I DON'T NEED NO MUSIC

I usually don't type blogs without some kind of music playing in my ears, but I'm going to try with this one.

In other countries, people walk for miles to get to a church service. I don't know this personally, but I've heard from gospel artists that have been to other countries. I bring this up because where I live it's getting cold now. Not as cold as other places in America, but cold enough. I'm already hearing excuses about not going to church or coming out to the building where we fellowship because it's too cold. How spoiled are we in this country? They're people all around that wishes the only thing keeping them from going to church was the weather outside. Let the weather drop a little bit that will require you to wear a coat and actually turn on the heat in your car, and you don't want to leave because it's too cold. SMH...all caps so you know it's real. What if God treated us the same way? What if Grace and Mercy did not exist? What if God didn't love us? We sing the song, "We being the sacrifice of Praise, into the house of the Lord." Yet we don't sacrifice praise. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but what I'm am saying is enough with excuses because God has plenty of excuses to not deal with us.

Hebrews 4:13 in the Good News Translation says, "There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before his eyes. And it is to him that we must all give an account of ourselves." I bring this up because I hear young people blocking they're parents or any other authority figure from their personal social media pages. You can do all the blocking and private pages you want to but you can't block God from anything. God sees all and knows all. Plus the Bible says in Luke 8:17 also in the GNT, "There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. There is nothing kept secret that will not come to light." So your parents don't see what you're doing on Facebook or Twitter. You can fool parents easily. I do mean easily. Especially the new millennium parents, that's another blog for another day. Now my mom is connected with me through social media. She follows me on Twitter and is friends with me on Facebook. When I post stuff out of line, she doesn't call me out in front of God and everybody. She messages me and tells me her thoughts and most of the time I change the way I say stuff out of respect. I got nothing to hide. I'm friends with my pastor on Facebook. I used to be friends with all the ministers from church but...let's leave that alone. Back to the point I got nothing to hide. Who I am on Facebook is who you will meet in person...or at least I try to be. So keep denying your parents friend request. Keep blocking other authority figures that try to help you. Now I do think that parents shouldn't try to get connected with the kids to spy on them. Got to let kids be kids. When I teach Sunday School or just teach the youth at church in general, it's more of a rap session than anything else. Most of the kids get preached at already by the Pastor and their parents. I like talking to the youth. The little I know about what's going on in the "secular" world I talk to them about. With that being said, I'm the last person in the world from being relevant with what's going on that's "hip."

Like I said I talk to youth I don't judge them or chastise them for their actions. That's not my job. If they befriend me on Facebook, and I see them post filth and foul and filth, etc, I'm not going to rat them out to their parents. That's not how I roll. I prefer giving them the message and let them make the decision to get right. Most of the youth do know better. They just don't do better. Does it have to do with the living environment? I'm willing to say some of it does. At the same time though, they are old enough to know right from wrong, and old enough to decide what to believe in. What I try to do is lead by example. Do I like to laugh? You bet. I like to have fun believe it or not.  I just don't do everything by the doctrine or tradition. By that standpoint, I guess you can call me a rebel. Any other rebels out there? Holla at your boy.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson
Facebook.com/bigdusty
Twitter.com/Big_Dusty

WHY YOU POINTING ALL THEM FINGERS?

Aaaaaaaaaand cue He Keeps Blessing by Vincent Tharpe and Kenosis! Aaaaaaaaaaaaand on to the blog!

Dusty is taking over. It started in the 7th grade. Now it's even gone to my job. I'm not kidding. My manager is calling me Dusty because there's another Daniel on the team. How awesome is that? What's next? Coffee cups? T-Shirts? Milk Cartons? That's right!! Y'all better get on the bandwagon now. It's going to be good.

Don't let a title put you on a pedestal. We got people using they're titles to point fingers. Ever heard that phrase when  you're pointing at somebody you got three fingers pointing back at you? Pointing fingers does nothing but make you look more guilty. Some of us get up on our own personal pulpit and point and point when...what are we doing? What are we doing to set the example of what not to do? How are we reacting to situations while at the same time we'll telling other people how to react? How are we handling this recession while at the same time we'll telling other people how to react? How are we living when we're telling others how to live? What's done in the dark...

Actions speak louder than words. So if I'm going to tell y'all to keep the faith and don't give up, I can't be putting statuses up on Facebook like, "I don't know how much longer..." Or tweeting something like, "This is getting too much to handle..." If I'm going to tell you to let go and let God, I can't put a facebook statuses, "If God don't do something quick..." Or tweet something like, "There's no way that..." How you react to things on Facebook and Twitter is how people look at you in real life. Mixing trust in God statuses with nobody knows the trouble I see tweets...what are we as your followers and friends supposed to think about you?

Not everybody got to know how you feel. We all going to feel down and out. Feeling that way, doesn't give you the right to spread negativity. You'll be amazed what one little speck of light can do in the midst of darkness. Some of us are so in the dark that any light would probably blind us. I hear the old song that says, "Look where He's brought me from. He's brought me out of darkness into the marvelous light." So how you going to facebook and tweet about God then go right around and tweet in the dark? Kurt Carr said, "Whatever you do, don't let your light go out!" Don't worry about the light bill, Jesus got that under control.

Don't get me wrong. Life is real. Life is rough. Life is raw. I'm know that from personal experience. And I've been guilty of tweeting light and hours later tweeting darkness. Now is the time to pick the side that you're going to be on. Are you going to live to see or are you going to live blind? Are you going to live in the light or are you going to live in the dark? Are you going to live in positivity or negativity? Are you going to live the example or are you going to live pointing your fingers? The choice is yours.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson aka Big Dusty
Follow me on Twitter @Big_Dusty
Facebook.com/bigdusty