ImNoBetterThanU

     So I was born into sin...so were you. We began life as heterogeneous beings, we were lost. Then Jesus came to this earth in the most vulnerable way possible...as a baby. Humbling to me...if you really think about that rather than just reading it as a story a book. The fear Mary must have had in telling her fiance, her parents, her friends when she was pregnant. It was even less accepted then, than it is today. The worry or doubt when she was going into labor and there were no rooms available. Those are only two instances of more than nine full months of Mary's young life. ...and who knows, maybe God gave her immeasurable peace through it all I just know Mary was human just like you and I. Regardless, the work Jesus did here on earth and more importantly on the cross, allows us to become homogeneous beings! "We open the Spiritual womb of God when we give our hearts to Him and then we are born again." - Pastor Geoffrey Cohen     ...

     Last night at VII  Pastor Stephen spoke on deceit. A powerful message...      I would like to think of myself as a man of integrity and actually would pride myself on my integrity. However, as you can likely tell from my recent posts I have struggled with some sin over the last few months. I rationalized my blogging about my struggles as my "confession". The thing was I was being disobedient whereas I clearly heard God telling me to go to pastoral leadership to confess these things. I had avoided it by going to other leaders in the church. Well today I finally did it! I actually confessed it all to two pastors and last night to other leadership in the church and I have to tell you James 5:16 is in full effect. I am hundreds of pounds lighter. In fact just two hours before I began writing this someone at church came up and said, "you look great!". He then went on to tell me he could tell something was not right in my heart an...

      Many decisions we make have an eternal impact upon our lives and the lives of our children (our legacy) whether good or bad. "We will reap what we sow" - Galatians 6:7b " for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me," - Exodus 20:5b      Making a decision is a cognitive process which results in a choice.  Progression in life (maturity and growth) is directly correlated with our daily choices. Our choices also control our attitudes which impacts our behaviors. Our choices also impact those in our lives. I have just gone through a season of making poor choices. Falling victim to temptation in areas I had previously conquered. Self condemnation is an easy thing to fall victim of after these setbacks, as well as guilt of how we affected others as a result of our sin. I myself was falling into both pits when God, ...

     God's forgiveness is absolute; we are the ones that struggle with forgiveness (both giving and receiving). Until you truly believe this in your heart you can not experience true freedom from your past. It is much easier to believe this in your mind than to allow that belief to travel eighteen inches to the heart.      What I am about to share with you, many of you know about my past...most of you do not. This part of my life goes back to early 2004. This was a time when I was working for a publication company during the week and working in a friends bar on the weekends. At this time I was living a life of total immorality. I was drunk every weekend (fringe benefit of being a bartender), I was living in promiscuity, smoking one to two packs of cigarettes a day, and the occasional joint would top things off. I was a poor steward of relationships in my life (both family and friends), I was a poor steward of money,...

Have you truly let the past go?  It is highly important that you be honest with yourself. If you are dragging dead weight from your past it will greatly hinder you from reaching what is ahead of you for this new year and the rest of your life.  If you have issues with other people that are unresolved you need to take care of those immediately. I said immediately! Do not write yourself a note and consider doing it when you have time. Drop what you are doing (which at this time is reading my blog! HAHA I gotcha) and call or go see that individual and make things right. The scripture tells us to not let the sun go down on our anger in  Ephesians 4:26 . How many times has the sun set while you were still angry or had some unresolved issues with someone?  Now if you say you passed that portion of the survey then let us move on to YOU! Have you forgiven yourself for your errors of the past? I mean have you really let it all go so that you can be who God designed yo...

Have you ever been faced with the daunting task of restoring something that is old, rundown, falling apart? Something that is in the poorest condition after years of abuse and being misused? Was it discouraging just thinking about it? I can relate. Sometimes we never complete the task...maybe we never even start the task. Well, I am here to talk about something that was abused, mistreated, malnourished, etc. All of this went on for well over a decade. Can you imagine the condition of something after more than ten years of this? How do you view that looking, feeling, projecting to others? You know what that something is? My soul... For years sexual immorality, drugs, alcohol, gossip, slander, manipulation, tearing others down, making fun, etc. These are the things I was doing and/or exposed to for over ten years. The very thing that is a gift to us all I abused. I filled it with lust, lasciviousness, envying, revellings, etc. Corrupting my soul to the point of d...

Sometimes I feel that individuals keep trying to fix something without knowing the root cause of the problem. I know for a fact that I have done this myself on many occasions and as a human on this earth will likely fall victim to this very act again. For, example a lack of feelings of self-worth, belonging, [ insert your own personal struggle here ], etc. Below is a great example found in an excerpt from a sermon taught by Matt Chandler of The Village Church . "Recovering sight is what Jesus is going to bring in the gospel. I don't know that you can get through life without being hurt and wounded by something. You know, daddy didn't hug you well enough. And it's really not your daddy's fault. Dr. Hannah was here this week for a pastor's conference. He told a great story about his wife when she was sixteen—mowed the lawn, trying to surprise her daddy, and she left this one little strip undone. And when her daddy got home, he re-mowed the whole lawn. But he wa...