ImNoBetterThanU

Busyness.. Complexity... Honestly this list could go on and on...      We need to just simplify. How is it that we get so caught up in things that we allow our souls to get so cluttered. Makes me think of a quote from the movie The Brothers Bloom where one of the characters told the other she believed he was constipated in his soul. Too graphic for you? So sorry...welcome to my blog. #keepinitreal Public Service Announcement: I also do not condone the watching of the aforementioned movie if you are easily offended HA!      So for me in 2017 I want to simplify; allowing the simple things to keep me holding on. Life will be much easier. With all the clutter, the "constipation", it causes unnecessary stress and tension that can lead to a feeling of being lost. For me, it will also cause me to (figuratively) hold on to things so tightly that eventually I will lose my grip and free fall. Thus falling into a state in which further causes confusion an...

    You, yes you are created for greatness, but you are also built for relationship. Actually we all are, but for now let the focus be on you .     You have a calling, an intentional purpose in life. Stephen Covey says you want "to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy." Your calling is what you will do in life that fuels your passions and creates an environment of true accomplishment for you. The kind of accomplishments that impact the world...your legacy.      If you look throughout history at great men and women they all had the ability to get up when knocked down. You need to do that too and the more quickly you get up the better. You ever increase your risk of further pain or suffering the longer you stay down. Just look at giraffes; at birth the newborn baby giraffe will immediately begin the ever so challenging journey to its feet. What happens next? The mother will knock the newborn baby giraffe over. Seems cruel right? Well, it is...

     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...

The title of this post is such a common phrase used in our society. Yet I believe that it is used out of context most of the time. We (myself included) make that statement as though we have transformed into this new person and progressed beyond whatever bondage, oppression, and sin was previously in our lives. It implies that we ourselves have done something positive in our own effort to get past all the junk from our past and be a better person. This is all wrong! It should not be "who I have become" but rather "becoming who I am". Although it is a process that we must go through it is more about us experiencing healing in our lives (physical, emotional, mental, etc.) that leads to the progressive sanctification of becoming who God intended us to be all along. The person He had in mind when he so carefully designed us down to every minute detail. It is truly about total surrender and submission to His will. We live in a fallen world. We make mistakes. Circum...

How many of you want to be representatives with human attributes and characteristics; or to be anthropomorphic? I would guess most of you would be content with that. Now let me ask you this...how many of you want to be representatives with Christlike attributes and characteristics? Whether you are a Christian or not, I believe most people still view Jesus as having been a good person and someone we could all aspire to be.  The great news here is that once we come into agreement with the gospel and give over our lives to Him we are made new and can move beyond an anthropomorphic life. It is clearly stated in Galatians 5:24 . With that being said I do not want to sit here and tell you that once you accept Jesus as your personal Saviour that all your sinful thoughts just vanish like dust int he wind. Now in some cases that has happened, but more often than not you will continue to struggle. You may win the battle repeatedly for days, wee...

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...

What is the difference? ...between me and everyone else you know. Many people that know me may answer that question by saying "nothing". I wholly desire that everyone  that knows me (and those that do not know me that I simply come in contact with) would answer the opposite. I realize that there is but an interstice between my alterity and me being utterly familiar to those that encounter my presence in my life. That interstice is simply the difference between radical obedience and selective obedience. I want to be radically obedient at all times. Even if this radical obedience causes non believers to call me a Bible thumper or even if it causes my friends at church to call me a super-spiritual geek. None of this matters. Assiduous attention should be paid to our actions in life. Jesus had asked that we consume Him; be preoccupied with Him day and night. That is what I want. I want to make a difference in this life. A difference in the life of my son Andrew, his m...

Well, I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything here and for that I apologize. In our society, it is quite common that we get so caught up in our day to day routine that we rarely have a moment when we do not have some "important" matter inundating our minds. I too fell victim to this. The good news is that I am now moving beyond that point! I am beginning a new season in my life. I just auspiciously moved and I am quickly getting settled into my new place. In addition to this, a lot has happened in my life over the last two and half years and I can honestly say that I am in a better place and doing better as a person than I have in well over a decade. I am looking to get back to writing more often and sharing my thoughts with you all by 'Typing Out Loud'. I hope I have not lost all my readers and hope I can grow larger whereas I feel this is a tool that I am to use to reach out to others and impact my friends, ac...

So the last month I had been under severe attack and it was a very difficult time for me to remain positive and optimistic. Well, that time is over! Last and first of year offerings to Him and my first fruit offerings through denying and devoting ( fasting ) are already paying off in dividends! Whereas it was much more than I had anticipated or ever previously given up; I know that as a result I will experience a great breakthrough in an area(s) of my life as a result of my obedience . The  First Conference has been incredible this far and I look forward to the remainder of it. I wish I could take the next three days off just to focus on the devotional and  The Word in preparation for the message. When pressing into Him over the last three days I am encouraged to further my actions with great fervor.

Let me start by telling any and all readers happy new year. So December was a truly rocky month for me emotionally, spiritually, physically, psychologically, and physiologically. What? You think I am a mess? Well, we all are if you want to be honest with yourself. One thing I can say is that over the last year I have made huge strides to being more healthy in all the aforementioned areas and I am. However, life is a continual process of progressive sanctification and I am aware of that. I know that at this time last year and especially just 18 months ago I was doing drugs, getting drunk often, and very promiscuous to top it all off. Well, thankfully I can say those  days are behind me, but now time to work on resolving other problems...again this growth should be  progressive.  This brings me to an issue with which I have gotten much better than I was, say fifteen years ago yet still need some work in this area. Whereas my i...

I think the title of this post is how well we believe what is rightfully ours. We are given the following: Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control . We get so caught up in the meaningless things of this world we lose focus and forget what we have been promised; it is ours for the taking! The need and desire to fill every moment of time completing a task has made us lose sight of taking time to enjoy our life while we are here on earth. Do we know how to rest? In these days it seems that we have lost the ability to do so (generally speaking). We have all of this technology that is meant to make us work more efficiently and get more done in less time. So why do we work longer hours? Why do we focus more of our time on things that waste our time? Why do we have less time to rest and relax? To go into even more depth...why do we not trust our God to do his part so that we may relax and enjoy the important things in life. Importan...

I am grateful for my mother who has always been there for me and continues to show her support through all my times of need. I am grateful for my sister who despite our many differences has always shown me love and is the best sibling I could have hoped and dreamed of having. I am grateful for all my family who has stuck with me through all of my trials and tribulation sin life. I am grateful for my friends who show support when it is needed and are there for me to vent to. I am grateful for the mother of my son who has been an amazing mother and raised a bright, happy boy that will grow into a strong man. I am VERY grateful for the healthy son that I have been blessed with and regardless of the past I now have a bright future whereas I can be an example for him to become a great man that lives the life all men should. I am grateful for GOD for having the grace to let someone with my wicked past live a great life from this day forward so that I may do my part to make this world a bette...

Hello people...I realize that I have not been around here. Things are getting run down. I know. I know. Well, I am trying to get back into the mode of writing again. Not only is it therapeutic but it is thoroughly enjoyable as well. Anyway all I have is this which was shared with me by my mother. Enjoy the Ride!

Well, here we are. My first blogoversary! I figured with this I should begin writing again. It has been far too long since I have regularly posted entries in here.  Well the last year was definitely filled with all kinds of change, adversity, etc.  January:  at the time I began writing in this blog I was just coming out of a state of pretty severe depression that was a result of a time in my life of obfuscation. I had never experienced depression before (whereas I am a predominantly happy go lucky kind of person) so it took me a while to even figure out what was wrong within myself. During that time I also began consistently experiencing migraine headaches that would last days. It was what some would call a low-point in my life. The turn around began when I flew into Texas for the holidays. I was able to visit my mother and sister and try to get my thoughts worked out. It worked...I went back to my home in Virginia after the holidays with a new sense of motivation.  February:  I decide...

is what Google released today. I was so anxiously awaiting to get home and check this out. I must tell you that it is pure greatness. So you can go here to read about Google Chrome . Even better you can go here to download it . This thing loads faster than any other browser. I like the front page feature of making easy access to the most visitied sites as well. That is all for now, just check it out. I have personally already converted (even though it is in beta). The best part is, that everything from Firefox was imported in so once installed I literally did nothing but set my home page and set it as my default browser. Wah lah! I am finished and browsing faster than ever. P.S. - Below is a video with the engineers at Google explaining more about the new browser.

It is official, the FCC approved the acquisition of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XM) by Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (Sirius). I for one am happy, relieved and a bit confused as to why it took so long. Sometimes I believe our government spends far too much time on matters other organizations could take care of and resolve. For example, while Congress is holding cases about steroids, and presidential nominees are running around as though they election has already been won; we have a credit crisis on our hands, large financial institutions folding, and other countries (primarily India and China) on their way to surpassing us in technology and medicine in the next 10 - 15 years. Oops...I digress... Many of you know that I have been a lifetime Sirius subscriber for several years now (glad I locked in my lifetime subscription before the acquisition...lol). Both companies have been experiencing severe losses annually since their inception into the entertainment industry. I think that thi...

because I have a long journey ahead of me now. Today it was confirmed that I am a father! Now why a new horse carriage? Because I need something durable, I have missed out on the the first three and half years of his life. It has not completely sunk in so I have a lot to do which is obvious. This will truly be a turning point in my life that God will have to guide me through in order to do things as quickly and efficiently as possible. His birthday is three days after mine! Oh how I wish I could hold him now. My own flesh and blood...how crazy is that? One of the greatest things about this entire situation is his mother is approaching this situation with the mindset of collaboration, not isolation. How amazing is that? At a point in my life where I was beginning to humble myself and possibly take it too far by it leading to a feeling of insignificance, I am given the good news. There is nothing insignificant at all about being a father! I am working to control a dollop of desperation t...

I feel that the title explains where I am at in life currently. I feel much like a neophyte... For over a decade I used drugs, sex, alcohol, and other things to be what made me whole in life. All the while fighting and denying what I knew was right and going with the wrong. Now...do I have regrets? NO. Do I wish I had done things differently? Oftentimes I do. Do I dwell on the past and let it affect where I am currently. NO. Did I learn from my past? Absolutely! Do I have a TON more to learn? OH Yeah! My point is that we all have done things we should not have done. We have all done things that we may not be proud of. (If you try to say that you have not done the aforementioned...you are lying, which you should not do) . Well I wish I could make more of a point here but I can not. I guess this post is more for me to look back on in a few years and say "hmmmm" *Update*: the whole reason I started to write this post was to mention how great the show I saw to night was! I went...

letter. That is what I handed in to work today. Yes the opportunity I accepted less than two months ago....yeah that is the one. More to come later.