It's Alive!

I just finished starting my new blog at WordPress. So join me over yonder, neighbor. I'll know we'll have good time!!

http://iamasonofgod.wordpress.com

A Change Gone Come to the Blog

Hey Everybody, I'll be switching over to Word Press in a couple of days. I'm tired of Blogger because auto text size is messing with me. I hope on the new blog to write some serious thoughts and have ongoing family discussions on issues that really concerned me. I'll let you know when the switch happens so stay tuned. Peace.

Jason

A Great Awakening for Millersville University

Over an hour ago I returned from a leadership summit here at Millersville University. The theme was on "Building Bridges" of multicultural diversity. Our esteemed keynote speaker was Ms. Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She spoke on acknowledging our differences and similarities in our ongoing conversation and action for cultural appreciation across barriers.

There was also a workshop facilitated by Ms. Eraka Rouzorondu of Ascension Productions. She her presentation was called "Walls Down, Bridges Down". The main focus was to assess the "walls" that hinder the bridge-building necessary for universities to be multicultural. Both presenters were thought provoking and challenging especially Eraka.

All in all, I went home with some thinking to do in this ongoing discussion here at Millersville University.

What I Believe

I had a wonderful conversation with my pastor yesterday during our time discussing what we will preach this Sunday (yes, I preach). After discussing our sermon topic, I disclosed to him some things I have been struggling with in regards to American Christianity, especially evangelicalism and my endeavor to understand the Gospel in it's simplicity. The first Ancient Creeds of the Church are a great summary I what I believe. What I do believe:


"Jesus is Lord", the earliest creed of the Church.

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN.

The Nicene-Constantanopolitan Creed

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

What I've come to reject are some Evangelical shibboleths.

The Holy Scriptures:

I believe, without a shadow of doubt, in the authority of the Holy Bible. I do not subscribe to the doctrine of inerrancy as stated in The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. I still have trouble with many Protestant confession statements featuring an article on the Holy Scriptures before the articles on the Godhead.

Eschatology:

I do not believe in the Rapture, at least as taught in in the Left Behind Series and dispensationalism. I believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The idea of Rapture is taken from 1 Thessalonians 4.17, but in the context of this passage this "caught up" experience of the living happening on the Day of Resurrection when the dead in Christ shall rise (v.16). I maybe be wrong but thank God this is secondary non-essential issue in the Church, except in some circles.

Heaven:

I do not believe that the righteous shall go and spend eternity in Heaven. I believe the righteous are resting in Christ until the Day of Resurrection. The righteousness shall spend eternity with their God in the age to come in the new earth and new heaven. All in all, Heaven will descend from Glory and be right on earth, God dwell with renewed humanity. Now, that's heaven.

Creation:

I do not believe that the six-days of creation in Genesis were 24 hours as we understand days to be today.

Politics:
I do not believe that being a evangelical means to vote Republican. I learned that the hard way.

I'm Well


What a crazy night! I was up with two nostrils stuffed like a hunted down buck in a lodge. A friend gave me a nasal decongestant around 3:00a.m. so that helped a lot. Today I'm better, still have to sniffles, my nose is dry, and I feel a bit stronger than yesterday. Thanks for all your prayers. I'll get to posting soon, the Lord willing.

Blessings,

Jason

I'm Sick


Yes, my brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, Brother Jason is down with the rhinovirus. I don't know which one it is and I don't care because it's really tickin' me off to have this cold. I've had it for a week. I missed class last Monday when I had the first preliminary symptoms and the rest of the week I was fine. These symptoms are worse than last weeks. So I'm going to stay in bed. I don't have chicken soup so I got the Campbell's Tomato Soup you heat in the microwave and drink from the can. I'm going to run to the store and buy more Kleenex. Then of the bed. Please pray for a healing. Where's Benny Hinn when you need him? Just Kidding!
Anybody got any home remedies fit for a college man please post them.

Blessings.

Barth on the Authority and Significance of the Bible



"The prophetic-apostolic witness, through which the congregation of Jesus Christ is established, is the single normative form of the Word of God for that congregation. There are many things in the heavens and on earth, but there is only one God. There are many ideas about God, but there is only one true knowledge of this one God, true because derived from God's self-testimony. There are many events, powers, forms, and truths which are important, worthwhile, and indispensable for us men, but there is only one Word of God, only one Jesus Christ, in whom the confrontation of the gracious God with sinful men took place once for all.

And because not all, but only these particular men are the elected, called prophetic and apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ, there are many hidden forms but only this one visible form of the one Word of the one God. Only in this form is God's Word finally, decisively normative, binding , and authoritative. The Church of Jesus Christ acknowledges this unique Word of the unique God in this uniquely visible and uniquely normative form. In this knowledge, it sets the biblical canon."

Karl Barth, God Here and Now (Routlege Classics, 2006) p.56

Love is in the Air!


Do you know what today is? I'm sure you do. It's that time of the year when the lovelorn (me) generally stay home and do nothing for it, and lovers glee because of it. It's St. Valentine's Day!

What are you doing for that special someone in your life today? Or not.

I Want to Know What Love Is: Confessions of the Wounded but Living (Conclusion)


I must confess I am a not a learned theologian. Sure, everyone's a theologian, but I know I am not like to great learned Church Fathers, divines, and sages God has graced His Church throughout the ages to reflect and provide prayerful discourse to help believers understand the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

I have a vision of going to seminary and having a "backside of the desert" experience with God, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and learning from Him and the saints of time's past and present. But I am a college student at a secular university with a very busy schedule so I cannot immerse myself in the Scriptures and the Great Tradition of the Church as much as I would like. So writing on this topic with trepidation and hopefully with the grace of God.

The Apostle John says that God is love (1 John 4:8). Though some may use 1 Corinthians 13 for an argument to the contrary, the Holy Writ doesn't actually defines what Love is. It tells of it's mannerisms or outward manifestations. But what is it? Well I believe we may never can define it (read Him). We not supposed to...

Though we cannot define it through as if it can be observed it under a microscope, we who are recipients of God's grace have to proclaim this Love. Jesus Christ told Nicodemus,
" For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

I will say that Love is the giving of Godself towards His creation. Love, I believe, is that attribute of God being Good towards that which is wholly other than Himself. I thank God for Karl Barth for conceptualizing this for me to understand. This action called Love is communicative within the Triune Being. Jesus revealed to his disciples that the Father loves the Son (Jhn 3:35; 5:20). In these passages, Jesus says that the love of the Father for the Son is manifest in the act of the Father giving all things and shows the Son all that the work the Father does. Love is truly God giving all that He is within Himself (perichoresis) and out towards us, His creatures.

The Lord God Almighty has extended the grace toward His creation by giving it sustaining life, beauty and significance. Towards humanity, that peculiar creature, God has showed his Love towards us in the coming of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. God offered His Son as the most excellent sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world.

So truly as the redeemed, I do wanna know what Love is, and the living God has shown me and continually does show me His Love in His dear Son my Lord, my God, my King, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Working on that Love thing


I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Between homework, friends, family, facilitating a college Bible study, and planning a trip to NY, I have to take some time to finish the third part of my series "Confessions of the Wound, but Living". I was going to title it "I Wanna Know What Love Is". But I want to take time to reflection pray, study and meditate on the Scriptures and the wisdom of the Church before I go hop, skip, and jump into a deep, mysteriously satisfying and yet complex subject. Keep me in your prayers and thoughts that this last post will be thought provoking, edifying, and ultimately God-honoring. Blessings.

Jason Oliver

Book of God

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans 15:4

All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16-7


I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book.
-JOHN WESLEY

In a few minutes I'm about to study for to facilitate a series on Christ Jesus for bible study tomorrow night. We are studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures. Over a couple of days ago I got some good resources of bible commentaries, dictionaries, maps, handbooks, systematic theologies all for free! Thank you , Bible Explorer! Also I downloaded some study aids from the Bible Foundation website, Michael Pahl's web page, and others. I also have access to some good articles on biblical hermeneutics.

My approach to studying the Holy Scriptures are changing for the better. I have been a bit perturbed when it comes to studying the Bible. I didn't grasp the authority of the Scriptures. I've read doctrinal articles, denominational confessional statements, and polemical theology within evangelicalism (i.e. inerrancy) and I was a bit disturbed. Bible-thumping, Bible-bashing, Bible-twisting, or Biblical illiteracy has been my on mind. I can't let my heart fail me because of the lack of biblical comprehension in the American church. I've girded up my loins and I'm going on an adventure to grow deeper in faith because I know realize the power of the living Word in the written word. Jesus said that the Scriptures bear witness of Him (John 5:39). So that means the Bible is pneumatological in nature (1 Peter 1:19-21). They point to Christ by the power of the Spirit. I hope to mature this semester in grasping the excellency of the saving knowledge Christ with my fellow travelers.

Confessions of the Wounded, but Living: Pt. 2

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Psalms 34:8 (KJV)

Twisted Vision

There is a popular myth in America regarding the big "M". "Masturbation makes one goes blind if he or she does it on a more frequent basis." I truly believe this is true. Clarification is in order: the act of masturbation in itself cannot impair the sight of a human being, but I believe the intention behind the act of masturbation, lust, does impair one's vision of reality and truth. Surely this perverted version of "self-love" impaired my vision of what it meant to be a relational being. Watching porn from the Net, then going between the sheets by myself imagining some false person is very vain activity. The climax of orgasm didn't satisfy my true desire for intimacy.

Paul by aid of the Holy Spirit knew what he meant when he advised those who were in love about the yielding to passions aflame outside of the sacred hearth of matrimony (1 Corinthians 7:8-9). The apostle declares that the body is not meant for porneia but for the Lord (6:13) so we must honor the Lord Jesus Christ with our body because we are His Body, we are bought with a price (7:23).

Wow, interesting statement. I am apart of Christ's Body. Every time I imagined some woman, whether whore or housewife, I conjured up a vain imagination and wedded my members to this woman whom the Lord did not create. I married Christ to an idol. What has Christ to do with idols? Not a thing!

I realized a few months ago that it's hard living the single life as a young uh, not so virile man. It really, really, is hard! I told myself I would be career and school focused and worry about finding that special lady later. I was kidding myself. I thought celibacy and chastity would be easy as pie. I love pie and it ain't it. Paul says that singleness is a state where the believer can mind the things the Lord (7:32). In married life one prioritizes their relationships: God, spouse, kids, friends, etc (v.33). Single people have more of an opportunity to spend more time with God working for Him in the vineyard. Well I was working for Him in college ministry and desperately seeking Susan... on the Net and in my head.

However, lust is not the source of my satisfaction. It is the problem. Author Philip Yancey in his chapter on sex in Rumors of Another World quotes a passage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic work Cost of Discipleship:

"Instead of trusting to the unseen, we prefer the tangible fruits of desire... Lust is impure because it is unbelief, and therefore it is to be shunned. No sacrifice is too great if it enables us to conquer a lust which cuts us off from Jesus... When you have made your eye the instrument of impurity, you cannot see God with it."

Lord knows I want to see Him more... Something just had to go. Masturbation stopped...recently. Lust still rears its ugly head. The key in my view is never to take my eyes off of Christ. Always trusting Him to supply peace in the trial of not awakening the bloom before its time is my constant prayer for myself and anybody that's striving to live holy. Lord help us to keep them on You, 'cause for me, Susan's starting to visit again.


Pt. 3 understanding what love is....

King's Dream, God's Purpose


King's Dream...

...I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today....

Excerpt taken from "I Have A Dream" speech given by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1964.

God's Purpose....

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then ye are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galations 3.27-29

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple of the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Ephesians 2.11-22

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, SALVATION TO OUR GOD WHICH SITTETH UPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB.

Revelation 7.9-10

Happy MLK Day!!

All Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version

Confessions of the Wounded, but Living: Pt.1

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27*

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him. Genesis 2: 18

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man in he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; and she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2: 21-25

For you formed by inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

Warning: The following is part one of a series on confessions. Some of the most deepest areas of my heart are being posted on this blog in the following days. Proceed reading with prayerful caution. It is not my intention to glorify my past and present sinful thoughts and behavior, but to be held accountable to the Body of Christ. I write this as a part of healing process to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Part of this repentance process is admitting my sins.

Sexuality has been a subject I have been reflecting on since I became cognizant of this mysterious and problematic part of human experience. I have been struggling with this topic ever since I can remember. I was exposed to pornographic material in my early childhood. I've had sexual encounters as a child with both a girl and a boy. Then when I became a teen I was exposed to more material on the Internet of both heterosexual and homosexual nature.

My addiction to porn became when I became interested in bodybuilding in my pre-teens. I wanted to do something about the way I looked. I was one of those 'husky' boys who was sedentary. So I developed an interest in the muscle sport. I looked up mainstream bodybuilding magazines on the web. I printed out a whole bunch of stuff on training, diet and nutrition. Then I noticed some links to male physique modeling agencies. I lot of these websites contained Adonis-looking male models posing semi-nude or full frontal nude just like those ancient classical sculptures one sees in museums.

At first I thought "Wow, I could look like that." Then my admirations for these men's bodies turned into idolatry without blinking. I started to imagine myself as these guys making love to some of the most hottest looking women on the planet. I started visiting these websites frequently. Then my imagination started to run wild. I would ask myself, "What if...?" So I started to search the Internet for possible world combinations with the word "muscle". As I typed certain word combos, I started to see websites of homosexual nature. I didn't even know gay porn existed. Like its heterosexual counterparts it comes in various genres. I started to search for masculine-oriented male erotica and tried to steer away from the stereotypical effeminate looking stuff as to rationalize my perverted curiosity. When stuff got "too heavy" to see, I started looking at straight porn to cover my tracks if anyone discovered I was looking at gay porn. But things got worst. I couldn't believe the stuff I was looking at. I started to become desensitized at the sexual images.

As I kept creeping on the Net looking at porn, I started to develop a negative self-concept. Many of the pornographic content played towards the stereotype of black men have large genitalia. The "Mandingo" with a 9-inch long, 6 inch wide penis was exemplar of the perfect Alpha black male. This screwed with the way I viewed my body and manhood. "Will I be man enough?" "Does size really matter?" Many say that porn gives many men false perceptions of women. That's true, but it also gives false perceptions of men and their bodies. And I bought into it... quickly.

I've keep this to myself for many years from high to college. I didn't really hang out with a lot of guys my age in high school. I generally cling to the company of women at home. Though I found girls sexually attractive I was deeply mortified of dating. Secondarily because my religious convictions, but primarily because of my tarnished self-concept. When hearing about the exploits of my "high school classmates laying their pipe" I thought was deeply hopeless to seeking companion. "I must not be the guy women are looking to have sex with, let alone to date." So I keep to myself, to my books, and to my porn...

* All Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible English Standard Version

Pt. 2 deals with masturbation, and my yearning for intimacy....

Man Up!

In case one is not a connoisseur of hip-hop culture, "Man up" is an imperative directed towards a man whose manhood is apparently in question. It primarily connotes that one takes charge of his life and takes responsibility for his actions. It also connotes that one needs to "butch" and stop showing "sissy" qualities.

What does it take to be a man in this society? Such a question demands that one would know what a real man would look like.

In academic circles especially in the feminist/gender studies fields, masculinity is a category of privilege and power. To be a man means to be dominant, fearless, courageous, patriarchal, heterosexual, Adonis-like features, physically, mentally, and emotionally strong almost stoic, aggressive, abrasive, financially secure, sexually endowed. Masculinities vary across cultures. Western masculinity is heavily influenced by Platonism and the Christian religion. To be a man is to "have dominion over the earth and subdue it" as Genesis declares. A good Christian man of any denominational affiliation loves God and country, who takes care of his woman, his children, his business, and himself.

Over the last century with the rise of the feminist and gay rights movements and the sexual revolution, manhood has been challenged on all fronts. The Christian Church has been challenged from within to adapt to progressive ideology of "radical inclusion" and sexual freedom and social justice for God's "other" children. Various forms of feminism within Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant branches of Christianity have challenged the male privilege within the Church, some even challenging the masculine language of the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) and call for "inclusive language of God".


The contemporary American male has access to many material pertaining to his manhood. There is countless resources for building better bodies, better financial portfolios, improving health, guides to woo women (in some cases other men), parenting tips, career advice, education, and so forth. The contemporary Western man strives to be a multidimensional free thinker; the exemplar of a post-Enlightenment world.


In our fairly progressive age many have challenged the notion of Western masculinity as the standard for all men. Artists, cultural critics, philosophers, activists, and clergy from all forms of religion are diligently fighting for a so-called free society where heterosexuality is not the standard for all humanity, that women have full autonomy of their own lives including reproduction, were children are free to explore sexuality without shame from their parents, teachers, our peers, were men and women can marry anyone regardless of sexual or gender "identities", and were the terms "father" and "mother" is replaced with the more generic and inclusive "parent".

Evangelical Protestants have attempted to counteract these movements within the larger culture by establishing such movement's has Promise Keepers, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and Focus on the Family promoting traditional positions on sexuality and family structure according to their interpretation of Holy Scripture. Still an alarming rate of self-professing born again, Bible-believing Christian marriage end in divorce, and many Christian men are addicted to pornographic material.

African American churches are dealing with the plight of young black men being jailed at alarming rates, murdered in the inner-cities, who drop out of high schools are a higher rate than their white and Latino counterparts, who produce children out of wed-lock, and are infected with HIV/AIDS. Yet we see hip-hop stars flash distorted images of what it means to be African American men in contemporary America.

With all this easy access information to improving one's manhood whether conservative or progressive, still many men are in deep depression. Many don't know what it means to be a man in the world or at least in America. With the problematization of gender as a social construct and many masculinities to choose from, many men are still in the dark groping for the light. What is that?

Maybe it is because men (and women for that matter) are in the constant state of patterning after fluidic models because the the failure of those models set before by others. We are all human. We simply don't know who we are as men. What is means to be a man and a woman is simply up for grabs.

As I study the Scripture, many men in the Bible don't seem to fit the mold of today's real man. For instance take Abraham, the patriarch of Israel. He has his women, wealth, and land yet Abraham wasn't man enough to put his wife Sarah in her place when she ordered him to evict his concubine Hagar and their son Ishmael from the premises. Don't forget Gideon who wasn't man enough fight against his Philistine enemies. David's manhood was challenged by his wife Michal when she openly criticized David for dancing wildly before the square bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. What about his relationship with Jonathan! John the apostle laid his head in the breast of the Jesus. If other contemporary men Christian or otherwise would read these men's live, what would they see?

Looking at a glimpse of these men's lives, many thoughts can run through people's heads. The reality of it is where we may find weak-willed, cowardly, seemingly sexually ambiguous men, God sees otherwise. God called Abraham friend and called him faithful. God called Gideon a mighty man of valor, called David a man after his own heart, and loved John.

The truth is what God has to say about us is more important then what we may have to say about ourselves or what others say about us. God's Word declares that humanity both male and female are created in the image of God. God's is more concerned about about relational status and our fellowship with Himself than our so-called manhood. Whatever manhood we may have is a perverted form of what God had made from the dust of the earth by His very hands and declared what He had made from the beginning to be very good.

So let us strive with warts and all to pursue the heart of the Father concerning His will, hearing His Word, yielding to His Truth, and leave the manhood part of it to Christ. At the end of the day when the sun will set for eternity, God is looking for his Son to be formed in us. He the only Real Man that really matters.

Mind Maintainance

Yesterday I a had a great time practicing driving in my cousin Erika's car. I did ten times better since our last session. I didn't have any practice since our last session. I believe the drastic difference is due to a mind reorientation. I had an adjustment of some sorts. I have to learn how to drive in order to get my license soon. But I cannot be a passive agent. The care isn't going to drive itself. So I got behind that wheel with a confidence that I never experienced before.

I drove from my house in Drexel Hill to Erika's mother's house in West Philadelphia. Aunt Ruth had to run some errands but didn't feel comfortable riding in the car with me behind the wheel. So Erika, Aunt Ruth, my cousin Christina, and I drove around to run some errands then Erika drove us back to Aunt Ruth's, let Aunt Ruth and Christina off, and then I got back in the driver's seat and drove back home. Hopefully today I'll get more driving practice in before the weather changes.

Peace.

No Limits

I just noticed something about one of my previous post. In that I limited myself. I said that wasn't fit for the entertainment business. I was wrong. To say that is to limit the possibilities of God. God can do anything in anyone, even me. If the LORD God desires to send a witness in that industry and it so happens to be me, then who am I to argue with the Almighty? He can do anything...but fail.

As for the scholar part of the comment... yea, I'm a scholar. But that's not all that I am. Why should I limit my skills and gifts. Yes I know I shouldn't be spasmatic in my career goals. I know for sure I am called to ministry. Where... that's up to God. I'm just assessing what I'm trained and what I will be training for. But for now, I will concede and confess that there are no limits to what God can do through me.

Happy New Year!


It's January 1, 2008. Praise God a new year. I don't have a New Year's resolution. Resolutions are too cliche. I do however have goals and deadlines to meet (see below). The biggest goal is to graduate in May. My goodness, I'm getting old, uh, older. In any event, I have a scheduled visit to the French Culinary Institute on Friday with my cousin. We're excited about it. Please keep us in prayer.

Goals to Meet:
1. Apply to graduate schools/seminary.
2. Visit/apply to culinary schools.
3. Attend to studies.
4. Create a budget plan.
5. Graduate in May 2008.