a spot is the last thing I'm worried about. I'm trying to see what medication I need to take to get healed. If I went to the doctor, and all they talk about is how they're better than the other doctors in the office. I don't care, I'm coughing, doc, take care of the cough. What medicine do I take for the cough? I don't care about your position on the office totem pole. 

I used to be an avid pro wrestling watcher, and I've heard stories how back in the day, wrestlers would try hard to hold on to their spot, and not help the new people that want to learn the business. At the same time, some wrestlers would look at the younger talent and say, "Let me work with him, I can do something special with him." While some were trying to protect their position in the company, some were trying to keep the company going working with the younger talent so there would be a company in the future. Not to create clones but to help them be the best individual talent that they can be so they can make the most money for themselves.

Let's flip it. We got a lot of people in the kingdom still clinging and clutching to their position because nobody else can do it like them. We got up and comers that have a new vision and maybe a different way to do things, but with the "that's not the way I was taught" or "That's not how I do it" mindset, you disregard the up and comers so now they get accused of "sitting down on their gifts" when all the while they've been trying to show you what they can do to help enhance the ministry. Now some people are look at the next generation and don't bash them, but talk with them to hear them out. After the conversation maybe they can work together to help build the ministry even bigger than it is. A phrase I hear a lot is, "We're better together." If we're better together, then let's work together and stop competing with each other.

I hope you got something out of this. "I count not myself to have apprehended...I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." If you got this far, can you please share with your people? 

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson