LAST BLOG OF 2021, I THINK...

Song writer said, "I don't need material things, all I need is the love You bring. This holiday, I came to say that Jesus is the only way." I've heard this lyrics all my life, but this year it really hit home. Understatement of the decade, this pandemic has been a life altering experience. Many if not most of us, has dealt with loss. If you're a reader of the blogs, you know I love using song lyrics if they fit in to the the subject I'm talking about. The song writer said, "I lost some joy. I lost some time. Now it feels like I will lose my mind. Journeyed long and lost my way, and now it feels like I've lost is all I say. Searching here and over there for what I've lost. Where is it? I don't know."

Like the lyrics said, I've lost joy and time, friends, and family, but I had to keep on keeping on. I'll be the first to say is easier said than done. When every other news story is another rapper dead, covid cases going up, another social media post showing were the funeral services is going to be, it's hard to keep going. All your life you've heard "Everyday with Jesus is sweeter than the day before," and you're wondering sweet where? How do you keep going when everything is crumbling down? You take it one day at a time. Realize you still got a journey that nobody can walk for you. Learn from the pot holes on the road that flatten your tires before and drive around them. It's written, "Like a dog that returns to its vomit, a fool does the same foolish things again and again." 

With that being said, some triggers you won't be able to avoid. As much as social media says they care about you, and it does sound encouraging, but that one co-worker and that one boss...know what I mean? It's written again, "The Lord will fight for you, and have only to be silent." It's also written, "When you are angry, don't let that anger make you sin, and stay angry all day. Don't give the devil a way to defeat you." Easier said than done sometimes because some people know how to push the right button. It gets to that point where you got to say what you need to say and apologize later. Just remember to apologize. It may not be the day of. It may take some time, but just make sure that you apologize at some point. You don't want the anger to settle in your spirit. When that happens you end up lashing out at innocent victims that didn't do anything to you. 

To the people are reading this that have lost love ones, and are still mourning, don't let people tell you how to mourn. I pray God gives you the strength to keep going. Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." My heart and my prayers are to those families that had empty seats at the table this holiday season. In the Bible, David said, "You have turned my sorrow into joyful dancing. No longer am I sad and wearing sackcloth." My prayer is that God turns your mourning into dancing and your sorrow into joy.

I mentioned before about how every other post on social media is another funeral. Just looked at one of my socials, and sure enough--life is too short. My sister would say it like this, "Live Intentionally Value Everyday." 

I don't have the answers personally. Sometimes I can't find the words to say. "I don't need material things. All I need is the love You bring. This holiday I came to say, that Jesus is the only way." The older I get the more these words hit home with me. Don't get me wrong, I don't shy away from material things, but they don't always bring the peace and joy that I need. Old saints would say, "Jesus never fails. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but I know Jesus never fails."

I'm finished. I hope something was said that encouraged you. I hope something was said that inspired. I hope. If you did, can you please share this with anyone you feel that may need to read this. Until 2022--

Stay Saved and Keep Going,

Daniel Richerson

Scriptures used: Proverbs 26:11, Exodus 14:14, Ephesians 4:26-27, Matthew 11:28-29, Psalm 30:11

Songs used: Jesus Is The Reason by Kirk Franklin, I Will Find A Way by Fred Hammond, Jesus Never Fails by Arthur A Luther

For my sister: LIVE - https://guppy-green.squarespace.com/

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

IT'S NOT TOO LATE

 I was waiting to post something new, but something my little sister told me, "Don't stop being creative." Through this pandemic, it hasn't been all bad. A lot of people worked on making their dreams come true. A lot of people started new businesses. Some people actually used this time of quarantine wisely. Now if you're like me, time got away from you during this time. I can speak for myself, my anxiety went from 50 to 100 real quick. I would have ideas to go back on YouTube, to start a book, to put a group of blogs together for a possible book, and yet here we are. I've always had anxiety issues, but like America did with racism, I swept it under a rug and thought I had it under control.

As I'm typing this we're going on 8 months of nobody really knowing what to do. People want things to go back to normal, but at the same time we got to define what is normal. Do we continue to sweep the issues we have as a nation under a rug and continue to go on day by day without acknowledging said issues. I know from personal experience if you continue to try to contain the issues without talking about them, you are going to blow up. This is exactly what happened in America. America swept racism under a rug and tried to keep that part of its history concealed. Then George Floyd happened. Breonna Taylor happened. Elijah McClain happened. Countless other incidents happened reported or not. And boom went the dynamite. Point is, we can't heal what we can't reveal. Kirk Franklin once said, "A doctor can only heal what we reveal." 

So what's next? Unfortunately we can't go back in time and fix what we did or didn't do to fix the timeline. So what do we do? I was sitting down one night and I heard this as clear as day,
"As long as you're breathing, it's not too late to make your dreams come true." The same God that did it for others the last 7 months, can do it for you this month. The question then comes that I've asked before in a previous blog, what do you want to do? What is that dream that you can't let go of? What is that thing that you can do? Then comes the effort. Then comes where the Bible says, "Faith without works is dead." Then comes where I heard it said, "You got to put feet on them prayers." We've been sitting down on it too long. We've been letting it fester too long. Let's get up and get it. Three words that I've seen from a lot of posts on social media, including some of my blog posts, simply "Don't give up." 

The Bible says, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to younger place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." The Good News Bible says it like this, "I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, 'Go from here to there!' and it will go. You could do anything!" Luke 1:37 "For with God nothing shall be impossible." Ephesians 3:20 "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us..." 

A  song that I've had on repeat, He'll Do It by Fred Hammond, goes, "My faith will carry me right to my destiny. I am sure and there's no doubt in my mind He'll do It." I suggest listening to that song it's been very motivational for me to keep going. 

So let's stop sitting around doing nothing but being jealous of those who went and got it. The Bible says, God has no respect of persons. God shows no partiality. Let's stop letting fear stop us from making moves. If a little bit of faith can move a mountain, imagine what a little bit of faith can do with your dreams and aspirations? If you're reading this, that means you're breathing. That means you still have shot. That means we still have a shot to make our dreams come true. James Fortune said it like this, "Dream again." 

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

DO YOU REALLY LOVE? DON'T YOU REALLY CARE?

For Hana Kimura. 22 year old professional wrestler. Death by suicide. 22 years old. Adult life never really got started. I never watched her perform, but that doesn't matter. What hurts is that she was so young and thought that life wasn't worth it. What also hurts is that what about those that are not being reported that's happening right around your block or dare I say right in your church. What about them? What are we doing as a body of believers to show that we care? What are we doing as a body to show that there's hope? Why are we continuing to sing to each other that "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness" and not singing that to people that need to hear it? How long will we say that we need to get out the four walls of the church and...get out the four walls? Shouts out to the people and the ministries doing the work.

Mark 2:16-17 "And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are w'ell have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15-16 "This is a true saying, to be completely accepted and believed: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am the worst of them, but God was merciful to me in order that Christ Jesus might show his full patience in dealing with me, the worst of sinners, as an example for all those who would later believe in him and receive eternal life."

I once led a song by Dewayne Woods called God is that said, "God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Based off Psalm 73:26 that says, "My flesh and my heart faileth:  but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever."

If we're going to present that God is love and we don't show love, then what's the point? Salvation is an action. To live is an action. We got to learn how to love each other. I think one of the problems may be as to why we don't show the love of Jesus to the "world" is that we don't show it to each other. How can we tell people that they need Jesus and we can't even show the love of Jesus to each other? We don't even care about the mental health of people in the sanctuary.

I understand that you can't go to everyone to vent because some people just don't care. They'll say anything to end the conversation because they don't want to dig in to what the real issue may be. There's some people that really care. Some people need an ear not a mouth. That'll preach. Sometimes in prayer you need to be more of an ear and less of a mouth. Moving on.

How many more suicides do we need to see before we start to care? How many more leaders have to commit suicide before we pray for our leaders? The Clark Sisters put out a song "Pray for the USA." Are we? Am I? I know this is random. New Edition's first hit, "Candy Girl." There's a part of the song that repeats in my head. "Do you really love me? Don't you really care?"

Thanks for reading. Please, if you need an ear, there's someone willing to listen. There's someone that cares. I'm going to end it like this. "Souls in danger. Look above. For Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by His love out of the angry waves. He's the master of the sea. Billows His will obeys. He your savior wants to be, be saved today." I know I repeat myself in some of these posts, and that's not my goal. My goal is to spread hope through this hopeless time.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

WE CAN'T BREAK DURING THIS SEASON

I'm not going to try to speak for everybody, but I will speak for myself. My anxiety has been making itself known during this season we're all going through. As a church kid, we don't get much teaching on how to handle anxiety. I'm glad that finally mental health is getting the focus it's been needing for years.

Don't be afraid to ask for help. There's a saying that goes, "A closed mouth don't get fed." Another one goes like this "We have not because we ask not" You can't get an answer if you don't ask the question. I once heard Kirk Franklin break it down like this, "A doctor can only heal what we reveal." Don't wait until it's too late. Have a little talk with Jesus tell him about your troubles. He'll lead you in the right direction. You want to talk to someone that won't prejudge you while you're talking. You won't find a lot of people like that. Not saying there aren't any, but it's not a guarantee. Jesus is that guarantee.

With that being said, I'm not going to sit here and say that it's easy to go to Jesus for your problems, when some of the people that serve Jesus won't even lead you to Him. People give you such generic responses to you pouring your heart out because the odds are some people don't care anyway. I believe one of the problems is that when people come to Christians for advise or just to have a heart to heart, some believers can't lay down the man made title and put on the title genuine. If there was ever a time for people need to genuine care for each other is now.

I have a tendency of holding stuff in for a long time. I'm not good at calling people because I need to talk. Even though at times that's what I really need to do, I don't. My fear of reaction stops me from calling people. I've always had anxiety anyway, but with this "pandemic" it feels like it's become harder for me. I put so much pressure on myself because of comparison. Meaning that I often find myself comparing my situation with that past generations and that's when the fear of "generational curse" comes in. I get in a mood set sometimes when I live not to disappoint. Sometimes I find myself doing things not because I need to do them, but fear of not pleasing people that have gave me advise of what to do. So in my mind, if I don't do it exactly how they told me to do it, I'm doing it wrong. This is what I live with. So when if I'm giving someone a ride or if you see me at church, the mask is on. Doing what I got to do to get done what I need to get done only to come back home and have the same anxiety that I hide from everyone. 

One of my go to songs has been Okay by Canton Jones. I just want to hear to Lord, it's going to be okay. Another go to song for me has been Help Me by James Fortune. The title speaks for itself. Sometimes that's been my prayer, help me.

We got to find a way to continue to lift our hands. We got to find a way to not break. We got to find a way to stay in the field until the war is ended. We got to find a way to meditate on the Bible day and night "so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Find a way to put it on the altar and leave it there. God did not bring us this far just to leave us. So what i'm saying to everybody reading, and what I'm saying to Daniel, don't be afraid to ask for help. We can't break in this season. I heard a preacher compare it to a pine tree. Bend but don't break. 

Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave a comment and share with your peoples.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

SAME JESUS BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, HE'S STILL

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

A commentary says, "In a changing world we can trust our unchanging Lord." What was Jesus to you before quarantine? Was He your healer? Was He your provider? Was He your shelter? Whatever He was to you, He's still that. The 5th and 6th verse of that same chapter in Hebrews in the ESV says, "Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" 

I mentioned this in posts before, 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?" 2 Timothy 1:7 in the KJV says, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Same verse in the ESV says, "for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control." Keep your head in the game. This is not the time to let go. Song writer said, "The devil really had me, but Jesus came and grabbed me." He had you and He still.

Psalm 30:11 "Thou has turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou has put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;" (KJV)

Psalm 30:11 "You turned my loud crying into dancing. You removed my clothes of sadness and dressed me with joy." (New International Reader's Version)

Song writer said, "What ever your problem is wave it away. What ever your trouble is wave it away. Give it to Jesus. He can bare them." Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." 

That still applies today. The same love of Jesus that lifted you, is still holding you. He hasn't let go so you don't either. Hold on a little while longer as the song says and "everything will be all right." The name of Jesus still has power. Demons still tremble at the name of Jesus. The same Jesus that you couldn't live without when you first received Him, He's still. Psalms 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." He still.

The same Jesus that worked it out, is working. The same Jesus that healed, is healing. Be not dismayed, what ever be tide. God will take care of you. He hasn't gone anywhere. He's still there. Old Hymn says, "He was there all the time. He was there all the time. Waiting patiently in line. He was there all the time." Will you let him in? Will you let him stay in? Jesus is still.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson