"Untitled" only because I couldn't think of one...

I've had many people tell me Daniel we're going to do this, we're going to do that. I've had many people tell me about their dreams and that I was going to be a part of it. I would get so excited about the potential of their vision coming to pass which would cause me to become stagnant on my own path. I would become stagnant in making the right decisions for my life due to so and so said this and that was going to happen and they wanted me to be a part of it. So in my mind I would have something to look forward to, and I would end up being like that meme where the skeleton is starting out the window waiting, when I could've use that time to work on myself. How much time has been wasted by us waiting on somebody else's dream to come to fruition while our dreams turn to dust? How many more wake up calls do you need to pick the dream back up? You hear the message through song, through sermons, and even through some social media posts, yet some of us still sit back and twiddle our thumbs. 

In the Contemporary English Version, James 2:26, "Anyone who doesn't breathe is dead, and faith that doesn't do anything is just as dead"

Switching gears just a little bit, I mean no disrespect, but I'm not what older generations calls us millennials. I'm not a clout chaser. I don't chase titles. Reason why I don't chase titles is because I don't want to become one of those people who forgets what's it's like to be laymen. I don't want to be that bougie person that forgets where God has brought me from. There's a wrestler that I'm a fan of and I was in one of his streams. One of the people in the chat was using wrestling insider terms. Terms that because of the internet and shoot interviews, out of character interviews, that we as fans have learned and added to our vocabulary. Again, just a fan in the live stream used some insider terms, and the wrestler reacted with a bougie like laugh and with a response like "Oh, I remember when I was like you. Using terms acting like I know what I'm talking about." What it sounded like to me, "Oh, I remember when I was a peasant just like you. Now I'm better than you." So besides just letting the fan be a fan and just answer his question or whatever he asked, the wrestler decided to stick his preverbal nose at the fan and disregard the comment. 

I see a lot of this "Christian" sessions as well whether it be at church or just a bible study, new converts try to get more information on what they're supposed to do, but they get looked down upon. I don't know how some churches become a revolving door? Maybe it's because that "love of Christ" is more like the "love" of a dead beat. Show love one time and think that's supposed to work. I believe it's written, "The  Lord hath appeared of old unto me,, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Webster defines everlasting, "continuing for a long time or indefinitely." So with that kind of love, the everlasting love, why look over those who are on the come up? Why look down on those who aren't moving as quickly as you are? Tell me priest and Levite, why did you pass the man that's half dead laying on the street? 

The worse thing you can tell people that's struggling in the mental compacity is "get over it." For your information, everyday they're working to get over it. I remember some people questioned when the songwriter said, "My past still controls me. Will this hurt ever leave? I can only trust you, no one else like you do." At a choir rehearsal they wanted to take that line out. I like to believe that the writer wasn't saying he was controlled by his past more like haunted by his past. I know I'm not the only one that's made some regrettable decisions in life. Just the other day I was streaming on Twitch and a moment that I have tried to forget come back to my head and I had to end the stream early. I ended the stream because it got me off focus. I use Twitch as a platform where I can just chill and laugh, and at that moment I was about to lose my mind.

It all goes back to mental health. I know it seems like it's all I talk about, but it's something I've neglected for a long time. You got to protect it. How can you protect it? Pray. You don't have to pray like your pastor or anybody else that has a FB Live prayer line. Old hymn says, "Let us have a little talk with Jesus/ Let us tell Him all about our troubles/ He will hear our faintest cry/ And He will answer by and by/ And when you feel a little prayer wheel turnin'/ And you will know a little fire is burnin'/ Find a little talk with Jesus makes it right." After you pray, act on it.

Thanks for reading the post if you got this far. Sorry that it's been so long since the last post, but due mental health, I know I'm sorry, and other things, I didn't feel compelled to write anything. Shout outs to my little sister and others who keep me motivated to keep being creative. I hope you comment and share the post if you got something out of it. Until the next post.

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

DON'T FORGET

At this point there's a lot of doubt setting in. At this point some of us don't know who or what to believe. Being it from the news media or from the pulpit. You got this news station saying this and that news station saying that. At the same time you got this preacher posting this and that preacher posting that. I'm nothing more than a guy who's trying to stay positive. Trying to stay vertical and not horizontal. Trying to build my hopes on things eternal. Trying to hold on to God's unchanging hand and not depend on the fear mongering news cycle.

Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak." There's a saying based on this verse that says, "Watch, fight, and pray." What I see going on is that there's a lot of watching and praying, but the fighting is with each other. Don't forget we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, "but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)

Do I believe the devil caused this pandemic? No I don't. I do believe that the devil is using this as leverage to cause believers to forget old songs like, "I will trust in the Lord until I die." Forget old songs like "God has everything and everything belongs to him." Forgetting old songs like, "No ground, I'm giving up no ground. We got a cause worth fighting for, Satan we're not going to take no more. No ground, I'm giving up no ground. Cause I'm absolutely, positively glory bound." "Hallelujah anyhow. Never ever let your problems bring you down. If those problems come your way, hold your head up high and say, Hallelujah anyhow." "Don't wait 'till the battle's over, shout now."

2 Timothy 4:2 says, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." The 5th verse of the same chapter says, "As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." Just because you can't preach behind a podium right now, doesn't mean you stop preaching.

Psalms 24: 7-10 "Life up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah."

Psalms 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?"

Don't Forget.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

DON'T WAIT TILL IT'S TOO LATE

"For you and me this life is not promised. Tomorrow may never show up." - Mos Def, Umi Says, 1999

Like a lot of you I was taken back by the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, and my heart goes out to his family and to the families of the other lives that were taken. I found myself crying thinking about how life can end in just an instant. We take life for granted. We focus on trying to extend life besides just living for the moment. I understand getting healthy, and me myself I have to do much better with that. But if I focus on getting healthy and forget that I'm still angry at this or that person because of something petty, or I haven't been completely honest with this person and that person because of fear, then I'll just be healthy and miserable.

Please don't let another death come before you forgive. Don't let death come before you let your love ones that they are loved. Don't let another death come before you ask for help. My pastor said this today, "A closed mouth don't get fed." Stop hesitating. There's no progress in hesitation. Hesitation brings procrastination. Can't move forward and procrastinate at the same time believe me I've tried that for years and it hasn't worked yet. Matter of fact that is what I tried to do 10 years ago when I was supposed to have a "fresh start" and all I did was get a hair cut. You can get a a new hair cut and new clothes, but if your heart is still in the wrong place, it doesn't matter what you do on the outside. A makeover on the outside doesn't necessarily mean a makeover on the inside.

 

Hezekiah Walker put out a simple song years ago that says, "Won't He make you clean inside." The "He" is Jesus. The late Bishop G.E. Patterson preached, "Salvation is An Inside Job." There's an old song that says, "Get right church, and let's go home." It is written, "The day you hear my [Jesus] voice harden not your heart." John 9:4, "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work."

Now I know that every after death, especially if it's a celebrity, everyone has a message. That's not what I'm trying to do. Truth is I've been wanting to post a new blog for some time now, I just couldn't get my words together. I didn't mean to type all this, I just wanted to get my thoughts out due to Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the other people that were on the plane. Don't waste time in pettiness. Check on your people. Love on your people. If you got something to say, just say it. If you got something to do, then do it. 

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

CHECK YOURSELF

Ice Cube once said, “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.” Urban dictionary defines this particular phrase as, “Take a step back and examine your actions, because you are in a potentially dangerous or sticky situation that could get bad very easily. Often in a harmful manner.” May I say that some of us need to take heed? A lot of us like to wave the “I’m a Christian. I go to church on Sunday” sign, but how many know this is more than a Sunday thing? Imagine if Job was just a “Sunday Christian” You think if Job wasn’t living his faith out loud that he would’ve been able to “sin not nor charge God foolishly” after his possessions and kids were taken away from him? Check yourself.

We tend to think just because the punishment didn’t happen immediately, that we got away with it. Especially with God. That’s a dangerous mindset to have. Check yourself. Ever think that the punishment didn’t come automatically is because maybe God is giving you a chance to confess? Giving you a chance to repent? Some like to say that God is a God of a second chance. I don’t know about y’all, but I passed the 2nd chance a long time ago…I’m a least on…let’s just say another chance. Or as the song writer put it, “He gave me one more (chance).”  Check yourself.

Now this is a major check yourself. Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon meaning money. The Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” People like to say that it’s just money, but it’s the love of money. 1 Timothy 6:10, to quote the whole verse, says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” I like the next verse that says, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” Meekness does not mean weak. It refers to humbleness, and being humble, does not mean you go around saying that you’re humble. Moving on. Check yourself.

Ephesians 5, the whole chapter, is crazy, but focusing on verse 5, “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” As my dad once said in a message, “Ouch, amen.” Or as my pastor now says, “If you can’t say amen, say oh me.”

If the only time you open your Bible is at church, how do you fight when not at church? A young basketball player is usually not far from a basketball. Usually see them practicing in some form or another. Joshua 1: 8-9, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein for then: thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

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.” And you only want to use this on a Sunday? Do you homie. Check yourself.

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:5. We all got stuff we need to check. None of us our perfect but we all strive to be in our own way. Hopefully something was said that was an encouragement. Hopefully you got something out of this, I know I did. Just trying to help.

Check yourself.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

RECYCLING IS IMPORTANT BUT ALSO CAN BE A BURDEN

It's a new year. 2016. There's a lot that I could say about how I entered this year. A lot of stuff I have a problem with, which I will not air out here. But here's what I will say....

I posted this on Facebook before I went to sleep, "Let's stop recycling things that should have been thrown away." I looked up what recycling means for the effect, cause I know what recycling means, don't get me wrong...anyway, "convert waste into reusable material", is the definition I found via google. Convert waste into reusable material. Think about it. Converting waste or trash. Stuff that should be in the dump. Us. We should have been in the grave. We should have been dead and gone. We were waste. Until God did some recycling and made us new. As it's said, "tried in the fire but came out gold."

But some waste has no need of being recycled. Old habits. Bad relationships. Hidden agendas. We need to recycle. Recycling is important, but in some ways it can be a burden. Some people you know are not going to do you right. You know they're going to use you. You know some people continue to take your kindness for weakness. And then you go into a new year and say, "No longer will I be used. I'm a new me. I'm a new (insert name here)" Then you come to the same problems you had for years because why? You do the same things that got you in to the trouble to begin with. You recycle the trash you threw away into new issues and new problems for the new year. 

Proverbs 26;11 says, "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." Stop going into the new year being the same fool. Stop recycling the same crap that you dealt with before. If you went through it before, you should be able to see the signs of the same stuff about to happened. Like let's say I'm going to church. I know the way I go to church. I go the same way every time. If I continue to go the same way, I will get to the same destination. The way you choose to go will determine your destinations. Let me say this, taking detours does not count as going in a different direction if you're going to end up at the same destination.

Galatians 5:1 says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." How Sway?

Ephesians 6:10-18, "

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;"

Happy New Year.

Stay Saved in 2016,

Daniel Richerson

CUTTING OFF DEAD BRANCHES

I talked to God before I started posted this blog because I knew that i had to be careful of what I typed. I will say this much how ever. I sorta understand how the Republicans in congress feel. We all know about the government shut down that's going on. Congress didn't like what Obama presented so besides being grown up and having a conversation with Obama on what to do to compromise, they decided to shut down in protest. The reason why I say I understand how Congress feels is because I too understand what it is like to disagree with leadership. Some people in leadership, to be blunt, really suck at leading. I'm not saying that's Obama, I'm just talking general, but even if they are horrible at their post, we got to show them respect. We may not respect the person holding the position, but we got to respect the position.

Now, a couple of days ago I posted a status on my Facebook, that said, "Have to turn some people off…for my own health and peace." In the comment section I was asked how do we do that? How do we cut people off? I said, "You got to choose to. Delete them from from your facebook. Keep the conversations short. Don't give them a thought." To add on to that delete any text conversations. Turn them off from your memory. The questions comes, who was I talking about in that status? or why did I post that status? That I won't get into on this blog, but I will say that I question if some people really care, or are they just nosey? or if they do care, do they care for the right reasons?

Also I will say that when an athlete is out with an injury, people try to rush them back on the court or field. When the athlete comes back too soon they risk permanent injury. Or they do what Derrick Rose did and sit out an entire season to make sure they are ready to come back to play. Now I'm more of a Derrick Rose. Those that know and read the last blog post know that I was in the hospital. And a lot of people know that I sing in the choir and on the P&W team at my church. At a recent choir rehearsal I tried to come back on the choir and realized that I was no where near ready. At that point I realized that I needed to take my time coming back to the choir stand. I'm not going to let anybody rush me back or force me to come back. I don't care who they are.

I'm going to stop right there because if I keep going, I'll start mentioning names, and that's never a good thing. Update after the hospital btw, I'm feeling better day by day. I'm taking my meds like I'm supposed to. and my weight is coming down also. Yet I shall not be rushed. So yes I am cutting people off in my life. Why? Because, one, I'm tired of losing sleep. Two, my blood pressure is already bad enough as it is. Third, I got better things to do then to spend my time staying mad at folks that don't matter. And I'm tired of having no one to confide in. I can count on one hand of people I can actually confide in on this planet. So I'm trimming off dead branches if you will. I am a bit too sensitive at times I admit that, but at the same time some people are just not worth my time or my thoughts. Y'all got people like that in your life also. I say turn them off and get your sleep back. Nobody is worth your peace.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson aka Big Dusty